Call quality - Razer Phone 2 Real Life Review

When you call granny, does she keep saying "Huh?! Wut?!" or does the conversation flow pretty well? Rate this thread to express how you feel about the Razer Phone 2's call quality. A higher rating indicates that calls are clear and crisp, and that regardless of background noise, you can hear the other party clearly (and with ample volume) and they can hear you.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

background noise issues
Call quality is fine until there is background noise (TV, work colleagues chatting, etc - not even at a live concert). That's when my voice starts to break up and is not understandable on the other end.
Also, it seems like the Razor Phone 2 has trouble keeping a network connection, or reestablishing connection to a new base station. When on the move, the phone constantly drops out, both phone conversations and data (Internet). Keeping the same network as my old Samsung Galaxy S6, the Razor has many more 'blind spots' to networks and has more trouble re-establishing connectivity.

alexdon2 said:
Also, it seems like the Razor Phone 2 has trouble keeping a network connection, or reestablishing connection to a new base station. When on the move, the phone constantly drops out, both phone conversations and data (Internet). Keeping the same network as my old Samsung Galaxy S6, the Razor has many more 'blind spots' to networks and has more trouble re-establishing connectivity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine has been the exact opposite. My last phone started having major connection issues, but my PH2 is getting signal in areas I never did before. Both phones were on Verizon, so maybe it's a carrier/band use issue for you?
As for call quality, I'd rate it the same. I primarily use a high quality Bluetooth headset, so not really going to be a change in voice quality.

I was saw that the codec AMR-WB isn't enabled on this phone. maybe it make some of the problems.

Related

Battery life?

Dear all,
With a small 900mAh battery, What is the real world usage time? I mean making up to 2 hours of calls per day does it last at least 12hours before the need to recharge battery and this is assuming that 3G is on all the time. Thanks.
French network technical support say 60 hours with GPS on !!!!
I think it's joke.
Well, I've been watching the battery life on mine for a couple of days now in a reasonably scientific way and here are the early rather speculative results:
With just GPRS and nothing else on and very light use the battery drops from 100% to 80% very fast - less than an hour of light use.
Leaving it running on these settings will run it down to about 20% by the end of the working day - the drain seems to ease off aftert he first sharp drop
Powering up wifi and music for short time doesn't seem to make much difference.
Turning 3G on also doesn't seem to make the difference you would expect either.
So basically I would feel the need to take a charger with me if I left the house for the day, which will probably mean that I have to send the thing back. I've seen the coolsmartphone video review and mine isn't performing anything like that one - I would say I am loosing charge at about twice the rate.
Now the only issues that could be at work here is that I live in a lousy reception area. But could this really make such a difference?
What I would find really useful is a list of other tweaks you can make to cut power use so I can try them out. But at the end of the day it's looking like too many compromises would be needed to make this thing practical for me.
Reception would make a reasonable difference if normal network messages are being sent/received (general scans of BCCH channels, authentication with the network) - i.e. the radio isnt being used for data/voice, and only to keep registered to the network. But during those times the rest of the phone would also be in low power mode, so i would say an absolute max of 5 to 10%.
It would make a significant difference if you are transmiting data/making calls in a low reception area. I would say easily upto 20%.
It sounds to me like if you plan to use the phone much at all during the day you need a second battery. Then that turns into the hassle of how to charge the second battery every night, and i bet the desktop stand can't charge a second battery
My conclusions exactly. Impractical to say the least.
The puzzle then is why my last phone, a Nokia E51 with a 1050 mAh battery, under the same conditions, managed to last 2-3 days?
Is WM6 really that much of a power grabber compared to S60?
moonlanding said:
My conclusions exactly. Impractical to say the least.
The puzzle then is why my last phone, a Nokia E51 with a 1050 mAh battery, under the same conditions, managed to last 2-3 days?
Is WM6 really that much of a power grabber compared to S60?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Short answer - yes.
There's all these power saving features in new app processors like being able to leave the screen on while powering down the main CPU. You can use an interupt from the radio to wake up the processor etc.
Windows doesnt support half of these features, thats why find windows phones save all their power by turning the screen off. Other phones with screens just as big are alot less regimental about turning the screen off at any opertunity.
I was involved in a project once to design a smartphone and it was a really surprising how much difference there was between the windows version they suplied and an ARM version of linux.
I have HTC Touch Crouse and i have problems with battery (GPRS always on and Bluetooth) ... now with Diamond i have VERY BIG Problem. Battery Keeps less than one day ...
The experiment continues.
Disabling "GPRS auto attach" in Advanced Configuration Tool has made a big difference - still 90% after 6 hours now.
Now this is a surprise to me because I thought that you did this when you set the network seek to GSM only and not hunt for 3G. Or maybe I'm getting my GPRSs and GSMs mixed up...
Next step - leave this setting in place and turn push back on. Watch this space.
GSM digitises your voice and slots it into a time divided channel on a frequency, and marks it as voice. On the network side, it converts this back to voice and sends it on the PSTN network (for a landline call).
GPRS takes data you want to send and inserts it directly in the same time divided channel and marks it as data. On the network side the network transfers this onto the internet (or other network) through the GGSN (its essentially a router).
So GSM and GPRS use the same technology. Setting the phone to GSM only, just stops it connecting to 3g networks.
Anyway, when you turn your phone on, the tower tells it its capabilities eg GPRS. This give you a GPRS available icon. When you actually want to send data, you need to 'attach'. This is like logging into the network.
To do that you need to open a data channel and send your login details.
Normal phones will do that i.e. attach, and then go idle. The network will only log them off if they move to a new cell and do not reauthenticate.
Anyway, if you are not attached:
- When you send data, the phone will need to attach first (milliseconds delay) - unoticable.
- You will NOT have an IP address so incoming data can not reach you.
If you use pop3 with regular pull of email, it'll make less difference the more frequently you pull your email - because every time you do, the phone will attach.
If you use PUSH email, it'll make no difference because you have to remain attached (have an ip address) for push to work.
I'm sure most people didn't care to know all that but i'm sure some did!
Wow. Thanks. Impressive.
Let me try to summarise. With auto attach off the phone isn't trying to attach to the 3G network all the time which saves power. But it is also disconnected from GPRS and data networks. However this won't affect push email because it will attach when it needs to, ie when the network tells it that there is mail or I send something out. Is this right?
What about internet? Will the phone automatically attach to the data netowrks when I fire up Opera? Presumably to attach to 3G I will need to reset to automatically seek WCDMA.
moonlanding said:
Wow. Thanks. Impressive.
Let me try to summarise. With auto attach off the phone isn't trying to attach to the 3G network all the time which saves power. But it is also disconnected from GPRS and data networks. However this won't affect push email because it will attach when it needs to, ie when the network tells it that there is mail or I send something out. Is this right?
What about internet? Will the phone automatically attach to the data netowrks when I fire up Opera? Presumably to attach to 3G I will need to reset to automatically seek WCDMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're still a bit confused i think. Ok on a phone you have voice or data. Data covers mail, internet, weather updates etc etc, voice covers phone calls.
There are two distinct protocols here, and we need to talk about them diferently...
GSM:
With GSM calls are sent over 1 timeslot and singalled as voice.
To make a call you need to have a signal, that takes a very short few messages which are sent every 20 minutes or so, or if you move around between towers. The Radio in the phone can do this all by itself without waking the phone up.
If you want to send ANY data (emails, internet, anything) you need to use GPRS. GPRS uses the same channels but inserts data into them instead of voice. Before you can send or receive any data you need to 'login' to the network. To login you need to actually open the channel and make a connection. Logging in is called 'ataching'. When you attach you get an IP address and the network can send stuff to you and u can send stuff to the network. Attaching needs to wake up the phone.
Once attached the phone can go into a sleep mode saving power, but any data send or received will wake up the phone.
UMTS/3G
UMTS is different in that everything is sent code divided. There is no 'login' or attach as such. In this mode all your voice gets converted to data and sent across.
---
With auto attach on:
If you use 3G mode, every time you switch between a 3G and GPRS area the phone will atach (GPRS) again, this will drain power.
Every time you move out of GPRS and come back into GPRS the phone will attach, even if you have nothing to send.
With autoattach off:
The phone will only attach if it has something to send AND is on GPRS (no 3G available or 3g turned off)
The upside is that you save power when you move between cells. The downside is that you can't receive any data from the network untill you decide to attach.
For push email for example you would never end up detaching as it would hold the connection open.
Anyway i hope that clear, but i'm quite sleepy so it might not make any sense lol
That makes sense to me. When I get my Touch Diamond, I'm definitely turning 'GPRS auto attach' off, because I don't think I need it on.
someone1234 that`s really useful info.I guess autoattach off is the best option for me too. WHEN the phone arrives.
Thanks again senior1234. I'm getting there. But this is more complex that I thought so I've gone back and checked what really makes a difference to the battery life.
The big difference for me is having the phone band set to GSM only (phone, options). Disabling auto attach makes a difference but not as much as I thought. I had changed both of them at the same time, thinking that they were more or less the same thing. Sorry folks. Very unscientific.
But if you feel like trying these bear in mind that I don't move between cells very much and have awful reception. I'll leave it to others to explain whether this is important.
HTC told me that with the screen on full brightness and phone turned on the GPS would only last about 2 hours befre the battery died, looks like we'll need the extended battery or several normal ones!
moonlanding said:
Thanks again senior1234. I'm getting there. But this is more complex that I thought so I've gone back and checked what really makes a difference to the battery life.
The big difference for me is having the phone band set to GSM only (phone, options). Disabling auto attach makes a difference but not as much as I thought. I had changed both of them at the same time, thinking that they were more or less the same thing. Sorry folks. Very unscientific.
But if you feel like trying these bear in mind that I don't move between cells very much and have awful reception. I'll leave it to others to explain whether this is important.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GSM will use alot less power, so that is whats definatly making the difference
Why? Well.. GSM uses time division, which means the phones in an area take turns 'speaks'/'listening' with the tower. This ensures that no two phones are talking at the same time, and the tower can 'hear' what was sent. Because of this the power the phone transmits with can be controlled to be just high enough for the tower to listen, but not too high as to waste battery.
The down side of this scheme is that even if a phone has nothing to 'say', the other phones will wait in case it does. This means you're wasting bandwidth - or time that could be used by another phone to send data. Bottom line, data throughput is slower!
With 3G, all phones can talk at the same time. The data they send is tagged with a code, so that the data doesnt get mixed up. The advantage here is no time is wasted waiting for phones that may have nothing to send. The down side is that you need to be 'talking' loud enough to 'talk' over other people sending. This is why the data rate over 3G drops off really rapidly as you move away from the tower.
The disadvantages are a phone far from the tower using 3G will use more power than one using GSM because its having to 'talk' louder to get over other phones 'talking'.
Also, signals that get lost because they were drowned out by other phones have to be retransmited, which doesnt happen with GSM as much.
Yeah 3G or CDMA based channel access methods are a real power hog!
As for Auto attach you would expect it to only make a real difference if you have programs holding channels open.
With regards to low reception, it will make a significant difference because power disipation is not linear. Like all radiation it follows the inverse square law. For every meter distance the power drops of by a square of the distance.
Don't forget, when comparing uptime with other phones, with the diamond you have 4x the amount of pixels. VGA (640 x 480) devices will always chew up more Battery that QVGA (320 x 240) . This is one of the main reasons that HTC and the others delayed shipping VGA devices until now.
If you want longer battery life, you are going to have to stop using the display so often.
There is no way a vga machine can compete with a qvga machine on battery life... when all other factors are equal.
I think if you discount 3G, the battery is a little too small for the phone. With 3G its wholy inadequate.
The screen does make a huge difference, but these screens are more efficient, and HTC have used every opertunity to turn the screen off - a bit excessivly if you look at how fast it turns off when you make a call.
I don't understand why they don't use the iphone method of turning it off when the light sensor shows its dark (in a call).. i.e. the earpiece is next to your head!
moonlanding said:
The experiment continues.
Disabling "GPRS auto attach" in Advanced Configuration Tool has made a big difference - still 90% after 6 hours now.
Now this is a surprise to me because I thought that you did this when you set the network seek to GSM only and not hunt for 3G. Or maybe I'm getting my GPRSs and GSMs mixed up...
Next step - leave this setting in place and turn push back on. Watch this space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've disabled gprs auto attach and set my band to GSM. When i connect to net with opera will it still turn on 3G etc?
nokmond said:
I've disabled gprs auto attach and set my band to GSM. When i connect to net with opera will it still turn on 3G etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good question.
i only use my phone for normal phone stuff ans sometimes for some internet browsing.
should i turn anything on or off?

How do I improve 3g image quality?

I don't even know if this is possible or not. When I leave any wi-fi area, my 3g turns on, but the image quality downgrades due to compression methods I guess, i.e. avatar pics on twitter apps are lower quality & web surfing.
Is there any way to use wf-fi quality images on a 3g signal?, I don't care if this will slow down my internet experience really.
Im in the UK with t-mobile on a G1 running Super D 1.6
I dont know but iphone devs have a couple apps that 'trick' the device into tbinking its on wifi so that even on 3g image/video quality equals wifi. its awesome. hope this happens on android
Hopefully someone will look into creating an app that would do this.
This is insane.
Data is data. It doesn't matter what kind of network you are connected to.
If your image quality is lower on 3g, then it is your ISP that is interfering with the files you are receiving.
lbcoder said:
This is insane.
Data is data. It doesn't matter what kind of network you are connected to.
If your image quality is lower on 3g, then it is your ISP that is interfering with the files you are receiving.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't mention anything about data, what I meant was the method compression that travels through the 3g signal

[Q] Loud beep noise when call ends & constant drop in data connection

I have been a proud owner of Xperia Z for over a month now. I switched from iPhone 4s to XZ and the experience has been splendid! During this time, I have noticed these problems-
1. When call ends, the dialer makes a very loud beep sound. I love the dialer but this beep sound is a major irritation esp. if call ends before I can pull phone away from my ears which happens more often than I can stand such a loud deep!
2. For unknown reason my XZ keeps losing Data connectivity in between. I have seen this happen when Wifi is on, which I thought could be due to "wifi policy" but when I am outside with no wifi, I keep losing the Data. The network connection is good. It's just the data. Only way to get it back is - turn on airplane mode - lock phone - unlock phone - turn off air plane mode.
I have researched XDA forums but no resolution on above problems yet. Please share your findings. :fingers-crossed:
No responses I looked at threads for network data connection issues but none have reported problem like mine. The tones when phone connects and disconnects a call are the most difficult to work with :silly:
swrajjoshi said:
I have been a proud owner of Xperia Z for over a month now. I switched from iPhone 4s to XZ and the experience has been splendid! During this time, I have noticed these problems-
1. When call ends, the dialer makes a very loud beep sound. I love the dialer but this beep sound is a major irritation esp. if call ends before I can pull phone away from my ears which happens more often than I can stand such a loud deep!
2. For unknown reason my XZ keeps losing Data connectivity in between. I have seen this happen when Wifi is on, which I thought could be due to "wifi policy" but when I am outside with no wifi, I keep losing the Data. The network connection is good. It's just the data. Only way to get it back is - turn on airplane mode - lock phone - unlock phone - turn off air plane mode.
I have researched XDA forums but no resolution on above problems yet. Please share your findings. :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Beep is normal...... No ned to wry........ In your network connection. Please select gsm preferred if u dont use 3g.... U will be fine...
I wish to get rid of the beep because it's very loud.
The network configuration is fine but it just dropping the 3G which want all the time.
Swraj
swrajjoshi said:
I wish to get rid of the beep because it's very loud.
The network configuration is fine but it just dropping the 3G which want all the time.
Swraj
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bro, it looks difficult to get rid of that beep unless u get root access but it's not a prob.. It's just an indication when call is disconnected..
Sent from my C6602 using xda app-developers app
swrajjoshi said:
I wish to get rid of the beep because it's very loud.
The network configuration is fine but it just dropping the 3G which want all the time.
Swraj
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try using the dual mode with cdma preferred option, trust me nothing wrong with the device just change ur network operator.....
Do you know what steps I can take to remove loud beep sound if I get rooted? I had tried but no luck.
Swraj
riflesnroses said:
Try using the dual mode with cdma preferred option, trust me nothing wrong with the device just change ur network operator.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This same SIM and network stayed connected on my iPhone 4s. I never had this problem with iPhone 4s. On the other hand, the first time I take my XZ on ride while using GPS and it losses connection right in middle transit which is in main city. The constant dropping of 3g connection makes it completely unreliable.
Swraj
The call-ended beep doesn't always sound when I close a call, in my case. What's the cause? I have root, as always.
any idea how to get rid of this beep
Bump
Sent from my Blade using Tapatalk

wifi Calling problems.... (help? pls?)

First off, I can make outgoing calls 100% of the time, and never have any problem except a split-second delay (as expected with VOIP)
Receiving calls though......
First, wifi calling randomly turns off, with a note I find later about "wifi calling is not available at this location" ---- yes, I have poor reception, and I know wifi calling requires an always-active GPS signal so rain or clouds can kill it --- but it never turns back on once the storm/cloud/whatever is gone, it stays turned off until I manually turn it back on.
Second, even when it is turned on, I will randomly get no notification - no ring, no vibrate, the screen stays black, and no "miss call" notification, I just get told later that someone tried to call me and it went straight to voicemail.
Third, when it does register an incoming call, I will swipe to answer and the phone app will... kinda half-freeze... it acts like it's trying to answer the call, where the red end button appears, but all the other buttons are greyed out except message. It's in a strange limbo-like state of being answered and not... when this happens usually the other party will connect and can hear me, but whatever they say never reaches me.
Fourth, I answer the call, everything seems fine, I say hello and just hear my own voice echoing, and even though I answered the call, they never connect and end up on voicemail.
I know that WiFi calling is a "new technology" (even if we've been using VOIP for years....) and Sprint hasn't "ironed out the bugs" yet, but is there anything I can do to improve it?
I have tried doing a hard reset on the phone, updating PRL/settings/OS, changing the phone data mode from LTE to CDMA, sprint tech changed out my SIM card for a new one, airplane mode (which doesn't work because it turns off GPS)... none of it works and I still miss a good 60%+ of my calls... any other suggestions?
Ashton_Durkhun said:
First off, I can make outgoing calls 100% of the time, and never have any problem except a split-second delay (as expected with VOIP)
Receiving calls though......
First, wifi calling randomly turns off, with a note I find later about "wifi calling is not available at this location" ---- yes, I have poor reception, and I know wifi calling requires an always-active GPS signal so rain or clouds can kill it --- but it never turns back on once the storm/cloud/whatever is gone, it stays turned off until I manually turn it back on.
Second, even when it is turned on, I will randomly get no notification - no ring, no vibrate, the screen stays black, and no "miss call" notification, I just get told later that someone tried to call me and it went straight to voicemail.
Third, when it does register an incoming call, I will swipe to answer and the phone app will... kinda half-freeze... it acts like it's trying to answer the call, where the red end button appears, but all the other buttons are greyed out except message. It's in a strange limbo-like state of being answered and not... when this happens usually the other party will connect and can hear me, but whatever they say never reaches me.
Fourth, I answer the call, everything seems fine, I say hello and just hear my own voice echoing, and even though I answered the call, they never connect and end up on voicemail.
I know that WiFi calling is a "new technology" (even if we've been using VOIP for years....) and Sprint hasn't "ironed out the bugs" yet, but is there anything I can do to improve it?
I have tried doing a hard reset on the phone, updating PRL/settings/OS, changing the phone data mode from LTE to CDMA, sprint tech changed out my SIM card for a new one, airplane mode (which doesn't work because it turns off GPS)... none of it works and I still miss a good 60%+ of my calls... any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do u have a vpn active?
plus i dont think GPS has anything to do with "WIFI" calling.
as long as wifi is connected to a proper wifi network, that should be all you need.( other than if a VPN is activated or wifi network is congested/ to many AP ssids with overlapping channels, then it should work fine.)
I did before the hard reset (one-dot), I dont now. so it didn't seem to matter...
Ashton_Durkhun said:
First off, I can make outgoing calls 100% of the time, and never have any problem except a split-second delay (as expected with VOIP)
Receiving calls though......
First, wifi calling randomly turns off, with a note I find later about "wifi calling is not available at this location" ---- yes, I have poor reception, and I know wifi calling requires an always-active GPS signal so rain or clouds can kill it --- but it never turns back on once the storm/cloud/whatever is gone, it stays turned off until I manually turn it back on.
Second, even when it is turned on, I will randomly get no notification - no ring, no vibrate, the screen stays black, and no "miss call" notification, I just get told later that someone tried to call me and it went straight to voicemail.
Third, when it does register an incoming call, I will swipe to answer and the phone app will... kinda half-freeze... it acts like it's trying to answer the call, where the red end button appears, but all the other buttons are greyed out except message. It's in a strange limbo-like state of being answered and not... when this happens usually the other party will connect and can hear me, but whatever they say never reaches me.
Fourth, I answer the call, everything seems fine, I say hello and just hear my own voice echoing, and even though I answered the call, they never connect and end up on voicemail.
I know that WiFi calling is a "new technology" (even if we've been using VOIP for years....) and Sprint hasn't "ironed out the bugs" yet, but is there anything I can do to improve it?
I have tried doing a hard reset on the phone, updating PRL/settings/OS, changing the phone data mode from LTE to CDMA, sprint tech changed out my SIM card for a new one, airplane mode (which doesn't work because it turns off GPS)... none of it works and I still miss a good 60%+ of my calls... any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sprint. I always had network connectivity issues with them. I wouldn't be surprised if this is something that is wrong on sprints end
bober10113 said:
plus i dont think GPS has anything to do with "WIFI" calling.
as long as wifi is connected to a proper wifi network, that should be all you need.( other than if a VPN is activated or wifi network is congested/ to many AP ssids with overlapping channels, then it should work fine.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to have an active GPS signal for "e911 services" --- yes the app claims you can set your location manually, but doing so does nothing and as soon as my phone loses cell/GPS reception, wifi calling goes off and will NOT come back on till reception is restored (also I've used two of Sprints Femtocells and both of them required an active GPS for e911 so....)
Bober_is_a_troll said:
Oh sprint. I always had network connectivity issues with them. I wouldn't be surprised if this is something that is wrong on sprints end
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah.... since about the start of this year my LTE speeds have gone down (though only in actual use! --- run speedtest and magically I have like 50mbps, even though I can't watch youtube even at 144p without it buffering and asking my phone "Alexa Next Track" returns an error about connectivity) Also my reception in my home has gotten worse in the last couple months --- for the last 17.5 years I've been able to make/receive calls on sprint over normal cellular without issue as long as it wasn't raining (yes, I've been with Sprint for almost long enough to raise a child.... they started out as the best carrier in my area, believe it or not), but now even though my phone reports 2 bars (out of like 8 or 10), I recieve almost no calls, and drop outgoing ones very frequently unless I switch to WiFi Calling.
So... yeah... I figured it was actually bad implementation on either Samsung or Sprint's part, but I was hoping there was something I could do to improve it....
Ashton_Durkhun said:
You have to have an active GPS signal for "e911 services" --- yes the app claims you can set your location manually, but doing so does nothing and as soon as my phone loses cell/GPS reception, wifi calling goes off and will NOT come back on till reception is restored (also I've used two of Sprints Femtocells and both of them required an active GPS for e911 so....)
yeah.... since about the start of this year my LTE speeds have gone down (though only in actual use! --- run speedtest and magically I have like 50mbps, even though I can't watch youtube even at 144p without it buffering and asking my phone "Alexa Next Track" returns an error about connectivity) Also my reception in my home has gotten worse in the last couple months --- for the last 17.5 years I've been able to make/receive calls on sprint over normal cellular without issue as long as it wasn't raining (yes, I've been with Sprint for almost long enough to raise a child.... they started out as the best carrier in my area, believe it or not), but now even though my phone reports 2 bars (out of like 8 or 10), I recieve almost no calls, and drop outgoing ones very frequently unless I switch to WiFi Calling.
So... yeah... I figured it was actually bad implementation on either Samsung or Sprint's part, but I was hoping there was something I could do to improve it....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Switch telco's... Sprint dropped the ball. They invested in. Winax , then LTE took off. They've been behind ever since

Wifi Calling Preferred Default w/adb -Verizon

Is anyone able to access the global wfc_ims_mode in the Pixel 4 or any later versions of android than 9? Here is the method I am referring to.
I need to know this because I am currently using an OG pixel and I manually set the Wifi Calling to Wifi Preferred as we know the toggle button verizon offers inside settings is a dud.
Without forcing the global wfc_ims_mode to 2, my phone is essentially a paperweight as all data and more importantly calls and text will always default to cellular which I have 0-0.5 bars of service at my home.
Thanks!
Deeper explanation and rant - cynicism and blame incoming.
A quick summary of Wifi Calling Preferred - There is Wifi Calling, yes I know, that toggle works and is on. Then there is Wifi Preferred, a separate setting that tells the phone it what connection to default to. This is a toggle that was inside of the the Wifi Calling settings that has been confirmed to do absolutely nothing regarding your phones affinity for wifi or celluar. It is not tied to anything on the side of the android ROM, it is just there to create the illusion that it works. It was supposed to allow people to force the phone you have to use the wifi connection over the mobile connection which really help people on the edge of a service area or, in my case, in .5 miles from a Cal State University with a partially obstructed view of a cell tower.
"But I see "Wifi calling" in the top of my phone sometimes and I have never had problems."
1. Yes, Verizon does allow calls to sometimes initiate through wifi and even stay on wifi for several minutes. However, Verizon has set conditions on what a "good connection" means in order to keep wifi routing of calls AND data to an absolute minimum regardless of how this effects the end users call and data quality. Simply put, if we rate our wifi and cell connections from 1-20 with 20 being spectacular and 1 being awful; Verizon has effectively written boundary rules that say a cellular signal rating of 1 is ALWAYS preferred over wifi signal 20. You could be standing next to a brand new gigabit router with google fiber and full signal, but if Verizon thinks it has .005 % of a bar, then guess what? No call! However, Verizon knows that it must initiate the call with good quality so they use the "wifi calling" (comes up on the top of the screen) to start the call, but as soon as the call has begun, and the phone has detected a signal of 1 on the cellular it will perform a hand-off to the cellular network. Icing on the cake?This is a mono-directional hand-off, meaning wifi MUST handover to the cellular but going from cell to wifi requires the phone disconnecting the call. Outstanding move Verizon!
2. I have 0-1 bars of service where I am so if you have more than that you wont notice the hand-off. I run my business through my phone and I was so tired of missed calls, missed texts, dropped calls, garbled sound, echo. Most people will see the "wifi calling" icon in the top of the phone and assume the entire call took place over wifi. Not the case at all. Just trying to avoid the "I have wifi calling on and everything is fine for me". Yeah, how long do you talk on the phone? How many calls are you getting? How sure are you after reading what I just wrote that the entire call, and every call that takes place in your house just simply because you are home and connected to wifi and one time saw wifi calling on the top is actually using wifi maintaining the call through your ISP??
To get around this, here is a method that I still use on my original pixle XL. I am still running android 9 as the move to 10 seems to have move the wfc_ims_mode select.
This is one of the main reasons I still use this phone. Without Wifi Calling being forced as "Preferred", I know everything will route through Verizons service which is virtually 0 where I am. This results in missed calls, dropped calls, and video qualities jumping around between 144p and 360p.
Would like to know also.
i have tried this method on my Pixel 3 android 10 stock and it didnt work.

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