Terrible audio & video when using Communication Apps only

[Dannyh2290]

Has anyone else experienced audio & video problems over social media apps such as Skype, Discord, Whatsapp etc with regards to sound & video quality being received by the other party?

I have just 'upgraded' from an Xperia XZ Premium and my partner who I speak with regularly over Skype & Discord has been complaining about how terrible the general quality is in comparison.

I have done my own tests by creating multiple accounts and calling my PC from each phone to test the quality and the Xperia 1 II is significantly worse than the XZ Premium in all aspects of call quality.

What made it more interesting, however, is that when I am recording audio or video directly into the phone via apps such as 'Camera' (to record video) or 'Cinema Pro', the microphone quality is absolutely fine and crisp and the video is smooth. It leaves me with the conclusion that something in the phone is causing these problems when working with these apps and transmitting data. The issues include:

1. - Noise gating which persists even when noise gating is turned off in the app (also wind filter in audio settings)
   
   
2. Muffled sound with a significant reduction in treble above 4-6kHz
   
   
3. Unintelligible voice audio when stood more than 2 feet away from the phone
   
   
4. Occasional squeaks which sound like a quick feedback loop when the other party speaks to me.
5. Video is laggy and does not have good overall quality.
   
   

All phone audio tests come back with no issues and I've followed tech support in doing factory reset. All they can suggest is sending it off to the repair centre, but this doesn't make sense as the mic & camera clearly works fine when recording directly into the phone.

Before we jump to the conclusion that it is the apps which are the problem, I just want to point out that I am literally using both an Xperia 1 II and a Xperia XZ Premium side by side and I can clearly see that the apps are not causing this. Something is going on with the way this phone interacts with these apps and it's not good.

I was actually so surprised about this phone. Aside from the Xperia 1 II looking and feeling beautiful, the camera quality and audio issues for other parties when using voice communication apps is a real drop in performance. The Xperia XZ Premium right now gives me a much clearer image & audio experience. 

[EMS_MO72]

Hi there, did you try to test between different internet connections when you use these apps? like try to test it on the mobile data once or try another Wi-Fi network and check if the audio and video and quality will change or not ?

[Dannyh2290]

Hi, 

Yes, I have run on 4G and WiFi. I have also tried with & without the sim card installed on each.

I've encountered new problems as well since writing this post. When connected to my car, the Bluetooth quality is also poor in comparison with the XZ Premium. It sounds muffled and not full quality. It can't be the car because it works with the XZ Premium. I'm getting really concerned about this phone now. All the software tests show nothing is wrong and everything else is fine. Just seems like anything to do with data transmission on audio or video is low-quality.

On a side note: doing this I noticed that the Xperia XZ Premium I have noticed also inside my home has more signal than the Xperia 1 II. We'll leave that topic for now...

[EMS_MO72]

Well, I believe that repair is not the answer as most of the issues are related to third party apps or third party devices but the phone functions are working fine on the phone itself. Did you try to contact the support line of the apps developers to report these issues?

[Dannyh2290]

I mean, I totally understand where your suggestion comes from but I can't see how it could be the case in this situation? 

I am doing a direct comparison between the Xperia XZ Premium and the Xperia 1 II on the same apps. It would remove the third-party apps as being the problem, wouldn't it? I will be checking with them anyway, but my thoughts are that there is something about the phone or its new hardware that is causing this. I've seen a lot of other comments about it whilst checking these forums, but I don't know how many people have another Sony phone to compare with.

I definitely don't want to send it off to tech support because I can tell already that the hardware passes all tests when it's not over third-party apps. How would you get Sony to investigate something inside the phone that could be causing issues for third-party apps?

[EMS_MO72]

I believe that happens due to the changes on the software updates that the new devices have, specially with third party apps and devices, they use to work with old devices, but they face an issue with new devices. I can see that with a lot of people specially with connecting to third party devices by Bluetooth

[Dannyh2290]

It's interesting to me that this happens. It's understandable that there are adjustments to be made by third-parties in how they handle new hardware and software on phones as they upgrade. I've experienced it at the launch of the XZ Premium where the 19MP camera wasn't particularly great during calls but got better with updates (I don't know from which side).

Still, however, the average consumer is still going to be pretty upset that the phone feels like a downgrade. It can't be right that the consumers have to make complaints en-masse to third-party providers for them to change their software. Personally, I feel a large company like Sony should be able to test the main social network apps for communication and check for problems. Then they could perhaps work directly with that company or write a letter on behalf of its customers to get it fixed.

Not doing that only results in bad press for the phone. I hope these issues do get fixed soon. The phone itself is beautiful but it just doesn't function as you would expect a top of the range phone to function. 

[EMS_MO72]

Yeah i can feel that happens with every new device or new software update and it's like they're testing it on the real ground to collect more about the customers' preferences either with apps or other devices to adjust it in the upcoming firmware updates. So you find a lot of issues at the start and then they start to vanish with each update.

[Monkeynmario]

Just throw in the towel and install Tidal... It’s for folk who like music but love high quality.

Tidal Video is great particularly on the phone ...

[Dannyh2290]

What you have written here has no relation to this topic at all. 

The issue isn't with audio playback.