iPhone 7 Plus Phone Call Sound Quality

HI jfl77,

with the new iphone7 plus of my father, we have the same experience, when my father is calling with his loud voice, it is like speaking against a towel, only when he makes a cup with his hand i can understand him.

When my wife is calling to me with the same iphone7 plus, i can hear her clear and loud, even without making the cup under the microphone.

Itis verry bizar that whe never get a response or information about this problem from apple.

The common entity to you both is your back ups and sims, I've been dealing with Apple Engineering with my 7+ call quality fault it was improved when I run their diagnostics App and sent them the resultant log, it's as if the App gave Apple Engineering access to change some hardware settings on my phone. We concluded that the Peli Vault flip case I was using at the time didn't help when the front cover was folded back covering the rear microphone between the camera and flash. I wonder if there's something in your wifes backup that's causing the problem. To prove this factory reset the phone with the poor call quality but don't restore it try making a call with case on if you use one and without case to see how call quality is without being influenced by a restore....

Well, at the genius bar, they ran their diagnostics and basically said there is nothing wrong with the original phone. I don't use a cover, so I don't think that is the problem. I will try the reset without the restore as I have not tried that yet. Although I suspect I will have the same result. Thanks for the idea.

I suspect what Genius Bar can do compared to Apple Engineering are different, the real experts are the engineers. Two of us in this thread had direct contact far higher up the Apple ladder than Genius Bar or Tech Support/Applecare and both of us were asked to run a diagnostic app that was only accessible via a link supplied by Email. In both instance we both experienced a much improved call quality on completion of this process, it wasn't 100% as expected from a high end mobile phone but definitely much improved.

I've had my iPhone 7plus replaced twice by Apple due to poor sound quality reported from most people receiving my calls on non-voIP systems. ie: when I called the help-lines at my carrier Bell Mobility (and Apple) they weren't hearing any of my sound problems as calls like mine are typically routed to them via a voIP system. When your calls reach cell towers and are delivered to non-voIP recievers (basically most regular folks!) the outgoing packets or are different than those used to reach people receiving them on voIP recievers. (typically call centres are using a voIP receiving method) This is maybe why my carrier didn't take my problem seriously after many, many calls - since they couldn't hear any problem. Clearly it's not logical that 3 iPhones could be 'bad apples'.

I got a senior tech support from Apple on a 3 way call with my carrier Bell Mobility to insist that, Apple would happily deliver a 3rd replacement iPhone 7plus but that they really feel that the carrier should check the provisioning, routing and internet protocols for my line.

That fancy tech-talk direct from Apple to my carrier finally moved the carrier to do just that and reveal that there were issues with the cell towers in my area... It will take about 3-4 days for the carrier to get back to me with results which I will post.

Tracy

The iphone7 plus of my father is a new one with a new sim of a new provider( it's his first smartphone), so i installed it like a new one, i mean without a backup.

Also without the case there are still the soundproblems.

New iPhone 7 Plus on AT&T network. I disabled LTE because I only had two bars. Doing so gave me four bars of signal strength. I called my office (a VoIP system) and left a message on my desk phone. Also did this with a Samsung S4 for comparison. The iPhone 7 Plus sounds muffled!

I went through three 128GB silver 7Plus's. All three had audio issues, exchanged at a Genius Bar each time. That was with T-Mobile. I switched to AT&T, took a chance with a 128GB Jet Black 7Plus, and BINGO! It works perfectly! There is no fix. There seems to have been a bad run of 7's. I wasn't willing to settle for less than a perfect phone. Apple was more than willing to see that I got one. I'm more than happy about it!

My wife and I have been testing her iPhone 7+ today. We narrowed it down to something funny with the back mic (between the camera and the flash). She has a folio case and thus when she is answering a call, folds the flap behind the phone thus covering slightly the camera and mic.

The audio was awful when she does this. Will still on the call, I had her use the phone without this covering it worked much better! While still on the call, folding the flap behind the phone made the audio very muffled.

I should mention that I also turned off Wi-Fi calling, LTE, and Phone Noise Cancellation. Not sure yet what the exact combination is, but it does appear to be a software issue with the phone.

I think I'll try putting tape over the back mic to see if that effects anything as another poster suggested.

I have an iphone 7 tried restore, reset, network settings, turn off noise cancellation and LTE for data only. I went to the Apple store last night and they did an "audio test" and they said there are no issues. They tried a network reset, and then said maybe it's Verizon. I'm going to see if it sounds better this week, but I don't think it will change. I don't think I can return it according to the Apple desk. So frustrating! Let me know if anyone has new solutions, or maybe the iphone 7 is just having issues in general?

I think you have to contact your carrier. According to the engineers at my carrier - audio issues are difficult to figure out. My carrier is monitoring the cell towers associated with calls that I report having audio issues. They are making me remove it from my silicone case and as well using LTE for data only.

Try a 3 way call with your carrier and apple. Apple got my issue escalated with the carrier. I've had 3 iphone 7 plus' so it can't be the phones that are at issue.

I took my phone in to the Genius Bar again. Prob like no 15. They agree there is a problem and agree that their test iPhone 7 has the exact same problem I'm very frustrated with Apple my iPhone 6 works perfect

Hi Fellow Frustrated Owners of 7 or 7+ iPhones,

One person in this discussion reported having turned in an iPhone 7+ and getting a Jet Black model as the replacement phone. He or she said the Jet Black model is working fine, with no problems being heard on the other end.

This is the only instance I've read about in which a replacement phone solved the problem. Has anyone else had that experience?

I'm wondering if perhaps Apple solved the problem before producing most of their Jet Black models. Wouldn't it be great if we can overcome the not-being-heard-intermittently problem by simply changing to a Jet Black model!

Please post any experiences or insights you have in this regard. Thanks.

Hi,

I have the same problem with iPhone 7 128 GB black. Call sound is low quality, muffled and boxy. Just got 3rd replacement phone and the same problem persists. Tried to adjust settings, different SIM cards and mobile service providers - nothing worked at all.

I have the same issue too! I ran across your post when i went on goggle to see if others were having the same issue. I just got my iPhone 7 plus a week ago, and this is drivIng me crazy! It sounds as if the phone is hollow inside and the first time it happened I actually pulled away from the phone thinking I mistakenly pressed speaker phone by mistake. It's so bad that I can't have a private phone call as anyone standing by me can hear what the person on the other end of the call is saying. Even speaker sound quality sounds weird, and there is this annoying way the phone reverberates when the sounds are coming from the person speaking at the other end.