iPhone 11pro ear speaker buzzing

I went to an Apple Authorized Service Provider, and he compared my phone with other iPhone 11 Pro unit, and both of the units made the same sound from earpiece speaker, and also while playing sencha ringtone, but the buzz during sencha is less noticeable unless you have a sensitive ear. Phone calls on speaker, Sencha ringtone, etc sounded same on my phone and the other iphone 11 pro. The Technician also did a full diagnosis test of my iPhone, and all the tests passed (including the speakers/audio). He told me that if I am still not satisfied, I can get it sent to a repair center but still the results will be the same or either the repair center would decline the repair saying that it's not a defect.

The reason which the Apple authorized technician told me behind this buzzing was that the iPhone 11 pro :-

1> Is smaller than iPhone 11, hence sound gets less playroom on iPhone 11 Pro.

2> iPhone 11 Pro is made of stainless steel and 11 is made of aluminium, hence they both sound a bit different, with the aluminium one sounding better.

3> iPhone 11 Pro has 1 extra camera module installed w.r.t the iPhone 11, hence more lack of space and therefore, less playroom for sound.

Still, I compared my phone also with other iphone 11 pro in a different Apple Authorized Store, and the results were same.

Atleast, this tells me that next time if I am going to buy an Apple device, it will be a larger variant considering the huge number of features/modules installed within so small space.

Heya,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this issue happens when your speakermode volume during calls is above 50 %, if its below 50 % the buzz is very faint/not noticeable.

If yes, then :-

You are not the first one to have this problem. Some other people on MacRumors Forum reported this issue with their iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max as well. Note that the iPhone 11 doesn't make this buzzing sound. I have checked the iPhone 11 Pros in the store as well and they all make this sound too. It's a shame we get such product after paying a huge price. Redmi phones sound 10x better than this 1000$ phone during phone calls and high volume music. Spatial audio is just very rubbish.

My iPhone 11 Pro have the same issue. Whenever the person on the other end speaks, depending on his voice loudness, and speech, the earpiece speaker buzzes/rattles and its very annoying. If you notice closely, the bottom speaker also makes that buzz sound, but that is lesser than the earpiece speaker hence it doesnt come into notice easily, but I can confirm that both of the speakers make that buzzing sound.

IMO, it is because of the lack of space around the speaker. (Most probably due to addition of 1 extra camera module w.r.t iPhone 11) The soundwaves do not get enough exit holes (speaker holes) to come out and hence causes buzzing sound. If apple would have provided simply dolby atmos like S10+ and a larger speaker grill/more speaker holes, this issue wouldn't come up.

You can check out my post here as well :-

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250695880

Hi there, CeglA,

Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities. I understand that you are experiencing some issues with audio when on a phone call. Specifically, if the volume is lower than about 50%, there is a buzzing in the sound. I'm happy to help!

Based on what you've described, I would recommend going through the steps outlined in the Apple Support article If you hear no sound or distorted sound from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch speaker - Apple Support.

Should you still need help after that, please get in touch with Apple Support directly: Contact Apple Support.

Have a good weekend.

Try listening to this song : https://gaana.com/artist/im-fakin-1

Cover the bottom speaker, and listen to the first 15 seconds of this song.

I am hoping too that an update fixes it , and yeah that annoying sound is very frustrating especially when you know that you paid a huge amount for this phone. I sent a feedback/bug report also to Apple Engineers directly using Apple Feedback Assistant. You can try doing the same. If they see that many people are having this issue, they will surely try to patch it up in a SW Update. Also, its a shame how these things pass the QC, clearly shows lack of attention from apple.

Unfortunately there is no Apple Store in my country. I purchased this from an authorized reseller and it doesnt have a refund/return policy. I compared my phone with the live demo units by playing sencha ringtone from settings and they both had buzz sound coming from earpiece speaker. I compared also iPhone 11, but it didnt had any buzz. I asked the reseller and he said that it is most probably because apple used regular earpiece speaker as loudspeakers without optimization, and I should give my device to Apple service provider to let them open up the device and check what's wrong.

I seriously dont want my device to be opened up because, to fix 1 speaker, it will invite 5 more issues like dust under camera, adhesive problems, water resistivity decrease, popping sound or dust under screen. Getting a replacement for mobile phone is the most difficult part in my country, let alone getting a refund.

My S10+ which I exchanged for iphone 11 pro had 2x better sound.

Plus, if the demo units are making same noise, I doubt if the replacement would have a better sound.

Similar issues reported here : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250742184

I have the same issue with my 11 pro. It’s frustrating! The funny thing is that I mentioned the problem in a Apple Store and they did some speaker tests. One of the test failed so they decided to replace my phone display with a new one.... result: I still have the same issue. it’s a shame. At this point I’m supposing that it’s a problem of any iPhone 11 Pro. What can we do? I payed more then 1000€ for this phone... maybe a software update can fix it?

Sorry for my English, I’m Italian.

I dont have the option to turn off "Voice over LTE (VoLTE)" in the Settings, + If I turn off that feature, my SIM card won't work because phone calls from my SIM card works only with VoLTE.

Things, which I already tried :-

1> Switching to different provider SIM Cards.

2> Switching to different provider eSIM.

3> Turn off noise cancellation.

4> Turn off Bluetooth.

5> Turn off Wi-Fi.

6> Hard Reset iPhone.

None of the above steps worked for me.

EDIT : I tried the 3G mode only on a different SIM, and that doesn't fix the buzzing sound from earpiece speaker.

I'll to send a feedback too. Did you go to apple store? if yes, what did the say to you about the issue?

I’ve already tried to do that but nothing change.

so you have the same issue also with the ring tones audio? In my case I just have issues with phone calls (on speaker). The audio of ring tons, music, video work fine... also if I set the max volume.