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iPhone 4 earpiece seems muffled?

S

swy05

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 9, 2008
411
0
Anyone else notice this? On a call and it feels like the earpiece is muffled.

I tried turning up the volume. I find myself constantly asking the other person "What did u say?"

I'm on my 3g iPhone now and the sound is much clearer when talking to others
 
I have noticed it too. I thought it was just me, but we bought four phones so I'm gonna test each one and then post my results here. Hopefully there is a fix soon. So far it's the ONLY issue I have with the device.
 
I have been experiencing the same thing since picking up the phone Thursday evening. This is my first iPhone, but it's hard to imagine that this is normal and everyone has been dealing with voice quality this bad all this time, so I'm guessing it's just my phone (and apparently a few others? but certainly not widespread).

I purchased from Best Buy, wondering if it's worth a visit back to them or even an Apple store to ask if it's normal (I can't imagine that it is). I could probably live with it, voices are audible, but just not at all crisp, but it's probably not supposed to be like this.
 
Another with Audio/Sound issues from iPhone 4 earpiece/handset

Add another to the list. My first call (to another iPhone user that has the 3G) was terrible - couldn't make out anything. I then rang the same person at home with the same result.

Not sure if there's a bad batch of them or if it's more widespread. Mine was purchased through Apple online store and I'm in the UK.

Must admit I had a hard time finding this thread at all searching on 'iPhone 4 audio' or 'iPhone 4 sound'.

Will watch the thread anyway to see what others report, but otherwise this one is going back once the dust settles on the initial launch. Of course there may also be some official response on the antenna issues.
 
Mine just seems like it has a very low volume. It's turned up to the max, but I have a hard time hearing people. It does seem clear though. I shouldn't have to push the phone on my ear to hear the person on the line. I'd hate to see people with hearing problems using the phone.
 
I'm assuming you all know to remove the plastic protector from the phone. A friend had the same problem because he decided to keep the protector on the phone.
 
Me too, I thought it was meant to be louder? They made the speakerphone louder... wtf it's always been quiet
 
My volume is very low as well. It actually seems like my iPhone 4's highest volume is equivalent to my old Verizon Samsung u740's lowest volume.
 
Mine's exactly the same!! It's as if you need to turn the 'treble' up to make the earpiece clearer.

Didn't have this problem on the 3G or my wife's 3GS.

I have tried my mum in law's new iphone 4 and her's is the same as mine.....too bassy. Maybe it's to do with the new noise cancellation mic??

I remember on older phones, there was a 'secret' menu you could access to get to the earpiece settings. Is there something like this on the iPhone?

Regards

MisterJRW
 
I don't have an iPhone 4 yet, but I had the same problem with the 3GS. After a few weeks I realised I was doing something wrong: the earpiece didn't go in all the way (so until the plastic). It's a bit stiff in the beginning, so you have to push harder.
 
ThatsMeRight said:
I don't have an iPhone 4 yet, but I had the same problem with the 3GS. After a few weeks I realised I was doing something wrong: the earpiece didn't go in all the way (so until the plastic). It's a bit stiff in the beginning, so you have to push harder.
Click to expand...
I believe we are all referring to the actual iPhone earpiece, not any periphal that you plug into the jack or dock connector.
 
Yeah same problem here. The earpiece is a good deal quieter compared to the 3G, and also sounds more muffled. I don't know if the phone does some kind of dynamic volume control using the 2nd microphone or not, but indoors its no where as loud as my 3G was. I too have some trouble understanding others due to the muffled sound.
 
100% count me in. I hope they can fix this, its super quiet, and rather annoying to use sometimes. I keep hitting the volume button, and the phone just cant do it :)
 
I am having the same issue. The sound out of the earpiece seems muffled/much lower volume than my old iPhone 2G. My iPhone 2G was clear as day, and loud, but the iPhone 4 seems hard to hear sometimes. I hope this is just a limited issue from the calls I have been making and not a problem with my specific phone.
 
Same here. When I called AT&T today, the rep kept asking me to repeat myself and said it sounded like I was far away from the phone, on speakerphone. I told her it was right up to my ear and the speaker was not on. I also could barely make out what she was saying... it was extremely muffled. Is it the phone or is it AT&T's crappy network that I keep hearing about? I thought T-Mobile was the worst, but T-Mobile's voice quality on my 3G blows this thing out of the water. Either way, it really sucks. :(
 
I've thought this as well until I realized because the phone is differently shaped I wasn't actually holding that hole directly to my ear.

Try moving it up and down as you talk to find where it should be. To me it feels like I have to hold it lower than I'd expect.
 
sparrky said:
Same here. When I called AT&T today, the rep kept asking me to repeat myself and said it sounded like I was far away from the phone, on speakerphone. I told her it was right up to my ear and the speaker was not on. I also could barely make out what she was saying... it was extremely muffled. Is it the phone or is it AT&T's crappy network that I keep hearing about? I thought T-Mobile was the worst, but T-Mobile's voice quality on my 3G blows this thing out of the water. Either way, it really sucks. :(
Click to expand...

Tmobile overall does have much better voice quality due to them not using a half rate codec (most of the time) like AT&T does. However, what we are describing is certainly related to the phone, not to the network. My 3G sounds fine on AT&T, but the iPhone 4 sounds muffled, more like my old Razr.
 
Same problem with my UK iPhone from Apple online at launch - the earpiece is very quiet, am always asking people to repeat themselves
Much quieter than the previous iPhones - at first, it was almost unusable, but improved slightly after a few days, but it's still too quiet
Not sure what to do - the 30 day window is coming up...
 
I just compared three iPhones:

iPhone 4 purchased on launch 4.0
iPhone 3GS 8GB purchased last week 4.0
iPhone 3GS 32GB purchased yesterday 3.1.3

All three have the same exact volume level when calling the same phone number.
 
SpaceKitty said:
I just compared three iPhones:

iPhone 4 purchased on launch 4.0
iPhone 3GS 8GB purchased last week 4.0
iPhone 3GS 32GB purchased yesterday 3.1.3

All three have the same exact volume level when calling the same phone number.
Click to expand...

What, did you call party line?

(70's social networking reference, ignore if u r 2 young)
 
Exact same problem

I previously had an iPhone 3g and never had any problems with the earpiece or hearing the other caller. I got just got the iPhone 4 and have exactly the same problem as described above.

Just to confirm, I'm on the O2 network and I don't have any screen protectors on the screen blocking the earpiece.

I thought the phone was defective so I got it replaced at the apple store. Unfortunately the new phone sounds exactly the same - muffled, difficult to hear the other person, and generally lacking treble. :(

Anyone managed to sort their issue out with this?
 
same problem in Australia. got my friend who has the 3G to check it out and he agrees it's muffled! I think it's to do with hearing protection. my right ear has hearing damage due to phone usage, so they've reduced the top frequencies to protect our ears. but when you have to keep saying "sorry, what did you just say..." it bloody annoying!:eek:
 
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