Acer Liquid Metal - poor call quality

shamwari

Since I got my Liquid Metal, a few callers have complained that I sound very low and hushed on the phone, like the mic is too far away from my mouth or is obstructed. No amount of changing the available settings (incl Dolby mobile) on the phone makes any difference. Using Viber, the call quality is clearer, so I doubt if the mic is faulty, and therefore the problem as such is on the GSM side.

Looking around online, some androids can have a setting within them called EVRC (Enhanced variable rate codec), and changing this to enable EVRC-B allegedly makes a noticeable difference to the call quality.

Unfortunately, I have no way of checking or changing this setting on my phone as I cannot enter any kind of hidden configuration menu (tried entering in ##DATA and ##PROGRAM doesn't work)

Has someone come across this Lq Mt call quality problem themselves, and / or can someone suggest a potential fix for it?

buzzer21

You've probably got it sorted one way or another by now, but in case anyone's interested...
I got that phone recently and was having the same problem but after experimenting I found that it helps to hold the phone to your left ear (cause the mic is off-centre, towards the left) and angle the bottom of the phone (where the mic is) towards your mouth as much as possible.

It's annoying and I doubt it solves the problem completely, but nobody's complained about not being able to hear me since I started doing that.

The whole phone is a bit of a disaster in terms of design anyway... a curved touch screen ffs...

Ste-

The galaxy nexus has a curved touch screen dispaly aswell.

Is this one poorly designed or what's wrong with it ?

buzzer21

I've never used the Galaxy Nexus, but, apparently, it has a 4.65", slightly curved, glass display.
The Acer has a 3.6" display with a much steeper curve.

The Nexus is also Super Amoled which means the capacitive touch "sensors" are at the same level as the pixels, whereas the Acer has a normal LCD and then a curved plastic screen a few mm above it.

All that means, when you're trying to type on the acer, you misjudge and mistype the letters.

shamwari

After being without the phone for month, I finally got it back yesterday. A simple note with it said it had a software update, although the menu shows no changes that I can see in terms of software versions / revisions.

What really irked me was Expansys (the retailer from whom I got the phone from) tried to maintain a distance throughout it all and said the repair was a matter between Acer and I. Acer were equally as poor and every time I called to query the repair status, I got the stock answer to call back in a few days :rolleyes: They simply could not give me any inde when my phone would be repaired.

I brought matters to a head by calling Expansys UK directly, got someones name, and emailed them every piece of correspondence and phone record I had. I told them they had a week to either fix the phone and return it, or provide a new replacement, or issue a refund. In default, I was charging back the money through my credit card. Needless to say, their attitude changed immediately, and their intervention resulted in the phone being fixed two days later.

It is inexcusable to be confronted with inordinate and inexplicable delays like this in this day and age, never mind poor customer service which only improves when the customer goes beserk on the phone. Testing will show whether the phone is properly fixed or not, but irrespective, I certainly won't be giving either company my business again. And I was going to spend €800 on a new Acer Laptop I like the look of..... :P

Couch Potato

I purchased 2 of these phones also and notice that the call quality is really terrible also...

Anybody found a fix for this problem...