Most insane of all, the speaker is inexplicably at the BOTTOM of the phone. As far from my ear as they could place it. (???) No idea why.
On top of the universally bad ergonomics, my work has saddled us with Sprint as the carrier, instead of more expensive (but seemingly more functional) At&T which we had before. The audio quality is terrible, and must be set at maximum volume at all times to hear anything.
The phone speaker is at the top, actually. Look closer, just above the Samsung logo.
The quality of the sound when speaking is not the phones fault. It's the carrier. Some carriers around the world offer HD-voice. Crystal clear!