Galaxy S5 call quality / loudness? Awful or okay?

I might make a move for the Galaxy S5 when the GPE is out, but I have a query to the current users, how is the call quality on the S5? I have read GSMA's review and they mentioned that it's 4 dB lower than on the S4, 4 dB is a lot, but is the earpiece volume that low? On a noisy street do you guys able to hear the caller? Or you have move to a quieter place to be able to hear? And what about speakerphone, I have read that when you enable speakerphone the sound become muddled, and both party can't make out each other!

This query is specifically for people who have to deal with plethora of crowds on street, where it's noisy almost always, not particularly for people who talks under a calm and silent environment.

I am Moto X user at the moment and call quality is brilliant on this one, and I am not expecting the same from S5, but it hurts to see that it's actually been downgraded from S4!

Thanks in advance.

I value hearing a lot, in fact more than anything, that's why I have never listened to music above 50/60% of total volume while all others keep cranking the volume up. That's completely irrelevant for earpiece volume though, however loud the earpiece goes I don't think there is any possible way to damage your hearings from a person's voice!! Maybe if a cat starts to sing on the other end you might have problem, but it's impossible with normal human beings! Having a loud earpiece is always good. What you said is applicable for music listening via IEM. Motorola's earpiece volume is brilliant, that's why I mentioned it as brilliant.

Anyway, thanks for the input. Nice to know that you don't find the S5 inferior to S4, and that there are some mods as well. However I think those mods will distort the earpiece sound to some extent, still they are available, and that's a good news.

Speakerphone is a thing I have never used for ringtone or listening to music, it's only for phone calls and that was the point of my query. I hate those persons who use the speakerphone on streets too. Pocketnow's review mentioned that on noisy streets you won't be able to hear the caller if you turn the speakerphone on, and the caller won't be able to hear you as well, and that scared me, still kinda does.

Seems like I might not have any serious problems regarding phone calls if I get the S5.

fffft said:

4 db is not a lot. 3 db is the smallest change that most people can detect. For comparison, if you were to stand 4 feet away from a person that you are talking to instead of 2 feet, that would probably be a 6 db difference. It's not a linear scale and you need a ten fold reduction in power to perceive a 50% decrease in volume (10 db).

The earpiece volume on the S5 is not at all low by any reasonable standard. And even if you disageed, there are readily available mods to increase the volume. Motorola is known for ear splitting volume levels, something difficult to characterize as "brilliant" if you value your hearing at all. Excessive loudness is known to cause permanent hearing damage.

I've used the S4 and S5 and don't find the S5 inferior in any sense. Noisy streets are a challenge with any phone and a better solution is to use a noise isolating and canceling headset. Speaker phones - all speaker phones for time immemorial have been notably bad experiences. No different here.

In short, the voice quality and loudness are good, the external speaker tinny and it remains a mystery why some brilliant folk insist on annoying everyone around them by using the speaker phone mode while walking down the sidewalk.

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raducanmihai said:

I find the in call volume and quality on S5 to be excellent. I come from a Sony Z2 (exchanged for S5 with someone) and first thing I noticed when I bought the Z2 was the awful call quality and very low volume (during a call). I was used with my old S2 which was crystal clear and I was disappointed with Z2.

PS: S5 has a boost volume mode during a call.

Sent from my Galaxy S5 using Tapatalk.

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Thanks for a constructive and succinct response and for staying on the point, appreciate it.