• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Call Quality When Connected via Bluetooth

Vlad Soare

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2015
115
76
Bucharest, Romania
Hello,

Apart from the S4 Mini I also have a Nokia 515. It's a dumbphone, but of very high quality by dumbphones' standards.

When I use the Mini handheld the sound quality (I mean the voice, during a call) is perfect. It's at least on par with the Nokia, if not better.

When connected to the built-in bluetooth hands-free system of my car, the sound quality as I perceive it is more or less the same with both phones. However, people I talk to report that they can feel a difference. Not great, but noticeable nevertheless. With the S4 Mini they know I'm in my car, while with the Nokia they don't. When using the Nokia they report hearing me as if I were at home and holding the phone in my hand.

Is that really so? Has any of you noticed that? Is the voice quality via bluetooth really lower with the S4 Mini than with other phones? Or was it pure chance that people happened to hear me badly on the few occasions when I was using it?
What's your experience with the S4 Mini's voice quality via bluetooth?

Thank you.
 
Problem solved, or so it seems. :D
The phone used to be set to work in GSM mode (2G) only. Switching to 3G seems to have improved the sound quality considerably. I hear almost exactly the same (maybe just a little better, but not enough to make a noticeable difference), but the other person hears my voice much better, to the extent that he/she cannot tell that I'm in my car.

What's strange is that my Nokia dumbphone was also set to 2G only and didn't have sound quality issues. With the Nokia there was no difference in sound quality between 2G and 3G. With the Mini 3G sounds much better, or at least that's what people I talk to are telling me.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones