Smart Phones: Best PHONE CALL Sound Quality

We all grew up with crystal-clear full duplex phones. How they got us to switch to these crappy VOX walkie-talkie things is beyond me.

Use a land line if you want quality.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

I would also be interested in such information, even on dumb phones. I don' t need or want a smart phone but do want a cellphone. Those vary as well. O ne I had I could not understand almost at all. And then add to that the noi se cancelling on the person talking to me it was practically impossible to use at all.

One way to get answers might be to call a cellphone dealer (they are more u biquitous than Starbucks these days) and tell them you are hard of hearing. (if that term is unfamiliar - hearing loss)

Unfortunately that won't tell you anything about the transmit quality. Howe ver if it records video and gives an audio spec for that you can reasonably assume the front mic is the same as the back mic. I think. Maybe.

n't need or want a smart phone but do want a cellphone. Those vary as well. One I had I could not understand almost at all. And then add to that the n oise cancelling on the person talking to me it was practically impossible t o use at all.

ubiquitous than Starbucks these days) and tell them you are hard of hearin g. (if that term is unfamiliar - hearing loss)

wever if it records video and gives an audio spec for that you can reasonab ly assume the front mic is the same as the back mic. I think. Maybe.

How about some brands, folks?

I'll add input to my own query: IPhone phone sound quality is terrible. Myself and the other call always asking each other to repeat themself. Lots of drop- outs. Part of the problem is that certain generations of the iPhone integrated the antenna into the perimeter (meta) frame - a la iPhone 4. Jobs in no uncertain terms stated NO MASTS OR EXTERNAL antennae! We are suffering the consequences of such design decisions now.

Any Droid/Galaxy owners out there? Blackberry?

So you mean dropouts ? I thought you meant microphone and speaker quality.

Of course then some dropouts are just the noise canceller working. If dropouts are the issue, look at the signal meter when they are happening.

"So you mean dropouts ? I thought you meant microphone and speaker quality.

Of course then some dropouts are just the noise canceller working. If dropouts are the issue, look at the signal meter when they are happening. "

I mean *all* issues affecting the ability to conduct a phone call on a smart(non-flip or candy bar) phone.

** Nearly all the issues with using a smart phone are environmental and/or user related - not the fault of the phone. When the call is from one smart phone to another, the problems become magnified and neither party is able t o say who's phone is the bad performer at a particular time.

Assuming that you can fix any of the issues by buying a different phone is plain dumb.

.... Phil

** Nearly all the issues with using a smart phone are environmental and/or user related - not the fault of the phone. When the call is from one smart phone to another, the problems become magnified and neither party is able t o say who's phone is the bad performer at a particular time. "

Realllly?? I had far fewer dropouts and garbled exchanges on 'regular' cell phones than on smart ones. And if one end of the call was a land line , the call fidelity, compared to between smart phones, was closer to that of a 100watt per channel Pioneer amp and 4ft tall speakers! Seriously, purely as a PHONE, I can attest the iPhone sounds TERRIBLE, be it my iPhone 4 or my wife's 5.

So just how are these issues "user-related", pray tell?

"Assuming that you can fix any of the issues by buying a different phone is plain dumb. "

I'm not assuming that at all. Just collecting input out there to see if I'm alone or not on the issue of smart phone call quality in general.

.... Phil "

*By the way, if we experience a thread-crap, please do not let it discourage continuance of this conversation. Such folks have no life.

r user related - not the fault of the phone. When the call is from one smar t phone to another, the problems become magnified and neither party is able to say who's phone is the bad performer at a particular time. "

** Yeeeeppp !!

( snip pile of drivel )

** Whatever I say, you will claim that you do not do that.

Which is stupid, cos I cannot discuss YOU.

** Far as I can tell, from calls made to my land line phone, the audio qual ity is fine - providing the caller has the phone to their ear and is locate d in a quiet place with a good signal.

.... Phil

Phil Allison wrote: "** Whatever I say, you will claim that you do not do that. "

Try me.

e,

Dropouts are not a loose connection. And it almost is not directly related to loss of signal, it might be traffic. And then you have spread spectrum a nd multipath which necessitate error correction. And when the errors add up too much it has no choice but to stop. You don't want it to try to figure out what you were going to say next. That is for our greatgrandkids.

So, OK the speaker quality is one issue. The microphone issue is a totally different thing. You are asking this thing to pick up your voice accurately from the side of your face. And cancel out the noise when you are at a foo tball game or racetrack or whatever.

Or any noisy environment. I think the audio amps in these things are more o f a battery issue than the RF transmitter.

But we do not need it that loud and maybe you need an app. LOL I NEVER thou ght I would say that. But if you take and reset the audio parameters on you r phone to your liking that would work.

If the chipset can do it of course and maybe that is the deeper question of your question. Which phone allow you to have control over the audio proper ties, OF PHONE CALLS. If any do that is what you want. Change the settings of the noise canceller. Maybe you could have an EQ for the earpiece. (earpi ece, NOT the speaker)

ality >is fine - providing the caller has the phone to their ear and is loc ated in a >quiet place with a good signal. "

I used to send audio from an amp right into the lines. Like "Yeah, you wann a hear this tune ?" and then I would connect the speaker wires to the phone wires. Some were actually impressed with the quality, which is not surpris ing because most telephones around here still had carbon microphones.

No, you want the best VOICE quality. Sounds, noise, music, test tones, and speech are all different. Todays digital smartphones use CODECs that are optimized for voice. Some work better than others. Some sound great with a good BER (bit error rate) but fall apart when the BER climbs. Some do a good job of perceptual voice coding for mens voices, but not so good with womens. All cellular CODECs are a compromise between bandwidth and channel loading (number of conversations per unit bandwidth). You can have lots of conversations, but everyone sounds awful. Or you can have fewer conversations, everyone sounds great, but the cellular provider is complaining to the FCC that they need more frequencies.

All this is not anything inherent in the design of a particular phone. Under the covers, the CODECs and radios are fairly similar. The difference is the cellular vendor, who controls the available bandwidth, channel loading, CODEC used, power per carrier, and various parameters that affect voice quality. You should not be looking for the best instrument, but rather the best carrier (which incidentally varies regionally even for a single carrier).

Search for "Smartphone review site": Plenty to choose from. What you'll get are anecdotal reviews and "crowd source" compilations of reviews that are generally worthless. Self-selected surveys are even worse. In most cases, most of the factors that affect voice quality are missing. For example, BlueGoof headsets that mangle the audio, users yelling into the microphone, congestion causing high error rates, and unrealistic expectations. The last is the most common.

Check the various phone and provider review sites.

Also, since you posted this to a repair newsgroup, I suggest you check iFixit repairability scores, which will give you a good clue as to how well the phone is built, and whether it will survive its typical 18-24 month lifetime.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

I've also noticed the same problem. I have customers, mostly on Verizon, with the latest iPhone 6 mutations and they still sound awful. I was a bit perturbed so I investigated. They had VoLTE turned off. Like magic, the audio quality dramatically improved on the various iPhone 6 handsets. The iPhone 4 and 5 do not support VoLTE so they still sound awful.

In 2010, I did my own test for the "grip of death" problem on the iPhone 4: Steve Jobs was right that all phones exhibit the problem, but the iPhone 4 was the worst. Teaching people how to hold an iPhone with 2 fingers has proven to be an exercise in futility.

Incidentally, if you miss that 1980's analog cellphone audio quality, maybe this will help: or maybe just add a megaphone: or a BlueGoof retro handset:

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote: "No, you want the best VOICE quality. Sounds, noise, music, test..."

That's what I *thought* I was asking for opinions on! Which phones had the best sound quality for PHONE CALLS!

Hey Thekma, There were so many choices for best sound quality smart phone. But it depends on your budget. If you are looking for some reasonable good sound quality phone try Alcatel Onetouch X1. Its a very attractive phone with excellent sound quality . see this

I just put together a system with a PC running Asterisk/FreePBX and Snom 300 phones. There's a guy selling Snom 300's for $5 on eBay. While it may not have quite broadcast studio sound, it is way better than the analog PBX we had before. I'm really happy with them.

Jon

Thanx for suggesting , but for VOIP stuff I prefer to check this site they provide best deal for Wireless devices and accessories.