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iPhone 4 Bluetooth headset performance

Romanesq

Romanesq

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 16, 2003
914
90
Hoboken
Does anyone know if the update 4.01 release does anything to help the performance of bluetooth headsets. I have used a Jabra JX10 Series II model with the iPhone 3GS and it was great. I could use it and walk around even 20 feet away before realizing I had left the phone in the other room.

Now even with a case on the iPhone 4, there's problems with complaints from folks who say the signal degrades. Sometimes it is doing so from even two feet.

I had added a Best Skins Ever all around and that seemed to help in addition to the case. But not so much now.

One friend said, like your phone but hate talking to you on your iPhone 4 now.
:apple:

Will the new update help? What's folks experience now with using a bluetooth headset?
 
one add..

Currently using 4.0. This seems to be a common problem though for many users of many different models.
 
I'd consider taking your phone back and getting it replaced. Several 3GS and IP4s here working fine with wide variety of BT headsets under 4.0, 4.0.1, and 4.1 beta.
 
exchange

thanks for the suggestion on an exchange but based on the long thread linked earlier to Apple's forum, it appears this is actually common and problematic. I'm going to see what more folks are saying (and doing).

But this is a thread to discuss iPhone 4 bluetooth headset performance. I had the 3GS with the same Jabra Jx10 Series II headset and it worked great. It worked better than great. Now I'm getting constant complaints when I use the same model with the iPhone 4.

And I'm not alone. People are going through multiple types trying to find one that works. It's a problem.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4 (32GB): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

BT on my iPhone 4 is awful. I use a Plantronics 855 to listen to music, and this iPhone constantly cuts out when I'm walking - my 3G and my 3GS worked perfectly. :mad:
 
You've probably already tried this, but unpairing my Plantronics 925, rebooting the phone and then re-pairing the headset did clear about 90% of my issues. I had to do this twice before it worked, but it's been performing much more cleanly for several days now. It's worth a shot if you haven't done it.

Unfortunately it doesn't appear that 4.0.1 addresses this issue at all. Hopefully 4.1 will...
 
IrishVixen said:
You've probably already tried this, but unpairing my Plantronics 925, rebooting the phone and then re-pairing the headset did clear about 90% of my issues. I had to do this twice before it worked, but it's been performing much more cleanly for several days now. It's worth a shot if you haven't done it.

Unfortunately it doesn't appear that 4.0.1 addresses this issue at all. Hopefully 4.1 will...
Click to expand...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but 4.1 doesn't help. That's what I'm using, and BT is still awful. :(
 
This new iPhone is certainly an enigma. Mine has superior BT performance to my 3GS in terms of pairing, transmission distance and clarity. I've had several friends ask if I got a new headset because it sounds so much better than the old phone. I've also listened to over 20 hrs of music so far and not had a single skip whereas the 3GS would skip occasionally.
 
The three that are working perfectly are:

Blueant Interphone F4
Southwing S505
Plantronics Voyager 510

Lots of iOS 4 users at the office. None with BT issues on 3GS or IP4.
 
of the three...

There's some issue with the Voyager based on some owners at the Apple forum on the thread highlighted above.

But good to hear that there's positive reports.
 
I guess I shouldn't say perfect. I have had one minor issue.

I have noticed that iOS4 seems a bit different (or perhaps buggy) in the way it chooses the default device when paired with a headset. When you answer a call with the phone, it should default to the phone's speaker and mic. Likewise, when you answer using the headset, it should go to the headset.

I've had a couple of calls where the user was hearing only a bit of my voice (garbled) and this was because the phone had selected its own mic vs. the headset mic and I had to press the headset icon on the screen to go to headset mic. Once the headset was clearly selected, there were no sound quality issues.

This has only happened twice but both times I could hear the caller through the headset but they were only hearing me through the phone's mic.
 
For upgrade users...

I read one approach on the Apple forum and decided it was worth trying.
My iPhone 4 was an upgrade of my software settings from an iPhone 3GS.

What this person suggested is there may be some files/settings carried over impacting the bluetooth. What he suggested was doing a restore and then a clean install as a new user in iTunes. Then he went back on the computer logged back in under his name and then got the backup of all the old saved settings/applications/etc. loaded.

What I did was use another mac I have. Opened iTunes and did a full restore. Note this restore will now update your phone's software operating system to 4.0.1.

After that I took my iPhone 4 back to the other machine and got the whole backup installed. No restore on that machine.

I've had a couple of conversations using my Jabra JX10 Series II bluetooth headset. One person who complained vehemently about how bad my phone was asked when I wanted to test it when I called. I told him I was already on the bluetooth. He was surprised and said walk away. I moved from about six feet to 12 feet. He said it still sounded much better than it had in previous conversations over the last two weeks.

So it looks like this helped. I would not attribute it to 4.0.1. It appears there may have been some files carried over from the 3GS that impeded the bluetooth in the iPhone 4.

I'm just glad it worked out. Now maybe some others may try similar on their phones.

Hopefully that will help some folks, both new and old iPhone 4 users. :p
 
I use a Bluetooth headset in my motorcycle helmet from a company called J&M.

I have had no issues with it and the new iPhone 4.

Well OK I started to go off on a ride and it would not work.

DUH!

I forgot to pair it up to the new phone!!!!!
 
My Plantronics Voyager Pro cut out, dropped completely and gacked my entire phone to the point I had to reboot. :(
 
Contact Apple about this problem!!

If you have not yet, please contact Apple about this problem. When I called to advise someone they had no idea of a issue with Bluetooth connectivity
 
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