Location of FP4 microphone(s?)

[JMB]

I’m a happy user of FP4, but sometimes people I’m phoning complain that they can’t hear me, and I think that I can help that by talking directly into the microphone. But I’ve never actually worked out where the microphone is, and I’ve searched the website without finding any answer to the question. An embarrassing question but we’re among friends here.

[anon9989719]

Little holes top, bottom and side ??

If you search the forum . . .

Microphone location is bad

I realized that when I talk on speaker sometimes people couldn’t hear me anymore or told me there is a lot of noice. I then asked the other person to tell if they can hear me when I cover the little holes on the frame. There are three. One on top, one on the bottom and one on the left side. The other person could hear me well when I covered the one’s on top and bottom. However they couldn’t hear me anymore when I covered the one on the left side. So I guess the microphone used for speaker mode c…

Is the tiny hole on the left side of FP4 a microfone?

There are actually three microphones in the FP4. In addition to the two you already mentioned, the third one is at the top of the device. If you call * # * # 2 8 8 6 # * # * you get a large range of hardware tests. When you choose “Audio”, there are three microphones that get checked (although I find it hard to figure out how the test is supposed to work).

[JMB]

Thanks @anon9989719 ! That’s interesting.

[const]

While being mindful of the poorly-chosen locations of microphones might help somewhat, there are numerous reports of poor sound quality on the FP4 input side on calls of various forms. There were some improvements to this a while ago (some apps were reportedly almost unusable), but many people still report it as being a problem:

Call quality and noise cancellation (regular calls, handsfree, Signal voice messages, Microsoft Teams video calls)

Well, I might have a different experience here (also in France, using Orange): I’m now inside Paris, with solid 5G coverage everywhere, and my FP4 is now continuously on “5G”. Since I’m here, the annoying choppy sound issues I had down south have gone away altogether! Sound is like it should be - crystal clear, on both sides, in any situation. Now could it be (potentially, just a wild guess) that something inside the FP4 chokes on anything slower than a solid 5G conn…

In my personal experience, the phone is usable as a phone, but has the worst audio quality of any phone I’ve had in the last decade, and if I’m not using an external microphone, I’ll frequently get complaints and comments from people I’m talking with. Taking care not to cover the microphones can help (the left-side microphone is placed in a location likely to be covered, for example), but isn’t sufficient. Speaking directly into the microphone is likely to be difficult, given the locations on the sides, and the choice of microphone for different types of calls.

Honestly, using an external microphone is probably the best solution if audio quality is critical.

[JMB]

Thank you @const . I’ve looked at the discussion you’ve linked to, which is very long and rather disheartening. I don’t imagine that many phone users know that the different microphones are used differently by different apps. Thanks for the suggestion about an external microphone. At least I’m no longer embarrassed by my question!

[KurtF]

@const

I’ll frequently get complaints and comments from people I’m talking with

Hmm. I’ve never got complaints from other people, it’s mostly me who doesn’t hear very well because of choppy sound.
Either all my interlocutors are all very polite (or expect me breaking up since I’m often in areas with limited coverage), or my problem is different from your problem.

One thing is sure, there is a problem. I’ve been using mobile phones since they exist, I’ve been in places you had to do acrobatics to get any connection, but this is the first time I have problems like these.

[JMB]

So, to summarise the answer to my own question, based on other posts here and their links, my understanding now is that the FP4 has three microphones, the small holes on the top, bottom and left-hand sides as you look at the screen, and that which of these microphones is in use depends on the app you are using. There has been some discussion in the thread linked by @const about quality but my original post was much more straightforward and I consider it answered.