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Review: Kyocera DuraPlus for Sprint

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DuraPlus sound

cellphonesaretools

Mar 30, 2012, 9:32 AM
Quoted excerpt from Eric's review:
"Sound:
I was disappointed in the DuraPlus's calling capabilities. Phone calls sounded terrible. They were full of noise and interference. Worse, the earpiece was absolutely anemic. It barely produced any volume at all, even when set to the maximum volume. Hoping for the speakerphone to save you? Don't get your hopes up. It's awful as well. Given this phone's sheer size and bulk, there's no excuse for sub-par voice performance. Voice is this phone's meat-and-potatoes feature, and it fails badly." (end quote)

I tried two DuraPlus phones in a row, both had excellent sound quality in normal "phone-to-the-ear" conversations, but both failed miserably on speakerphone. Very weak sound, very "muddy" sound in...
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erikclarke

Mar 31, 2012, 12:13 PM
The speakerphone performance AND general poor telephone performance is a DEAL-KILLER that is a major fail for this model. All it does is talk, and it is thoroughly disappointing as a phone. It is incapable of satisfying even the most eager tough-phone/PTT enthusiast. I returned it after trying several times to record a clean voice mail announcement and after two additional days of listening to people asking me to repeat myself when using the speaker-phone microphone. This phone is an imposter! ☹️
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cellphonesaretools

Apr 2, 2012, 10:58 AM
It is amazing that in this day & age of automated test systems and well-established quality control procedures that neither Kyocera's nor Sprint's quality assurance programs caught this major blunder before it got shipped to all the stores and customers. It's so obvious the minute you try to use a DuraPlus in speakerphone mode that there is a major problem.

Based on my short time with the DuraPlus, I do think if Sprint & Kyocera can get on top of this speaker/microphone problem, they will have a good phone on their hands. If they are lucky, it is a software problem that can be fixed by updating each phone. If it's a hardware component defect or a manufacturing defect, they'll have to recall them.

SPRINT, ARE YOU LISTENING?: Have Motoro...
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lanmansa

Apr 2, 2012, 11:05 AM
Kind of disappointed that the sound quality isn't as good as it should be. I'm really hoping Sprint fixes this with a firmware update of some kind.

I actually just decided to FINALLY replace my old i530 (solid as a brick wall) with a new Motorola Admiral with Sprint DC PTT.

I must say, the voice quality and signal quality of that phone is as good as any other Motorola, I get 3 bars in my basement! PTT quality is equally good, as as fast as Sprint advertises.

It isn't as well built as the i530, I'm still worried I will scratch the screen, but I have 30 days to decide if I want to keep it. I think I'm going to keep it at this point. haven't found anything that is a deal breaker for me.

As for the Kyocera Sprint DC phones, they bet...
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cellphonesaretools

Apr 2, 2012, 11:20 AM
RE: "...but I have 30 days to decide if I want to keep it."

I'm not sure you have 30 days. When I got the DuraPlus, it was made clear that I had only 14 days in which to return it if it was unsatisfactory. You might want to double check to verify exactly how much time you have for your trial period.

How is the Admiral in speakerphone mode, i.e. comparing it directly with the speakerphone performance on your old i530?
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lanmansa

Apr 2, 2012, 11:53 AM
Yeah I believe you are correct about the 14 days. It used to be Sprint gave you 30 but they changed that recently. What you gonna do 🤨

Speakerphone is actually quite good on the Admiral. Voices sound a bit "tinny" and don't sound as full or as warm as on the i530, but the volume seems to be plenty loud for me. I usually never have to crank it up to max. At the highest volume setting there is a bit of distortion anyway, but not so much that it is impossible to understand the caller. I think this is contributed to the fact that the speakerphone is under the battery cover, not like the massive speaker directly on the back of the i530. Smaller driver equals less midrange tones.

Other than that, not really a deal breaker for me. The fac...
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lanmansa

Apr 2, 2012, 11:11 AM
Also, I second your request for Sprint to duplicate the i365 to CDMA. Like I said in my previous post, even the sound quality of the NEW Motorola Sprint DC phones have good sound quality.

Thanks Eric for posting this review, you should see if you can get your hands on a Motorola Admiral for review as well! I would like to see phonescoop's take on it!
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