Q: iPhone SE Bluetooth issues

You didn't need to tell Apple care where you bought it, the warranty is with Apple. Same with all Apple products always go through Apple Care not the retailer if you have a problem, doesn't matter where you bought it or even if bought second and still has warranty.

Anyway with Optus for a 19 day old phone i would of pushed for a replacement sent and then sent your's back, if its with in 14 days its a automatic swap anyway. You need to be firmer whichever way you go.

Ok thanks for the advice. Really appreciate it.

Never had this problem before.

So should I just wait for 2 days to hear back from Optus or give Applecare another call?

Think you are stuck dealing with Optus now, thinking about it you may be better off at this time as Apple have a shortage now, and the wait is a few weeks so you may get a replacement quicker with Optus if they have stock. Good Luck.

Yeah true.

thanks again

I really can not decide if this problem with SE is global or not. I see here in the forum that people have problems from all over the world, however it does not seem to be a big issue, I mean there is no huge echo/impact in Apple-related news or blogs. There are a few, but it seems that nobody really cares about it, topics died, but this. Apple gives a **** on this as well. There is no official announcement, nothing. Maybe not all the people try their new SE with bluetooth headser or car, therefore only a few percent of them can report the problem.

Personally Apple is a big disappointment for me. Needs to think twice whenever buying something from them again.

Nope. That's not correct, Senna67

If you read the whole thread you'll realize that there are some people whose SE works ok with bluetooth calls.

I'm one of them... I'm doing calls over bluetooth with my iPhone SE both on my car and with a headset.

Unfortunately my solutions (reset network settings and turn off LTE and/or VoLTE) do not work for everyone.

I have tried to disable LTE with no success. VoLTE is not available on my carrier, therefore not an option for me.

What I really do not understand that how can be that there are phones which are just working fine, on the other hand replacing the phone makes no difference.

Maybe today Apple is going to release the next beta iOS, hopefully it will address this issue..

Well, I would not say, that mine is not working at all. If the line quality to the partner I'm calling is good enough, also the quality via bluetooth is acceptable.

But for example, if I call somebody, who has already a critical signal strength or speaking himself via handsfree, the distortions make the works completely not-understandable. But if I call the same person a minute later directly from my phone, the audio quality is pretty good.

So it seems to me, that only slight signal drops on the other side have a huge impact on the bluetooth audio quality on my side.

I made a test yesterday, after my useless attempt to reset the phone and setup as new from scratch:

- Called my wife, who was herself driving in her car and speaking handsfree -> quality was completely crap, her words where not understandable, my voice came through to her very clear

- Called my daughter, who was sitting in our house, speaking directly on the phone, quality was pretty clear and good

- Called my mother, who was walking around on the street, speaking directly on the phone, quality was bad, although it was still understandable so a lot of distortion but not as bad as the call to my wife.

- Called my voice mailbox, quality was good and clear

So I would be careful to state, it is working, if you are calling a "good" line or landline, you will maybe not recognize anything.

On the other hand, I would also not state, that it is not working for anybody, but there seems to be definetely an issue and for me it seems to look like as distortions due to a bad connection are getting amplified by bluetooth audio.

It cannot be just the bad connection of the partner you are speaking to, because then you would have the problems also, when you speak directly with the phone, which does not happen in my case.

Hi Lalamper,

Unfortunately I don't have an answer to why some phones work while others don't.

Mine works ok.

But replacing the phone may not make any difference as:

1) Imagine the problem is hardware and Apple has different bluetooth chip providers. If you get a replacement from the same store you'll probably get one from the same batch of iPhones. Getting a replacement from a different part of the world could fix it...

2) Imagine the problem is related to the carrier. I have not read of anyone trying a different carrier on their SE, resetting the networks settings (important step) and checking if it works. For me it didn't work the first day, until I did a reset, as my phone got the settings from the back up which was an iPhone 5s with T-mobile settings from USA. Now I am in Europe with a different carrier.

3) Imagine the problem is related to the combination of BT chips on the phone and the car. Say some cars don't work, others do. Replacing the phone will make little difference until you replace the car. I know people are reporting many different car brands which don't work. I just can say my car works and my bluetooth headset works.

4) Imagine the problem is related to the cell(s) in the network where you are. If you move to a different area (let's say where LTE is disabled) you get the phone working, but if you only try it in the same area (i.e. at the parking of the Apple Store) it does not work.

Etc.

Hi bwinter,

What you say is important, because it is contradictory to many people's words in the thread who promise that they can not understand a single word of the conversations.

To me, either you are not suffering the exact same problem as they report, or they are not doing enough testing and just did a call or two with the same bad result.

In my case I have not found differences depending on who I call to or receive a call from.

I'm not an intensive user of calls in the car, but I've done already a dozen or so. All of them to mobiles. I have not tried talking to a land line.

But I have already done good quality calls to:

iPhone 4s, holding phone, standing still

iPhone 5s, holding phone, standing still

iPhone 5s, using speaker, moving in a car with no handsfree

iPhone 5s, connected to a handsfree at the car, moving.

Android phone (some Samsung model), standing still.

well, those points are all logical from the technical side, but still I would suggest that a 600$ phone has to work everywhere the way it should.

I haven't got a problem, if a bugfix is needed, and I'm a satisfied iphone user since day one, but at least it would be good, if apple support would officially acknowledge the problem. I mean, in some countries it seems that Apple is stating that the problem is known, while in others the customers getting the answer that the problem is completely unknown.......

To say it clear: every iphone (4S, 5, 5S, 6) we have her works with every BT Adapter (different cars, different headsets) and the iphone SE works with none of them as expected. So I am sure, the problem is not related to the carrier, and it is not related to the BT adapter.

So it maybe a hardware problem not affected to all phones and maybe only a percantage uses BT calls and the ones with perfect conditions don´t even realize that they have only 80% of normal condition.

Again, Bluetooth standart support voice call with microphone (all voices with microphone) for all phones only in 8 bit mono.

The quality of music always better in stereo.

So, 8bit mono has always have noises, sometimes not, sometines yes.

Only new Creative FastStream codec has expanded back chanel for microphone in Bluetooth and can make crystal clear sound with mic, but also in mono.

And iPhone and most of Bluetooth headphones don't have Creative FastStream codec.

So why is BT call quality good with all iphones except the SE? That is not conclusive, except there is some kind of issue with the SE, and that is, what everybody here is talking about.

How you compare iPhone SE and others with voice calls?

One call in one phone is always different with another. 8 bit mono sound have many noises always.

So, you have to clear understand that crystal clear sound during voice calls you will not catch on both phones.

Because of that It have to be very big difference between different calls quality from different phones to for sue  say that iPhone SE have a problem with voice calls (if it have big difference in quality to bad side)

You can make 10 calls from iPhone SE and 10 calls from other Iphones to make true comparision.