What will be the best smartphone for an audiophile in 2018?

There is only one way to go if you are a hard-core audiophile. The Onkyo Granbeat.

Specifications

Smartphone

Operating system

Android™ 6.0 (Marshmallow)

APU

Qualcomm MSM8956
Hexa-Core (Dual Core 1.8G+Quad Core 1.4G)

Display

5.0-inch, IPS panel, capacitance, touch screen (Full HD 1920 x 1080) (Gorilla

®

Glass Ver. 3 is employed)

Internal memory

128 GB (RAM: 3GB) *Including system area for Android

Expandable slots

micro SD x 1 (SDHC/SDXC compatible), up to 256 GB (exFAT format)

SIM card slots

nano SIM x 2 (SIM slot x 2 independent of the micro SD slot)
Dual SIM Dual Standby compatible. *While talking/ data communication with one SIM, the other SIM cannot be used at the same time
SIM 1: 4G LTE/ 3G compatible, SIM 2: 3G / 2G compatible

Supported bands

LTE Band B1/3/7/8/19/26 with Diversity
HSDPA/WCDMA Quad-Band B1/5/6/8/19
GSM/GPRS/EDGE Quad-Band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Tethering

Supported by Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth

®

, USB

Camera shooting

Main: 16 Mega pixels (F 2.0) IMX 298 Exmor RS sensor (manufactured by SONY) with flash function
Sub: 8 Megapixels (F 2.2)

Movie recording

Main: 4K UHD with light function, Sub: Full‐HD

File format (Stills)

JPEG

File format (Movie recording)

MP4

Wi-Fi

802.11 a/ b/ g/ n/ ac　(Wi-Fi direct / WPS)

Bluetooth

®

Version 4.1
Profile: A2DP/ AVRCP/ HSP/ OPP/ HID/ PAN
Codec: SBC/ Qualcomm

®

aptX™/ Qualcomm

®

aptX™ HD (Transmit only)

Speaker

Full-range dynamic type x1

Positioning system

GPS, GLONASS, A-GPS

Sensors

Acceleration sensor + gyro sensor, electronic compass, proximity sensor, illuminance sensor

Music Player

DAC & HP Amplifier

ESS Technology Inc.
SABRE DAC "ES9018C2M" × 2 + Headphone AMP "SABRE 9601K" × 2

Music file format (playback)

DSD/ DSF/ DSD-IFF/ MQA/ FLAC/ ALAC/ WAV/ AIFF/ Ogg-Vorbis/ MP3/ AAC

Frequencies and bit rates

11.2 MHz/ 5.6 MHz/ 2.8 MHz/ 1 bit
44.1k/ 48k/ 88.2 k/ 96k / 176.4 k / 192 k / 352.8 k / 384 k
16bit / 24bit (* 32bit float / integer is down‐converted to 24bit and played back)

Playlist data format

M3U/ PLS/ WPL

Movie file playback format

H.263/ H.264 AVC/ H.265 HEVC/ MPEG-4 SP/ VP8/ VP9

Image file playback format

JPEG/ GIF/ PNG/ BMP/ WebP

Input-Output terminal

2.5 mm 4 pole balanced headphone output
(BTL / ACG switching, Line out mode supported, Jack insertion detection ON / OFF possible)
* Assign: R‐ / R + / L + L‐ from the terminal tip
3.5 mm 4 pole unbalanced headphone output
(Corresponds to earphone with microphone function (CTIA standard compliant), Line out mode correspondence, jack insertion detection ON / OFF possible)
Micro USB / OTG output
* charge / data transfer input terminal shared

Max. output (JEITA)

75 mW + 75 mW (Unbalanced)
150 mW + 150 mW (Balanced)

Total harmonic distortion

Below 0.01%

S/N ratio

Above 115 db

Frequency band (playback)

20 Hz ‐ 80 kHz

Impedance

Unbalanced: 16 - 300Ω / Balanced: 32 - 600Ω

Gain

High / Normal / Low1 / Low2

Sound customize

Precision EQ, up-sampling, real time DSD conversion, lock range adjust, digital filter and featured EQ

Volume

61 steps (*including zero position)

L/R balance adjustment

Yes

Operations on main unit

Rotary volume knob, play, skip, return, HOLD
* HOLD key disables all screens, key operations, and reception operations

Basic

Continuous playback time

Playing time: 25 h (96 kHz / 24 bit, FLAC, Unbalanced playback, with SIM in standby)