No problem whatsoever with mine. Great call quality. I've even asked several people how I sound due to the complaints. All I've heard is 'you sound fine, why?'.
__________________ Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. CD
I find that if I put the call on speaker and then lower it from my ear to talk to direct in front of my mouth, it transmits fine. If I hold to my ear there is a BAD echo for the person I am taking with.
If you have a habit of slightly holding the phone away from your face when you talk you might have a sound issue. Try pressing the phone against your cheek and see if that helps. I know you shouldn't have to, but...
I did that exact test. I asked someone, "can you hear me right now" while holding the phone close to my cheek(not extremely close, just slightly close) and they said "yah I can hear u fine"...then I moved it about an inch away from my chin and asked again and got a response like everybody else, "what did u say?"....lol...just the sensitivity of the mic. I guess they are not as sensitive or the hole is too deep and not close enough to the outside shell of the phone. Who knows...
__________________
Don't let anger take over you...but take over your anger, so JOY may take over you, and EVERYONE around you...- xxDruMMer BoYxx
There may be something to this. I called two people to see how my new Tour sounded, they both said I sounded muted or muffled.
I did a little test by calling my house phone, I tried every setting (enhanced treble, automatic volume control, TTY on/off) etc and they all sounded muted. I held the phone to my head like I do every other cell phone. I then called the house phone from an iPhone 3GS and then the 3rd test was a voice recording using the app on the Tour. Bottom line:
1.. All calls from the Tour were muted no matter the phone setting
2.. The call from the iPhone 3GS was clear (I hate to acknowledge that)
3.. The voice recording quality on the Tour was better than the test calls from the same phone.
So based on point 3, is it the network and not hardware related? If so a firmware fix may be the trick? Does the hybrid OS that's out there improve voice quality?
The Voice Notes app - you can record yourself in there and compare that to a voicemail you leave somewhere. For me, the voice notes recording sounded better than the voicemail I left myself which made me think it was a firmware / network issue vs. hardware / mic. BUT.... I then tried the earphones that come with an iPhone (has the mic inline) plugged into the Tour, made a call with that and it was crystal clear... so back to square 1 I guess.
I've had people describe my calls the same: "muffled", or "you sound like you have a cold".
So going back to the original question, will a firmware revision fix this? Based on the fact call quality changes depending upon the angle it's at or where you hold it, I'm not confident one will. For me at least, that's a dealbreaker. It's my only phone and I need to sound clear.
Well after proving to myself the audio was greatly improved with an external mic (iPhone headset) and reading these boards saying to swap the phone, I went for an exchange. I got a green dot (Mexico 5) phone and the sound is about the same. I think it's the design of the phone / software / me being too sensitive. On the me part, I do get clearer sound when using an iPhone and my Bold which is what I am coming from so I am not expecting the world, just expect it to be AS GOOD as what I had before.
Oh and on the green dot replacement, the battery door is a bit tighter and the trackball sits lower on the phone. Keyboard is way tighter. So there definitely seems to be a difference in build quality, not sure if that is between the Canada and Mexico builds or if it's a factor of the green dot Tours.
I find that if I put the call on speaker and then lower it from my ear to talk to direct in front of my mouth, it transmits fine. If I hold to my ear there is a BAD echo for the person I am taking with.
If you stop doing phone calls from the toilet, that will improve.
Horrendous call quality/people can't hear you?
It's my only phone and I need to sound clear.
