joos8123

Q: iPhone 5 bad call voice quality

Got the new iPhone 5 and have bad phone call quality. The recipient of the call seems to be able to hear me ok, but their voice either isn't there or drops out or sounds grainy like when you have bad cell reception. Many times, the calls have just not connected. I know that that my cell reception and the recipients cell reception were excellent. This has occured when calling other cell phones, land lines, and toll free numbers. Anyone else having this issue? Have an appointment at Apple tomorrow morning to see what they think.

iPhone 5, iOS 6

Posted on Sep 24, 2012 4:54 PM

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Q: iPhone 5 bad call voice quality

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  • by cliffak,

    cliffak cliffak Sep 28, 2012 1:25 PM in response to spincast
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    Sep 28, 2012 1:25 PM in response to spincast

    That would imply the incoming voice decoder does some kind of quality degradation depending on signal quality. But how exactly would it affect only certain phone samples, and how would it not be caught in quality control?

     

    I just did a few quick test calls (to the same automated service, for consistency) and it does not matter if I'm connected to a 5 or 2.4 GHz WiFi network or turn WiFi off completely, everything yelds the same result.

     

    I don't see how moving to an area with no WiFi around would help as the signal from the access points are several orders of magnitude lower than that from the phone's own WiFi transmitter.

  • by angusfan,

    angusfan angusfan Sep 28, 2012 1:26 PM in response to joos8123
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    Sep 28, 2012 1:26 PM in response to joos8123

    Same issues here, BUT are you using the earpods? That seems to be the identified problem for me, haven't used the phone feature up to the ear as much yet, but the earpods make every call sound choppy and the voice on the other end go in and out ever other second, swithcing to the earphones that came with the 4s problem gone. There are other posts on macrumors forums about this too. Very dissapointing. I'm on verizon Iphone 5, LTE enabled and available in Los Angeles.I'm coming from ATT so for a minute i thought it was Verizon but reading these posts not sure, sounds like the phone/earbuds. What a bum out

  • by cliffak,

    cliffak cliffak Sep 28, 2012 1:35 PM in response to angusfan
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    Sep 28, 2012 1:35 PM in response to angusfan

    Nope, I'm using the same Sennheiser in-ear headset as I used for my iPhone 4. It sounds great when playing back music on the iPhone 5, the only thing with quality issues are the phone calls.

  • by schmil,

    schmil schmil Sep 28, 2012 3:24 PM in response to joos8123
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    Sep 28, 2012 3:24 PM in response to joos8123

    Same problem here. White iPhone 5 16GB VZW model. Doesn't always happen, and I've even been on conference calls and only had trouble hearing a few of the people, but when I drop and call back in with a different phone, I can hear everyone. Makes the phone unusable when this occurs, so I hope that they fix this soon. In the meantime, this can no longer be my primary phone, which is sad.

  • by benfromholyhead,

    benfromholyhead benfromholyhead Sep 28, 2012 3:32 PM in response to schmil
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    Sep 28, 2012 3:32 PM in response to schmil

    This is the most puzzling post in this thread. Now I'm truly baffled!

  • by LV-L,

    LV-L LV-L Sep 28, 2012 7:34 PM in response to joos8123
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    Sep 28, 2012 7:34 PM in response to joos8123

    I am sending my 32gb iPhone 5 back as a DOA today.  My replacement has already arrived.  When I fired up the new one and tested it out, I experienced the same issues of digitized, choppy, monotone sounding voices during phone calls.  This is very disappointing and I'm not quite sure what to do from here.  Come on Apple, this has to be something you can fix.  Bad call quality is so 1999 and completely unacceptable.

  • by Adebaene,

    Adebaene Adebaene Sep 28, 2012 7:52 PM in response to joos8123
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    Sep 28, 2012 7:52 PM in response to joos8123

    I have 2 iPhone 5 phones. My wife and I switched from AT&T to VZW. We both had an iPhone 4. We got them via mail on launch day. I actually ordered 3. We have not activated the 3rd, I plan to activate it tomorrow since the person who will use the phone is available to activate it. I have a black 16gb and I really have not had the problem described above. My wife has a 16gb white phone and her call quality is horrible most of the time. We have tried lots of things. Disabling LTE, wifi, and a network settings reset. I plan to restore the phone tomorrow but I also have an appointment @ an apple store and will probably try to get it swapped. I have a buddy who went from a 4 to a 5 on AT&T. His is a black one like mine and has not had a single voice quality issue. My wife's phone is unusable at times and I have witnessed it sounding like what you have all described above. I am hoping the swap tomorrow will fix it, but I am doubtful. I'll try and replace to this with my findings as I love the phone, but hate that my wife's is so unusable.

  • by markinaz,

    markinaz markinaz Sep 28, 2012 8:02 PM in response to Adebaene
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 28, 2012 8:02 PM in response to Adebaene

    I had the same issue with a ported iPhone 5 from my AT&T number to Verizon.  I switched my SIM from my phone to my wife's Verizon iPhone 5 and the issue now occured on her phone where it was not occuring with her SIM.  I just got the SIM replaced at the Apple store and the call quality is now good.  I would recommend everyone get a new SIM if you are having voice quality issues.

  • by sammyjg,

    sammyjg sammyjg Sep 28, 2012 8:49 PM in response to joos8123
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    Sep 28, 2012 8:49 PM in response to joos8123

    This is insane. I just received a VM on my iPhone 4S w/ IOS 6 upgrade and it sounds horrible/ auto-tuned (exactly like on IPhone 5). 

  • by Petehusky,

    Petehusky Petehusky Sep 29, 2012 1:30 AM in response to joos8123
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    Sep 29, 2012 1:30 AM in response to joos8123

    moved from O2 to vodafone in UK and from 3GS to 5 - having same issues - sounds like person calling is in a fishtank - seems to be only on incoming calls too. Person on other end can hear me clearly but I really struggle to understand what they are saying....will do some more tests today. Only had phone since thursday morning. Seems to be more of a problem on incoming calls

  • by cliffak,

    cliffak cliffak Sep 29, 2012 1:58 AM in response to markinaz
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    Sep 29, 2012 1:58 AM in response to markinaz

    I was going to try with a prepaid SIM which I had lying around, but the phone didn't recognize it (which may have been due to my cutting it down to nano SIM size not producing a snug fit). I guess I'll have to pay my carrier's store a visit either way.

     

    I also called Apple again today and the woman I talked to didn't sound too hopeful that simply swapping the SIM would help, she suspected it is a hardware issue. I could barely hear her, besides the compressed fuzzy sound her voice was kind of weak and she kept cutting out all the time.

     

    To summarize, there are two problems:

    * Low bitrate, fuzzy/noisy sound

    * Problems with weak voices, almost like some kind of noise floor setting has been set too high and cuts out too much. When there is silence on the other end, there is dead silence where the iPhone 4 would let just enough signal pass for you to know that the call was still up.

  • by funk daddy,

    funk daddy funk daddy Sep 29, 2012 6:12 AM in response to cliffak
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    Sep 29, 2012 6:12 AM in response to cliffak

    Very interesting. This is also EXACTLY how I would describe the problem.

  • by ctouch,

    ctouch ctouch Sep 29, 2012 9:31 AM in response to cliffak
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    Sep 29, 2012 9:31 AM in response to cliffak

    I have similar voice quality issue. I use the phone for work and it is frustrating from last couple of days. The voice modulation is not consistent, it goes up and down - more so when the other party in the call is outdoor, suggesting some issue with noise cancellation process. It is painful when I dial in to conference call - only one voice is heard clearly and rest of the voices in the call are breaking horribly. One second you hear them clear and the next second it goes down and it is hard to follow the conversation. I went to apple store last night and I did not get the right specialist to understand the issue - the experience was very bad and they were not making it any easy either to replace the phone or fix the issue. I was so frustrated with them in the store, I had to give it back right there. Its pretty sad that I wasted three days to get the phone and try out all configurations. Hopefully, Apple is skimming through the posts and taking this issue seriously before it becomes a wider probelm affecting many more.

  • by Coenocyte,

    Coenocyte Coenocyte Sep 29, 2012 3:37 PM in response to joos8123
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    Sep 29, 2012 3:37 PM in response to joos8123

    I Get the sense that the iPhone 5 has a noise cancellation algorithm that filters out the other persons background noise. If other person pauses for a second, it wipes out background noise so all u hear is silence. I found myself having to check with other person if they're still on phone.  Maybe someone can post mp3 of a conversation. Might downgrade to 4s

  • by angusfan,

    angusfan angusfan Sep 29, 2012 3:47 PM in response to joos8123
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    Sep 29, 2012 3:47 PM in response to joos8123

    For me it's 100% an earpods iPhone 5 problem. During a call swap them out with 4 or 4/ earbuds or put iPhone 5 to your ear and problem gone. For me that's 100% the problem. I have 2 pairs of earpods too, both do it

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