POCO X3 NFC ear speaker sound insulation

[BrunoC]

Hi!

I've recently bought (very recently, two days ago) a POCO X3 NFC in a Portuguese oficial reseller, based on some reviews and articles I had read online.

I have not digged much, but it really looks a nice smartphone, when compared to market's offer for this price tag (at least the Portuguese one), so the reviews I've based my decision on, are not far from true.

BUT, there is a major issue with this smartphone or with this specific one I've got. The earspeaker is quite loud even in the minimum volume regulation, wich cause the conversation privacy to be equal to zero, on a car, living room, office or any other quiet place.
During a phone call everyone around me can ear everything from the person on the other side of the line. I've tried the lower sound level, and its still possible for a person who's a meter away from me, to clearly ear all the talking. The sound is set for the ear speaker ONLY, but it looks like its coming out of the handsfree/multimedia speaker, so that is possible to feel the rear plastic cover vibrating (resonating) a lot while a person is talking during a call.

I've noticed that on this smartphone, the maximum volume level of the earphone is louder than the lower volume level while on handsfree speaker!!
Other test I did was comparing it (only the sound issue) with two other diferent smartphones, a Samsung A71 (2020), and a Huawei P30 lite New Edition, and both have a lower end earspeaker sound volume, and both have a minimum handsfree sound, higher than the highest level of the earspeaker sound volume.
Covering the top speaker hole on POCO x3 NFC, resulted on a slight decrease of sound leakage.

I do consider that this sound leakage issue can be adressed with a volume recalibration via firmware update, but I'm not sure if a physical insulation aplied to the cover would'nt be necessary too (UPDATE - After running CIT tests, I believe its only firmware).

Not being able to keep my conversation private and dont disturb people arround me is a major concern, so if there is no solution for this, I'll be returning this smartphone (UPDATE - I will contact retailer, like suggested on email).

My intention with this post, is to understant if anyone outhere using this smartphone noticed the same issue and if there is any techincal intention to solve it on next update release.



Thank you all for your help! Keep safe!

Kind regards,

Bruno C.

 

[BrunoC]

Some more news about this:

I got a reply from service.global@xiaomi.com to the email I've sent about this.
I was adviced to follow several steps for malfunction verification prior to contact the retailer, wich I did.

One of the steps was to enter CIT, and run a test to RECEIVER and EAR SPEAKER. While running this tests I noticed that there is the possibility to interact with sound volume slider, so I slide it down to bottom end and it was almost quiet, and that made me believe that this can be solved with a firmware revision.
It would be great to see the lower end sound level of POCO X3 NFC earspeaker, reduced to a lower level, so it would be more confortable to user and increases privacy during a phone call. I had the oportunity to test this sound issue on my POCO X3 NFC side by side with a Xiaomi mi 9, and like when compared with Samsung A71 and Huawei P30 lite NE, the lower sound level on POCO's earspeaker is higher than the higher sound level of mi 9 earspeaker...

Please review this on the next firmware release. Despite this, the smartphone is great!!

Thank you!

Bruno C.

 

[geoorg]

Some more news about this:

I got a reply from service.global@xiaomi.com to the email I've sent about this.
I was adviced to follow several steps for malfunction verification prior to contact the retailer, wich I did.

One of the steps was to enter CIT, and run a test to RECEIVER and EAR SPEAKER. While running this tests I noticed that there is the possibility to interact with sound volume slider, so I slide it down to bottom end and it was almost quiet, and that made me believe that this can be solved with a firmware revision.
It would be great to see the lower end sound level of POCO X3 NFC earspeaker, reduced to a lower level, so it would be more confortable to user and increases privacy during a phone call. I had the oportunity to test this sound issue on my POCO X3 NFC side by side with a Xiaomi mi 9, and like when compared with Samsung A71 and Huawei P30 lite NE, the lower sound level on POCO's earspeaker is higher than the higher sound level of mi 9 earspeaker...

Please review this on the next firmware release. Despite this, the smartphone is great!!

Thank you!

Bruno C.

Glad you got you issue fixed.
This forum is meant for Xiaomi.eu custom rom development not official Xiaomi forum.
So except you are using Xiaomi.eu custom ROM, you are in the wrong place.

 

[BrunoC]

Glad you got you issue fixed.
This forum is meant for Xiaomi.eu custom rom development not official Xiaomi forum.
So except you are using Xiaomi.eu custom ROM, you are in the wrong place.

Oh! I haven't realised that.
Thank you for your warning.
I'm new to the xiaomi ecosystem, so I'm not aware of these. So, how can I get to the official Xiaomi suport forum?

Thank you,

Bruno C.

 

[geoorg]

Oh! I haven't realised that.
Thank you for your warning.
I'm new to the xiaomi ecosystem, so I'm not aware of these. So, how can I get to the official Xiaomi suport forum?

Thank you,

Bruno C.

That should be here

Xiaomi Community

c.mi.com

And i didn't mean it as a warning, just clarifying the situation, sorry if it sounded like a warning

 

[BrunoC]

That should be here

Xiaomi Community

c.mi.com

And i didn't mean it as a warning, just clarifying the situation, sorry if it sounded like a warning

I dint toke it that way, don't worry!
Thank you.

All the best,

Bruno C.

 

[midaspt]

You may also want to post to the unofficial PX3NFC forums at XDA-Devs:

Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC

The Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC is a 6.67" phone with a 1080x2400p resolution display. The Qualcomm SM7150-AC Snapdragon 732G (8 nm) chipset is paired with 6GB of RAM and 68/128GB of storage. The main camera is 64+13+2+2MP and the selfie camera is 20MP. The battery has a 5160mAh capacity.

forum.xda-developers.com

E há alguns conterrâneos por lá...

 

[BrunoC]

You may also want to post to the unofficial PX3NFC forums at XDA-Devs:

Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC

The Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC is a 6.67" phone with a 1080x2400p resolution display. The Qualcomm SM7150-AC Snapdragon 732G (8 nm) chipset is paired with 6GB of RAM and 68/128GB of storage. The main camera is 64+13+2+2MP and the selfie camera is 20MP. The battery has a 5160mAh capacity.

forum.xda-developers.com

E há alguns conterrâneos por lá...

I'll do so!
Abraço de Lisboa

 

[BrunoC]

Here's some more feedback about this.

When I bought POCO X3 NFC, I was in a rush because my smartphone was broken and I needed urgently to replace it.
That does'nt mean I haven't read and search about. That's exactly why I've decided for POCO X3.
The thing is, that some real world usability things are not explored on reviews... or at least on the majority of them, and this "slight speaker issue" wasn't referred anywhere... at least in the videos and reviews I saw at that time.

That said, and since I really needed a phone, couldn't be waiting for possible future solutions, and the online purchase return policy period was expiring, I returned the POCO X3NFC. It was a tough decision, since I believe it is a great piece of hardware for the price... but I can not live with this speaker issue.

Another hard decision to take, was again, find a smartphone similar to POCO X3NFC and its incredible price.
I ended up wasting 100 euros more (but in the end it was not so much). I bought the mirror image of POCO's, the Mi 10T Lite.
Like POCO, Mi 10T lite is a great device, and like any new released firmware based equipment, it has some issues, that I consider minor.
The earphone speaker on Mi 10T lite has a better insulation and a slight lower end audio level than X3, and that makes me believe that maybe, the sound issue on POCO's is not only a firmware addressable issue. The vibration on rear cover seems to be something related with materials and not fully solvable only with a firmware update.

If any of you are living or having the same doubts and toughs about POCO X3 NFC and Mi 10T lite, I can assure that the moment you open the box and use your Mi 10T Lite will be a beater-sweet one.
You'll feel like you've paid more for "the same phone"...
In my case, I purchased the 10T Lite under a campaign where a set of Mi True Wireless Earphones 2S were offered, and personally I like much more the finishing of Mi 10T Lite (I don't like the rear of X3, but that can easily be solved with a case), the rest is pretty much the same.

So my story with POCO X3, ends here.
All the best for everyone!

 

[midaspt]

Thanks for the input, BrunoC. Shame the PX3 didn't work for you.

FYI, I'm still on the stock EU ROM -- rooted, slightly debloated and customized -- and still waiting for essential usability improvements, too.

Mainly BTS stuff, like a solid recovery with nandroid backup capabilities.

 

[zika29]

Here's some more feedback about this.

When I bought POCO X3 NFC, I was in a rush because my smartphone was broken and I needed urgently to replace it.
That does'nt mean I haven't read and search about. That's exactly why I've decided for POCO X3.
The thing is, that some real world usability things are not explored on reviews... or at least on the majority of them, and this "slight speaker issue" wasn't referred anywhere... at least in the videos and reviews I saw at that time.

That said, and since I really needed a phone, couldn't be waiting for possible future solutions, and the online purchase return policy period was expiring, I returned the POCO X3NFC. It was a tough decision, since I believe it is a great piece of hardware for the price... but I can not live with this speaker issue.

Another hard decision to take, was again, find a smartphone similar to POCO X3NFC and its incredible price.
I ended up wasting 100 euros more (but in the end it was not so much). I bought the mirror image of POCO's, the Mi 10T Lite.
Like POCO, Mi 10T lite is a great device, and like any new released firmware based equipment, it has some issues, that I consider minor.
The earphone speaker on Mi 10T lite has a better insulation and a slight lower end audio level than X3, and that makes me believe that maybe, the sound issue on POCO's is not only a firmware addressable issue. The vibration on rear cover seems to be something related with materials and not fully solvable only with a firmware update.

If any of you are living or having the same doubts and toughs about POCO X3 NFC and Mi 10T lite, I can assure that the moment you open the box and use your Mi 10T Lite will be a beater-sweet one.
You'll feel like you've paid more for "the same phone"...
In my case, I purchased the 10T Lite under a campaign where a set of Mi True Wireless Earphones 2S were offered, and personally I like much more the finishing of Mi 10T Lite (I don't like the rear of X3, but that can easily be solved with a case), the rest is pretty much the same.

So my story with POCO X3, ends here.
All the best for everyone!

Hello
I bought mine yesterday and I am thinking of returning it because of the reason that you were facing. I feel like sound on poco x3 is not good and seems like it has some kind of distortion. I feel that vibration in the middle of device is something that just does not feel comfortable. Also I need to lower the volume as max as possible when I speak with someone as it is very loud. I am thinking of returning it and buying MI10 note lite but I would need to pay almost 100 euros more.
Have you managed to fix the issue with yours by any chance?

 

[BrunoC]

Hello
I bought mine yesterday and I am thinking of returning it because of the reason that you were facing. I feel like sound on poco x3 is not good and seems like it has some kind of distortion. I feel that vibration in the middle of device is something that just does not feel comfortable. Also I need to lower the volume as max as possible when I speak with someone as it is very loud. I am thinking of returning it and buying MI10 note lite but I would need to pay almost 100 euros more.
Have you managed to fix the issue with yours by any chance?

Hi!
Like I mentioned before, I no longer own the POCO X3 NFC, I've returned it and bought a Mi 10T Lite.
By the time I've purchase Mi 10T Lite it was 100 euros more than POCO X3NFC, and it was a little frustrating do pay more for almost exactly the same specs, but then Xiaomi Store (Portugal) was offering the True Wireless II earphones and it ended up to be a nice purchase.
I don't have any issue with Mi 10T Lite hardware, it is a very nice smartphone, but firmware (MIUI Global 12.0.8) have some slight issues to be solved in my opinion.

Keep Safe!

 

[zika29]

Hi!
Like I mentioned before, I no longer own the POCO X3 NFC, I've returned it and bought a Mi 10T Lite.
By the time I've purchase Mi 10T Lite it was 100 euros more than POCO X3NFC, and it was a little frustrating do pay more for almost exactly the same specs, but then Xiaomi Store (Portugal) was offering the True Wireless II earphones and it ended up to be a nice purchase.
I don't have any issue with Mi 10T Lite hardware, it is a very nice smartphone, but firmware (MIUI Global 12.0.8) have some slight issues to be solved in my opinion.

Keep Safe!

Thanks for reply. I have returned mine as well but Im still waiting for good timing to buy new one. Stay safe!

 

[pighean]

Hi! The problem persists with newly released phones as well. I got a POCO M4 Pro in 2022 and almost returned it. I fixed it, though, by altering the in-call sound profile. Here's a possible fix.