Call quality - Google Pixel 3 Real Life Review

When you call granny, does she keep saying "Huh?! Wut?!" or does the conversation flow pretty well? Rate this thread to express how you feel about the Google Pixel 3's call quality. A higher rating indicates that calls are clear and crisp, and that regardless of background noise, you can hear the other party clearly (and with ample volume) and they can hear you.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

Well, it is a nightmare for me.
I have sudden disconnections all the time. People often do not hear me, etc. I have two Pixel 3s — my wife's and mine. Same problem.
I guess it could be connected with memory management issues. Maybe process responsible for radiomodule is being killed.

I'm kind of in the opposite situation. However, for me, I believe wi-fi calling is why I'm experiencing better than usual call quality. Prior to the Pixel 3s (myself and my wife) we never had wifi calling and our house is on the edge of cell coverage in our area. This resulted in poor quality calls. Now with wi-fi calling, our calls are crystal clear with no drops. In general while not using wi-fi calling around town I don't notice any issues.

I have the Pixel 3 and I can confirm that people frequently cant hear me when I call them from home (never had any issues here) and calls disconnect out of nowhere several times in a row. The situation is the worst when calling people with the charger connected. I love this phone for everything but the appalling phone call situation!

Hello Guys,
I have the pixel 3 and i have no issues at all. I have really good phone call quality- even better than my old Samsung Galaxy S7- can't complane about it.

For me the call quality on network has been great. No disconnections. Crystal clear earpiece sound. Much better than pixel 2. I have not tried calls in weak cellular areas.
Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

I average less than 5 phone calls a month. I own the Pixel 3 for 3 weeks. I already have 2 phone calls made within my house that I intermittently cannot hear the other side. I owned from Nexus 4, 5 6P, Pixel, Pixel 2. Never had this problem from the same house once. You can tell I'm a big fan but might be forced to switch. This phone does almost everything better than the Pixel 2 except for slow charging speed and dropped calls, very basic requirements. Disappointed. Yes, my house has weak cell signal.
UPDATED: PROBLEM SOLVED. Worked with Google tech. Eventually by clearing cache of Google app fixed it. Thanks.
UPDATED AGAIN: Problem came back after half a day. Rebooted OK for now. RMA.
UPDATED: Replacement seems OK, so far.

It isn't call quality, it is quality of the call. I LOVE the call screening feature. I used to send all unknown calls to voicemail. That would be a dozen a day. I would then have to listen to them and delete 11 of the 12 and return the 12th. So far, no spambot has left me a message on the screener. Nice process improvement.

eivissa said:
I have the Pixel 3 and I can confirm that people frequently cant hear me when I call them from home (never had any issues here) and calls disconnect out of nowhere several times in a row. The situation is the worst when calling people with the charger connected. I love this phone for everything but the appalling phone call situation!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both my Pixel 3 and my girlfriends is having the same issue - very annoying.
---------- Post added at 09:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 PM ----------
Fduch1984 said:
Well, it is a nightmare for me.
I have sudden disconnections all the time. People often do not hear me, etc. I have two Pixel 3s — my wife's and mine. Same problem.
I guess it could be connected with memory management issues. Maybe process responsible for radiomodule is being killed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you found any fix for this? My girlfriend and I are in the same boat... horrible reception with plenty of disconnects.
Do you have Wifi Calling enabled? Did that help?
Eddie

My sister has Google Pixel 3 and she hasn`t experienced any trouble considering call quality, however, she`s used it only for 4 months, we`ll see what the future has in store for this phone...

I have no issues with the call quality, but do have issues with Google putting a beeping tone every 15 seconds when I record calls, hope someone finds a solution quickly.

I turned off VoLTE. I HAVE AT&T, wife has Verizon. All sorts of issues, seem to have gone away disabling the HD Calling, kind of a bummer, but I'd rather the calls actually work.

Call quality on this phone is the worst! It's constantly going dead, other person can't hear me, weird static type noises or dropped calls.
I never had this kind of issue with my S8.
Is there anything I can do? My provider doesn't have wifi calling yet. I don't think it's a hardware problem because 2 of my friends have the same issues and when I'm out in the open it seems to work fine.
Can the radio's be changed on the phone? I know on some phones you could.
Thanks

Call Quality constantly dropping
I have the same issues as people are describing. It is absolutely impossible to use the phone as a phone in any professional manner. Even my family and friends get annoyed, so imagine having to deal with business partners or customers. Sigh. Its been a nightmare for my self so far, and the support for this issue isn't very good either.
Call Quality, not a dot over a 1 star worth.
In every other manner though, the unit is the very top dog in class! #1. But it is suppose to be a phone primarily. Reminds me more of the iPod Touch than a phone the way it works now.

Ordered a Pixel 3 and a Pixel 3XL for black Friday sale (One for me and one for my wife). Both of them had issues with the other person not able to hear us. At first we thought it might be bad microphones, but it worked find on Skype and VOIP.
The P3 had it worse, so I RMAed it. The replacement had the same problem. I'm now in the process of RMAing both (the P3 for a second time, the P3XL for the first time). Google support has been a nightmare to deal with. Lots of broken promises and outright lies. One rep will say the exact opposite of what the other rep promises. It's an absolute gong show. I've spent the accumulative total of 17 hours on the phone with them. Constantly on hold and getting transferred. It usually ends the same way: I get promised a callback "within the hour" that never comes.
What is most troublesome, is that this issue has persisted for so many months, and Google has yet to respond officially. Some media outlets have started to report on it. There are multiple threads on the official support forums, with large numbers of people all complaining about the same issue: They can hear the other person just fine, but the other person can't hear them. Sometimes the other people will say they can hear us, but we sound like robots or like we are under water. Is it noise cancelling? Bad radio? Bad chipset? Software? Hardware? Bad QA?
Who the hell knows? Google apparently doesn't. If they do, they aren't commenting on it.
Both phones are sitting on a shelf right now. They are unusable as phones. Since Google is refusing refunds, refuses to comment or even acknowledge the issue, and RMA's are producing the same results, it looks like I'll be out of pocket to purchase phones that actually work.
---------- Post added at 09:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:53 PM ----------
Zero stars not possible? This phone is unusable. RMA replacements produce the same issue. We can hear the person we are talking to, but they cannot hear us.

jon2jay said:
Are you using HD calling/Wifi Calling and also are you using Speaker? I had an issue on Wifi calling so I disabled, first problem resolved. 2nd, I then had an issue when i called someone using speak phone, same problem, however if i turned off speaker, than put it back it worked.
Fast forward, unlocked bootloader, installed custom kernel, with a fresh phone, enabled wifi calling -- works fine. Installed January update -- speaker seems to be working without problem as well.
The Jan update appears to fixed video recording quality, I wonder if they added back some frequencies into the mic's.
Still running tests. Will keep updated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What kernel are you running? I've just been spamming their customer service for a refund. They keep wanting to give me an RMA, but from what I can see, it's not a device specific issue. I just want my money back so I can be done with this Google experience. I thought about just disputing the charge on my credit card, but they probably wouldn't help me either. Google just needs to offer refunds to whomever wants them at this point.

I've been wrestling with call quality issues for the past while too. Like others have described, I would often experience the following problems:
Person on the other end says they hear a lot of static or does not hear me at all while I can clearly hear them.
Constantly getting my calls dropped for no reason
Both Google and Carrier have not provided any meaningful help. Often pointing fingers at each other, Google blaming carrier, Carrier blaming device.
Neither have expressed any genuine interest in troubleshooting the issue when I have been trying to provide very methodical test results for them.
For the time being, I am remedying the issue by keeping the Pixel 3 in 3G mode where all the problems no longer occur.
What I currently understanding is:
When I have a weak LTE signal on the Pixel 3. The call quality begins to suffer as described. (e.g. When I am at home in my highrise concrete apartment.)
When I switch the Pixel 3 to 3G mode. Network signal becomes good and I no longer have call quality issues.
The Pixel 3 is the only phone I own where the call quality behaves like this.
My Nexus 5X and Moto G3 both do not exhibit this problem in the SAME weak LTE signal environment.

Pathetic call quality is what I have experienced!
Using the same network, the guy sitting next to me gets a far better reception on his 10k MI compared to my Pixel 3... Far too gaucherie

Please post here and make sure you star it at the top so we can get the priority raised for this issue.
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/124412355

Here is another report of the calling issue:
xmaciek82x said:
Hey everyone, I love my Pixel 3 except when it comes to the main thing a phone does, make calls!
The call quality is terrible. I know it's an issue many of us face from day 1, I need to constantly hangup and call people back. Now that I work from home and have call meetings non-stop, it is very apparent how bad the calls are. It is not a carrier issue, I have 4 other people on my plan and they are fine (no PIXEL users). This also happens when I'm using VOIP programs like Slack, Jabber, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Related

Issues With Voice Calls - No One Can Hear Me Properly

This issue has more than likely been present since day one of ownership of my N4. I've called numerous people and almost all of them have complained about the poor quality on their end of the phone call. I didn't think much of it but now I'm beginning to worry about it. I can hear the callers perfectly but they struggle to hear me. I am completely stock 4.2.2 unrooted.
Things I'll do to confirm if it's an issue with my phone or not:
1. Test it with a colleague in close proximity (mobile to mobile)
2. Test with a colleague in long proximity (mobile to mobile)
3. Test mobile to landline
4. Test SIM in another N4
5. Test another SIM in my N4
Are you using a headset? I have similar issue, but only with a headset.
I have the same problem. Some people say that they can hear me fine while others consistently complain that im not coming through clearly although I can always here them just fine on my end. I noticed this occuring ever since I upgraded to 4.2.2 and worse yet I cant get any sound from my earpiece now... although some here on xda have said its because im using the old radio build .27 as opposed to the non LTE .48 which i have been reluctant to use because... well its non LTE
Same here
Speaker is pretty much unuseable during a call. I can't hear the other party. This seems to be the result of the upgrade to 4.2.2. Help?
Its normal And ir happens con every android s.o versión
Enviado desde mi Nexus 4 usando Tapatalk 2
I'm not using a headset.
I've tried mobile to mobile using 2 different phones including an iPhone and mobile to land line with exactly the same issue as I originally reported.
I can hear them fine on the N4 but they struggle to hear me as my voice sounds jittery and breaks up constantly. I've listened to calls (made using my N4) on other devices and the same result applies.
Going to RMA it now with Google as I expect it to work perfectly out of the box without having to fiddle around with rooting and changing the radio version.
All the small problems I've had (wireless radio doesn't properly work when using channel 13 on the router), I feel like I should have stuck to iPhones!!!
Phone RMA'd. Second replacement on it's way (first one was replaced due to a WiFi connection issue).
I had same problem with 1st device but fine on my rma although i still think it would be nice to give option in call to turn off the noise cancellation
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
My home is in an area with weak signal and I often have the experience that I can hear people clearly, but they tell me I'm breaking up. Oddly, it seems like this problem is worse on Edge/2G than with UMTS/3G, even though the signal with 2G is stronger. It's very annoying.
I also tend to talk quietly and I know that in noisy places, the noise cancellation will tend to cut off the end of sentences and not quite kick in fast enough at the beginning of sentences. I read some comments about this in reviews, before I got the phone, and it does seem to be true.
The call quality and reception is definitely more spotty than my Nexus One was in the same locations. On the Nexus One, at home in my weak signal area, if I locked it to 3G, even though it often showed almost no signal, it did not drop calls and call quality was fine.
The Nexus 4 easily loses the connection to the tower in the same locations and has poorer quality when it is connected with a weak signal. On top of that, the Nexus 4 clearly has a severe "don't hold it that way" problem. All phones experience RF attentuation if you hold the phone at the bottom, where the main antenna is usually located. But it is much worse on my Nexus 4 than the Nexus one. It's very easy to pick up the phone, in a weak signal area, and have it instantly lose all connection to the tower. The Nexus One lost some signal in the exact same locations, but stayed connected.
So it seems like a combination of reception and noise cancellation issues (at least in my case) contribute to call quality problems. I was a little worried about what the hardware quality would be like for an LG phone and am disappointed that the Nexus 4 is defintely a step down from the Nexus One. I'm feeling the Nexus 5, Motorola X Phone, or HTC One, may be on my horizon. Call quality is still important to me. This is my only phone. Motorola has a long history of good call quality, even before the smartphone era and I think HTC has better hardware too. Don't know who will make the Nexus 5.

Pre-purchase jitters from the call quality issue

I am (was?) all set to buy a 6P, so doing some research on them. And I've run across the multiple threads on different forums with 100's of user complaining about call quality. But it's hard to tell if it's only affecting a few unlucky souls or if it is pretty much everyone. I like the idea of this phone since I'm a programmer and want to be able to use a rootable phone with any carrier I choose, but it has to do the basic things a smartPHONE should do, too. I'm coming from an S5 which has great call quality, and do not want to downgrade in that area at all.
So any user feedback would be welcome.
TIA
For what it's worth, in Perth Australia with Vodafone I find the call quality no better or worse that any of my previous phones (see my signature for that list).
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
My 6P has fine call quality on both ends of the conversation. I've asked those on the other end of the line how the sound was and have consistently been told it's very good.
if your talking about the noise cancellation issue, you can easily fix it with a simple build.prop edit
What "quality issue"? There is none, most issues are network related, hell mine sounds just fine using the car Bluetooth while doing 70 on the highway
Yeah no problems with call quality on any of mine or my friends and families 6p
No issues with my call quality....
Mines running perfect out the box ... Verizon here .. Made several calls no issues yet
You should be more worried about the screen issues than the call quality of this phone.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
ncsuwolfs said:
if your talking about the noise cancellation issue, you can easily fix it with a simple build.prop edit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the noise cancellation issue. I'd read about that tweak, but pretty much no feedback about if that was a true fix or not.
z0phi3l said:
What "quality issue"? There is none, most issues are network related, hell mine sounds just fine using the car Bluetooth while doing 70 on the highway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it seems to work fine on Bluetooth. It's when it's using normal mic that it has issues.
mkouk said:
You should be more worried about the screen issues than the call quality of this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What screen issue? I guess I got caught up reading 500 or 600 posts about the call issue, and didn't see anything about the screen. I'll have to do some more looking.
On Verizon here.. My fiance said that I sounded a bit odd when I first started using the 6P (Call sounded normal from my end). I discovered that the HD calling option was turned on. I tried it with the HD calling off, and she said I immediately sounded "normal" again. Funny because I bet it actually sounded better in HD mode, and she probably just wasn't used to the clarity.
The only sound quality issues I have experienced are with the noise cancellation mic on the back of the phone. I have a Tetded flip case and if I call with it opened up on that mic people say I sound muffled. If I uncover it I can be in a very noisy room and all people can hear is me even though I can bearly hear them because of the volume of the background noise.

Voice Call Problems - Others can't hear what i say

Hi,
My Nexus 6P initially had that voice cancellation bug that everyone had. But the 6.0.1 update seemed to have fixed it. Other's stopped complaining.
But off late the problem has started again, others can't hear what I say... the voice is clear but it's too low.
I called my N6P from an iPhone 4s and the made my friend speak into the phone. And yes, the voice was very low. He had to speak really loudly in order to be clearly audible. I called the iPhone from an HTC and the voice quality was perfect.
Doesn't seem to be a network problem either, as when I plug in the headphones, they hear me loud and clear.
But when I'm on loudspeaker or earpiece, they can't hear me.
Is any one else having the same problem?
And my 30 day return period has also expired. I don't know what to do. How do I get it fixed/replaced? I'm from India, so bought online from Flipkart as Google store started selling it only last week.
Coupling it with the Gmail issue... having a terrible time with the phone (having moved from HTC One X, which had the best call quality among all the phone's I've ever used).

Voice Call Problems - Others can't hear what i say

Hi,
My Nexus 6P initially had that voice cancellation bug that everyone had. But the 6.0.1 update seemed to have fixed it. Other's stopped complaining.
But off late the problem has started again, others can't hear what I say... the voice is clear but it's too low.
I called my N6P from an iPhone 4s and the made my friend speak into the phone. And yes, the voice was very low. He had to speak really loudly in order to be clearly audible. I called the iPhone from an HTC and the voice quality was perfect.
Doesn't seem to be a network problem either, as when I plug in the headphones, they hear me loud and clear.
But when I'm on loudspeaker or earpiece, they can't hear me.
Is any one else having the same problem?
And my 30 day return period has also expired. I don't know what to do. How do I get it fixed/replaced? I'm from India, so bought online from Flipkart as Google store started selling it only last week.
Coupling it with the Gmail issue... having a terrible time with the phone (having moved from HTC One X, which had the best call quality among all the phone's I've ever used).
dhruvkapoor7 said:
Hi,
My Nexus 6P initially had that voice cancellation bug that everyone had. But the 6.0.1 update seemed to have fixed it. Other's stopped complaining.
But off late the problem has started again, others can't hear what I say... the voice is clear but it's too low.
I called my N6P from an iPhone 4s and the made my friend speak into the phone. And yes, the voice was very low. He had to speak really loudly in order to be clearly audible. I called the iPhone from an HTC and the voice quality was perfect.
Doesn't seem to be a network problem either, as when I plug in the headphones, they hear me loud and clear.
But when I'm on loudspeaker or earpiece, they can't hear me.
Is any one else having the same problem?
And my 30 day return period has also expired. I don't know what to do. How do I get it fixed/replaced? I'm from India, so bought online from Flipkart as Google store started selling it only last week.
Coupling it with the Gmail issue... having a terrible time with the phone (having moved from HTC One X, which had the best call quality among all the phone's I've ever used).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are not alone. I have replaced my phone and still have bad sound quality on phone and BT on 6.0.1

Microphone issues?

Well I have had my N6P since release and over the past few months there has been a few times where the recipient on the other end if the phone call mentions that they can't hear me all that well. I brushed it off and blamed cell reception because of the few times it was noted. But now over the last couple weeks it seems to have gotten worse and now is reoccurring every phone call. It seems to be more when I go hands free with the phone cocked on my shoulder but even when I am holding the phone directly to my mouth I have to speak ungodly loud just so the person on the other end hears me. I have used multiple ROMs and seems to be an issue regardless of what ROM I'm using, brining me to the conclusion its something funky going on with the internal mic.
I just wanted to know if anyone else is experiencing and issue like this and what thoughts you may have had in fixing this problem. I'm to the point now where my only option would be to contact google about the protection plan. If this is something that all N6P users are experiencing I'd like to know.
Thanks
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/help/nexus-6p-microphone-t3238695
fatasian said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/help/nexus-6p-microphone-t3238695
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much sir. Much appreciated.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
It seems I have this issue as well. But not as persistent as the others' issues. My issue is more on apps and the functionalities of the mic.
Skype would randomly drop audio after around 10+ minutes. My girlfriend would always complain that she can't hear me but could before. We work around that by just dropping the call and calling back.
On viber, the video calling would be ok, but voice messages that I send are almost inaudible. I have to really shout for it to be barely decipherable. voice messages on FB messenger and Wechat don't seem to have that issue..
Calls are relatively ok according to her. But on speakerphone sometimes there is static/hissing. We work around that by turning off speakerphone and then turning back on.
Shame that I may have to return it, all the other features of the phone seem pretty ok. I don't have the tint issues that others are talking about.

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