Topic: Recording with an android smartphone

[meursault]

Hello to all.
I have recorded some acoustic concerts with my Sony xz1 with decent results. Now that my phone is dead I wonder if there are any recommendations for an android phone (preferably) to use for audio recordings without external mics. Thank you.

[Gutbucket]

Get external mics, even if simply in the form of an attachment that plugs directly into the USB port, making it essentially a part of the phone.

[meursault]

Thank you for your reply but I am looking for recommendations for smartphones alone.
I know they are inferior, i just want to know the best among them.

[voltronic]

A friend has the earlier iOS version of this and it works quite well. It is the only device of this type I have heard that gives decent results, though still not as good as "real" separate mics with a preamp/DAC feeding your phone.

https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/microphones/mv88plus

[Ozpeter]

Last year I was watching a video about someone buying a new camera and I was very impressed with the sound of the part of the video which was recorded just on their phone. 

After a happy half hour trying to find it in my watch history - here it is.  https://youtu.be/xZoPCUAE3vk?t=148  I suggest you watch from that point through to where they start showing footage from their new camera.  Where there is live audio it seems to me to be very stereo.

I asked them at the time what phone they used and the replied "Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 pro" - and they didn't say they had an external mic connected to it.  But you could ask them to confirm that using the video comments yourself.  I can't find any confirmation online that it has stereo mics.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

I have a Pixel 3XL and think the audio is pretty decent for a phone. Not sure if the newest Pixels are equally good.

I'd definitely would prefer external mics (If you can find the Sennheisers in my sig + a iPod you will make a much better recording), but I'd rather have the audio from the Pixel than nothing (and there would be a point in quality where I'd rather have nothing).

[meursault]

After a happy half hour trying to find it in my watch history - here it is...

I'm sorry you spent all this time, thank you!