iPhone 5 bad call voice quality

This is insane. I just received a VM on my iPhone 4S w/ IOS 6 upgrade and it sounds horrible/ auto-tuned (exactly like on IPhone 5).

moved from O2 to vodafone in UK and from 3GS to 5 - having same issues - sounds like person calling is in a fishtank - seems to be only on incoming calls too. Person on other end can hear me clearly but I really struggle to understand what they are saying....will do some more tests today. Only had phone since thursday morning. Seems to be more of a problem on incoming calls

I was going to try with a prepaid SIM which I had lying around, but the phone didn't recognize it (which may have been due to my cutting it down to nano SIM size not producing a snug fit). I guess I'll have to pay my carrier's store a visit either way.

I also called Apple again today and the woman I talked to didn't sound too hopeful that simply swapping the SIM would help, she suspected it is a hardware issue. I could barely hear her, besides the compressed fuzzy sound her voice was kind of weak and she kept cutting out all the time.

To summarize, there are two problems:

* Low bitrate, fuzzy/noisy sound

* Problems with weak voices, almost like some kind of noise floor setting has been set too high and cuts out too much. When there is silence on the other end, there is dead silence where the iPhone 4 would let just enough signal pass for you to know that the call was still up.

Very interesting. This is also EXACTLY how I would describe the problem.

I have similar voice quality issue. I use the phone for work and it is frustrating from last couple of days. The voice modulation is not consistent, it goes up and down - more so when the other party in the call is outdoor, suggesting some issue with noise cancellation process. It is painful when I dial in to conference call - only one voice is heard clearly and rest of the voices in the call are breaking horribly. One second you hear them clear and the next second it goes down and it is hard to follow the conversation. I went to apple store last night and I did not get the right specialist to understand the issue - the experience was very bad and they were not making it any easy either to replace the phone or fix the issue. I was so frustrated with them in the store, I had to give it back right there. Its pretty sad that I wasted three days to get the phone and try out all configurations. Hopefully, Apple is skimming through the posts and taking this issue seriously before it becomes a wider probelm affecting many more.

I Get the sense that the iPhone 5 has a noise cancellation algorithm that filters out the other persons background noise. If other person pauses for a second, it wipes out background noise so all u hear is silence. I found myself having to check with other person if they're still on phone. Maybe someone can post mp3 of a conversation. Might downgrade to 4s

For me it's 100% an earpods iPhone 5 problem. During a call swap them out with 4 or 4/ earbuds or put iPhone 5 to your ear and problem gone. For me that's 100% the problem. I have 2 pairs of earpods too, both do it

as an add on - I think i've worked out my problem - there was no 3G with O2. I'm now with vodafone and there's occasionally a very weak signal - I think when a call was made while the phone was picking up the poor 3G signal the sound was terrible. I've turned off 3G and so far all perfect.....

My problem is that my calls have started dropping recently and frequently. Most of my conversations that last any length are at home in my bedroom (Washington DC metro area).

First I thought it was my case, so I took that off and the problem persists. Then I noticed that while I'm not using my phone for talking, I'm on the LTE network always but then when I'm on phone call, I'm switched to the 4G network. Just noticed this yesterday since I'm more super concientious about the dropped call issues.

I was on the phone with AT&T support this morning and they had me toggle on/off some settings (data roaming on, imessage off, clear safari history & cookies, turn off wifi and bluetooth). When we hung up, I called my iPhone 5 from my house phone and was able to have the call drop consistently especially if my fingers moved anywhere around the plug where you insert earphones. I turned wifi, blue tooth and iMessages back on and found that neither of these settings seem to matter...the call tends to drop when there is any contact/movement in the area where the plug is at. When I listen on my house phone while moving my fingers around the plug area, there is alot of static and crackling. If there is no intereference in the plug area, my call continues without being dropped, even with my settings the way I prefer.

Now that I'm writing this, it may also explain the static I hear occassionally when I use my iPhone in my car with the cassette tape thing I have that lets me play my music through my car speakers. I thought it was the accessory but then I've been using it with my iPhone 4 3g for years with no problems not to mention I do not have any of these other call dropped issues (with regular consistency) with my iPhone 4 in the same area of my house.

I hate that they moved the earphone plug to the bottom of the phone. I don't know if this area is super sensitive for all iPhone 5's or if it's just my phone. I'm going to go to the AT&T store this afternoon and get my phone switched out. I guess I will find out soon.

I would be curious to kow if anyone can co-sign any of this that I'm saying 🙂

I have a 5 without case. Call quality is excellent, superior to 4 with case.

If you want to contact Apple directly about your repair or your order, these forms of contact are available:

http://www.apple.com/contact/

And these phone numbers are available worldwide:

http://www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

Quick update: After going to my carrier's store they decided to send the phone off to their repair center. Apparently, that's their policy with all Apple products. Of course, being without your newly bought phone for weeks isn't fun and they should have replaced it outright since they will probably just replace the phone anyway, just with a long delay. And if the replacement also has problems I guess I'm in for another wait.

The store clerk "didn't think it sounded that bad", no wonder when you make the test calls in a busy store..

In the meantime, I'm using my iPhone 4 which still sounds awesome. Actually, iOS 6 even made it sound better.

UPDATE: Went to the AT&T store to get an exchange and they gave me the "you have to contact Apple" line. I had the option of returning the phone all together, but decided - since I like the phone so much otherwise- to call AT&T customer service. I should have my replacement phone in 14-21 days due to availability they say. In the meantime, I'm going to try to hold my phone a different way to avoid my finger going anywhere near the area where the headphone and power jack exists. I'm going to try to find my bluetooth as that may be another option.

More will be revealed....stay tuned.

I had the same problem with bad call quality but I found out that I can solve the issue by removing the plastic film cover off the front of the iPhone as this blocks the speaker .

Spoke to a nice representative at Apple Care (800-MY-APPLE) and we're going to try to swap the HW on one of my two iPhone 5s to see if there was a bad batch of HW for both my iPhone 5 VZW's which are experiencing unable LTE throughout Eastern Massachusetts. Fingers crossed that this fixes my problem. Interestingly enough, they had no other reports of this problem, so I suggest that you contact them as well to report your problem if you're having an issue.