The Voice Quality is a joke

That's GSM for you. GSM has very good audio quality when you are in a quiet atmosphere but add in any little noise and you can hear the background better than you can the person you are talking to. This is one reason why I prefer CDMA over GSM and I believe it to be a superior technology. Most of us aren't in perfectly quiet situations a good portion of our time. CDMA technology just filters out background noise much better and has more consistant voice quality.

One thing that annoys me is when somebody calls me from a bar/club on a GSM phone. I just can't understand them, the background noise is way too loud and sometimes they have to talk quite loud before I can understand them. Since I have sensitive ears this can hurt my ears trying to talk to them. On the other hand somebody with a CDMA phone while I can still hear the music in the background and some noise I can still understand them and at least hold a short conversation.

 

I just switched with Verizon Wireless and my phone comes in tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait. I got the Motorola e815, Dan is this an awesome phone? Any complaints?

 

You guys confuse the crap outta me.

So which is better then?

I just left Verizon because their phones suck. The woman said I have a month to change my mind and 2 phone credits, whatever that means. But even with the credits the phones suck.

 

This is one of those religious arguments that have gone on ever since, well, there has been GSM and TDMA. The general consensus is that GSM has better fidelity (i.e. the voice seems more lifelike) whereas CDMA has better noise cancellation. So, voices on GSM sound more real, whereas CDMA performs better in noisy environments. Some people like one, others like the other. There is no right or wrong here, just what you value more (and a lot of this is pretty subjective as well). The better service is the one you can use more where you want to, whether you are talking about a geographic location (i.e. coverage) or an environment (quiet, noisy, etc.)

 

I love my Motorola E815 so far. The phone picks up better than any other Verizon phone I've seen and the audio on it is very clear. The color screen on the phone is very good and for a camera phone it actually takes decent shots. My only complaint is the battery life is somewhat poor but that will get better in about one to two weeks of usage.

The first week the battery life on it SUCKED but now that I've had it a couple of weeks it seems to be much better. The battery life on mine is now decent although it could still be better. I've heard several people make the same complaint about the Motorola E815. I guess you have to "condition" the battery at first or something for a little while to get proper battery life out of it. Other than only have an "ok" battery life I love the phone in every other way.

 

I had one for quite awhile before I got my XV6700 and the battery life is definitely sub-par. Just using the phone for voice you should get decent if not great battery life but where it starts to kill you is when you start browsing the web, using GIN, playing games and such. Basically anything that makes use of that gorgeous screen. One thing I will say about the phone is if you pick the right bluetooth headset (Logitech Mobile Freedom or Jabra BT350V) the phone gets insane bluetooth range. The speakerphone is pretty loud, as are the ringtones but just forget about ever trying use the vibrate feature. One, it's so weak you won't feel it unless it's directly against your body and you're absolutely still... two, it doesn't have a vibrate & ring feature; it only has vibrate then ring or just straght vibrate. If you really need vibrate, I'd just suggest getting the Jabra BT350V headset and using it as the vibrate on that headset is stronger than the phone itself.

Oh, and voice quality? I'll echo Dan's sentiments that it's by far one of the best I've heard on Verizon's network. It's probably better than my xv6700 mostly because it's quite a bit louder than my current phone.

 

The reason why I switched to cingular is the call quality u get with GSM. I had sprint previously and the sound fidelity was awful. Even when you called someone and heard the ringing "tones," they sounded warped and dysphonic.

Cingular is crystal clear.

 

Wow! Congratulations Eddie. :cheers:

What plan and options did you end up getting?

If you need any help with your phone, let me know.

 

I will have to agree with you there. Now, if you Verizon matched my plan (the woman asked me my plan to see if they could match it), I would have stayed with them since I love my Motorola E815. Of course they couldn't, due to my 1250 anytime, unlimited m2m and unlimited n&w minutes, 500 texts, and unlimited power vision all for $49.99/month plus tax.

 

Thanks Gamer. I got the $59.99 AC Plan with 900 NW AT Minutes, Unlimited Nights, Weekends, and "IN" Calling. I also got the $20 2500 i/o text messages with unlimited texts, pix, and flix to my "IN" buddies. And insurance of course to protect my phone. I'm debating wether I should get the internet or not.. The phone is already on a FedEx truck so I'll have it today!! Now, to check minutes and texts and all that stuff from your phone, what do you press?

 

To check minutes (i.e. last call, all calls, etc), hit the left softkey (it will be recent), and it will display the information.

To check texts, voicemails, etc., hit the down arrow key (below the ok button), and it will display the information. Then, just scroll to the desired option and press the right softkey.

Let us know how you like the service and the phone.

 

I think you mean how to check your usage, right?
If so then #MIN SEND will give you your minute usage. It will tell you as well as send you free SMS to your phone.
#DATA gives you your SMS/DATA usage. You can also listen to it or read the SMS that they will send to your phone.
Hope this is what you were looking for. What caused you to switch over from Cingular?

 

wow Eddie! Off to Verizon, huh? Let us know how it is working in El Paso!

 

Ok. I misread his post then. I thought he meant usage through the menus in his phone. My mistake.

 

Here's the Verizon website that lists all the shortcuts and customer service menu features:
http://www.bam.com/b2c/myaccount/selfserve.jsp

 

Yes, sorry for not being clear on it. Now, you don't get charged for checking right? I absolutely LOVE how it updates almost instantly.

 

Yeah, lately I was getting a lot of dropped calls and calls faileds with Cingular that I almost threw my phone against the wall because I was angry LOL. The e815 is pretty good so far and I'll see how good it is when I'm out and about in town.

 

I think some of us are making innacurate statements about the sound quality here. First of all, this is not a matter of GSM vs CDMA thing. It's a COMBINATION of factors. As far as I've been reading Airb330 comments on Cingular's sound quality it seems that regardless of the phone, sound quality is crappy. However, others are saying call quality on Cingular is crystal clear. I have used RAZR phones in this area and the sound quality is very good. So in this case, I would think it is a safe bet to assume that Cingular's network in Airb330 area definitely has some issues that affect sound quality.

GSM can also cancel noise just like CDMA, it all depends on the phone. GSM can also have poor fidelity and coarse sound quality, just like CDMA. Get a phone like the Motorola V180 or something like an LG 1500 or a Samsung C2000 and you'll see how poor sound quality can get! But if you get a high quality phone like a V551, then you'll hear GSM cancelling noise almost as good as CDMA.

The codec is also another variant. When the GSM network forces you into AMR Half Rate mode, you can kiss goodbye to that good sound fidelity we've come to expect from GSM. It sounds worse than CDMA, but you have good noise cancellation. Now, if you have an old phone that uses the old GSM EFR codec, then be prepared for major background noise issues, although the voice fidelity is excellent, but EFR has poor error correction (which means lots of breakups and messy handoffs) and no noise cancellation whatsoever. AMR on the other hand, is a GSM codec that has superior sound quality (when in Full Rate), and excellent noise cancellation while keeping great fidelity. Now, here's the trick: DEPENDING ON YOUR PHONE MODEL, noise cancellation MAY or MAY NOT work.

My sister had a Samsung X427 which is probably one of the worst phones as far as sound quality goes. Everytime she was driving in the car I always heard this loud rumbling noise that was horrible. Of course, this was the road noise being picked up by the phone. She also sounded loud and distorted. People tend to talk louder when driving on a highway because of the noise. Still I could make out what she was saying but the sound quality was poor. Just recently she got a new Sony Ericsson z520a, boy what a difference! the first time she used that phone I didn't know she got a new phone, but I just told her right away, "you got a new phone, right?" It sounded so much clearer and quieter. Now, I can't even tell when she is driving anymore. In my case, I have a Motorola V635 and countless times, I've been surprised when people have asked me if I am home when in reality I am doing 65MPH through a highway. How can they not hear the backround noise? I have a GSM phone and it doesn't pickup the background noise. What does this mean? It means the phone is doing the job right at cancelling the noise.

In CDMA phones the same thing can happen. There are very few models out there that will pick up background noise (check out the CDMA Nokias). In that case, the noise can be loud and the CDMA codec is not going to cancel that. The phone has to do its part of the job, otherwise the noise is not going to get cancelled. And if you have a Verizon phone here, be prepared for pure grade 100% muffled sound quality in this area. So, for all I know this is not a CDMA vs GSM thing, this is a phone + network problem.

Bottomline here is that it seems that CDMA phones have much more consistent quality of sound, which has fooled many people to think that the CDMA codec is solely responsible for noise cancellation. This is totally false. Both the CODEC and the PHONE have to do their part in noise cancellation, just like on GSM. If a CDMA phone has poor noise cancellation, then you can make CDMA sound like old school GSM phones with lots of background noise. I've been a witness to that. However, on the GSM side, you can expect more inconsistent sound quality across different phones and because the different codecs used in different areas. The other variable is the network. Depending on your area, Cingular, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile all perform different. I know in my area Verizon doesn't perform its best when it comes to sound quality, but it seems like in TNDan's area they are great. However, Cingular in my area has excellent sound quality, but in Airb330's area it seems they are poor. Sprint in my area sounds great, much better than Verizon, just as good as T-Mobile or Cingular, but I've read Sprint is quite poor in other areas, much worse than Verizon. So let's not blame sound quality on just one thing. It's VERY incorrect!

 

Fair enough. My only point is that all else being equal, the GSM codec tends to favor fidelity over noise cancellation, whereas the CDMA codec tends to do the opposite. As always, YMMV depending on phone, network, etc.

 

i dont go to bars, maybe thats why i think cingular is better. my advice stay out of the bars.:browani:

 

You Always have to Identify the Problem.
Is it a Phone Problem Vs
a Network Problem.

Like the Motorola i have Now,
if you Reboot the Phone at
the First Call the Caller won't be Able to
Hear Me.
But if I reboot again everthing is Fine.

 

Very nicely stated Bobolito! I would add that I've talked to friends in noisy bars in France (GSM), from the US, and the audio was crystal clear. But I've also talked with friends driving in cars, again in France, using those dangling headsets where the microphone is near the shirt collar, and they were barely understandable.

Many of us underappreciate how important it is not to be lazy in phone operation, and be sure to have your mouth close to the microphone and speak in a normal voice. That alone can kill background noise by more than a factor of 10, without noise cancellation, just simple use of the Auto Gain Control circuity in the phone. The same is true in a landline when you have the mouthpeice below your chin or in front of your mouth. It goes by the square of the distance change, so moving the microphone from 3 inches to 1/2" is a factor of 6squared or 36. The AGC of the phone is turned down and hence the background noise from feet away is greatly reduced.

Just a thought on good phone usage, whether it is a landline, wireless or a stage microphone. Hey, if it is windy and I'm on the beach, just cupping your free hand over your mouth and the phone microphone makes a huge difference. Probably works well in bars too. Plus to you foil those bar lip readers, esp. if it's your other girlfriend!

 

No. The calls are airtime free and the SMS they send you will not be charged for either.

 

But you get charged minutes for checking your voicemail right?

 

Yes you do.

Unless it is on a weekend or you check it from a landline.

 

Bottom line is VERIZON is better than Cingular. Cingular is getting worse. Voice quality does suck. I talk to people that have Cingular and i have a hard time understanding what they're saying whereas Verizon is crystal clear.

 

Even though I use Verizon and many people will say I am a Verizon advocate, I have to say that one cannot make a statement like this. For myself, for example, Cingular didn't work out because of voice quality issues, but for many other people in other areas it's working out just fine. There are areas where Verizon's network is bad too.

 

I used to say Sprint's network in my area was horrible (due to my problems last year), but they have definitely gotten their act together in my area. Verizon is still great. Cingular on the other hand isn't that good (my area is like Andy's with voice quality issues).

Then again, I have been in areas where Cingular is better (when I used to have them), so again it all comes down to the area that you are in.