Sound recording quality is dramatically better in some apps such as the fossicy voice recorder than in some other Apps, e.g. phone calling. This implies the bad sound quality is not due to bad hardware, but rather that there is a software-side issue to be improved.
Would it be possible to change the way the system handles voice recording? Be it through some functionality or some hacking. What can I do to change the default way of processing microphone recordings? I don’t know whether this would be a feature request, or a bug report.
I am also having similar issues with the sound quality in phone calls with my Fairphone 6 with 3.3 update.
I sometimes have low quality audio, sound interferences and sometimes the call disconnects. Before the 3.3 update, this happened usually while I was driving and talking and I thought this could be related with the change of cell phone towers. But now after the 3.3 it happens much more often and even when I’m home with full network coverage.
If I enable 4G calling, the quality does improve, but then all numbers that call me are shown as unknown numbers, and that’s not an option for me.
It’s becoming a real problem for me, with many people complaining. With some contacts, I’ve resorted to using Signal because the connection is much more reliable and with good sound.
Are more people having these sound issues? Does anyone have any recommendations?
It appears to me that you are describing two different issues here:
a) Low sound quality during calls (also in apps calls, e.g. WhatsApp, Signal?)
b) Connection problems and breaks when calling.
I have also experienced call quality problems when the phone switched between 4G and 5G. These were in rather rural areas, and I cannot say whether this is due to the phone hardware (FP6), the network itself, or e.OS.
Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. The low sound quality, interferences and disconnects only happen when I’m using the cellular network calls (GSM, LTE, 4G, 5G).
If i use Signal (using the Internet through Wifi or my data plan) the phone calls work fine.
So it’s only one problem: the phone calls through the cellular network.
And I’m in an urban area with full network coverage.
I have an update to this topic. After having used my phone for a few weeks, I asked several people about how well they can understand me, both on Signal calls and phone (network) calls. Even in noisy urban environments they were able to understand me “well”, much better than when eOS was a brand new install. So my issue may be gone. Still, it would be nice to be able to change microphone / recording settings, but now nice-to-have rather than a necessity.
May be there is some sort of microphone calibration going on the first times that calls happen?