Have you got a Samsung smartphone? If you do, you are probably aware that in spite of all the great features and high spec components the speakers are usually quite poor. They are not the worse for sure, but they are not exactly high quality and in keeping with the rest of the device. What’s more, Samsung have this notorious consistency in placing the speaker on the back of the device. As a result, every time the device is on its back (and especially on a bed, settee or similar) the sound is greatly affected. When the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 came out, it was slightly surprising to see Samsung had moved the speaker to a bottom placed position. Then of course, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 was released and the speaker had returned to the back. Nice one Samsung. Well, if you are one of the few who own the very new Samsung Galaxy Note Edge then you do not have to worry about this issue. Not anymore anyway.
Yes, the speaker on the Edge is rear positioned like on the Note 4. However, that shouldn’t stop you having great sound and thanks to the clever guys over at XDA it does not. One of the XDA members has come up with a tweak which allows you to turn your front facing earpiece into a secondary (and more importantly) front facing speaker. What’s more, the tweak is rather easy to install and simply consisting of a flashed zip file. There are four files on offer and each does something different (so you only need to install one). The first will offer you a normal(ish) level of sound. The second file offers a louder sound, if the normal is not enough. If you want real loud then the third file is for you. The fourth file is a ‘revert to stock’ mode which is certainly worth downloading anyway.
So what are the prerequisites? Well, as this is a tweak you should not be surprised to learn that you have to be rooted. This will only work on a rooted Note Edge. Besides this, you also need to have a custom recovery (TWRP or CWM) installed. The developer does add you need a pair of human (or alien ears) although in fairness that is not a requisite for installing. It is also worth noting the developer states that this has only been tried on a T-Mobile variant of the Note Edge and as such there are no guarantees it will work on any other carrier variant. That said, if you want to give it a go then click here to head over to the developers thread on XDA where all the downloads are.