iPhone 7 Plus Phone Call Sound Quality

Good suggestion, unfortunately it's not that I've tried with wifi calling on and off, call quality is still very poor. The more I think about it the Phone App is the only common entity something must have changed in IOS 10 for the 7/7+ release.

Gail, your problem might well be different to mine but I found the quality was ok when I was using the headphones but when, on the same call, I unplugged the headphones and used the phone in my hand that I had the problem.

Perhaps try starting a call with headphones and then switch to handheld, in my view this would eliminate any carrier conflict from being part of the problem.

Do the Android phones support Voice over LTE?

Anyway, prompted by the recent post by gail 225 I realized that all of the tests I've done were using WiFi calling. So I just tried again with WiFi off, thus forcing AT&T to handle the call as VoLTE. Result: The sound quality was better using cellular VoLTE (advertised by AT&T as "HD" calling) than it was with WiFi calling, although WiFi calling was perfectly acceptable.

I may have asked before, but have you checked for a carrier update? Go to Settings/General/About and tap on the carrier name; if there is an update you will be prompted to install it.

Also, while in About, what is the modem firmware version? Mine is 1.02.15. And Carrier version? Mine is AT&T 27.0.1.

Interesting point, I left the cellophane on my phone when I originally powered it on. I unboxed it in a restaurant and took a few quick photos and then put it back in the box to setup when I got home. I wonder if there is a microphone calibration that takes place when the phone is first turned on (or when you 'Setup as new iPhone'). Perhaps this calibration is affected if the cellophane is covering the microphones, or the phone is laying flat on a table (therefore covering the rear microphone)?

I agree when I am on speaker or the headphones it is fine. So many different possibilities and none of them seem to fix it. Apple has to come up with a solution. I did change my phone and it was somewhat better but not perfect. I am scared to get another replacement in case it is worse

I have used a third party vendor and recorded some of my calls and you can hear the intermittent breakup of my voice and the other caller saying. I could not hear you. I move closer to the microphone and it is better.

Mine is the same as yours.

Lawrence, coincidentally, and on a totally different subject, I recorded a radio interview yesterday. To avoid having to go to the studio they interviewed me over my land line but, to get broadcast quality audio, they got me to record my end using Voice Memo which I then emailed to them. Oh, the irony of it given these call issues! Anyway, if a Voice Memo recording is good enough for a national BBC broadcast I think we can confirm that Voice Memo’s use of the microphone(s) is working perfectly well! Clearly separate signal processing of the microphone(s) output is used on phone calls. It's the software that processes the audio from the microphone(s) during (non-headset or Bluetooth) phone calls that needs attention.

After trying two I7's...decided to not longer wait for a sollution. Bought a new 6s. The call quality is very good, using IOS10 and the same SIM card.

I noticed WIFI receiption is also better on the 6s.

Overall again a happy IPhone user...

I'm based in the UK with carrier EE who use wifi calling, my 7+ call quality is terrible with wifi calling on and off. Between all of us we've tried and eliminated most things as a cause of this call quality issue, apologies for repeating myself but it seems in some cases this fault appeared after updating to IOS 10, is there a way to make voice only calls without using the Phone App which is pretty much the only thing we haven't eliminated.....

I'm in the same position as you, my first 7+ call quality was poor as was battery life, Apple replaced it after I reported the call quality issue now battery life is excellent but call quality is the same. Apple have offered to replace it again but I don't want to end up at square one with poor call quality and battery life. The quality of the i7 series phones seems so hit and miss there definitely seems to be a quality issue, whether it's hardware or software or even both who knows. The other issue with repeated phone replacements is my insurer keeps asking for proof of the replacement identifying the old and replacement phone details which then becomes another issue trying to get this from Apple. Why don't Apple automatically send such a document with replacement phones it would also be useful to those who sell their replacement one day helping explain why the details on the original box don't match the replacement phone thus potential buyers don't think it's stollen. The only way we get Apple to listen is if enough people stopped buying Apple....

So yesterday I got the phone replaced (phone #3). I had to fight them to replace the phone and they gave me a new SIM card (at Apple Store) and they told me to set up as a new phone. It took hours because first I had to restore backup from computer and copy over the photos to the computer then wipe it and setup as new. Not sure yet if it fixed it or not but at the Apple Store they refused to believe it was the phone even when I cited the forums. Glad the rep let me replace phone though because if it is the hardware it does take days to get in to the Apple Store so I didn't want to wait again. They tried suggesting turn off LTE again which I've already tried AND if that's the solution then I'll just ask Verizon who I bought the phone from to return it for the Pixel or the 6S+ cuz I'm sorry but LTE is a requirement these days and you can't run voice and data at the same time without it.

I set up my 7+ as a new phone twice yesterday but call quality didn't improve. There's some thought that whilst setting a phone up as new when you reach the activation phase and Apple send an activation code that settings and code are downloaded and this doesn't happen during a reset and restore. If this were the case why didn't call quality on my 7+ improve. I'm interested to find out how you get on, I tested mine by setting up a greeting message on my carrier answering machine which sounded poor also I left a voice message on my house answering machine which sounded poor...

Just wanting to put it up here as well with the hope of the issue getting fixed. Me and my partner bought the Iphone 7 plus over vodafone AU plan, a Jet black one and a Gold one. The first called i made with my jet black one, the receiver said i was breaking up and i had to go speaker. They said i sounded muffed like i had a cloth over the microphone and it was breaking up. 10 days later after unboxing this happens about 7/10 times on the receiver side. Breaking point was when a client called me and i had to use speaker phone in a corner of a store with everyone listening to my conversation. 10 days since i got my new phone and i have sent it back for repairs already, its been in a week now, with a 2 week repair waiting period. Meanwhile my partner gold plus version runs absolutely perfect! No issues with hers. This was all after testing two phones side by side calling the same person, while being on the same carrier, sitting in the same spot. Hope this issue gets recognized asap. Will report back when i get my phone back in a week.

So an update..

I got a replacement iPhone 7+ and a new Verizon SIM card and set it up as a new phone.

Tried calls with the case on and off and it still sounded like a robot in a wind tunnel cutting out for the entire call.

I'm not sure how many more of these replacements I should bother with or if I should ask Verizon to exchange for a 6S+ or a Google Pixel.

What's more is this whole experience is very odd putting for my wanting to get a new MacBook Pro. Especially when I replaced this phone this week and had to argue with the rep that it's a problem with the phone hardware. Which it CLEARLY IS. My boyfriend is on the SAME family plan with me on the same carrier with the same settings (no special partition service or HD off or LTE off) and he has the same iPhone 7+ in the same color (matte black) and he has NO PROBLEMS. Our friend has the rose gold iPhone 7+ on Verizon - also no problems.

There is very clearly a large batch of phones with an issue with making phone calls!!!!! People switching to other phones are having immediate excellent service on the same providers. People with the 1% of working 7's are having excellent service. What gives!?!??!???

Can we at least get a response acknowledging this issue and saying they're working on a fix????? Or could they at least track down which batch is the one that works so people don't have to keep going through replacement phones again and again?????

I don't have a landline if I need to call 911 and they can't hear/understand me then what????? What happens????? My family gets to sue and at that point it gets acknowledged????? This is unacceptable for a nearly $1,000 phone to not work as a phone.

( sorry my english ) I also have 2 iphone 7 plus and i made the update in one of those with the IOS 10.2 and since this time ( 3 days ago) all the sound i have from the speakers is all with distortion, and very low also the calls recived and made.

with the earpods, theres no problems so i believe is a problem from the speakers,

but is strange this happen after IOS 10.2.

i`ve made all the possible resets in the device incluid the factory one , and is all the same. im worried.

1200 euros is the cost of the 256 G , this is very bad and wrong