Q: iPhone SE Bluetooth issues

have this exact issue with my iphone se purchased last Wed from t mobile returned and replaced at Apple store Saturday after a horrendous wait same issue. Wasted a tremendous amount of time resetting the iphone to New. Having Chevy dealer update Bluetooth on car the Apple people are now trying to blame the carrier. They ordered me another replacement. Spent hours on the phone with Apple and T-Mobile tech support. Very disappointed with Apple store response. They are looking at me as I am crazy. Fed up

I've got the same problem here. Can't make a phonecall via bluetooth when connected to my Audi RNS-E carkit in my Audi A3 (2004).

for the record:

same problem here in a 2014 Audi A3 e-tron MMI Navigation Plus.

Bluetooth Calls with iPhone SE are basically useless.

Tried factory reset and re-pairing. issue persists.

Two other iPhone 5S work fine.

I was told at Apple Genius Bar that all Iphones since 5S or somewhere near that vintage have a rattle, which is standard with the operation of the camera.

For the record, I have the same issue with iPhone SE 64G and a pathfinder 2015.

I worked for 36 years in Telecom engineering, so I am familiar with that annoying sound. It seems to be caused by audio clipping, in other word, if the sound level is too high for the bluetooth encoder/modulator. Therefore, the part that are above a certain threshold is clipped. I certainly hope the audio level can be reprogrammed by a software patch, and not fixed by an hardware attenuation on the circuit board. The latest would be a disastrous situation for Apple.

I'm taking the bet on the upcoming software fix and because I like the SE, I'll just be patient.

HI all

I've had the same problems with the SE 64gb which I got from vodafone on the 7/04/16 connecting to 2010 transit and 2011 A6 Audi..I then returned the phone and bought another phone from Apple which was £55 cheaper by the way but this had the same problem. I've since returned the iphone SE and now using a 4S which working fine. Must say my daughters 6S seem to work fine when connected to both vehicle. I never spoke to Apple technical but the shops never seem to know of any problems with the SE.

Hopefully they can sort this out and once they have I will buy another one because the 6s is just to big for me

After reading about this issue in the news, I Just confirmed it with my iPhone SE 64GB and my SEAT TOLEDO (2014) and its Seat Media System 2.2. Bluetooth Calls have terrible sound and beyond understandable.

Let's hope Apple fixes this soon...

Hi, friends!

Do you know that BLUETOOTH PROTOCOL has different  sound quality with simple LISTENING MUSIC and CALLS with MICROPHONES.

USSUAL MUSIC HAS NORMAL HIGH QUALITY IN STERERO.

BUT SOUND with MICROPHONE has dirrerent quality in 8 bit MONO in standart BLUETOOTH.

8 bit as you know has a many noises if you compare with normal quality. But it is MODERN BLUETOOTH problem, not iPhone problem!!

It because chanel in Bluetooth is tight and bidirectional sound takes more resources. Do you understand?

By the way CREATIVE LABS made new feature for BLUETOOTH BACK CHANNEL. His new adapters and headphones (only last models) has new feature CRYSTAL CLEAR for BACK CHANNEL, so only in this adapter sound with MICROPHONE via BLUETOOTH is better, but also in MONO mode!!! And with new feature works only if transmitter and receiver support new feature. I think CREATIVE use 2 BLUETOOTH CHANELs in one for DIRECT AND BACK CHANNEL.

I faced same problem in new gaming (for example WORLD OF TANKS GAME).

If you want to use BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES in GAMES with CHATS you have to choose

1) if you use buit in microphone with BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES your MUSIC in GAME will be 8 bit mono only when you activate the chat.

2) but you can use stand alone wire microphone connected to your sound card as example to use high quality music in headphones.

Practically all bluetooth headphones with mic  has same problem with BLUETOOTH QUALITY in MICROPHONE MODE and this write in it's manual!

So, for my mind this is BLUETOOTH PROBLEM only, but now many people start to use Bluetooth often and now they understand, that wireless sound is not always good and Bluetooth standart is old and they need to think how to make Bluetooth standarts better with microphone!!.

Maybe it is true what you mention, but is has nothing to do with this issue.

It is confirmed that bluetooth HFP protocol has issues with iPhone SE, it iscrystal clear. Other phones work, SE does not. Easy.

You think that HFP protocol in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s  has all modern creative labs features like this http://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/creative-bluetooth-audio-bt-w2-usb-transc eiver  ???

This is APTX Low latency and FastStream audio codec for Crystal clear BACK CHANEL?

And you think that somebody from APPLE insert old chip in iPhone SE?

I know exactly that my iPhone 4s has no even APT-X  (APTX low latency has no especially) and has no main for that topic FastStream CRYSTAL CLEAR feature for back chanel audio codec.

APT-X is a modern feature

APT-X low latency and FastStream audio codec for crystal clear back chanel is most modern.

For my mind iPhone 6s has no APT-X, has no APT-X LOW LATENCY and has no FastStream audio codec.

And iPhone SE also has no such technology.

Same problem here.  I tried the iPhone SE Bluetooth connection with a 2015 Toyota Camry and a 2015 Chevy Silverado and both have terrible phone quality, but good music quality.  Same vehicles with an iPhone 6 and 6s Plus work good.  I also tried the SE with a Sony SRX-X33 Bluetooth speaker and with it the voice quality was good, but I believe that it is using the music connection.

We can speculate all we want about the cause of this, either signal compression, HFP protocol, CODEC setting, etc...

I would think, as we speak, Apple have already identified the root cause. Their major challenge now is probably to find a quick fix, assuming the problem is not from a circuit design error.

Above all that, it is disappointing that before selling millions of these phones, no one from quality control at Cupertino have thought of bringing an SE phone in their parking lot, and tried to issue a call from any car equipped with bluetooth. They would have identified this "serious" problem with only one attempt.

Again, I made call on my iPhone 4s via Bluetooth and it is not crystal clear.
I think that your problem with iPhone SE Bluetooth voice call contrived, because any apple phones and pads haven't FastStream audio codec for back channel.

And also your headphone equipment also haven't FastStream audio codec for back channel because it is very new. This codec have to be on both sides to crystal clear MONO voice quality Bluetooth signal with Microphone.

In other case if you don't have FastStream audio codec on the iPhone SE and on your headphones your voice call in any case have 8 bit mono quality and it is very bad quality on any iphones.

Did you made compare iPhone 4s, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE Bluetooth voice call quality?

I got my Iphone SE on the first day. Since then, i have problems with the Bluetooth reception in my car (Mazda 3 BM) and with a Plantronics PLT-M20 headset. With the same equipment, iphone 6, 5S, 5 work fine. So i am very disappointed, contacted the support and after all they changed my device. But it is still not working.

I would be happy to know, if it is a Hardware or a Software Problem and when it will be fixed, because i mainly speak in my car or with the BT Headset.

There ist definitely something wrong.

alexpetra or anybody else, please, try to made another test.

Give iphone 6, 5S or 5 or 4s and made VOICE CALL via Bluetooth (it can be facetime Bluetooth calls also if you don't have extra simcards in your old phones) .

Listening to music with Bluetooth have to be always in high quality, but we need to compare Bluetooth VOICE CALLs only (or application where Bluetooth sound goes with microphone).

In any case voice call is 8 bit MONO.

But may be digital-to-analog converter in your Bluetooth headphones works bad with 8 bit  and your quality of voice calls too bad in that case?