Which Android phone has the best voice quality?

[dwarven1]

I'm pretty sure that the successor to my Centro will be an Android phone of some sort.

However... since I have some noise-related hearing damage (hint: if you ride a motorcycle, WEAR EARPLUGS!!!) I really need a handset with good voice quality. Has anyone done any kind of qualitative testing on the various Droids to determine relative voice quality?

I'm on the Verizon network, and despite the obscene data charges, I'm probably going to stay on Verizon.

Any help y'all can offer would be appreciated.

 

[sitlet]

In reality, they are all the same. The quality of phone calls is limited to the phone network, which is a hundred years old. It works out to about 8kbps in digital terms, where most mp3 music is between 128kbps and 320kbps. So you are really not going to notice the difference between phones.

However, some phones will be louder than others. but there really is no way to tell, except for you to go into the store and check them out for yourself.

 

[dwarven1]

I disagree, sitlet. While the bandwidth is the same from phone to phone, speakers and microphones are decidedly NOT the same. Some manufacturers use lesser components than others, and this is what I'm trying to find out.

My Centro, for example, has much worse call quality than my old Samsung A990 - but the A990 isn't a Palm Pilot, which is why I switched.

But if I'm going to spend $150-$200 for a new smart phone, I want to know that it's worth that for the phone part of it as well as the display screen and the intelligence built into it.

 

[sitlet]

I disagree with your statement. With phone call quality being so low, you could use a horrible microphone, and it wouldnt really matter, because you wont notice the difference. Heck, technically its BETTER to have a lower quality microphone. If your phone has an excellent microphone, it will pick up everything in the room, every tick, pop, whistle. And when you amplify that and send it over a land line connection, it will sound way worse.

 

[Demache]

I disagree with your statement. With phone call quality being so low, you could use a horrible microphone, and it wouldnt really matter, because you wont notice the difference. Heck, technically its BETTER to have a lower quality microphone. If your phone has an excellent microphone, it will pick up everything in the room, every tick, pop, whistle. And when you amplify that and send it over a land line connection, it will sound way worse.

I can tell a difference between a bad earpiece, and a decent one. If a manufacturer uses decent parts, it can make a voice sound more natural. I've noticed on lower end phones, its all volume, and no quality. Yet on my Nokia E63 and Eris, which are both smartphones, they actually have some bass behind the voice, so its much more natural and pleasing to listen to.

But really, Verizon uses so much compression on their network, its obscene. Coming from an ex-GSM user, its very noticeable. So it probably won't matter too much in the end. All the Android phones probably have much higher quality parts than most dumbphones, and will probably have decent mics and earpieces.