iPhone 5 bad call voice quality

Gordon, I've bought into your theory and had just replaced my iPhone 5 with the problem to quickly duplicate it when I got home ( BTW - I'm on the AT&T network) Anyhow, I spoke with Apple techs over IM and at the store, they haven't recognized it in the field level yet, but thought I was a PITA customer for insisting there's a problem like this on the iPhone 5. I can't always duplicate the problem, but I'd feel better about if Apple would recognize the problem. Thanks for sharing.

I'm still having the problem of clipped words and sounds on headset calls months after getting the phone. The only thing I discovered that restores the dropped sounds is to turn the volume way up to the point that it hurts my ears. Then the loud sounds are incredibly loud and the quiet sounds that had been lost are audible. This makes me wonder whether the problem is limited to people with good hearing who are unwilling to blast the volume too high. I've had a case with Apple technical support all this time and the person I'm communicating with said that my issue had been bumped up to a higher level of engineering and that the problem was recognized (though they insist the clipped sound only occurs at the lowest volume settings, ie one bar, which as we know is not true). I urge you all to file a complaint with Apple technical support so they know that many people are having this issue. My husband has the same problem on his iphone 5. We are both with Verizon.

I have a case open, I've tweeted about this and shared on FaceBook, for what it's worth. Given this is a core operation of the smart phone (a phone call), it has to be corrected. I've started to nickname my iPhone 5 the Apple "Blackberry." : p

Sherilpod, I reached the same conclusion you did - that the drop-out problem is limited to those who listen to calls at lower volume settings, and those on calls (such as conference calls) where the distant parties can be speaking quietly. The problem is masked by noisy environments - where you blame yourself, not the phone, for failing to understand what they said, then you turn up the volume, and they shout louder the second time around.

But it is a real problem nevertheless. I am often on international conference calls, and like you, don't want to be deafened by running the sound too loud.

Here's my analysis of the bug. There's a threshold. Sounds below a certain level are attenuted. That's all fine, but the bug is that such a threshold should measure the full-strength signal, before the volume control. Apple is applying a threshold after the volume control. Thus the lower the volume setting, the larger the proportion of "good" sound falls below the threshold and is attenuted. If you listen carefully and in a quiet setting you will hear that the signal is still there, but is so highly attenuated it would be impossible for a normal person to understand the words.

I sure hope Apple will fix it. I suppose it may not be top priority for them since so few people seem to notice or care. I wrote a letter to Tim Cook in hopes it gets through to their engineering folks that there is a flaw.

See my earlier post on how to reproduce the problem with 100% reliability by calling the recording at +1 (877) 654-4400 at the lowest volume setting in a completely silent environment. I have reproduced it on all three US carriers, on six different handsets, including with the latest released iOS as of a few days ago. It's real. It's reproducible. My iPhone 4 doesn't have the problem. Here's hoping they fix it. I am looking forward to buying an iPhone 5 if and when it's resolved.

Sherilpod, you described it very well, the problem is the i-Phone 5 and not any specific carrier and it is a problem which occurs when using headsets, the headsets which come with the new i-Phone 5.

I guess not more people realize that there is a problem because most people don't use the headsets. I find myself not using them any longer as it is impossible to make a phone call using the headsets. I changed from an i-Phone 3 and wish I would not have bought a 5. I already changed mine at the apple store once because I thought it is a faulty phone and did not realize that all i-Phone 5 are faulty.

What this thread is about is not caused by the none removal of the protective film over the microphone, inadvertently covering the microphone in the back with your hand while on the phone, any specific carrier issue or any other malfunction which has nothing to do with with a faulty product. This thread is about the fact that Apple's new i-Phone 5 does not work right when used with headsets, apple's headsets!

The problem is not linked to the headset because it occurs without it too.

Maybe the headset increases the possibilities to have the robotic voice and so on... but I don't use any headset and my phone has this call quality problem.

Exactly. This is not just a headset issue.

The problem is the pickup and play of low-volume input from the remote source (other party). This happens most often when others on the other side are on a conf call and around a speaker phone and one of the participants is far from the mic, or can even occur in recorded messages from an IVR system played at low volume. And, the problem is that the sound cuts in and out (some pickup, then dead silence, and it repeats for a fraction of a second or so). If you turn up the volume it gets better, but if at a "reasonable" volume you get lots of chop or total silence for soft-talkers, low volume messages.

It's a real problem, and I suspect just about ANYONE who uses the phone in these use cases will have this problem with an iPhone 5. Those that say they have no problems, I submit, don't use their phone for sources that have low volume, are far from mic, and are listened to at a lower (first 3 or 4 bars of volume) which if sitting in an office and using a headset SHOULD be loud enough.

Just spoke to a Verizon rep who told me that Apple IS aware there is a problem and apple is going to send out some sort of update or repair for the issue "sometime within the year". I just bought the 5 yesterday, had this issue, traded it this morning for a new one, and same issue, for me its static noise every time the person on the other line talks. the phone yesterday was bad when my mom was talking it would fuzz out the last part of her sentence kinda like on the Peanuts when the adults talk..super annoying, I am going to try it for a couple days and I might just switch to the 4s.

I hope within the year doesn't mean within 2013. That's a year from now. And as for some previous posts, the temporary plastic protective cover on a new iPhone 5 is not the reason most people are having this problem. Yes, removing it is a good idea, and it definitely makes the phone work better because it was never designed to stay on the phone, but I can understand why some whould think it is since there are after-market plastic covers. As some have stated this is also not just a problem with the headphones. I rarely use them and the handset itself is just as troublesome as the headphones. It is also not limited to verizon. I don't know if it's the phone or the software or the carriers, I just hope they sort it out. I'm a big fan of Apple and this is a surprise.

If you turn on hearing aid mode you will get relief with non-headset use. This doesn't help with headset use however. (I suspect turning off hearing aid mode disables some compression and some noise cancellation).

Totally agree. Turning on hearing aid mode improved call quality to about 80% acceptable from 40%. The compression/digitization/robitic/drop-out qualities have significantly decreased although not entirely disappearing.

Also noticed another thing with this setting...

Before turning on hearing aid mode, people could not understand me when I would hold my phone between my shoulder and ear (not using my hand). I would cut out to the point of the other end not hearing anything that I was saying. This has disappeared now with hearing aid mode turned on.

I have the same problem with my iPhone 5 64GB Black, when on a call I can't hear the person that I'm speaking to clearly, the sound is crackling with a lot of interference, I've tried the suggested soft boot etc. but no change, now waiting for a Genius Bar appointment on Monday 7 Jan. 13 in Apple Store, Bentall Centre, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, hoping that they can resolve the issue, not impressed!

In the meantime, try turning Hearing Aid on and see if that makes it better. It did for me...as well as others.

The hearing aid helps most of the time, unforunally not all the time. :-(

What I also experienced is that when the call is bad and I tab on the back of the Iphone, where the rear microfoon is, the call (voice) comes out more clearly. Have you guys experienced this allready?

So frustrated just have to write again to share the latest experience. As I wrote earlier this week, I've been with Apple technical support on this issue for months now. Yesterday I spoke with the rep again. She said she doesn't know when the fix will come--it could be hours from now or it could be three months from now. I said I had been patient enough and I simply can't do my job (interviewing people in a quiet room) without either not hearing the other person fully or killing my hearing raising the volume so high. She asked me to go to the Apple Store and switch out the phone again, said she knows plenty of people with iPhone 5s that don't complain of this problem. I asked her if she has read this forum and she told me the Apple Support people are not ALLOWED to read the forums! Something about how everyone's conditions are different etc. So I backed up the stupid phone, went to the store, waited a frigging hour, gave the "Genius" guy the Hertz number to test the issue. He heard it right away. They only had two of my type of phones there and we swapped to one...same problem...then the other, same problem. The problem was, for whatever reason or rule, they couldn't then swap me back to my original phone, so I had to wipe that one, restore the new one, go through setting up the whole f*ing phone again, inputting five different email passwords, downloading media, etc etc. by the time I finished with all of this I had spent SEVEN hours of my day messing around. I wanted to cry. I feel so trapped with this phone I paid so much for and has cost me so much in terms of time and work productivity. Why didn't you return it right away, you might ask? Because I bought it from Radio Shack the first day of the new release and thought I just got a lemon...they had no other ones in stock the next day and by the time they got more in, my two weeks were gone. I feel trapped and have absolutely begged for them to swap me back to the iPhone 4, but they say it is not possible. Don't know what to do anymore...