I inserted the pin in the left bottom microphone

Hello Enrico,

I just opened the Mate 20 Pro and what i can say is this:

There are two microphones at the bottom end of the phone. I can’t tell when which one is in use but both of them sit on top of small daughterboards. So the gasket for water- and dust proof isn,t placed at the end of the small holes but on top of it. The rear end of both holes should be plastic of the mid frame. In my opinion I don’t think it’s possible to break one of the gaskets by entering a pin in one of the holes but i can’t give you a guarantee for that.

Mate 20 pro here, also poked the left mic, using recording apps the left mic is not registering any movement in the noise graphs, so it is safe to say that our mics are all good, thank God I was about to break down when I thought that I broke a mic in my 1000$ band new phone

I just did the same thing with my Mate 20 pro - except I inserted the sim ejection tool in the RIGHT microphone hole. HARD. And when the simtray didn’t pop out, I pushed it even harder. I then did the same tests you did. The left microphone records next to nothing, while the right one records just perfect.

Because of this, I think it’s safe to say our mishaps did nothing to damage the phone.

Hi,

I have noticed that the TOP microphone seems to not working, but I was sometimes been able to have it working, let me explain :

In normal use and using the ear speaker, the bottom right mic is used.

When using hands-free mode, it's also bottom right and if I play with the omnidirectional option (on / off / on) the top mic works.

So it's seems to not be an hardware issue but more a software one.

Another case, when recording a video :

In landscape :

- The left audio channel is recorded from left bottom mic

- The right audio channel is recorded from right bottom mic

Here, this is not correct, the left audio channel should be recorded from top mic, but top mic is not working here.

In non-landscape mode (portrait in french), it's the same as above and can be logic :

- The left audio channel is recorded from left bottom mic

- The right audio channel is recorded from right bottom mic

Now in application sound recorder :

- Both bottom mic is working with :

- The left audio channel is recorded from left bottom mic

- The right audio channel is recorded from right bottom mic

- Top mic is not working

I'm on LYA-L29 C432 - 9.0.0.187.

It seems that we have some kind of software issue.

Anyone can test and confirm ?

Thanks.

Seb.

EDIT : i have found back a video recorded on firmware 9.0.0.153 version and it is correct :

In landscape :

- The left audio channel is recorded from top bottom mic

- The right audio channel is recorded from right/left (i’m not sure) bottom mic but for sure audio is correctly listen from right ear.

In non-landscape mode :

- The left audio channel is recorded from left bottom mic

- The right audio channel is recorded from right bottom mic

So it must be a software issue right ?

Can somebody confirm, that the left one micro is originally recording “nearly to nothing” (without having done this mistake).

Hi,

Is there a microphone on top ?

When trying to touch the boarder, nothing is recorded.

Thanks.

I'm not sure I damaged something: when I phone, on the other side my voice is well received, besides I re-tried to insert (extremely slowly and carefully) the pin inside both the bottom holes and it find something hard at the same depth, so it seems that nothing has been perforated.... but, I really would like to know where to find technical schematics or tear down videos to see how these two microphones are mounted and which is their function.

I can confirm, audio is recorded correctly in portrait mode.

Bottom right right channel. Bottom left left channel.

So perfect! Using actual firmware .187

Thanks Peter :)

Are you able to try in landscape mode (front camera visible to left side ?)

In this mode, on 9.0.0.153 (the top mic) is used to record the left channel and one or both of bottom mic (here at right) record the right channel.

On 9.0.0.187, top mic doesn’t do anything on my side.

Thanks.

Same here. I think that this upper position is used for noise reduction.

It is a popular position for this as well as at other manufacturers

Yep that’s possible but with the earlier firmware when film in landscape a car that goes to left to right or inverse, we have the correct sound lol and not anymore.

Again thanks for confirming because at first i was thinking it was an hardware issue but hopefully you helped me and also be able to compare video test between 9.0.0.153 and 9.0.0.187 :)

Hi,

We are in 2020, 10.0.0.196, and still have this microphone problem… The top microphone is not used for stereo in landscape video recording… It's not really convenient.

Hello, i was trying to clear the mic hole with a cleaning spray for electric parts, now the mic is not working and no one can hear me during calls, but when i give command to Google assisstant it works, cant know what seems to be the problem

Hello. I done same mistake on my huawei P40 lite. I punctured microphone hole with sim card ejector.The audio snd voice recordings seem fine but did i damage it?