Static in Iphone 4s

It happened to my first 4S and every replacement thereafter. I believe Apple is well aware but due to lack of media coverage (antennagate was covered everywhere and Apple was forced to respond) they won't acknowledge it. Also, it doesn't help that some people just plain don't hear it. Some aren't sensitive to it and some just assume it's standard cellular phone call BS -- and then there are the people that just aren't savvy enough to realize they can go to the Apple store and say something about it.

Personally, I think Apple changed the antenna design internally and botched something along the way and due to the fact that it's not a major design refresh (2G to 3G, 3GS to 4) they're just letting it go. No free bumpers will fix this. No software patch -- barring the 3G off switch (which is more of an unfortunate bandaid) will help.

**I have turned 3G off on my phone and successfully fixed the noise issue. This is a 3G antenna malfunction and I seriously wish someone like Mossberg or Lyons (or gizmodo/verge blogs for that matter) would write about this and get Cook to at least ADMIT something is wrong.

I spent a lot of money on my phone and gone through numerous hours and several replacements PLUS garbage phone calls (recently if I know I'll be on the phone for a long time I'll borrow my gf's BlackBerry -- how pathetic that her Bold trumps the best smartphone in the world in terms of voice/call quality) only to have it happen again and again. For the first time I feel like Apple has gotten one over on me and it just doesn't sit right. It has me reconsidering my whole outlook and maybe this time I'll actually pull the trigger and move on to WP7 & a f*cking Sir Ive design knock-off HP. That is how scorned this crackling has left me.

I am not suprissed that this thread is still quite active. When I fisrt got my iPhone 4S I noticed the noise immediatly on a call.. I even captured the crackling noise and sent it in to Apple after switching the phone at an pple store 6 times. I was told they were looking into it, but never got a response afterwards. Its been almost a year I've had this phone, and while its good for running aps, its horrible for phone calls that you take by holding the handset to your ear. Isn't that ultimatley its primary function, being a phone?

This to me reflects badly on Apple in my eyes.

I went to the store three times and they wouldn't let me switch my phone. The crackling makes phone calls unbearable.

After having my phone swapped 3 times I've given up. The Apple support rep I talked to was friendly and tried his best to help but this comes down to Apple not taking responsibility for a faulty design and/or part. He told me repeatedly that I'm the only one he's spoken to who's reported the issue. I just can't believe that. It's Apple not having any pressure from anyone except the one's who've noticed the issue or are really bothered by it. I can just imagine Apple telling these support guys "if anyone calls with this issue just pretend like it's an anomaly". It's NOT, they ALL have the crackling/static sound.

Apple refuses to do right by us, I'm abandoning them and others will follow if they can't even stand by their products. Apple will end up right where they were in the 90s- a huge joke.

Hey dxironman13. I seem to recall you saying that you went to the Apple store in Altamonte Springs, FL. Is that right? If it is and you're as curios as me, I have an idea. I am close to that store. My time to go to the Apple store is hard to come by (maybe I can just call in and talk to the same person), so not sure how we would work it out, but one of us could go in with this problem and get the person's name (maybe just make sure a manager hears about it, so they are more likely to be there at any given time). Then the other go in and make sure we talk to the same person and see if they still say they've never heard of it. Then we would know the truth. I would prefer that you go in first, being that they've already replaced yours. You could say no to a replacement. I've not had mine replaced for this problem, so it may be ackward for me to refuse a replacement, if they offered it. And I don't want it replaced, because I have no hopes that it will fix it and don't want to take a chance at getting one with other problems. Let me know what you think.

Took my phone back yesterday, showed the apple guy the video and audio recording of the static noise and told him that it only happens when my 3G is on and active, and is most noticeable whilst downloading large app for example. He just swapped it straight away without question and gave me a new one.

I've not noticed any static notice so far but I've only day it one day now so I'll do more test and report back :)

It's so disappointed today when I forward a video that is taken by my iphone 4s to my computer. I took this video on a very quite background becasue I needed to record my newly oredered badminton racket to the seller to identify the weird noise on it when I was swing it. When I clicked on the video on my computer, I can clearly hear the annoying buzzing sound on the background of the video. It's not small, but very loud and annoying. And later on, I took the other video, same result. At that time, I would say "What the ...."

I'm having the same problem with my new iPhone 4S, but when I use earphones, the annoying static noise disappears. The noise doesn't depends of 3G being on or off, it happens all the time. It's my second iPhone 4S. The first one was returned because of a yellowed screen. I'm thinking if I should take my money back or try another one. I can't stay with this one.

I got a replacement iPhone 4s today as my other iPhone which was only a month old suddenly developed a problem with the dock and wouldn't charge even after I tried three different wires and it also wouldn't connect to my lapto either. The replacement phone is fine or so I thought. As soon as I got home I called boyfriend and could hear a light crackle/ static sound constantly. I made more calls and the same thing happened 90% of the time. It happens on both wifi and 3G. What Ive found though is if i put loudspeaker on the static goes away and also can't hear any static when my headphones are in. It's only when I put my ear to the phone. I've tried resetting the phone but it doesn't help. My other iPhone 4s never everrrrr had this problem. If I bring it back will they refuse because it's not really anything major... I mean it's faint but still noticeable and very irritating.

I currently have an iPhone 4 (not the 4S) and I'm having this static problem on about 60% of my phone calls. Sometimes it doesn't happen at all and other times it makes the conversation unbearable. It seems the longer the phone call goes on for the worse the static gets. I just finished quickly reading through all 61 PAGES of unsatisfied customers and there is no answer from Apple about this issue?!?! That is very dissapointing. The original post was a year ago in 2011 and people are still having this problem with no fix.

I've had 3 iPhones in my life and all have ended up being swapped out due to technical problems. My iPhone 3G had a transmitter/reciever problem that rendered it replaceable according to Apple, then when I had my last iPhone 4 unlocked by the carrier (Rogers in Canada) the phone died and could not be revived even by the Apple Store GENIUS! (yeah right.....) Now this replacement phone that they gave me for the one that outright died (RIP phone) is having this super annoying static issue. Seems to me like I and a lot of others have put waaaaay too much faith in this company and it's time to stop giving them money for their inferior products. And yes I acknowledge that the iPhone is a marvelous piece of technology and really fun to play with and takes beautiful video and blah blah blah.... BUT IT DOESN'T RELIABLY MAKE QUALITY PHONE CALLS. It is a phone right? Sorry about the angry caps....

unfortunately Apple will never admit to this problem. ALL of the iphone 4s have the static but no "genius" or support specialist will acknowledge it. i gurantee if you call right now whoever you talk to will go "hmmm i've never heard of that problem...lets send you a new phone". of course the new one will have the same problem. after returning my phone twice they basically told me i was SOL. horrible experience and an all around bad/rushed/problematic phone. hopefully they get the iphone 5 right. i'm going to cut my losses, sell the 4s for $240 on Gazelle and get the iphone 5.

@dxironman13. You are exactly right. And, I just so happened to sell my 4S today for $340 and am hoping that the iphone 5 does not have any major issues. I can handle a few bugs here and there, but this buzzing in the ear thing was driving me nuts. I think that we can all agree that we want our cell phones to first, work good as a phone. Well, hopefully the iphone 5 has LTE and also, has great call quality. Those two things are the only things that I desire more than what the 4S was/is.

i'm also having the same issue with my iphone 4, but aside from this at the same time my iphone is always searching for network. and this is frustrating....

Having this issue on my 4s for a while now. Going to try to swap it coming week. Also had this on my iPhone 3g, on that phone it has gotten so bad that it became impossible to hear the other person on the line... Headphones seem the only solution?

I change my 4s 3 times in a month, in apple support they say " you are the first person who have this problem, try change another time"

Brazil Iphone 4s White 16gb iOS 6.0 ( 2 carrier VIVO and OI ) - this phone here cost R$ 2.000,00 or +/- US$ 1.000,00

61 pages of this, we need a solution