The Holy Grail? Good quality audio recording on a smartphone.

Mobile phones have come a long way in the past five years. From the basic communications devices of yore, they have evolved into what Nokia calls “Multimedia Computers” capable of web access, good quality photos, live video broadcasting and much, much, more. There is, however, a chink in the smartphone’s armour. Something that seems to be overlooked but is really holding some users back – sound recording quality.

You don’t need a great quality microphone if you’re making a phone call. Once your voice has been digitally compressed and shoved across a mobile network or two all that really matters is that the person on the other end can understand it. However, when you’re recording a video or using your phone as an audio recorder (both things many phones can do with ease these days) that cheap mic starts to look like a false economy.

Let’s take a look at a few examples of the problem.

• This weekend All About Symbian published their thoughts about their first look at one of the the biggest mobile phone launches of the year, the Samsung Omnia HD. The short version? It’s an impressive handset which can record HD-quality video, let down by… poor quality audio recording.

• Last night on Twitter, Julian Tait mentioned that a group conversation he had recorded in his Nokia N95 was let down by… poor quality audio recording. The sound dropped out when people far from the mic talked thanks to the way the Automatic Gain Control works.

• Blogger James Whatley recorded a solo podcast last week using nothing but his N95. I downloaded it as Whatley always has something interesting to say. It was certainly a worthwhile listen but it was difficult to listen to because it was let down by… poor quality audio recording.

The problem is that manufacturers aren’t putting enough emphasis on microphone quality. Why should they? Not a lot of people prioritise audio recording. The thing is, as the video quality increases (how long before the first full-HD 1080p phone comes along?) the shoddy sound is going to become even more apparent.

That said, there’s only so much that can be done with the internal mic on a phone. It has to be small so the quality’s not going to amazing. Why not allow external mics then? There’s nothing to stop an external mic being developed for more phones. In fact, Nokia created one for Reuters journalists to use with their standard-issue N95s. Although this isn’t commercially available you can build a mic kit for the N95 following this guide from Shelbinator.com.

It shouldn’t be that hard though. If a smartphone really is a ‘Multimedia Computer’ surely it shouldn’t be difficult to connect a mic and get to grips with some serious recording? Come on manufacturers, step up your game!

[Image credit: Steve Garfield on Flickr]