Is it me or is the 7100g possibly the worst phone ever?

Hey the 7100g does look great and the BB features are strong. But this darn phone is pretty much useless in a car or in an airport or in public area or anywhere there is any noise.

Comments comment from callers: Are you in wind tunnel? I can't make your voice out from all the background noise. Etc..

Where is the noise cancellation? Makes me think BB should stick to their old bricks.

My OLD Motorola V60i never had any of these issues. As a matter of fact I've never heard a phone that allows so much noise. I'm not alone either I have 20 guys in the office that complain of the same issue.

Bluetooth headsets don't seem to help either. Noise and or volume seem to plague them all. At least with the 7100g.

Hell I really disappointed with all the travel I do I was really looking for to the BB features and the Bluetooth support.

I tried the BT800 and it actually had decent sound and volume. But it is not really compatible with the 7001g.

I using the Logitech Mobile Freedom and its noise cancellation is very poor. WindStop? Yea sure....

To each their own.

The only way I can make calls while walking the dog (I live by the ocean, so it's usually windy here) or while driving in my Jeep Wrangler (another very loud environment) is with my Logitech Mobile Freedom. People can't understand me at all if I call from either of those conditions using the phone itself or a wired headset. No complaints from them at all when using my Mobile Freedom.

I have to wonder if this is from your coverage. You also might have a bad 7100g.
My 7100g has great sound quality. I use a Moto 810 bluetooth headset, and that makes it better than any of my old phones.
I'd try getting a replacement to see if it solves your problem

I get as good or better quality from the handset as I got from the motos I had previously, provided the battery isn't real low. When the battery is below 10%, the call quality is terrible.
I have two bars in my living room, and the call quality is fine. It's better with my wired headset.

I get the same complaints from my 7100t, I thought it was a known firmware issue?

I've got a new 7100g and am having the same problem....when talking directly into the phone people hear the background noise more than they hear me (e.g. in an airport it was a disaster). When I plug in a headset things are fine.

Do I have a bad handset, is this just the way it is with the 7100g, or is it a software problem?

The problem I am having is BB to BB. If I am talking BB to Other or BB to land line it is as good as my v400 was. However, if i am talking to another BB it sounds like i have a busted speaker to them and on my end.

I haven't even called another BB. But calling a landline has been a disaster unless I have a headset on or I'm in a silent place.

Never had a problem on my 7100G with or without my HS 820

Was at a Cingular store today and the display 7100g was connected (which is a very nice touch!), so I called a friend. He said the background noise was very audible and annoying. Called him right back on my LG VX4400 (2003 simple flipphone using VZW service); background noise much more muted, and no problems hearing me.

Just got a new 7100g from Cingular and tested it out -- same background noise problem (maybe a tiny bit better).

It seems so incredible to me that so few people with this phone / in this forum are experiencing this problem? Is this because this forum is somehow related to BB corporate so no one is allowed to complain about the phone? How can they make such a great device that you can't talk on on the street / in an airport?!! Isn't this meant for business users who are out and about???!?!!!

We have four 7100g's, one of which is assigned to a VP who's known for being vocal about the littlest of things, and ... none of them have mentioned anything about background noise being a problem.

My guess is that at what level background noise becomes a problem is unique to each person.

aristobrat, maybe your users tend not to use the phone in airports and on busy sidewalks, so their callers don't hear so much background noise?

Could be.

I am getting complaints from well over half of my users that the background noise is causing them not to use this phone at all. I cannot tell how many times the exact phrase "wind tunnel" has come across as a complaint. I am working with Cingular and RIM product management on this but with no resolution so far. We are using 4.0 on the device but have not upgraded the BES yet - I really think (and no, I am not a techie) that there is a common issue with some sort of OS/device combination.

Incidentally, this complaint goes hand-in-hand with the complaint on low device volume. We rolled out Motorola bt headsets to everyone but that did not help the issue at all.

Or could it be that most users are NOT experiencing this problem???!?!!!

I am having this problem with my 7100g. It works decent when I am in a quiet location. But anytime there is background noise at all, the person I am talking to cannot hear me at all, most of the time they just hang up. I am with Cingular also, I had such high expectations with this phone also. Oh well... Might have to switch.

Maybe I should consider myself fortunate but I have yet to have this issue with my 7100g and Cingular.

I am having this problem, and it does not matter where I call from (even calling from my quiet apartment in the center of NYC where I have great reception folks complain so much of the background noise that I always wind up calling back from another cell phone, and have now stopped using the 7100g as a phone at all).

There is definitely a widespread issue, though it seems some have been lucky enough to not come across this.

We have 14 7100s in-house (4 g's, 10 t's) and zero complaints about background noise.

That's a lot of luck.