[stk2013]

Same issue with bad voice quality here in Germany with T-Mobile as carrier.

But it is not permanent. Some calls are OK, but others have issues.

Did a soft reset, but do see improvement.

Definetely something NOKIA has to takle with an update or at least with a clear statement!

hold on...

[Computermensch]

Also a problem on the Lumia 920 ...

[93tid]

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stk2013 wrote:

Same issue with bad voice quality here in Germany with T-Mobile as carrier.

But it is not permanent. Some calls are OK, but others have issues...

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So how did you decide that it is not a network problem ?

[idgi3]

I have tried to do the same call (to the same abonent from the same place in flat, but before i have change my sim) from different cellphones (lumia 820 and nokia n76). So i didn`t have any problem with nokla n76... but i have it with lumia.

[Akobalm]

Received my new Lumia 820 on Wednesday 16 Jan, called my 90 years old mother who hung up thinking it was a crank call the audio was so bad, called my daughter who confirmed that there was a problem and she had difficulty hearing me. Called Orange yesterday (Thursday) who had another new 820 delivered this morning Friday 18 Jan and the delivery guy took the first one away. The new 820 has exactly the same problem, it was so bad that the girl working for Orange had to call me back on my landline and eventually advised me to post it off to the Nokia depot in Banbury, which I did. They offered to send me a third Lumia 820, an offer which I declined. My sim card is back in my old N8 and working perfectly, my wife's Lumia 800 also works without any problems, infact, we have both operated Nokia phones for many years now, both in the UK and when I worked in various locations in other parts of the world. Nokia help centre talked me through all possible fixes, non of which worked. Wonder if anyone else having this problem has moved on to another model with great success??? I have no problem with Orange, my wife and I have both had pay monthly accounts for many years now and never had any previous problems. BTW:The Orange phone mast is situated half a mile to the North of our house and is perfectly visible from the rear of our property, signal strength is definitely not an issue. Regards, John

[churchilltav]

I have two Lumia 820's and one had the microphone sensitivity problem. Soft restart didn't fix the problem. Holding down 3 buttons didn't do a hard reset but I did a hard reset >Settings, about - then select "reset your phone".
Before I did that I made sure my contacts were up to date on my PC and all messages and photos were backed up.
The rest wiped everything off and when prompted to chose to reset as a new or restore from back up I chose to setup as a new phone and the microphone is working perfectly. Contacts from my live new account loaded on sync and I have my photos etc on the PC.

[Akobalm]

Good to hear that you had success with your 820, the only changes made when speaking to the Orange "help centre" was changing from 4G which was automatic on switch on, so I switched it to 3G, I had already done the reset thingy twice on both phones which did not change a thing. The phone will be delivered to the Nokia depot at Banbury by mid day tomorrow, Orange say that someone from that depot will phone me to discuss the matter and I hope that they take the sensible approach. I will probably go down the same route as I did with my wife's phone last month, switch to sim only pay monthly and buy a brand new one on the internet, she has a Lumia 800 which works great, I am using her old N8, my N8 packed in when I was splashed by a wave in Lanzarote last Autumn, the casing was only damp but died at the scene. 4G will roll out up here in Scotland in the next 30 years, we've only recently learned about the invention of the wheel!!!! Good luck with your phone, John. http://www.gm6tvr.net

[Ironman2418]

Got this phone 2 days ago and having the same problem. Come on Nokia your pushing this Phone hard on TV Adds so lets have some answer's to this problem.

[Den50]

I to have issues with the microphone sensitivity on my Lumia 820 which I have now had for just over a week, in fact I have two as I got one for my wife. We are enjoying the overall experience of the phone, but if we cannot use it for its primary function of making and receiving calls then it's next to useless and I will have to return them both to Orange as not fit for purpose.

I have always been a Nokia fan from way back and generally all the phones I have had have worked faultlessly, but this is the first time I felt it necessary to express my disappointment.

Come on Nokia pull your socks up and get a fix for this problem or at least acknowledge the device has a fault and advise what it is you are intending to do about it.

[micky81]

Very same problem here, has Nokia released anything about this or what could be causing the problem as silence normally means they have messed up. I have tried resetting both soft and hard no improvement half the time i just give up on a call which is not really acceptable. Any help Nokia ? Other than this problem the phone is very good so well done just this one niggle.

[Akobalm]

Hello again,

I have this morning received my third new 820 in as little as one week, the previous two returned because of the problems reported earlier, would you believe that this one exhibits the same problem!!!!!

However, all is not lost, having read the posting below which I have rightly or wrongly copied and pasted from the Lumia 920 section, and followed the writers advice and ideas, I am sure that I can report success.

When using any phone, I hold the microphone end of the business away from my mouth, the report below indicates that holding it closer to your mouth solves the problem, so when the battery was fully charged, I put his theory to the test.

After making four separate calls and moving the phone towards and away from my mouth, it was reported that all could not be better when holding the bottom end of set closer to my mouth.

To be absolutely fair to Orange, they could not have tried harder to overcome this problem, if this 820 was not up to scratch, I was about to have them send me a new 920 at an acceptable upgrade price, but according to the post below, the 920's exhibit the same trait!!!

Many thanks to the guy who posted the feedback below on the Lumia 920 pages, I hope that you don't mind me using your material in an effort to find a fix?

Wonder if anyone using any of these models could try the potential "fix" out and report their findings?

Regards,

John

Hi everyone,

I wanted to post my experience on the forum. I bought a Lumia 920 on December 1st. Everything was fine. I used it for a couple calls and people said they could not understand what I was saying. It was though I was breaking up, distorted, or talking in a tin can. Now, a week in. I have noticed everything is fine when I record sound through video, use apps (e.g. voice recorder), or even use speaker phone. So, the only issue I have been having is my outbound call quality is bad when not using speakerphone ( I assume that involves the primary microphone at the bottom of the device) So, today I decided to diagnose the issue as best I could. I turned off LTE using the ##DATA# menu, with no change. I then dropped it to 3G with no change. Finally, in desperation, I dropped it to 2G with still no improvement in outbound quality. I removed my screen protector, but, again, no luck. However, due to my exasperation, I was leaning forward on my arms while talking to friend, and he said he heard me clear as day. So, I fiddled with the angle of the phone. It appears that if the phone is pointing in towards my mouth, with my cheeks pressing against it, the mic is distorted. But, if the phone is held at an angle such that it is parallel with my mouth, the call quality is fine.

TL;DR Version:
If my phone is angled towards my mouth, outbound call quality is awful. If the phone is held parallel to my mouth, everything is good.

So, with that in mind, can anyone confirm this phenomenon? Fiddle how you hold the phone and see if it increases your outbound call quality. It could be that pressure is moving the primary mics, or something to that effect. I am not an engineer, so I have no clue how this magic box works.

P.S. Other than this issue, the phone is fantastic. It is a solid piece of hardware that is easy on the eyes. WP8, while still developing, is fast and dead simple to use.

[Qu1nt]

My 820 has the same problem so I dropped it into my local Nokia service centre today for repair
The said they were aware of the issue but I was the first to report it to them

Fingers crossed the very helpful people there get it sorted ...

[Ironman2418]

Please let us all know if they find a problem and a fix? As for them not hearing of this issue, then it shows Nokia take very little notice of the Disscusstion's that are posted. I thought that was the idea of having this so Nokia could pick up on any problems reported by consumers???

Let us all know soon as you receive your phone back.

Regards,

Ironman2418

[Akobalm]

As posted earlier, the 820 and 920 appear to have the same characteristics, having a tiny, hardly noticeable opening in the case to the microphone, hold the phone any distance from your mouth and the mic struggles to pick up the audio, in every case I now know of, holding the mic end of the phone closer to the user's mouth seems to produce the right results. However, I will keep looking in on this page to see if there are any mechanical or technical fixes or improvements. Just for the record, I went through three 820's, all had the same effect, I mastered the technique of how to get it to do the job it should which saved me from going on to the 920, (so far)! Good luck with this issue to all 820 & 920 owners, regards, John - Annan, Dumfriesshire.

[Qu1nt]

Well my 820 is back from repair & it seems fine

Apparently they updated the firmware but I can't be sure as I didn't make a note of the version before hand
It's currently 8.0.10211.204 so perhaps you would check yours & compare

However, after a little search online I've seen where the microphone is on the 820 & think my screen protector might have been covering it ever so slightly ...

Anyway, time will tell & I'll keep you posted

[Ironman2418]

Thanks for the info, just checked my phone and the number you have provided looks like the OS Version. That number on mine reads OSVersion:8.0.9903.10 The other Numbers are:

Firmware revision number: 1232.2110.1246.0014

Hardware revision number: 1.0.0.0

Radio software version: 1.0.202041.3

Chip SOC version: 8960

If the shop where you took your phone know of an update for this phone then why hasn't Nokia released it???

Would be interesting if others with this problem on this post could check their numbers as above and post back if any are different to mine or the same as those from the updated phone? Could be interesting to see what comes back on this.

Look forward to all replys on this issue.

[Ironman2418]

Soon as I posted my last message I decided to check my phone for any updates! There was an update to be installed, after installing  I rechecked the details in About Phone and the OS Version has now gone to  8.0.10211.204 Same as the update done by the Nokia store. Got the other half to give me a bell to test the phone out, said it still sounded like I was in a fish bowl but could hear me better? I might just rip the screen protector off and then cut a small piece off a new one before re-applying. I can't realy see that the screen protector is blocking the Mic but I'll give it a go. Post back if it does make a difference.

[Qu1nt]

Mine's definitely better, both people that I speak to regularly have said what an improvement it is

[Ironman2418]

Same here now I've done the update. Also I would recommend if fitting a screen protector, cut a very small peace of the bottom (Be sure to use sharp scissors otherwise the protector will be damaged).

The original screen protector I had on was very close to the small Microphone opening on the 820, possible that it could have had a bit of an impact on the Microphone. For now all seem's well. Look forward to any other members who have gone through this procedure and found it successful.

[alan7690]

Got the same problem had my 820 for 2 months love the phone way better than my iPhone but the call quality is really bad, everyone I call says that it sounds like I'm in a large echo chamber or just cant hear me, this needs sorting as I spend a lot of time on my phone