[Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] hefonthefjords:
Ok, i thought since i had some spare time just now i'd have a look at some videos people have posted on youtube from the galaxy S3 and actually analyze them.

I extracted the audio from the following two videos and put them into wavelab 6.1 in order to see what frequency range and response is actually contained in the waveforms since people seem to be complaining about "tinnyness" or "thin audio" or "very little bass".

I must say it's something i noticed in the early review sample videos, that the audio was a bit weedy sounding, so i was interested to see this for myself.

Edit: Just saw that video above with the contrast between S3 video and S2 video. Seems that your S3 falls into the same situation as the one used to capture Video 2 in this analysis.

Obviously this would be easier for me to test if i actually had my own unit but im not gonna go buy a white phone and live with it just to test this (i want a blue one and nobody has them).

Anyway, take a look at this, its mildly interesting.

Video 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHD1NaZnsJ4

Video credits : "Published on 25 May 2012 by scrappycz

Samsung Galaxy S3 (i9300) Full HD rear camera test by:

http://androidforum.cz/mobily-samsung-f222.html"

Upon analysis of this particular video there seems to be a full range and fairly flat audio response. There is a defined and continuous accentuation of the range between 6.5khz and 8khz by as much as 5dB which results in that distinct "airy" ambient noise present throughout the video. Otherwise, there appears to be a good wide and fairly evenly balanced frequency responce demonstrated in this video.

In these screenshots you see the left channel's response shown in green on the left and the right channel's response shown in pink on the right in the windows titled "apEQ". You can also see the combined stereo response in the bottom left in the window titled "Spectrum Meter" but at a much lower dynamic resolution that the other windows. The FFT Meter also shows a resonable flat and phase aligned curve on the bottom right.

Screenshot 1: Sampled from the first section of video with pidgeons and very little wind. Plenty of low end, midrange and high end frequency response with just ambient noise.

http://www.hefman.co.uk/gs3/1.jpg

Screenshot 2: Taken from a later part of the video with more wind sounds illustrating the increase of level across the range associated with wind noise in full range microphones.

http://www.hefman.co.uk/gs3/2.jpg

Now, this is where things get interesting.

Video 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0b5lNYPbzw&feature=related

Video credits: "Published on 11 May 2012 by nomobile

New Samsung Galaxy S III captures really cool Full HD video!

Новый SGS III снимает на удивление годное видео в формате Full HD!"

The analysis of this video indicates a wholly different situation compared with the first video. The frequency response curve is much more marginalised than with the first video with the majority of the audio content residing entirely between 200hz and 5khz, with a heavily pronounced peak around the 850hz mark. This clearly results in a very different overall sound quality which could very well be described as "thin" or "tinny".

See here in these screenshots the data for the second video and note the much lesser bass response <200hz and much lesser high end reponse >5khz.

Screenshot 3: Taken from early in the video whilst walking along the path past the character on the scooter.

http://www.hefman.co.uk/gs3/3.jpg

Screenshot 4: Taken from later on in the video as the camera is crossing the road during some wind noises, which due to the reduced frequency range present audibly as a clipping sound rather than a wind noise.

Also note that there is still a bass response <200hz in this screenshot indicating that the audio data is there but is somehow attenuated in some way.

http://www.hefman.co.uk/gs3/4.jpg

Clearly analysis of these two videos taken from two different devices indicates either that either;

- Some camera setting, or other phone audio setting, is responsible for the difference in audio response between videos.

- All GS3 are not equal.

- Something specific is different about these two particular devices.

Either way, we can conclude from this that yes, some people may well be experiencing reduced frequency response in their camera audio but that not everyone is experiencing it and that while their audio may be in some way affected in software, the entire frequency range is being captured even in these instances as demonstrated by the frequency curve shown in screenshot 4 during increased audio level.

I welcome people to submit me additional footage from their own phones testing.

Once I can get my hands on my own device I will do some considerably more scientific testing of the response with a tone generator.