iPhone 5 bad call voice quality

x2 iPhone 5

Unlocked from Apple Store Ireland

Operator: Three Ireland

Bought my iPhone 5 at the beginning of December off Apple Store Ireland unlocked. Yes it's a great piece of kit with a very premium feel to it, however after quitting tweeting, whatsapping and facebooking I've started to experience poor call quality on both incoming and outgoing calls. I just couldn't get over robotic, muffled and digitized sound coming from a 679 Euro gagdet, however callers and recipients seemed to be able to hear my voice very clearly. I didn't even try to look up the issue on the internet and called Apple Care straight away. With no hassle they offered to replace the phone. After waiting 3 days for the replacement to arrive, I've enthusiastically unpacked my brand new iPhone and regrettingly discovered that replacing the gadget didn't solve the issue as I was still experiencing same poor call quality on both incoming and outgoing calls. I once again called Apple Care and again and tried to resolve the issue over the phone with an Apple technician who seemed not able to track the issue (or completely ignored it) despite my desperate attempts to refer him to this discussion topic and once again offered me a replacement at which moment I decided to go with a full refund until there would be an official update on the issue. Again, no hassle refund followed up by several canned responses to make me feel better. Once my refund was processed, I've reached out to Apple representative I spoke to before as she provided me with her direct email in case I have any further questions. For everyone's consideration please find the please find our email correspondence below.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Justyna Palka <jpalka@apple.com>

Date: 2012/12/20

Subject: Re:

To: Roman <>

Dear Roman,

Thank you for your e- mail.

I will have forward your concern further .

Have a good day.

Happy Christmas!

Kind regards,

---------------------

Justyna Palka

Apple Online Store

Apple Distribution International

IRL 1850 8820 48

Help Pages

http://store.apple.com/ie/help

Online Self Service

http://store.apple.com/ie/orderstatus

UK 0845 600 1683

Help Pages

http://store.apple.com/uk/help

Online Self Service

http://store.apple.com/uk/orderstatus

On 19 Dec 2012, at 18:03, Roman <> wrote:

Hello Justyna,

Thank you for your kind support earlier last week.

My refund has now been processed, however please let me once again raise a concern regarding iPhone 5 bad voice quality publicly discussed at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4348915?start=0&tstart=0. I am deeply disappointed I was forced to proceed with a refund due to Apple inability to track the issue and provide me an appropriate solution or replacement. I would greatly appreciate if you could share your thoughts as an Apple representative regarding this widely discussed issue.

Thank you for taking your time to read this email. I am looking forward to your reply.

Wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Kind regards,

Roman

2012/12/13 Justyna Palka <jpalka@apple.com>

Hello again

This is my direct email in case you have any further questions.

Kind regards,

---------------------

Justyna Palka

Apple Online Store

Apple Distribution International

IRL 1850 8820 48

Help Pages

http://store.apple.com/ie/help

Online Self Service

http://store.apple.com/ie/orderstatus

UK 0845 600 1683

Help Pages

http://store.apple.com/uk/help

Online Self Service

http://store.apple.com/uk/orderstatus

I would kindly recommended everyone to refrain from buying an iPhone 5 until there would be an official update on the issue.

http://iphone5callquality.com/

"January 9, 2013:

Apple Store tested 3 iPhone 5's and confirms the iPhone 5 has a call quality problem they cannot solve.

Yesterday I visited the Apple Store in Amsterdam to demo the call quality problem of my iPhone 5. Two team employees from the Apple Store (an Apple Genius and a person from the Business department) made test calls with my iPhone 5 and had to admit that there clearly is a problem with the call quality. When you are on a call the incoming voice drops in and out, the audio sounds digitized and choppy. We also tested my iPhone 4 with the same version of iOS (6.0.2). The call quality of the iPhone 4 was perfect. The Apple Genius decided to place more test calls with two of their own iPhone 5’s and experienced the same call quality issues. To rule out that the problem could be caused by settings or installed apps, the person from the Genius Bar activated a brand new iPhone 5 for me. When we made test calls with this new-out-of-the-box iPhone 5 the result was the same: choppy sound on every call. The exact same effect that can be heard in my YouTube video.

The person from the Genius Bar concluded that this is a real problem that they cannot solve. He told me that he would do everything for me to find a solution for the problem and that I would hear from Apple soon. I hope that the Apple Store Amsterdam is more helpful than Apple Ireland. "

Can anyone here confirm switching to iPhone 4S solves the problem? Need a new phone ASAP and have no time to wait for Apple to figure it out not that they seem interested. Don't consider Android as a solid alternative too.

http://gizmodo.com/5976163/yes-apple-is-cutting-down-iphone-5-orders-and-it-isnt -giving-any-explanation?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizm odo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Did anyone see iPhone 5 call quality testing, compared across carriers from CNET available at http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-57536314-233/iphone-5-call-quality-testing- compared-across-carriers/ That makes me wonder if it's a hardware issue caused by faulty production batch(es). Thoughts?

+1 here. If I could get the same call quality from my iPhone 5 like on that Verizon clip I would be more than delighted. At the moment parts of the conversation are dropping out completely and you can't understand a single word people are saying to you while they hear you exceptionally good.

My colleague has an iPhone 5 (purchased through Three, Ireland). Exceptional call quality before 6.1 and after uprgade. I've bought all of mine online from Apple Store Ireland with delivery from UK and both sounded dreadfully bad with same pay-as-you-go plan from Three. I feel lost.

Happy for all of you lucky people.

Same here. I am on my third iPhone 5 at the moment and the call quality finally appears to be really good (I've been using it for couple of days now). Had a muffed and static sound on both of mine previous iPhone 5s. Same country, same service provider (Three, Ireland). Not sure if it was software or hardware issue. Good luck to those of you who are still expiriencing the issue.

I've had the same issues with IPhone 5 call quality. I am with Verizon and it's very difficult to hear/understand people on the other end of the phone. It sounds static and robotic, however they seem to be able to hear my voice very clearly. I had the iphone 4S and had no such problems. Yesterday I couldn't hear someone at all on my phone at work, I thought it was their phone connection, but I've had the same issues at other locations and with other phone lines.

This appears to work for me as we'll. I have terrible static while talking on the handset or using speakerphone. When I disable LTE the static seems to go away...

I just tried a land line and cell line and still had the same issue (static/robotic) after turning off LTE. One note is they also swapped my phone out at Verizon and used same mini SIM card from original phone. The first phone had scratches on the side. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the SIM card? I haven't heard of anyone else having this issue. Reviews for call quality have all been good (better than 4S).