The sound quality of my Nokia mobile phone is quite bad. Are there budget mobile phones with a "golden" sound quality ?

the original Nokia N-gage had its own dedicated mp3 decoder chip - I imagine they would be cheap second hand now

Hi.

Do you mean sound as in "voice quality" when making calls or sound as in "ringtones" and "playing mp3"?

I haven't tested many phones but generally, if you are on the Hutch CDMA network, you will have much better voice sound then onny of the GSM networks, regardless what phone you use - it's a network thing.

However if you are about playing music, i can only compare a few phones and have to say that my old Sony-Ericsson K750i beats every other one i had in my hands so far (altough my boyfriend's similarly old Nokia N70 is about 3x as loud, the SE sounds better).

My cheapo Hutch Samsung S169 also sounds good, mp3-wise, thru headphones.

Best regards......

Thanh

Hi.

Do you mean sound as in "voice quality" when making calls or sound as in "ringtones" and "playing mp3"?

Thanh

Yes, I actually mean the voice quality when making calls, but doesn't it come from the same "sound system" inside the phone ? My old Philips Savvy had a way better voice quality than the Nokia which I am using now. By the way, is there a way to test the voice quality when buying a phone, I can hardly imagine that one's allowed to make "test calls" ?

I haven't tested many phones but generally, if you are on the Hutch CDMA network, you will have much better voice sound then onny of the GSM networks, regardless what phone you use - it's a network thing.

Thanh

This is a presposterous claim. Does this only happen when you call the other Hutch subscriber (singular)? (There being only two!)

Most people think CDMA voice quality is worse as usually uses a proprietary codec (Qualcomm) which attempts noise-cancellation to conserve bandwidth, which also "steals" bits from the spoken voice.

It would probably help if the OP described their situation? Are you talking about how the called party sounds when they speak to you (what you hear)? Or how you sound to the called party (what they hear)?

All GSM phones support standard codecs, and deliver 3.1 Khz audio, while the network supports half-rate (5.6 kbps). Voice quality is probably more a function environment, microphone and speaker. A hands-free sets probably would help the OP? Although moving to a quieter location can help too.

Hi.

Do you mean sound as in "voice quality" when making calls or sound as in "ringtones" and "playing mp3"?

Thanh

Yes, I actually mean the voice quality when making calls, but doesn't it come from the same "sound system" inside the phone ? My old Philips Savvy had a way better voice quality than the Nokia which I am using now. By the way, is there a way to test the voice quality when buying a phone, I can hardly imagine that one's allowed to make "test calls" ?

As a matter of fact, most shops will allow you to make a test call on a new phone. If they don't allow it, move on to another shop. The make of the phone doesn't seem to be as important as the model. My wife has a slick little Samsung that I could never use because the audio stinks. A friend of mine has a top of the line Sony Ericsson. It was in the shop for warranty repair and when he called me I complimented him on the sound of his repaired phone. He told me it was NOT his Sony Ericsson but a 999 baht new Nokia he had bought for a spare.

It would probably help if the OP described their situation? Are you talking about how the called party sounds when they speak to you (what you hear)? Or how you sound to the called party (what they hear)?

Both the called party as well as my person can hear a striking difference when I am calling with a Nokia 3315 mobile phone and when I am calling with an old Philips Savvy mobile phone. The Nokia sounds very "mechanical", so both the called party's voice as well as my own voice, and I would like to describe the sound of the Philips Savvy as "Golden". I don't think it has anything to do with the network but with the sound quality of the mobile phone.

Edited April 20, 200818 yr by palander

It "sounds" like you got a bad phone (Nokia 3315). Why not continue to use your Savvy? Also, ask acquaintances if you can borrow their phone for a call, pop your SIM in and see if it's OK. I suspect the Savvy phone might have a good speaker, and/or microphone. Maybe because it is older they used more expensive/ higher quality components? Have you tried a hands-free set?

Clearly this is incredibly subjective so you'll just need to look around until you find a phone which sounds good to you, and all the people you call.

A friend of mine has a top of the line Sony Ericsson. It was in the shop for warranty repair and when he called me I complimented him on the sound of his repaired phone. He told me it was NOT his Sony Ericsson but a 999 baht new Nokia he had bought for a spare.

Would you mind calling your friend and ask him the type number of his Nokia and give him the best regards of Palander ?

Edited April 20, 200818 yr by palander