Windows Phones Don’t Drop Calls
When I heard Paul Thurrott say that he only had one dropped call in 5 months of testing a Focus I was intrigued. And internally we’ve been discussing call quality on our Windows Phone devices and there’s a clear consensus – it’s damn near perfect. For my two cents, call quality (even on AT&T in midtown NYC) sounds just like a landline and I haven’t had a dropped call or even a hint of static. In fact, the only time any of us have had any issues is when talking to iPhone users…but we all know it’s not us when that call drops. It’s way beyond any other cell phone I’ve had in terms of call quality. MS must have optimized the hell out of the radio (and maybe this is why CDMA is taking so long).
Anyway, if you’re using a Windows Phone share your thoughts. As far as it being a phone and actual phone quality, what are your impressions?
Bonus: Since it’s Friday, let’s add a little link (sorry embedding is disabled) to College Humor’s Action Movie Phone Call Fail…classic.
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I’ve had my Focus since release date (Nov 8) and has not had a dropped call since.
I experienced a strange thing once when my daughter called me. We both have a WP7. The story goes something like this…
– My daughter called me.
– After about a minute the connection was lost
– Right after that I got a message about another person had left a note on my voicemail
– My daughter called again and told me that she suddenly heard my voicemail message.
– We agreed not to tell it to anyone! 🙂
ive got a surround and i havent had any dropped calls but my goddamn microphone keeps randomly shutting off untill i do a battery pull, probably like once every week. im not the only one this happens to either. great call quality but that doesnt help me much when they cant hear a word i say…
My Focus hasn’t dropped a call since Nov8.
For the user with problems with the mic getting muted, there is a similar known bug on the Focus in which the mic gets muted after you unplug standard headphones. To fix it, plug them back in and out. The issue does not happen with the phone factory “hands free” headphones+mic.
i havent plugged headphones into it yet so i dont think that is the problem, i will try to carry headphones with me though so i can see if that will fix the problem next time it happens. thanks for the tip
Just yesterday, I missed an important call that I was expecting. I checked the phone when I heard an alert – a voicemail. The phone was right next to me and it never rang. I suppose it’s not technically a dropped call, and more likely an AT&T problem (it was around 4:30pm, busy time on the network), but still annoying. Other than that, no dropped calls on my Focus and overall better signal hold than on my Fuze.
I’ve had my focus since launch day. Not one dropped call.
I am in the same boat no dropped calls. This phone, Samsung Focus, is a joy to talk on.
My one dropped call was to a friend on his iphone 4. Not sure if it was him or me. I think when I changed hands I hit the end call button:) Was the first few days of having the Focus.
@sm0k3ydaband1t: Interesting. I had the mic mute occur only once right in the middle of a conversation with my nephew. We tried calling each other back with no joy. I finally restarted my phone (no battery pull) and all was good again. I have had at least a dozen additional phone calls since then and no mic problems. So I guess there might be “another ” HTC issue (like alarms), but;
Referencing “Charles” comment above, I plugged stereo headphones in for the first time yesterday while listening to some music and nothing came out until I did something (don’t know what) and while I was playing with the volume buttons, things got screwy. The volume control seemed fo freeze up for a few seconds, but it also started dialing my last phone number (Mom), looking as if TellMe was doing it, similar to what you referenced as an issue in the forums. I stopped it before it dialed and it didn’t try again. I did notice that when you plug/unplug the headphones the music playing will pause, and you have to hit play to resume so there is some kind of interaction going on there. Tried pluggin/unplugging several times but could not recreate the original no sound issue, so not sure if it was something I did or failed to do.
Don’t know if Charles’s Focus issue above is identical to the HTC mic issue, but I can’t help but think that the HTC software on the phone is responsible for this and the alarm issue, and who knows what else we don’t know about yet. Microsoft has prevented rouge stuff from getting on the phone by outlawing side loading, but I wonder who is checking what HTC is dropping in there. Maybe somebody should take a look. I am tempted to uninstall HTC Hub (don’t use it) but I don’t think it will help with these issues which are probably entangled within the OS.
Otherwise all my calls have been crisp and clear with no drops.
@Jimski,
Bro, I told you to get the Samsung!!!
@FarTed. I still think the hardware build quality of HTC is superior, but I have never been a fan of their software. I had a PDA that reset each time you changed out the battery even though the unit had a backup battery to prevent that issue. Until they released a software patch many months after launch, I could only change out my spare batteries with the PDA on life support (plugged into AC). And while TouchFlo/Sense looked pretty we all know it was not optimized. Great to look at. Just don’t try using your phone for anything else.
My bet is this will all be resolved, but if it turns out to be HTC specific issues I am a bit dissapointed that Microsoft, with so much riding on this, would just let a partner tinker with their creation, potentially marring WP7’s reputation. MS ultimately has the responsibility to make this right. I am willing to avoid loading any rouge patches to tweaks on my phone to ensure stability, but that stability has got to start with the manufacturer.
Have had a Focus since launch day in the US and 1 dropped call so far – my wife’s HTC Aria dropped the call. At home, I typically have 1 or 2 bars on AT&T and yet, call quality is clear and doesn’t drop. Where my iPhone used to drop calls all the time and sound quality was poor to the extent the wife was unable to hear clearly, the Focus does not appear to suffer from any such issues – calls are crystal clear!
Oh, btw, I am now roaming internationally with the Focus, and no dropped calls either!
I’ve used iphones since their first release and drop calls where part of the “normal” carrier and phone thing but honestly after using the win7 focus this has changed dramatically, i stopped making many calls because they would drop 50% of the time but now i talk more than text and its because calls simply dont drop. I work for att and before the win7 phone i thought our network was ok not great but after using the focus i know it is the shitty iphone that drops calls. Never going to use iphones again because their data and call quality isnt consistent.
To be fair, I think the build quality of the iPhones is great but under the pressure obsessive compulsive Steve Jobs they often sacrifice engineering for looks and that might be the reason their reception is so bad. ATT was just named worst carrier and I believe the iPhone and its dropped calls are to blame.
Sent from my Focus
@Charles: Sounds like a very fair and honest assessment. Another reason for someone to consider a well engineered, but maybe not as good looking device. Just sayin.
I have had my Samsung Focus for 4 months,I actually purchased two of them and they drop calls constantly. They have been dropping really bad within the past 2 months. I talked to my sister today and within 10 minutes it dropped 6 times. How crazy is that? Both phones drop constantly all day long. I would be happy to show anyone my bills with repeated numbers being called just to have one conversation. This terrible phone is eating up my minutes like crazy and there is nothing I can do,but pay $500.00 to get out of my 2 year contract. I have called AT&T repeatedly and they have replaced the phones with the same REFURBISHED Samsung Focus phones and they are as bad as the first set purchased! Can’t wait till my contract is up,will never use AT&T again!!!
Guys, This bug was fixed in the update right after the NoDo update
But due to hard resetting, the setting went back to before.
I got my phone software reinstalled all fresh with the new Schubert ROM from HTC Authorized Service Center
But I again faced this issue after fiddling with a few settings on my phone today.
I just couldn’t bear it any longer so I tried all the settings and found the answer to a similar problem most of you are facing.
Random Muting is a result of turning ‘TTY/TDD’ to Full under ‘ease of access’ setting. Turn it back to Off to be heard when in the call. This worked in my case, and will definitely work in case it is the same reason why your phone goes wildly mute during calls.
I’m just hoping it fixes issue with most of your HD7 or other HTC handsets with Windows Phone Software. That’s why I took the pleasure of coming back to this forum and reporting these leads.
Remember:
TTY/TDD: Off
That’sallFolks
-Vish