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iPhone 7 Plus Phone Call Sound Quality

So we just got 2 new iPhone 7 Plus' and I am noticing that the incoming call audio quality on both sounds strange. I have the Apple leather case on the phone and incoming audio sounds distant. Like it is coming from behind the phone or something. It almost sounds like the phone is on speaker phone but it isn't. Turning the volume down helps a bit but it seems off. Previous I had an iPhone 6 so I don't know how this compares to the 6 Plus.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Sep 16, 2016 11:36 AM

Best reply

eXactMat

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Mar 2, 2017 5:26 AM

The iPhone 7 (Photo credit: John Taggart/Bloomberg)

With the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Intel finally made its way into Apple's most important product. Good news for Intel, no doubt, but not for consumers.

Tests of LTE connectivity, released on Thursday by Cellular Insights, show a huge performance gap between the iPhone 7 equipped with an Intel modem and a Qualcomm modem. The difference in performance is a black eye not only for Intel, but also for Apple, which for the past five years had relied on Qualcomm exclusively for its iPhone modem chips. With the iPhone 7, Apple decided to make two versions -- one with an Intel modem and one with a Qualcomm modem. (Neither Intel nor Apple have commented on the performance gap so far.)

For consumers, the downside of owning an Intel version is significant. The tests revealed that Qualcomm-powered iPhone 7s are able to consistently establish stronger connections to LTE networks than Intel-powered iPhone 7s. Qualcomm modems outran Intel modems by 30% in overall performance, and 75% when the signal was at its weakest.

Since writing a story about these modem benchmarks, readers have asked FORBES -- directly and via Twitter -- how to make sure they're buying the better iPhone 7 with a Qualcomm modem. If you want to get the best bang for your buck, you probably should be careful which iPhone 7 you end up buying.

Here are some ways you can make sure you're not buying the inferior iPhone 7.

Model number

As this Apple spec page shows, Apple created two distinct versions of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus to segment out devices with an Intel modem or a Qualcomm modem.

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