Samsung has better voice quality than iPhone 5s in objective testing

[iolinux333]

FINALLY someone out there is doing real, reproducible scientific testing for sound in telephones. I'm a little surprised, but of modern phones, iPhone 5s is sub-par. Looks like Samsung is in my future as they now offer far superior voice quality, which to me is the most important factor in any phone and trumps all other considerations.

Road warriors and businessmen take note:


http://www.voicegurus.com/voice-effects-software-benchmarking-part-two

 

[Señor]

Wow, that sure makes a huge difference.

 

[danny_w]

Not surprising, I have always thought that the iPhone's voice quality (actual usage as a PHONE) was subpar. It may excel at many things but as a phone there are many others that are far better.

 

[cynics]

I was amazed how good the iPhone was compared to a Samsung dumb phone. Then I used a friends S5 for a few minutes to talk to another friend and the difference was apparent again (for the better). I'm comparing to a 4S though.

 

[ratbrain]

have to agree.

i do love my 5S. but i currently also have a GS5 for work and BB Bold and Tour prior to the GS5

the audio quality of the iphone made a huge leap from 4/4s to 5/5s but as far as audio quality of ear speaker and loud speaker, it is no where near the quality of the BB bold/tour. Gs5 is also still higher audio quality to 5/5s.

have to say the BB was the best phone "smart phone" i've used when talking on the phone was critical to day to day use.

my 2 cents

 

[ionjohn]

People still use the calling feature?

 

[akhilleus]

This is interesting, but I can't say that voice quality is an important issue for me when getting a phone. No, I don't want it to sound like a tin can, but I've never owned a phone where the voice quality was noticeably bad or problematic. I believe I was reading an article recently about HD voice technology and how it's just not that important to the consumer, so we haven't seen it increase on a widespread basis.

 

[I7guy]

I can't say the s5 on verizon is better or worse than the 5s after playing with it in the verizon store.

My 5s ranges from very acceptable to "I can't believe this us a cell phone call".

I did t see the word verizon in that whole article so I assume they didn't test verizon. Anyway voice quality is just another data point, I haven't had a phone with perpetual bad quality since 1990.

 

[juanrp]

Doesn't surprise me.

My conversations on the phone consist of "what?" "I can't here you" "can you repeat that?" And "I don't know what your saying"

 

[C DM]

Doesn't surprise me.

My conversations on the phone consist of "what?" "I can't here you" "can you repeat that?" And "I don't know what your saying"

Much different with a different phone? Or could it be the carrier and/or where you use the phone at various times?

 

[CarmelMacchiato]

I've had no issues with call quality. Not surprised that some do. Seems to me these people simply have issues period. Not sure I would stay with a phone that is so horrible just so I could complain in the internet about it.

 

[whtrbt7]

Voice quality has always kind of sucked on iPhones. Android devices aren't any better. The only time I have had clear voice calls were when I was using HD audio calls that also used data bandwidth. Overall, it's not a huge deal over voice quality as long as you can still sort of hear the other person and vice versa.

 

[jolux]

I was wrong...Samsung IS better at something than Apple is, if only slightly.

 

[juanrp]

Much different with a different phone? Or could it be the carrier and/or where you use the phone at various times?

No, my earpiece has gotten through all types of things.

It's an iPhone 4....probably antenna problem.

 

[617aircav]

This is well known.

 

[The Doctor11]

Dont people make prank calls through earbuds anyway? I do so others can chime in And what else would such a phone call type of feature be used for?

 

[Cape Dave]

FINALLY someone out there is doing real, reproducible scientific testing for sound in telephones. I'm a little surprised, but of modern phones, iPhone 5s is sub-par. Looks like Samsung is in my future as they now offer far superior voice quality, which to me is the most important factor in any phone and trumps all other considerations.

Road warriors and businessmen take note:


http://www.voicegurus.com/voice-effects-software-benchmarking-part-two

Finally! Someone who understands! "Call Quality" is never talked about, and it needs to be.

----------

Voice quality has always kind of sucked on iPhones. Android devices aren't any better. The only time I have had clear voice calls were when I was using HD audio calls that also used data bandwidth. Overall, it's not a huge deal over voice quality as long as you can still sort of hear the other person and vice versa.

Dead wrong. Crappy call quality is just another BS thing foist upon us by corporate jerks that think we do not notice. WE DO NOTICE!

Problem is, the biggest current user base does not even know what good call quality is. Too bad. They truly do not know what they are missing. Me, I do. AND IT SUCKS.

 

[I7guy]

Finally! Someone who understands! "Call Quality" is never talked about, and it needs to be.

----------



Dead wrong. Crappy call quality is just another BS thing foist upon us by corporate jerks that think we do not notice. WE DO NOTICE!

Problem is, the biggest current user base does not even know what good call quality is. Too bad. They truly do not know what they are missing. Me, I do. AND IT SUCKS.

Different strokes for different folks. Any call where the other party and I can communicate without any issue is a good call in my book.

 

[iolinux333]

Finally! Someone who understands! "Call Quality" is never talked about, and it needs to be.

----------



Dead wrong. Crappy call quality is just another BS thing foist upon us by corporate jerks that think we do not notice. WE DO NOTICE!

Problem is, the biggest current user base does not even know what good call quality is. Too bad. They truly do not know what they are missing. Me, I do. AND IT SUCKS.

Part of the issue is that way back before cell phones , call quality was dictated by some of the most brilliant engineers on the planet, on par with the Apollo engineers, who worked at Bell Labs and who took immense pride in their work. For them it was a matter of honor. I knew some of them. That culture and the mindset that went with it is gone now, turned over to amoral MBAs who only want fancier vacation houses and fancier cars. The point being that we received superior landline quality back in the day not because the public wanted it, but because of honorable engineers who weren't stifled, at the time, by management.

 

[skinned66]

As long as it doesn't sound like a string phone it doesn't have to be DTS audio as far as I'm concerned.

 

[iolinux333]

As long as it doesn't sound like a string phone it doesn't have to be DTS audio as far as I'm concerned.

I used to love long conversations on the phone. It was something of an art, now lost, due to the work required to understand the other party because of low fidelity, coupled with that godawful delay introduced by AtoDtoA conversion and compression. Don't even get me started about the jerk that thought implementing half-duplex to save half the bandwith would get him a great bonus! Hopefully he'll roast in Hell. The replacement we've all glommed onto, texting, is a pale substitute distancing us all even further from each other.

 

[I7guy]

I used to love long conversations on the phone. It was something of an art, now lost, due to the work required to understand the other party because of low fidelity, coupled with that godawful delay introduced by AtoDtoA conversion and compression. Don't even get me started about the jerk that thought implementing half-duplex to save half the bandwith would get him a great bonus! Hopefully he'll roast in Hell. The replacement we've all glommed onto, texting, is a pale substitute distancing us all even further from each other.

I hate holding the phone to my ear, a good set of ear phones resolves that issue. Sometimes I'm on a business call for over an hour; it's either speaker phone or ear buds.

Text and iMessage have their place in life as well.

 

[AxoNeuron]

The iPhone and Galaxy phones each have their pluses and minuses. The galaxy has a bigger display, but the iPhone has a much faster processor (in single-threaded benchmarks, which the vast majority of applications use, the iPhone decimates the galaxy S5). The galaxy has better voice quality but the iPhone has a better build (not plastic). To each his own.

And also, the difference is so minor that most users would never notice an actual difference. What matters more is reception.

 

[iamMacPerson]

A few things about call quality. First off, are you holding it wrong? This can be a big contributing factor to bad call quality. Have you tried a new carrier? I hear Verizon's coverage is the one to beat.

I have always thought the voice quality on the iPhone wasn't as great as other phones, however coming from a Samsung dumb-phone to the iPhone 4 sounded the same, the 5 made an improvement and the 5s saw a slight improvement.

Personally to me I never have had a problem with call quality. I have noticed that sometimes when calling a VZW service (this happens a lot on 611) the call doesn't always connect clearly. I end up having to hang up and call back but I blame this on Verizon's 611 switchboard and not the phone itself.

The only times I really make calls are to customer service *cough*AppleCare*cough*cough*. In which case if they don't like my call quality I can always respond back with either "Well buy me a better phone!" or "Well you should have had your engineers put a better call radio in this model of the iPhone". I have never had to use them because if anyone as CS at pretty much anywhere says anything they will most likely get in trouble with their boss.

 

[C DM]

Are people seriously having these dramatic issues with calls? In all my years (as in decades) with all kinds of corded, cordless, early cellular, to current mobile calls I've never had any issues rising to such dramatic levels or even close to them. Sure there have been a few bad connections at times and some dropped calls at times, but generally not many and only here or there. The only real noticeable sound quality issues I have come across on a somewhat more often basis at least more in the past would be some VoIP application calls depending on connection and all that.