vB Easy Archive - AMR-HR call quality poll

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AMR-HR call quality poll
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Posted by: zephxiii

It seems that some handsets might handle ATT's network better than others, I decided to make this thread to find out wich ones those are. For instance, I was doing some testing between my Nokia 6030 and my V3XX, I found that the V3XX would drop out a lot, while the 6030 didnt' drop out at all, both are cingular branded. I'm also curious to how unbranded phones handle the network. This could be useful for recommending phones to people who are experiencing problems on AT&T's network.

This is obviously for when the phones are on a 2(.5)g network with HR enabled. "Disable HR?" is just a question of whether we can disable the HR codec or not on that particular phone.
I'll start with:

Phone: Moto RAZR V3XX
Branding: Cingular
Region: NE Indiana
Disable HR?: can be disabled via seem edit
SIM: Cingular 3G
Quality: Noticeable dropouts and garble at stock configuration, excellent sound quality with no garble or dropouts with HR disabled and FR enabled.

Phone: Nokia 6030
Branding: cingular
Region: NE Indiana
Disable HR?: no, not that i know of
SIM: Cingular 3G
Quality: Amazingly in all the time i've used this phone, i've never had a problem with dropouts or garble like i had with my V3XX, sometimes however i can hear small artifacts, but they aren't really a problem.

I'd have to say its fairly obvious that the V3XX suffers pretty badly, however its fixable, which basically saves the phone lol. I also tested the V3XX on centennial wireless's network on the 850 band and got the same results. I'm curious to see how others perform, or what regions don't have the problem.

Couple papers I found on AMR GSM and UMTS capacity:

http://www.rysavy.com/Articles/GSM_...acity_71802.pdf
http://www.3gamericas.org/PDFs/Webcast/PeterRysavy.pdf

Posted by: happyfrappy

This is a good idea for a thread, hopefully it gets stickied

Phones my parents use(in the order of their time with Cingular) and mine:

LG C1300 (dad's)
Branding: Cingular
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Original Cingular 3G
Quality: Very clear, doesn't suffer in overloaded areas with AMR-HR.(odd for an old entry level phone)

Motorola V557 (dad's)
Branding: Cingular
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: Yes
SIM: Original Cingular 3G
Quality: Very clear but does suffer in a few areas known for overloading.

Samsung C417 (dad's)
Branding: Cingular
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Original Cingular 3G
Quality: Awful call quality, next to useless at peak hours due to static/garble, dropped/missed calls are insanely high. (oddly it does perform quite well on T-Mobile... hmm)

Motorola L6 (dad's)
Branding: Nonbranded
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: Yes
SIM: Original Cingular 3G
Quality: Very clear, suffers a bit in overloaded areas but handles far better than the V557.

Motorola SLVR L7 (mum's)
Branding: Cingular
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Original Cingular 3G
Quality: AMR-HR is very very noticable in Quincy, static/garble and volume shifts quite a bit mid call too. Her W600 was better but it wasn't worth it for her to suffer a 5th phone. I plan on disabling HR and test it myself.

Sony Ericsson W810 (mum's)
Branding: Branded
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Original Cingular 3G
Quality: AMR-HR isn't too noticable but Quincy seems very famous for static and volume shifting mid-call.

Nokia 6126 (dad's)
Branding: at&t
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: N/A
SIM: Original Cingular 3G
Quality: Very clear, no dropped calls.

Nokia 6102i
Branding: Cingular
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Cingular 3G
Quality: Very clear but I had suffered abnormally high number of missed/dropped calls during peak hours.

Nokia 6010
Branding: TMO
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: Yes
SIM: Cingular 3G
Quality: Very clear and solid performer. A bit better than the 6030 in terms of reception to call quality

Nokia 6030 (I don't own this anymore, gave it to an ex)
Branding: Cingular
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Cingular 3G
Quality: Very clear and solid performer. Heaps better than the 6102i in overloaded areas at peak hours. Never dropped calls.

Motorola RAZR V3i (I returned this when I was still within my 30 days and dropped Cingular, it was my breaking point of poor call quality)
Branding: Cingular
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: Yes & No
SIM: Cingular 3G
Quality: It didn't matter much, call quality was ok at best and slightly better than the SLVR with reception to call quality. HR was very noticable at 2-3 bars of reception as the call volume wouldn't be stable, very bad compared to Nokias but at least I didn't drop/miss as many calls like the 6102i

Sony Ericsson J220a
Branding: Cingular
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Cingular 3G
Quality: Very clear and no dropped calls

Cingular 8125:
Branding: Debranded
Region: New England, Boston MA
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Cingular 3G
Quality: Very clear, no dropped calls or garble. Surprisingly on par with SE.

Future tests: SLVR with HR disabled, Nokia 5300(I'm waiting for my subsidy unlock code from TMO)

Posted by: zephxiii

Surprised no one else has bothered to contribute

Posted by: Mr. Bond

What about the BlackBerry Pearl?

Posted by: zephxiii

Phone: Nokia E62
Branding: Cingular
Region: NE Indiana
Disable HR?: nope
SIM: Cingular 3G
3G?: No
Quality: Stellar quality, handles AMR-HR very well. Also tested in the D.C. area.

Phone: HTC 8125
Branding: Cingular
Region: NE Indiana
Disable HR?: nope
SIM: Cingular 3G
3G: No
Quality: Excellent, handles AMR-HR very well. I am very impressed with this phones capability, excellent job HTC! Also tested in the D.C. area.

Posted by: bobolito

Phone: Nokia 6131
Branding: None
Region: North NJ
Disable HR?: nope
SIM: Cingular 3G
3G?: No
Quality: Stellar quality, handles AMR-HR very well. No dropouts. Can't tell the difference between HR and FR.

Phone: Motorola V600
Branding: Former AT&T Wireless
Region: North NJ
Disable HR?: Possible
SIM: Cingular 3G
3G?: No
Quality: Drops out during high network load times. A bit muddy when on HR. Excellent when on FR.

Phone: Motorola RAZR V3
Branding: Cingular
Region: North NJ
Disable HR?: Possible
SIM: Cingular 3G
3G?: No
Quality: Great quality but does drop outs not too often.

Posted by: bobolito

Anyone with a RAZR2 V9 want to contribute?

Posted by: zephxiii

I'm also curious about the V9, and V8 in GSM mode.

Phone: Nokia 2610
Branding: AT&T
Region: NE Indiana
Disable HR?: Nope
SIM: AT&T 3G
3G?: No
Quality: Great sound quality, with some defects that creep in here and there with weak signal, overall pretty good for the most part.

Posted by: shoman94

Phone: Moto V9
Branding: AT&T
Region: New England
Disable HR?: Yes... Seem Edit
SIM: AT&T 3G
3G?: No mostly
Quality: With AMR-HR enable....its the best moto I've had but it still cuts in and out... Missing Syllable Syndrome(MSS)
HR disabled... handles the network very well... best I've used in call quality.

Reply With Quote

Posted by: zephxiii

Just wanted to add to my V3XX experience, I had HR re-enabled from some testing i was doing, at work i spent about 30 minutes on the phone with tech support. It was running in HR mode, the quality was not very good, kinda muddy sounding, and dropouts.

Before I made another call back to the same tech support (who happened to be ATT landline/DSL btw), i re-disabled HR again, and man the quality was stellar!

My nokia(s) and HTC sound just about as good though on HR, damnit motorola!

Posted by: cmatthews

Since it's not listed yet.

Phone: Moto Z9
Branding: AT&T
Region: NE Texas, SW Arkansas
Disable HR?: Yes... Seem Edit
SIM: AT&T 3G
3G?: Not in my area yet, so no for now
Quality: With AMR-HR enable...sounds good, but still miss a few syllables at times.
HR disabled... Extremely clear and seems to handle network very well.

Posted by: zephxiii

I had been thinking about my review of this phone for a week or so.

Phone: Cingular 2125 (HTC faraday, which is basically a Tornado - the wifi chips)
Branding: Cingular, now debranded with Imate firmware
Region: NE Indiana
Disable HR?: Nope
SIM: Cingy 3G
3G?: No
Quality: Well, when i first got this phone, it had the cingy firmware. I could tell immediately on the first call that this phone wasn't gonna be as good as my nokias at HR, and it isn't. Noticeable degradation of sound quality when signal gets weak. However, dropouts weren't really a problem, and for the most part, you could make out what the other party was saying. The main traits were sort of muddy/low quality and slightly muffled.

After i debranded it, it seemed to have been a little better, probably from a radio upgrade. However you can still tell you are on HR via the not so great sound quality at times. I would classify this phone as better at HR than the V3xx though.

Posted by: REAL

why deoesnt *4720# or *3370# work?

Posted by: zephxiii

what are those supposed to do?

Posted by: REAL

enable and disable EFR and HFR on older handsets

Posted by: locust43

Phone: LG CU400
Branding: Cingular
Region: Central Alabama (Birmingham Metro)
Disable HR?: Disabled AMR and using EFR
SIM: AT&T 3G
Quality: Noticeable dropouts and garble at stock configuration, great quality at high signal conditions. Garbled at low signal. Worse with AMR. Network would run AMR-HR at 4.75kbits full time.

Posted by: formercanuck

Phone: Motorola V505
Branding: Former AT&T Wireless
Region: Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley / Santa Clarita Valley
Disable HR?: Yes
SIM: AT&T Wireless / Cingular 3G / AT&T Mobility
3G?: No
Quality: Excellent on AMR-Full rate. Calls tend to hand off to GSM 1900 when HR (AMR-HR) is disabled

Phone: Motorola V3
Branding: Cingular
Region: Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley / Santa Clarita Valley
Disable HR?: Yes
SIM: Cingular 3G
3G?: No
Quality: Excellent on AMR-Full rate. Calls tend to hand off to GSM 1900 when HR (AMR-HR) is disabled

Phone: Motorola Timeport P7382i
Branding: Former AT&T Wireless
Region: Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley / Santa Clarita Valley
Disable HR?: N/A - Phone is EFR only
SIM: AT&T Wireless
3G?: No
Quality: Best audio quality I've ever had from any cell phone

Phone: Nokia 6010
Branding: Unbranded / Former AT&T Wireless
Region: Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley / Santa Clarita Valley
Disable HR?: Yes
SIM: AT&T Wireless / Cingular 3G / AT&T Mobility
3G?: No
Quality: Quality is always good, audio is 'tinny' - not something to use for long calls

Phone: Siemens S46
Branding: Former AT&T Wireless
Region: Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley / Santa Clarita Valley
Disable HR?: No - EFR only
SIM: AT&T Wireless
3G?: No
Quality: Excellent - GSM 1900 only

Phone: NEC 525
Branding: Former AT&T Wireless
Region: Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley / Santa Clarita Valley
Disable HR?: No
SIM: AT&T Wireless
3G?: No
Quality: Horrible with AMR-half rate... worked well on T-Mobile 1900

Phone: Samsung ZX-20
Branding: Cingular
Region: Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley / Santa Clarita Valley
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Cingular 3G / AT&T Mobility
3G?: Yes
Quality: Great on 3G, decent on GSM (some garble). 3G to GSM handoffs fail.

Phone: Motorola V3xx
Branding: AT&T Mobility
Region: Los Angeles / San Fernando Valley / Santa Clarita Valley
Disable HR?: Yes
SIM: AT&T Mobility
3G?: Yes
Quality: Excellent on AMR-Full rate and 3G. Calls tend to hand off to GSM 1900 when HR (AMR-HR) is disabled

Posted by: zephxiii

AHHH, the radio conditions are worse now due to all the foliage, so it kinda makes comparing difficult because i'm not used to it.

Phone: HTC 8525
Branding: Cingy Shell, Latest AT&T branded WM6 firmware
Region: NE Indiana
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Cingular 3G
3G Capable?: Yes
Quality: I think overall, the quality on HR is just great, with generally good signal. When radio conditions are at their worst, you start to hear some artifacts and garble here and there, and 1 or 2 dropouts, but i think i may have been pushing the limits of reception. It doesn't perform as well as the Nokia E62, and 6030 (which are stellar) in the same conditions. Running at 4.75, it does sound a little degraded, but manageable, 5.90 sounds just great though. Overall, i would rank this below my 8125, which i regard as pretty good, but not as good as the nokias.

Posted by: Chaos Inc.

Yep. The Nokia quality is much better than any other smartphones really.

Posted by: zephxiii

Phone: Nokia 6126
Branding: AT&T
Region: NE Indiana
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Cingular 3G
3G Capable?: No
Quality: Ahh, For the most part the integrity of the audio is solid, however it seems like there is a small dropout or garble in set intervals which is sometimes annoying. It also starts to get crappy with super weak signal. This is not as bad as the 2125 or v3xx by far, but not as good as the 8525, which i regard as better. The weakest of the Nokias I have experienced.

On another note: this phone seemed to want to noticeably cut out the incoming audio when there was random noise, or when i spoke, was a bit annoying.

Also the reception is not the greatest, i've dropped a couple of calls with it, and gotten a couple of network busies.

Posted by: zephxiii

Phone: Motorola C168i
Branding: AT&T
Region: NE Indiana
Disable HR?: No
SIM: Cingular 3G
3G Capable?: No
Quality: Actually the sound of the call is really good on HR, real solid and clear. However any artifacts (like from handoffs) are very noticeable compared to other phones. On other phones they tend to be quieter, on this on they tend to be louder. Overall not bad though, way better than the v3xx.

Note: I think the antenna is in the chin, so try not to hold the phone there (reallyh kills reception).

Posted by: DRC72

Phone: Nokia N75 (Symbian OS)
Branding: AT&T
Region: Greater Hartford, CT
Disable HR?: No
SIM: AT&T 3G
3G Capable?: Yes(no HSDPA)
Quality: Overall call quality on the AMR-HR codec is not bad, but when the network gets to congested it will tend to garble. 3G and Full-Rate GSM almost sound identical and the sound quality is excellent, with a little more hiss on the GSM side. Reception is stellar on this phone, and it handles very well in low signal areas. Unfortunately using Media Net on this phone can be a chore. My old LG CU500 was much more user friendly when it came to Media Net browsing. There a few other quirky things about the phone that are annoying, but tolerable. Sometimes it will re-boot on it's own, and few other weird things.