Call quality

[XDA_RealLifeReview]

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 ZTE Axon 7'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!

 

[huntnyc]

Please let us know if calls are clear and how speakerphone sounds and thanks.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

 

[biglilsteve]

Call quality is perfectly fine. Good volume too.

Speakerphone is among the best I've ever used on a smartphone. Good volume and doesn't have that raspy, tinny characteristic that plagues many smartphones.

 

[erm1001]

On tmobile it is used volte and hd voice. Tested by calling note 5 and nexus 6p.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[huntnyc]

On tmobile it is used volte and hd voice. Tested by calling note 5 and nexus 6p.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I use TMobile also. How is your signal strength compared to other phones and thanks.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

 

[erm1001]

I use TMobile also. How is your signal strength compared to other phones and thanks.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

It is seem fine. Compared to my wife Note 5

 

[taijo]

T-Mobile user here. My previous phones all got full service at home, this one - on a brand new nano sim mind you, gets one bar and -116dBm and 24asu. Calls sound poor. Called T-Mobile and they said their system wasn't detecting the phone as an LTE device - but (Settings > About Phone > Status > SIM Status) shows LTE Cellular Network Type!

I've tried with VOLTE both enabled and disabled and received the same signal strength.

When I disable WiFi , my data shows 4G LTE but that doesn't change the signal strength for voice. (Settings > About Phone > Status > SIM Status)

T-Mobile was opening a trouble ticket to check the local tower I am connecting to but I suspect this is a phone radio or firmware issue and not SIM/Carrier related.

Anyone else found setting changes to make optimal signal strength?

 

[huntnyc]

I am on TMobile also and want to order this phone but reports of poor signal strength and wifi connection have got me hesitating. Please keep your feedback coming and thanks.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

 

[RaDeN305]

T-Mobile user here. My previous phones all got full service at home, this one - on a brand new nano sim mind you, gets one bar and -116dBm and 24asu. Calls sound poor. Called T-Mobile and they said their system wasn't detecting the phone as an LTE device - but (Settings > About Phone > Status > SIM Status) shows LTE Cellular Network Type!

I've tried with VOLTE both enabled and disabled and received the same signal strength.

When I disable WiFi , my data shows 4G LTE but that doesn't change the signal strength for voice. (Settings > About Phone > Status > SIM Status)

T-Mobile was opening a trouble ticket to check the local tower I am connecting to but I suspect this is a phone radio or firmware issue and not SIM/Carrier related.

Anyone else found setting changes to make optimal signal strength?

I'm also on T-Mobile and have noticed some issues with signal strength and other radio related problems. I'm actually returning the phone to Newegg today because of the issues I describe below. I definitely think it's software related. The signal strength is mostly fine but it does seem too low in places compared to what my Nexus 6 had.

The major problem I'm having is with incoming calls either not ringing and going straight to "missed" or auto answering without ringing. It's happened at least 4 times where I see a missed call notification despite no ringing or vibrating and I never have my phone on silent. Just straight to missed call.

On several other occasions a call will come through and be answered automatically while in my pocket. It's the strangest thing I've encountered with a phone. The call just comes in without any warning or input on my behalf and I can hear the caller talking before I take the phone out of my pocket. There is an auto answer feature in the settings but it's been disabled. Even if that feature was on it should ring at least once.

I love the phone but these two issues are massive deal breakers. I need to be able to receive calls properly for business and don't want to wait around for a fix or void my warranty trying a new ROM when development picks up.

 

[mdkathon]

I'm also on T-Mobile and have noticed some issues with signal strength and other radio related problems. I'm actually returning the phone to Newegg today because of the issues I describe below. I definitely think it's software related. The signal strength is mostly fine but it does seem too low in places compared to what my Nexus 6 had.

The major problem I'm having is with incoming calls either not ringing and going straight to "missed" or auto answering without ringing. It's happened at least 4 times where I see a missed call notification despite no ringing or vibrating and I never have my phone on silent. Just straight to missed call.

On several other occasions a call will come through and be answered automatically while in my pocket. It's the strangest thing I've encountered with a phone. The call just comes in without any warning or input on my behalf and I can hear the caller talking before I take the phone out of my pocket. There is an auto answer feature in the settings but it's been disabled. Even if that feature was on it should ring at least once.

I love the phone but these two issues are massive deal breakers. I need to be able to receive calls properly for business and don't want to wait around for a fix or void my warranty trying a new ROM when development picks up.

I've used this at home on TMO in Seattle for about a week and did not have the same issues. I also have active AT&T SIM and have not had problems. Other phones I carry with me are Nexus 6, Huawei Ascend Mate 2, LG G4, and RedMi Note 2. Compared to these other devices I did not notice a stark difference with signal strength.

Regarding the "not detected as LTE" on TMO that sounds fishy to me. I'd suggest trying something, go into phone information menu from dialer *#*#4636#*#* and set network to LTE Only. Bounce the radio from the same menu (not required but a good idea). Then check if you're on LTE, if the phone is set to LTE Only and you have signal you're on LTE but to make it easier Google Play has a ton of apps to check this like G-NetTrack Lite or Network Cell Info Lite both will tell you specifically if you're on LTE and show eNB, etc.

If you do set phone to LTE Only you must go back into Settings --> Dual SIM settings --> Network Mode and set back to LTE/WCDMA/GSM

You'll notice this menu in Network Mode does not have options for "LTE only" or "WCDMA (UMTS "4G" HSPA+) only" which is why the going into the Phone Information menu is required for this.

Right now I am out on business travel and one thing I can say is that the dual SIM is pretty good roaming. I got myself into a bad situation as I set my phone to LTE only for testing a few things and did not switch back. The carrier I am roaming on does not have VoLTE so I broke my voice for a about a day and did not notice until I tried to make an outbound call and it failed.

Regarding call quality I've been using it abroad for about a week making voice calls on WCDMA/UMTS networks (no VoLTE here) with local SIMs and it's been just fine. No signal issues.

 

[taijo]

I've used this at home on TMO in Seattle for about a week and did not have the same issues. I also have active AT&T SIM and have not had problems. Other phones I carry with me are Nexus 6, Huawei Ascend Mate 2, LG G4, and RedMi Note 2. Compared to these other devices I did not notice a stark difference with signal strength.

Regarding the "not detected as LTE" on TMO that sounds fishy to me. I'd suggest trying something, go into phone information menu from dialer *#*#4636#*#* and set network to LTE Only. Bounce the radio from the same menu (not required but a good idea). Then check if you're on LTE, if the phone is set to LTE Only and you have signal you're on LTE but to make it easier Google Play has a ton of apps to check this like G-NetTrack Lite or Network Cell Info Lite both will tell you specifically if you're on LTE and show eNB, etc.

If you do set phone to LTE Only you must go back into Settings --> Dual SIM settings --> Network Mode and set back to LTE/WCDMA/GSM

You'll notice this menu in Network Mode does not have options for "LTE only" or "WCDMA (UMTS "4G" HSPA+) only" which is why the going into the Phone Information menu is required for this.

Right now I am out on business travel and one thing I can say is that the dual SIM is pretty good roaming. I got myself into a bad situation as I set my phone to LTE only for testing a few things and did not switch back. The carrier I am roaming on does not have VoLTE so I broke my voice for a about a day and did not notice until I tried to make an outbound call and it failed.

Regarding call quality I've been using it abroad for about a week making voice calls on WCDMA/UMTS networks (no VoLTE here) with local SIMs and it's been just fine. No signal issues.

mdkathon, Thank you for the detailed reply! Please note below the results:

So I followed your instruction to no additional positive result. Using the two apps you recommended as well as the LTE Discovery app here is what I see:

When I first enable the radio (whether LTE only or LTE/GSM/WCDMA) it comes up on LTE Band 12 and I have excellent signal (about 4 bars) with < -80 db and then about 30 seconds later it will fall over to LTE band 4 and the signal drops to > -110 or worse and I go to 1-2 bars of signal. I have no idea why the LTE band changes on it's own. Maybe I can force it to stay on Band 12 somehow?

I looked up the TMobile frequencies and they are here: Frequencies: Band 2 (1900 MHz), Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz), Band 12 (700 MHz)
The ZTE LTE Band support list is here: LTE: B2/B4/B5/B12/B13/B17/B7/B3/B1/B20/B29/B30/B25/B26/B41

Seems like I should be good. I don't know why a good Band 12 signal would fall back to Band 4 though. Can anyone explain that?

I also noticed in the Testing menu (*#*#4636#*#*) the ability to select from the band menu: USA Band, Band Mode 6 or Band Mode 7. I haven't made any changes there since I cannot tell what the current selection is, nor what the difference between the 3 choices would be. *Edit: This is for GSM/UMTS so I'm not sure if it has any effect*

Of those three LTE analysis apps I am not sure what any of the data is telling me (eNB etc) so if there is a primer for those I have not yet looked for it.

 

[efendi011]

Has anybody tried the SIGNAL BOOST feature? Is it any good or just a gimmick?

 

[flyer_andy]

mdkathon, Thank you for the detailed reply! Please note below the results:

So I followed your instruction to no additional positive result. Using the two apps you recommended as well as the LTE Discovery app here is what I see:

When I first enable the radio (whether LTE only or LTE/GSM/WCDMA) it comes up on LTE Band 12 and I have excellent signal (about 4 bars) with < -80 db and then about 30 seconds later it will fall over to LTE band 4 and the signal drops to > -110 or worse and I go to 1-2 bars of signal. I have no idea why the LTE band changes on it's own. Maybe I can force it to stay on Band 12 somehow?

I looked up the TMobile frequencies and they are here: Frequencies: Band 2 (1900 MHz), Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz), Band 12 (700 MHz)
The ZTE LTE Band support list is here: LTE: B2/B4/B5/B12/B13/B17/B7/B3/B1/B20/B29/B30/B25/B26/B41

Seems like I should be good. I don't know why a good Band 12 signal would fall back to Band 4 though. Can anyone explain that?

I also noticed in the Testing menu (*#*#4636#*#*) the ability to select from the band menu: USA Band, Band Mode 6 or Band Mode 7. I haven't made any changes there since I cannot tell what the current selection is, nor what the difference between the 3 choices would be. *Edit: This is for GSM/UMTS so I'm not sure if it has any effect*

Of those three LTE analysis apps I am not sure what any of the data is telling me (eNB etc) so if there is a primer for those I have not yet looked for it.

Hi - I'm not a cellular engineer so I could be wrong, but I believe T-Mobile's network management itself is the variable in determining which LTE frequency your phone will use. So, even though you have a stronger band 12 signal available, the network will often push you to band 2 or 4 if it can do so as these frequencies yield better throughput in general and will free up spectrum on band 12, which is usually a bit more scarce (low band airwaves are typically more congested, so higher band airwaves like band 2 and 4 are preferred for network management purposes).

The only way to limit your phone to band 12 that I know of is hack into the non-volatile memory via the diagnostic mode and QXDM and manually enable/disable LTE bands 2 and/or 4...but that's probably more trouble than it's worth, especially if you don't want to permanently remove these bands. Plus, diagnostic mode can be super hard to get into on some devices and there are some protections which make it hard to make changes stick permanently, depending on the device.

Also, I should mention that Verizon and AT&T do the exact same thing as T-Mobile in my experience - for instance, band 13 for Verizon seems to only be used when band 4 or 2 are super low strength or completely unavailable. I often find my Verizon SIM sitting at around -115 dBm or so on band 4 and sometimes see it dip into the -120-ish area before switching to band 13.

 

[GearshiftJB]

Constantly told that It sounds muffled out, I can hardly hear as well... great via bluetooth but that's not always available. .. don't know any solutions right now other than maybe return the device..;.WIND Mobile.. Canada here. Never had any problems with the LG G4

 

[dennis96411]

Has anybody tried the SIGNAL BOOST feature? Is it any good or just a gimmick?

What signal boost feature?

 

[efendi011]

What signal boost feature?

See here, right above the "Performance" chapter:

devicespecifications.com/en/editor-review/f9c817

Thought if this can have something to do with the SD 820's TruSignal feature...?

 

[dennis96411]

See here, right above the "Performance" chapter:

devicespecifications.com/en/editor-review/f9c817

Thought if this can have something to do with the SD 820's TruSignal feature...?

Odd, they removed the menu from the A2017U.

 

[test878]

As I mentioned in the cell strength review, this phone seems to have a small issue with reception. It is getting worse reception of 5-10db than an old s4, when everything is the same. There is a thread on reddit that has more info about this.

 

[Reactiv]

Not sure if this specifically for our US chums. But I have to say I am disappointed with my EU version. The call quality is bad. Not so much about network in terms of stuttering/cutting conversations but in terms of the sound quality. There is a clearly audible background buzz and I can only liken the sound to a low quality audio file. By that I mean you can hear it but the 'noise' and subtle distortion is not what I expect. Imagine having an MP3 at 128KB and one at 320KB - I expect the latter and feel like it's the former.

I am wondering if it is software or hardware.

I'm reluctant to send back as I don't want to end up with a 'refurb' packaged and sent as a new one.

 

[celoxocis]

As I mentioned in the cell strength review, this phone seems to have a small issue with reception. It is getting worse reception of 5-10db than an old s4, when everything is the same. There is a thread on reddit that has more info about this.

I compared my A2017G to my older phone using the "Mobil Signal" app from the play store.

My old phone has one of the best receptions signals compared to other OEM. I even confirmed that with two CM devs that have like 15+ devices around and they confirmed that the phone has the best reception signal off all.

I setup the Mobil Signal app and changed the widget to show "percentages" instead of dbm.
Dbm's don't tell me much.

I hit refresh every time I had the chance too on both devices on different locations. Both Sim's are from the same provider both support the same bands.

The Axon 7 _always_ came 5% lower in signal strength than did my old phone. Telling by this results I think the A2017G has no issues in signal strength overall. As I compared it to a phone which is known to have an exception good reception.

I think it is on par with other OEM's.