[dlss]

I think what he was saying is that different != worse.

If you had started on an android phone, you would probably have written a similar piece talking about how apple phones get muted when placed on a fluffy blanket (as the edge gets covered), and how the android hardware designers did it right.

You should focus on talking about design tradeoffs irrespective of your current behavior. Reading about how you can't train yourself to place your phone face down, and that this is somehow a samsung design flaw, isn't interesting :-/

[tptacek]

I don't understand. Can you explain why you think having the speaker on the back of the phone is better than it being on the bottom?

A 2nd grader's understanding of physics informs us that yes, indeed, there will be some situation in which the iPhone's speaker is obstructed and another speaker isn't (why, you could stand the phone up!). But what obstruction is going to be more common?

If frequency of obstruction isn't the only issue, what's the compensating virtue of having the speaker on the back of the phone? How valuable is that compensation?

[dlss]

I am not an electrical engineer, but to answer your question it is my understanding that the diameter of a speaker is very important for sound quality, volume, and cost. This is the reason that home audio speakers aren't the size of thimbles.

I did a quick search to see if any of those issues have been talked about wrt iphones, and the top hit was http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=761725 ("when i listen at max volume [my iphone] is really bad. my nokia N82 compared is like a audiophile system") -- which I imagine is caused by the N82 having a larger speaker positioned on the back.

[Tloewald]

Yes, and the person you're quoting is talking about the 3GS and no-one else reports the same problem.

[dlss]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3794/the-iphone-4-review/11

Puts the iphone 4 over 3g as ~3x quieter than a nexus s over 3g. (2g is closer, but no one I know uses their iphone 4 over 2g).

From the review: "For a long while, people have complained that the iPhone [3g & 3gs]'s speakerphone volume was too quiet... I'd say the iPhone 4's speakerphone is still loud enough, though calls over 3G are still a bit too quiet. Until Apple increases the gain on 3G calls, iPhone 4 customers who are hard of hearing should invest in a bluetooth headset."

[dpark]

> If you had started on an android phone, you would probably have written a similar piece talking about how apple phones get muted when placed on a fluffy blanket (as the edge gets covered), and how the android hardware designers did it right.

Probably not since the rear speaker on the Android phone would be completely muted by the same fluffy blanket.

[dlss]

from the comment you replied to:

> Reading about how you can't train yourself to place your phone face down, and that this is somehow a samsung design flaw, isn't interesting :-/

[dpark]

If I have to train myself to lay my phone face down, it's a design flaw. It's a design flaw because it increases the chance of damaging the screen, but more importantly because it requires the user to adapt to something that could have been done correctly in the first place.

If the user has to work around a problem with the design, that's a flaw.

[dlss]

> If I have to train myself to lay my phone face down, it's a design flaw. It's a design flaw because it increases the chance of damaging the screen

Screen damage rates for iPhone 4 are far higher than Nexus S. I take it from your message that you believe this is due to a design flaw. Interesting... I suppose I agree.

> requires the user to adapt to something that could have been done correctly in the first place ... that's a flaw.

No, it couldn't have been done correctly in the first place. The iphone 4 sacrifices 66% of its speaker volume relative to the nexus s to get side placement. That's also a flaw. Design is about tradeoffs.

[dpark]

If screen damage rates are much higher, then yes, it could indicate a design flaw.

As for the speaker, if I have to set my phone face down to hear the alarm, that's a design flaw. If the Nexus designers believe that a louder speaker is more important, that's valid, but it's not valid if the extra volume is muffled when placed on a surface in the natural fashion.

[dlss]

> could indicate a design flaw

Why the change from your earlier position of screen breakage indicating a design flaw?

> If the Nexus designers believe that a louder speaker is more important, that's valid, but it's not valid if the extra volume is muffled when placed on a surface in the natural fashion

Would you care to explain why you believe this and not the opposite? If you were hard of hearing do you think you would have written something like "If the iPhone designers believe that a side speaker is more important, that's valid, but it's not valid if the side speaker is too quiet for many users to hear"

[dfxm12]

Thanks for pointing this out. I hate when people comment about how great a design is because it fits their use case. There is no "average user" for a smart phone, so any design decision is going to appear brilliant to some and idiotic to others.