iPhone 5 bad call voice quality

I am having the same issue with iphone 5. Continuous fade in / fade out during the calls. It happens on every call. Even i changed carriers, still the same issues. Sometimes completed block out what the caller is saying. The other end can hear me crystal clear. I tried everything like switching of Wifi, opened apps etc. Problem continues. Its really frustrating and the phone is useless when you can't use basic and very important function smoothly. The skype calls are very clear though. Unfortunately, i bought the phone is US and now i live in latin america. Worried about support. Hope, the apple fixes the issue in the upcoming iOS 6.1 update.

Charles Park Seward, I read your link to wikipedia re noise gate. I agree with you - the phone acts as you'd expect with a noise gate with an uncomfortably high threshold. I also think they've put the noise gate in the wrong place in the chain. The noise gate in iPhone 5 is applied AFTER the volume control. You're the audio expert, but to my way of thinking, a noise gate should be applied to the original signal, before any user adjustment for volume. You can see for yourself that that noise gate is applied to the volume-adjusted signal by running my test procedure at different volume levels. You'll notice that at the lowest setting, entire sentences are attenuated by the gate, at a moderate setting, certain portions are attenuated, others not, and at a high setting (if you can stand to expose your ears to it) almost nothing falls under the noise gate threshold. That, in my view, is why Apple has so few complaints. Most people just turn up the volume. For me, working in a quiet environment on a headset, that isn't a solution.

So just to update those who are following all of our various adventures, I spoke to Verizon tech support, they refreshed my connection, no change. They had me install a new SIM card, no change. Call quality ***** as bad as always. I will go back to Apple to see if they can give me a 5th iPhone 5 or help me understand why my call sound so bad. This is unreal.

Try speaking closer to the mic and at a higher volume.

I notice if I respond to an automated query with a soft "Yes", sometimes it doesn't go through. My volume was not loud enough to trip the gate.

So if someone is using the speakerphone or a headset with the mic a bit away from the mouth, you may not get through.

The threshold can be set in software so it can be changed.

What is confusing is that it is not a call "quality" issue but one of adjusting the correct threshold for the mic volume.

A FIX. !!

Problem:

Bad voice call (Incoming voice) for iPhone5.

Voice was very chopped, staccato, dropped, NOT able to hold a conversation.

(Do you have any idea how monumentally frustrating that is Mr Cook?, even the smallest inkling Mr Cook?)

A potentially very promising fix for the extraordinarily annoying & frustrating problem that pretty much renders my iPhone 5 completely useless as a phone.

Fix first, then a few words second:

1. Tap into the “gear box” .. Icon labeled “settings”
2. Tap "general"
3. Tap “accessibility”
4. In the section labeled "Hearing", Turn on “mono audio”

That’s it.

Get over it, its not an audiophile device, never will be.

I can live with mono if it means I can, in fact, actually, engage in phone conversations from my phone.

-----------

TESTED to date:

Using low to medium sound levels in my ear.

WiFi, 3G, LTE turned on.

In the last 24 hours it has been successfully tested as:

1. using phone to voice call, placing phone on ear, very quite office environment. (fantastic!)
2. using phone to voice call, using speaker phone on desktop, very quite office environment.
3. using phone to voice call, inside noisy diesel 4 wheel drive, radio turned up (some crappy music), rain drumming on vehicle. Placing phone on ear, and then jacking in apple’s new ear buds. All works well. There may have been some slight chopping and dropping at one point, but very minor, still able to hold a conversation.

It would be wonderful to say that my electronics degree (many years ago now) and much pondering over functional schematics lead me to this considered conclusion.

Alas, after reading forum threads, looking through lots of (my) iPhone screens at what is available to play with, it was in the end a purely intuitive decision with perhaps a sub-conscious background of training and years in IT. A God inspiration, if you like.

So far, I am very happy with the results. It is really a preliminary result being only 24 hours old.

But you lot in the forum really need to try it.

Good listening to you! (we hope)

@mdal57

Thanks for your hint. Unfortunately it did not work for me (Germany, Telekom).

I have tried Hearing Aid settings on my iphone5. Still, i dont see any improvement.. On every call, this happens... Especially between 5 to 15 seconds into the call everytime.. Words completely lost... continuous fade in/outs and have to ask again the caller what he said.. Its really really frustrating.... i called apple support... The guy told me no iphone is experiencing the issue... In fact, he blamed our local service providers saying that cell towers are not that much quality in latin america... I countered him iphone4s works fine with the same provider... He doesnt have answer.. Only thing he said is try resetting network settings.. Nothing happened... Same old ****. The guy asked me to sent the phone to US to have it checked.. Thats another 150 usds... but, here lot of people are reporting that even replacement phones act same way.... Hoping apple will fix the issue in ios 6.1 update. Otherewise, have to say goodbye to apple and look for good android phone.

Hearing Aid doesn't work for me either unfortunately.

Isn't it unbelievable, though, that we have to resort to trying out Hearing Aid functions in order to try and make a call that can be heard on our phones (which cost the price of a second hand car!)

If this next iOS update, whenever it is released, does not fix the call audio problems I am insisting O2/Carphone Warehouse change my phone to a Samsung or whatever other top of the range phone is available.

PROBLEM SOLVED!

After 9 iPhone 5s and changing from 3 mobile networks I have finally sold the iPhone 5 and bought a Samsung Galaxy S3, WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I can now actually use the phone and callers have commented how clear the call is!

As well as being cheaper and having more features this phone has no faults, I can only advise everybody on here to ditch Apple, don't waste your time complaining to a company that clearly doesn't care and buy a Samsung

Tried the Mono thing. Did NOTHING. NOTHING! Tried Hearing Aid thing...again. Nothing. A joke. These internet fixes, taping over a microphone, removing the protective plastic (seriously?) talking into the phone louder than normal, setting the phone down flat, etc. these are all old wives' tales. They do nothing. They are a waste of time. No one on this site knows what the real problem is. Only Apple and their providers know what's really going on here. Just went through Verizon tech support. They actually suggested that I try a different brand of phone because they can't do any more for me. Unlike some here I'm not going that route. Hope a software fix works. Going back next week for my 5th iPhone 5. Sticking with Apple but this is really frustrating.

I have been reading this thread and posting comments from page 34 going forth and sounds like no improvement on this issue as of yet :(.

Well, I've been proactively calling AT&T about this issue and now we are on case #4 so as much as I would like to hear something great at the end of this, I highly doubt that is going to be the case.

After talking with the AT&T rep, she stated that if this issue is so common, we should all gather and get case numbers to compile and note the service provider as well. That way we can reference these same issues in quantity with the providers to ensure that this gets addressed.

This thread can go to page #5000 with whatever quirks people come up with but in all, it's not going to catch the eye of the company that needs to fix the issue. I completely appreciate all the comments, workarounds, and noise canceling advise people have posted but we should be realistic. The realistic thing is that we shouldn't have to go through our phones and make any such adjustments for them to work properly. These should work right out of the box with high quality expectations since those same high quality expectations are the idea in making these expensive devices, right?

Well, wish everyone the best of luck :-)

I am on my 3rd iPhone 5. What appals me is the way the Genius Bar have tried to find fault with everything except the iPhone itself. I was asked to complain to my network and when doing so they told me they've had a number of complaints about the iPhone 5 and Apple are ignoring it.

I'm with Orange,yet me father is on O2 and he has the same problem. I've talked to staff at EE and 3 and they say this is a problem apple have ignored.

I went today to the Genius Bar and asked if there will be a fix. I was told there is no "official comment" on the call quality issue. I showed him this thread and a website with videos demonstrating the problem.

In the end I was offered a refund so have to go back with the box later in the week.

Will there ever be a fix for this? I much prefer the iPhone 5 in many ways, but I can't use it as a phone.

I have had an iPhone 4 for 2 years without issue

I have just upgraded to the iPhone 5 and am on my 3rd phone in less than 2 weeks. All 3 have this issue of echoing and sounding like a your talking through a tin can. Apple say they are unaware of an issue and I am unsure what yo do . I feel like returning it and going back yo the iPhone 4 which has been find for 2 years. Help !

I'm having this same issue, and it has to be the noise-cancelling mic on the outside of the phone. Whether it is hardware or software.

If I'm on speaker phone, it's fine.

If I'm on Bluetooth headset, it's fine.

But as soon as I use my phone how I normally would, unless I cover the mic on the outside of the phone, people complain that the quality of my call on my end is pretty bad. That only seems to work SOMETIMES as well.

The symptoms are I cut in and out as far as my voice goes.

The moment I cover the mic (sometimes), use speaker or bluetooth (those both work all the time), I can carry on a completely normal conversation.

I hope both Verizon and AT&T can work with and push against Apple to get this fixed. This is my first iPhone (I formely had an HTC Droid Incredible), and so far other than phone calls, I love the phone. Though if I only wanted the non-phone features, I would have bought an iPad or iPod.

I moved to an Apple phone over an Android phone b/c of how everybody said they were so much better. Thus far, my old clunky Droid Incredible, despite it's reboot between 1am - 6am b/c of a software update, at least I could use it what it was meant to be - a PHONE. I want one device to rule them all. That used to be Apple's iPhone, but my experience thus far jumping to Apple has been pretty lackluster.

Looks like the ball is in Apple's court at the moment.

OK, 6.1 is officially out....last chance Apple, to fix the flawed iPhone 5 call quality.

Will report if any improvements come about from this shortly...