Has anyone noticed call quality issues with the Lumia 1020?

[tbonecopper]

Some of you know, I bought a 1020 in black a few weeks ago. Last night was the first time I put a SIM in it. Today, was the first day I made a call. I'm not 100% sure if it's the at&t network or the phone, or maybe a bad line at the other end, but the call quality was rubbish. 3 bars, LTE and 4G (e.g. good signal all around on GSM and Data, since calls don't go over LTE yet).

It didn't sound hollow, or staticky... almost every word said to me had this extension to the enunciation. That's the best way to describe it. For example:

"We don't have that in stockKK" - and the latter to K's would have a hiss to them, like a snake from a cartoon, or how you'd imagine a reptilian alien speaking in English, lol. It's entirely possible she is an alien, after all she works in retail

I'll definitely make some more calls later to see if it could be a bad circuit at the cell site, bad circuit at the switch where the call was being routed thru in the end, or my phone. But has anyone noticed anything similar? Fortunately, I don't have any volume issues on the earpiece, which is good as my hearing is rubbish as is.

 

[tbonecopper]

Made a few more calls, and they all sound awful. Granted, it could be the switch at my particular location in the cell site, but my other phones, also here with me and on at&t, are not doing this. I've tweeted out to at&t's customer care to see what the can do. Perhaps their warranty team can send me a new device and I send this one back. Or on Monday, talk to Nokia Care.

Edit: I'm glad I didn't sell my Lumia 920 yet. Typically Nokia Care makes you send your phone in to them first, and at&t's warranty exchange can be a tedious process.

 

[shaddup]

I have the same problem. There is a weird distortion with certain sounds. It isn't so bad that I can't have a conversation, but it is bad enough that when someone uses my phone they ask "what's wrong with your phone?"

I'm not with at&t anymore, so I'm working directly with Nokia for repair.

 

[juststart]

Same issue here but I also experienced it on the 925 for tmobile.

 

[tbonecopper]

A lengthy troubleshooting with at&t who - get this - acknowledged this as an issue for the Lumia 1020 - and they overnighted a new one. We'll see if it does the same. They gave me a service credit for the trouble.

Now, Nokia Care? hah. They didn't want to hear from me, or of the issue, referring me to my carrier/point of purchase. Wow!

 

[johnnylai]

i had this issue with my Lumia 820 too. Didnt expected Lumia 1020 will face this problem too :/
was planing to upgrade to Lumia 1020

 

[Surfinbuddy]

I'm unhappy with the call quality on my NOKIA Lumia 1020. I have owned a 720 and a 920 and was super happy with both. Last week I got a 1020 and I thought that the S's sounded funny, somewhat scratchy. After experiencing it on one of my first calls, I asked the person on the other end why he was breathing funny. I found an article that described the sound as "lispy" and totally agreed that that is indeed a good way to describe it. The phone went back to the ATT store to swap out the SIM and the issue wasn't resolved. Today I got another new 1020 and the issue still isn't resolved, S's still sound lispy. We're going to take it back again tomorrow and if I can't get a replacement 1020 that sounds better I'm going to go back to the 920.

 

[Surfinbuddy]

I thought the sound quality was poor enough on the Lumia 1020 that I took it back to the ATT store, tried two 1020 phones that had the same poor call sound quality, and finally decided to go back to the 920. They only had a couple left because the 925 is replacing the 920. I also tried the 925 and it had that similar poor sound quality with harsh sounding lispy S's. I'm bummed that I don't have the big camera, but prefer better voice quality on a phone. The 920 still takes amazing photos.

 

[peteruk11]

I experience the same, I find it hard to hear what the other person is saying in comparison to my iPhone 4 before. Can this be fixed by software or is it a hardware issue?

 

[klias1983]

I'm not 100% sure if its a legitimate fix for this issue, but I found that when I turned on the telecoil option the weird call quality issues went away. Try it and see what you think. You can find the setting in ease of access settings.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

I too have been having issues with call quality/reception with my 1020...just like my 928.

It is annoying as heck

 

[rexii23]

I too have the lisp/hiss sound with some of my calls. No reception issues however

 

[Malsurveyor]

Count me in. 3rd phone delivered yesterday in yellow, hoping a color change would help!!! No dice. Sending the first 2 black ones back today. Probably send this yellow one back also. Reception is excellent, but the raspy sandpaper noise and static sound behind the voice is irritating. Sounds like someone is rustling leaves or paper. Hissing sound and end of sentences. I really like this phone and the OS so far. Bit this is a PHONE. Att might think I'm a nut if I return all 3 and choose something else.

 

[klias1983]

Count me in. 3rd phone delivered yesterday in yellow, hoping a color change would help!!! No dice. Sending the first 2 black ones back today. Probably send this yellow one back also. Reception is excellent, but the raspy sandpaper noise and static sound behind the voice is irritating. Sounds like someone is rustling leaves or paper. Hissing sound and end of sentences. I really like this phone and the OS so far. Bit this is a PHONE. Att might think I'm a nut if I return all 3 and choose something else.

Look back to the first page to what I did to possibly solve this issue. I have not had any call quality issues since doing it.

 

[tbonecopper]

I should have replied to this thread a lot sooner ; however... I forget.. happens when you get old.

Anyway, after numerous replacement 1020s, I've accepted this as a "hardware flaw that is supposed to be that way".. it's unfortunate... but it is the way it is.

 

[Nakazul]

Call quality in my 1020 is super crisp an clear. Best sound I had in a phone ever. I'm on the carrier "3" in Sweden thou.

 

[Tech friend]

@ all with call quality issues:

You may perhaps be able to improve the call quality if you act on the advice given in the 1020 User Guide, page 9:

Antenna locations
Learn where the antennas are located on your phone to get the best possible performance.
Avoid touching the antenna area while the antenna is in use. Contact with antennas affects the
communication quality and may reduce battery life due to higher power level during operation.
The antenna areas are highlighted.

Touching a modern smartphone near the antenna areas while telephoning can have its own particular problems. When Apple introduced the new iPhone 4 on the market in 2010 they got some unwanted publicity in connection with this issue, which has also become known as "antennagate".

 

[luv2skipow]

Put me in the same boat as those of you with the distorted hissing problem.
I have 2 days left to return this phone and luckily didn't sell my 920 yet.

Reminds me of my Titan issue which has kept me from HTC since.

What is the telecoil option mentioned above???

 

[mmohn01]

It's under the "ease of access" setting.

Put me in the same boat as those of you with the distorted hissing problem.
I have 2 days left to return this phone and luckily didn't sell my 920 yet.
me of my Titan issue which has kept me from HTC since.

What is the telecoil option mentioned above???

 

[alpha beta gaga]

i didn't have great call quality on my simfree yellow when i had it. kinda hissy sounding especially on words containing 's'. unfortunately it was almost as if people had lisps when they didn't! not only that but my dialler had awful static problems. returned my unit for a full refund.

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