![\"\"](\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/4001-logo.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n![\"Best](\"https:\/\/cdn57.androidauthority.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Best-of-Android-mid-2020-Audio-Feature-1200x675.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThese criteria only disqualified three phones from 2020. That doesn’t help us to narrow the field much, so next we looked at features that would either make your life easier when listening to music, or technical capabilities that would give one phone an edge over the others.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/cdn57.androidauthority.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/audio-technica-ath-m50xbt-wear-1012x675.jpg\" "\\"audio")
<\/p>\n
What features make a phone better at audio than others?<\/h2>\n
After talking with the SoundGuys<\/em><\/a> team, we came up with a list of factors to consider when choosing a smartphone for audio. The best phone for audio will have a good mix of the following:<\/p>\n Obviously, not many phones will have everything on this list, so some of our highlighted phones won’t be perfect here. Out of the phones launched in the first half of 2020, there are few standouts on features. However, the best<\/strong> phone for features isn’t available yet, and as such hasn’t been included in this round of Best of Android (sorry, Sony fans).<\/p>\n To the surprise of almost no smartphone fan… ever, the LG V60 ThinQ<\/a> is the best phone for audio released in 2020 so far. Not only does it check off every box on the audiophile’s wishlist, but it performs as well as a smartphone needs to in order to be considered a standout in its field. While the digital audio player (DAP) market has slowly been gaining in popularity as the headphone jack disappears from the smartphone, if you have an LG V60 ThinQ: you don’t need one of these devices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It seems like we keep repeating ourselves every year, but LG’s commitment to audio is one of those constants that persist. Despite even Samsung’s abandonment of the headphone jack, LG continues to throw a lot of resources and hardware behind their phones’ audio performance. That’s probably why most Android fans simply assume that the latest LG phone will be the best smartphone for audio — because it’s been true for the last several years in a row.<\/p>\n The 32-bit Quad DAC<\/a> used by the LG V60 is excellent, even if it is ridiculous overkill<\/a>. The internal amplifier also allows you to use more power-hungry high-performance headphones (up to 2.0Vrms output) without having to worry about common issues introduced by crappy smartphone signal chains. There are so many impressive capabilities afforded by the LG V60 ThinQ that this article can’t do it justice — so I’ll let Joe Hindy do it for me<\/a>.<\/p>\n As far as other features go, really the only thing missing on the V60 ThinQ is the front-facing speaker design. It’s a bummer, but it’s easy to figure that most buyers of the LG V60 ThinQ aren’t going to be listening to music through the speakers very often. Additionally, our audience places a higher premium on the headphone jack<\/a>, so we felt comfortable in giving the V60 ThinQ a pass here, even if it isn’t the platonic ideal of smartphone audio. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be the best, after all.<\/p>\n The LG V60 ThinQ is a tough act to follow when it comes to the best smartphones at audio, so the remaining handsets represent the “best of what’s left.” That’s not to say that they’re in any way bad, merely that they don’t offer as much as the V60 ThinQ.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For a cheaper phone, the Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro has a lot of good going for it: namely, the fact that it has a headphone jack, a Qualcomm chip that supports the best tech available to support true wireless earphones, and a 24-bit<\/a>\/196kHz DAC unit that’s capable of decoding FLAC files. While it doesn’t have front-facing speakers, headphone aficionados will appreciate the Poco F2 Pro for its affordability, aptX HD\/LDAC support, and surprisingly decent audio quality coming from the headphone jack.<\/p>\n While this is a small cross-section of features included, the following is a table of the really big ones. Of course, not all missing features will be a dealbreaker for everyone. If you have headphones that only use aptX HD for example, it’s not a huge deal if LDAC isn’t available. Similarly, if you don’t listen to music over your phone’s speakers, it’s probably not that big of a deal if your phone doesn’t have front-facing drivers.<\/p>\n\n
The LG V60 is the best phone for audio in 2020<\/h2>\n
![\"LG](\"https:\/\/cdn57.androidauthority.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/LG-V60-camera-macro-1-1200x675.jpg\")
<\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/cdn57.androidauthority.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Rplot02-1200x675.png\" "\\"Best")
<\/p>\nOther phones that are great at audio<\/h2>\n
If you want to save money, grab the Poco F2 Pro<\/h3>\n
![\"Poco](\"https:\/\/cdn57.androidauthority.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Poco-F2-Pro-Headphones-connected-1200x675.jpg\")
<\/div>\nPay attention to features<\/h3>\n