How is call quality on Bionic? Especially outgoing...family member has poor hearing

[Thorlin]

Hi, this is my first post here.

I have been using an LG Dare for almost 3 years now....and have been contemplating a smart phone since my two years was up....but haven't been serious about it till recently.

I would read the reviews at phonearena, and was specifically looking for a phone that was described as having very good call quality. My mother is elderly and has hearing problems (she does have hearing aids)....and was wanting a phone that had excellent outgoing clarity...and inbound would be nice too, but was mainly concerned about what it sounds like at her end.

Well phonearena reviewed the Bionic and said it had excellent call quality in both directions. So I thought this would be a great candidate...then the more research I did, I started finding other reviews, like at CNET, etc. that said the call quality to be only average. I went to my local Verizon store yesterday, and tried a live call...unfortunately the place was busy so there was some background noise. I thought the incoming call quality was much better than my Dare. My mom thought the call was better, but the background noise I think spoiled the test.

Overall I was pretty impressed with the speed of using the apps on the phone, and I thought the display was very nice. I have never used a smartphone, so this would be my first time.

I am in a 4g area.

So to all of you Bionic users, and from the looks of it, lots of Droid users in general, what would you say about the call quality, both outbound and inbound on the Bionic? Are there other current Droid phones that are better, or as good that would be less expensive? I am eligible for the $50 new every two with Verizon, and they have the $100 trade in for non-smart phones till the end of the month. I figure if I am going to take the smartphone plunge, I may as well get a really good one, and so far the Bionic looks to be an excellent phone.

Thanks in advance, and also, this is an awesome forum....I wish I had found it a long time ago....

 

[revelated]

Hi, this is my first post here.

I have been using an LG Dare for almost 3 years now....and have been contemplating a smart phone since my two years was up....but haven't been serious about it till recently.

I would read the reviews at phonearena, and was specifically looking for a phone that was described as having very good call quality. My mother is elderly and has hearing problems (she does have hearing aids)....and was wanting a phone that had excellent outgoing clarity...and inbound would be nice too, but was mainly concerned about what it sounds like at her end.

Well phonearena reviewed the Bionic and said it had excellent call quality in both directions. So I thought this would be a great candidate...then the more research I did, I started finding other reviews, like at CNET, etc. that said the call quality to be only average. I went to my local Verizon store yesterday, and tried a live call...unfortunately the place was busy so there was some background noise. I thought the incoming call quality was much better than my Dare. My mom thought the call was better, but the background noise I think spoiled the test.

Overall I was pretty impressed with the speed of using the apps on the phone, and I thought the display was very nice. I have never used a smartphone, so this would be my first time.

I am in a 4g area.

So to all of you Bionic users, and from the looks of it, lots of Droid users in general, what would you say about the call quality, both outbound and inbound on the Bionic? Are there other current Droid phones that are better, or as good that would be less expensive? I am eligible for the $50 new every two with Verizon, and they have the $100 trade in for non-smart phones till the end of the month. I figure if I am going to take the smartphone plunge, I may as well get a really good one, and so far the Bionic looks to be an excellent phone.

Thanks in advance, and also, this is an awesome forum....I wish I had found it a long time ago....

In my opinion PhoneArena was being generous. I found the call quality of the Bionic to be rather subpar. It seems to have decent noise cancellation but I found that sometimes it overdid it. Even at my normal speaking voice which isn't overly quiet, it was like I was talking through a towel or something. I certainly was not impressed.

Based on experience, I have never had a complaint about call quality from any of the Blackberry devices. Don't know if that's even an option but just FYI that they've been great for calls in my experience. I have yet to find an Android phone with great call quality, especially for the hard-of-hearing. The closest I can recall was the Droid Charge.

 

[portermac]

Not sure what could be wrong with your phone but my bionic is clearer than any phone I have used. It us actually to clear. I have to constantly turn down the phone on a call because it hurts my ears. Every other phone I've had was always turned all the way up and stayed that way.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Zregnier]

Not sure what could be wrong with your phone but my bionic is clearer than any phone I have used. It us actually to clear. I have to constantly turn down the phone on a call because it hurts my ears. Every other phone I've had was always turned all the way up and stayed that way.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

Completely agree here. Superb call quality.

 

[LBrooks]

I speak with my Dad several hours a week (he has a hearing problem) - he said teh TBolt I had was great - said the Bionic is great - blah blah blah ... no matter which phone I use he can *always* hear me better when I use (I don't understand why) an Apple headset *shrugging shoulders* ... I could probably use a tin can string setup and connect that stupid thing to an apple headset and it'd work out better on his end - I have no idea why ... I've tried various setups with him - it always makes a difference. There is one bluetooth headset I can use while talking to him that "isn't bad" - I think it costs around $5 LOL ...

HTH

 

[jstwondrng]

I have to disagree, I feel the voice quality is much better than most of the phones I've owned in the past.

I too owned the lg dare and the og Motorola Droid. Both phones were ok in regards to call quality, but to me, the bionic is superior. All of my friends comment on how much clearer my calls are now.

My two cents...

Jstwondrng

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[revelated]

Not sure what could be wrong with your phone but my bionic is clearer than any phone I have used. It us actually to clear. I have to constantly turn down the phone on a call because it hurts my ears. Every other phone I've had was always turned all the way up and stayed that way.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

I'm not talking about volume. I'm talking about clarity. The Bionic is not clear compared to..say..the Blackberry Pearl. I fear some people's aural preferences may have degraded with the poor quality phones these days.

My LG170 on T-Mobile has better clarity than the Bionic. That's a $50 phone.

 

[portermac]

I'm not talking about volume. I'm talking about clarity. The Bionic is not clear compared to..say..the Blackberry Pearl. I fear some people's aural preferences may have degraded with the poor quality phones these days.

My LG170 on T-Mobile has better clarity than the Bionic. That's a $50 phone.




I'm not talking about loud. When people speak now on my bionic the strong letters like s and p are coming out to strong and it hurts my ears so I have to turn the volume down so it is less clear. Bottom line if you want a clear call the bionic will not let you down.
I think you may be the first person to have a problem with the bionic call quality. Even people that have had a nightmare with this phone still say the call quality is outstanding.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[revelated]

I'm not talking about loud. When people speak now on my bionic the strong letters like s and p are coming out to strong and it hurts my ears so I have to turn the volume down so it is less clear. Bottom line if you want a clear call the bionic will not let you down.
I think you may be the first person to have a problem with the bionic call quality. Even people that have had a nightmare with this phone still say the call quality is outstanding.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

Now I see the problem. You're going by how people sound when calling you on the Bionic. That's not what the OP is looking for, unless I misread his post.

I am given to understand that he wants to get the Bionic, but he needs to be considerate of an elderly family member - thus, he needs to make sure that when he calls her, he comes through loud and clear. If I misread that then I apologize, but that's how I'm reading it.

Audio coming into the phone is fine. If someone calls you they're clear (inbound). I'm talking about audio going out through the microphone (outbound). It's extremely muffled. I've got proof.

Droid Bionic OUTBOUND Call Quality - Droid Bionic OUTBOUND Call Quality

That's at my NORMAL speaking volume. The iPhone sounds significantly clearer...too bad I hate that device for everything else.

 

[portermac]

Yes I was talking about inbound. A far as then hearing me, I haven't had any complaints. With my d1 i was always having complaints. I well have to test that for myself because I haven't been on the receiving end of the bionic. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Thorlin]

thanks for all of the responses so far. And yes, I am primarily interested in have excellent outbound call quality so that my mom has less problems hearing me. I would also like to have good incoming call quality, but I am primarily interested in the outbound quality. The sample linked above is fairly muffled sounding. Now my mom did say that I sounded a bit better yesterday when I tried the phone from the Verizon store....but she may have been a bit swayed by my initial enthusiasm for the phone....trouble was there was a lot of background noise at the store.

 

[scdown]

thanks for all of the responses so far. And yes, I am primarily interested in have excellent outbound call quality so that my mom has less problems hearing me. I would also like to have good incoming call quality, but I am primarily interested in the outbound quality. The sample linked above is fairly muffled sounding. Now my mom did say that I sounded a bit better yesterday when I tried the phone from the Verizon store....but she may have been a bit swayed by my initial enthusiasm for the phone....trouble was there was a lot of background noise at the store.

Spoke a couple of times with my father-in-law, who's using a hearing aid - he had no problems hearing me. As for others, no one has reported problem with the way I sounded.

 

[SSHGuru]

It's clear both ways. In fact it's the best I've used.

If you're interested in volume then I don't think anything is louder than the OG Droid.

The blackberries were horrible for clarity.

 

[mrredskin]

OG Droid was horrible outbound quality according to some i talked with. I was told by same individuals that this one is much improved

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[LBrooks]

The blackberries were horrible for clarity.

True story right ... Husband has a BB and if there's anything going on in the background at all forget it - I can't hear him worth a darn ... he works in an environment with a lot of people around and everyone and everything sounds awful - it's all like Charlie Brown's teacher sounding ...