iPhone 5 bad call voice quality

Charles--have you even read the postings on this blog? If you did you would realize the compliants have been relatively evenly split between AT&T and Verizon customers and also include other carriers in Europe.

This is NOT a forum to boost Apple's stock price or for "Fan Boys", it's a support community for customers having similar issues with their products.

Go somewhere with it!

In Holland I have the same bad sound quality, sounds like a robot or someone calling from a car with bad acoustics. The other person hears me clearly. Calling the voicemail sounds good. The IPhone 4s sound for me was fine. I have the feeling that it depends on the quality of the speaker and the thin case.?

Going back a couple of pages, those who identified their carrier were 12 Verzion and 3 AT&T that had problems. Not "evenly split" at all. More false information.

I thought it interesting that one poster stated than call quality improved when he removed the plastic protection covering the speaker!

Like I said before, for the best service, take your iPhone to an Apple store for help. You can also look back and read my message listing phone numbers and email addresses for Apple help.

U.S. iPhone technical support:

(800) MY-IPHONE (800-694-7466)

Make an appointment at an Apple Retail Store Genius Bar

Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad customers within 90 days of ownership are eligible for complimentary phone support — one support incident per iPod and unlimited incidents per Mac, iPhone and iPad.

See all worldwide support telephone numbers

No one here can fix phone quality reception issues. Contact Apple.

Charles Park Seward = brilliant!

Thank you! You provide the answer to all our problems!

BTW, sorry you stock is down today!

I've entered this same information in another thread, but maybe it can be of some help to others....

After I got my iPhone 5 (white, 64 GB, iOS 6) several weeks ago, I was surprised when others said my voice sounded muffly and they were experiencing feedback and echo. When I put them on my speaker, their voices sounded tinny and harsh. Turning down the volume helped, but didn't eliminate the problem.

After some research, I changed several things on my iPhone 5. All is working perfectly now. No feedback. No echo. Incoming speaker voices are normal and clear.

FIRST: in Settings > Music > Volume Limit > on > adjust to about 3/4 of max.

SECOND: I took off my TPU case and put on a shell. Reason: Research brought out the concept of feedback caused by cupping the hand over the speaker/mic area so sound would transfer from one to the other. Most cases surround the lower speaker/mic area with up to about 1/8 inch-deep of case material. This, I thought, might do the same as the cupped-hand phenomena, especially since the speaker and mic are considerably larger - and closer together - than on earlier iPhones.

THIRD: I make sure the volume is set so the speaker voice sounds normal for incoming calls. Before, it was tinny, scratchy and harsh - hard to listen to. Seems to be working.

I switched back to ATT iPhone4 working great, no dropped calls no tinnitus.

Hi...I couldn't find my original post under this mountain lol...

Just a quck update on me. I wanted to clarify that I had 2 major issues. One related to my phone not even ringing or indicating a missed call or voice mail until it felt like it and the other, more important issue, of my calls being dropped during conversation ("call failed"). The first issue seems to have been resolved by removing the cute metallic looking/feeling cover from my phone. It consistently rings so I can respond accordingly and if it rolls to voice mail, I get a notification (both for the voice mail and the missed call). I'm using a rubber cover and it's working perfectly fine (so far so good) with protecting my device (especially since I'm returing it soon-smile).

My other major issue related to dropped calls was partially resolved. Once I learned to hold my phone a different way and have not had a dropped call since (keep your hands away from the area where the headset plugs in)! The quality of the call is still affected a little but not as bad. At least me and the other person on the line can hear each other with fewer "can you hear me now?" comments.

I contacted AT&T and forced their hand to issue me a replacement phone. I wasn't trying to hear that "you need to go to Apple" business. They told me it would 2-3 weeks before it would be shipped.

I can only hope that any quality assurance issues wherever these phones are manufactured have been addressed by the time I get my replacement.

I'm an AT&T customer and we have 30 days buyers remorse. I made AT&T make note on my account that since my 30 days will be up by the time I receive my replacement phone that I expect the extra cusion to assess the replacement.

If the replacement is not up to my standard, I will return the phone, roll back my upgrade and being using my more reliable iPhone 4 (not 4s) and wait for the iPhone 5b

I will be sure to post back again once I receive the new phone.

Hey

I just wanted to pitch in my .02 on this matter. I work for a small company here in AZ and we have 7 iPhone 5's. All of them on AT&T. All devices are having call quality problems (Sound cutting in and out, static, people on the other end sounding super quiet) Biggest problem is the sound cutting in and out. We have experienced this indoors/ outside / driving etc all around the greater Phoenix metro area. Happens no matter what the signal level (Full bars LTE or 4G or even 1 bar 4G)

LTE turned on or OFF still have issues.

Reset devices / I restored mine to factory even still no luck.

Went to AT&T today and they had never heard of it, I picked up some new SIM cards so I will start there.

I also personally notice once I pick up the call and say "hello" there is almost a delay in the connection I have with the person on the other end, I have to say "hello" for a second time. I have owned all previous versions of the iPhone so I know that its not instant pickup after you start the call but still this is very annoying and noticeable.

I am hoping it will be fixed with a software update since people have already stated that they have swapped devices / sim cards which have NOT solved the issue.

I am not an expert by any means but I guess I can see it having to do with audio compression that is using different hardware in the iPhone 5 vs the previous iPhone generations.

Either way I hope more people chime in on what problems they are having related to this issues so Apple can make it a priority to fix.

This may be completely off the wall but just maybe this is your situation:

I was having poor reception quality, weak sound, and was experiencing a tinny quality on my new iPhone 5.

I had left the plastic screen protector in place that came with the phone as delivered because I hadn't had time yet to put an "official" screen saver on it. Whe I removed the plastic, everything worked fine. The faintness was gone as was the tinnyness.

My iPhone 4 did not have the same issue.

Not off the wall at all ModelGuru!

I realized that the area near my headphone jack and microphone was sensitve because I kept the plastic on the back of my phone. When I made a test call from my cell phone, I noticed the interterference that came from the little flap on the plastic the way I held my phone actually caused my call to drop. If it moved enough the person on the other end couldn't hear a word I was saying and then the call would just drop ("call failed").

When I removed the plastic from the back, as long as my fingers didn't rub on or around the area where the headphone jack is located, I could almost eliminate the dropped call issues. The person on the other end would occassionally not hear me clearly but it wasn't as often when I didn't interfere with that sensitive area.

Same problem with iPhone 5 16GB in Belgium, with provider BASE

Good reception (about 4 bars), other end hears me perfectly but i BARELY can make up some

words in the conversation. It is beyond cr#*p how bad the quality of the voice-calls are.

Dropping sound, robot sounds, sounds like you have almost no reception etc etc.

Also when calling out, i often do not hear the phone 'ringing' on the other end, it stays quiet until the called

party answers the phone...

Strange thing is, I have this at home, but when I go to another area, but still on carrier BASE, it

does not occur every time.

I have not had any issues before on iphone 4 and same sim/provider.

I'm totally sure it is not bad signal reception, sometimes signal indicator is even 'full' and the other

end hears me perfectly.

Same here in Germany... iPhone 5 32GB black. T-Mobile SIM already changed, same issue.

I found a Video on Youtube which is similar to my problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUaJQumjwW0&sns=em

Any official statement from Apple would be helpfull.

Same problem here in Australia - iPhone 5 16GB Black on Optus.

I have been on call with Optus Technical Support. We tried all basic trouble shooting, restarts, resets iPhone and network on Optus side. Problem comes back after a few days.

While on Wifi within LTE coverage:

First call comes in after about 9 sec the call gets garbled then I disconnect the call

Second call comes in within next sever seconds and its all fine

I have also noticed that the iPhone 5 switches from LTE to 3G when a voice call comes in - I understand that this is due to the circuitry / software.

I have also noticed that if I disconnect from WiFi and while on LTE - I switch LTE off in Setings->General->Celular and watch the top left signal indicator - it drops the signal bars to zero and the LTE symbol dissapears after a second or so the bars are back and 3G symbol is shown. This I beleive is the result of the LTE to 3G switch.

So is it possible that when I receive the first call, the LTE circuitry switches to 3G then the voice codec does not handle the switch properly?

Came here with same problems everyone seems to be having - poor quality calls, garbled, tinny, etc. It's actually very reassuring! I was thinking my iPhone 5 was a lemon, and was preparing for the hassle of trying to swap it out and getting waitlisted, etc. But if so many people, in different countries and on various networks, are having the same issues, then it's not the hardware. *whew* Hopefully they'll come up with a fix.

I also agree with carla1020 and ModelGuru above - the first few days were worse, when I kept the protector film on the back of the phone. Now that they mentioned it, since I've taken it off and replaced with a case, the calls do sound better. Disappointing not to be 100% in love with my iPhone 5, after the wait, though ...

In my case switching off LTE solves the problem.

Obviously its a workaround. Will be changing my SIM today but i doubt that will do anything.

I have a thin plastic case on my iPhone 5 that just covers the back and partly the sides. I experienced the incoming call quality problems without the case also.