slow android phones plus terrible call sound

unwashed potato! · 25 Jun 2014 at 17:29

this has been an issue i've had with every android phone and is one that's not unique to me. the call quality is crap. the issue is as though the noise cancellation of android cancels out my voice and i become a very low quiet background noise to the person on the other end. this happens too often and is an issue when i'm trying to talk with a customer. i've always been able to use a bluetooth headset and be fine with it, however it seems to be he case now that people are struggling to hear me and tell me to move closer to the phone, when i haven't moved away and it's only a few centre metres from me.

i can also solve the issue by switching to use the loud speaker once the problem happens, but then if i start with loudspeaker the issue will randomly happen and will be solved by going back to the normal phone.

any solutions? it's driving me crazy, and happens to not just my phone.

also my mum has an sgs3, my friend an sgs4, me a nexus5, which this last couple weeks has felt incredibly slow, theirs worse than mine. any thing we can do to find out what could be doing this?

uvarvu · 25 Jun 2014 at 18:49

Start by picking a network that supports wideband audio i.e Three or EE.

deltalinx · 25 Jun 2014 at 20:32

Can't say I've ever has any issues with call quality and I've been android since 2010...
The speed issues is probably due to the amount of stuff you might have on the phone, clear the caches etc wipe stuff you don't need. This speeds it up.

m4rk84 · 25 Jun 2014 at 21:51

I'm surprised your Nexus5 has felt slow, never heard of that. Could be a fault or something as the Nexus5 stays incredibly fast permanently in my experience with no slowdown at all.

The Samsung Galaxy phones are known to slow down somewhat mainly due to the overwhelming amount of stuff Samsung puts on them, so could just be down to that.

As for the call quality maybe its the network you are all on? Just a guess as the phones you list all are known to have pretty good call quality.

Jabbs · 26 Jun 2014 at 07:08

Can't say I had any issues of slowdown from HTC one, nexus 5 and don't notice it on my note 3, although I don't use touchwiz. For me the slow down days of Android are long gone.

Myshra · 26 Jun 2014 at 15:50

uvarvu said:
Start by picking a network that supports wideband audio i.e Three or EE.

Voda have wideband up and running too but that's not going to help him when it's cross network

Using a BT device cancels the phones cancellation system automatically by the way, it switches the MicIn line to the BT interface and just receives the audio stream (but this stream could already be mangled by a bad BT device). What happens when you disable the noise cancellation system entirely?

It is possible that you have a broken mic/secondary, SGS2s had a fairly common fault where the primary would become dislodged and cause all manner of audio artefacts.

I guess I'll ask the obvious, you're not holding your fingers over the 2nd mic are you?

I used to test phones for a fruiter based network and honestly, audio stream quality across all handsets is within a very tight window across all manufacturers, I would more likely expect this to be signal/user related than an OS being at fault.

B&W · 26 Jun 2014 at 17:49

Not the phones fault have had all of them three and the call quality is good on all 3.

asim18 · 26 Jun 2014 at 18:44

One of my mates has this problem all the time, he's on a Nexus 5. Sometimes we call and I cant hear him for the first 10-12 seconds. Then it just works suddenly. Funny thing is the guy's in total denial even though we've all seen him have issues with people not hearing him. He'd refuse to admit anything's wrong even if his phone was in front of him in a million pieces.

_Jimlad_ · 26 Jun 2014 at 19:33

Fairly sure the answer is no said:
this has been an issue i've had with every android phone and is one that's not unique to me. the call quality is crap. the issue is as though the noise cancellation of android cancels out my voice and i become a very low quiet background noise to the person on the other end. this happens too often and is an issue when i'm trying to talk with a customer. i've always been able to use a bluetooth headset and be fine with it, however it seems to be he case now that people are struggling to hear me and tell me to move closer to the phone, when i haven't moved away and it's only a few centre metres from me.

i can also solve the issue by switching to use the loud speaker once the problem happens, but then if i start with loudspeaker the issue will randomly happen and will be solved by going back to the normal phone.

any solutions? it's driving me crazy, and happens to not just my phone.

also my mum has an sgs3, my friend an sgs4, me a nexus5, which this last couple weeks has felt incredibly slow, theirs worse than mine. any thing we can do to find out what could be doing this?

Most ridiculous post of 2014

Can't agree with any of what you said or ever heard it before anywhere apart from isolated issues

I can only think you and your friends have installed a load of crap.

The nexus 5 although not the highest specced phone is certainly one of if not the most snapest phones going.

If it has slowed down I suggest a wipe or RMA.

_Jimlad_ · 26 Jun 2014 at 19:35

asim18 said:
One of my mates has this problem all the time, he's on a Nexus 5. Sometimes we call and I cant hear him for the first 10-12 seconds. Then it just works suddenly. Funny thing is the guy's in total denial even though we've all seen him have issues with people not hearing him. He'd refuse to admit anything's wrong even if his phone was in front of him in a million pieces.

That is a known issue with the n5 if he has then problem he needs to RMA for a replacement.

Myshra · 26 Jun 2014 at 19:50

B&W said:
Not the phones fault have had all of them three and the call quality is good on all 3.

Ah yes, that giant sample size of 3. Phones run at between 3-9% defect rate within 2 years, higher with user incidents for warranty repair. There are a whole bunch of support threads on this OP, I'd consider RMA tbh: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/nexus/microphone|sort:relevance

_Jimlad_ · 26 Jun 2014 at 20:00

Myshra said:
Ah yes, that giant sample size of 3. Phones run at between 3-9% defect rate within 2 years, higher with user incidents for warranty repair. There are a whole bunch of support threads on this OP, I'd consider RMA tbh: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/nexus/microphone|sort:relevance

i don't see your point tbh. phones are high end electrical products and they go wrong after a while, you get two years warranty now which is pretty good. if it fails after the warranty you could argue sales of goods act fit for responsible amount of time.

my mrs nexus4 just packed up, has 3 months warranty left no bother, it happens and it is certainly not an android issue.

as mentioned the nexus 5 has several bugs, some of which have been fixed and some that require you to get a replacement. if purchased from the playstore a quick 5 min phone call will see a new one dispatched next day. So again no bother although poor QC from LG on that matter.

i had to RMA my first N5 and the second one is easily the best phone i have had, and again like the above poster i have tested nearly all the high end phones.

a slow down is not and android issue, a wipe will properly sort the issue or a rma...