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iPhone 4 owners.. Is this normal!?

R

ReflexReact

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 10, 2010
364
0
When I hold my iPhone 4 against my head while on a call, I can hear constant network buzzing through the speaker. I used to get the issue on older phones but never my 3G. I only got the phone today so it may be I'm just trying to find problems, however I'm not convinced hearing network interference through the ear piece speaker is normal on modern phones?

Should I get it replaced?
 
It's the GSM buzz. It's normal and happens to all GSM based phones. If your iPhone is making the call over and it says 3G at the top then there should be no buzz. If it doesn't say 3G and is blank where 3G used to be then it's all normal.
 
Oh I see, so it's a normal sound all iPhone 4 owners hear when they're NOT on 3G?
 
I've never heard that sound before. But if Intell is right I have never even seen my iPhone 4 go to the Edge network, so... :D
 
Can anyone else confirm? Nothing against Intell but it seems odd that the internal earpiece speaker isn't shielded!
 
ReflexReact said:
Can anyone else confirm? Nothing against Intell but it seems odd that the internal earpiece speaker isn't shielded!
Click to expand...


i dont think i have a hearing problem but i have never heard of any buzzing sound in any of my iphones i used to buy. i used to in my nokia phones tho.


and i am sensitive to any thing. dead pixels no one can see but me. bad sound. small scratch etc.


i dont think its normal to be honest. if it help. i am 29. so i dont think i have a hearing problem yet lol
 
Bloody hell, that would suggest I've got ANOTHER faulty iPhone. The first didn't vibrate! Damn apple!
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

I'd say that it definitely isn't normal to hear GSM buzz thru a phone's speaker. Last I heard, they were all shielded to prevent just such an occourance from happening. I haven't heard that on my iPhone 4, my 3G, my old LG Cu-500, or anything before that either.

Not uncommon to hear GSM buzz thru other types of speaker systems though, sadly. So if you're hearing it in your guitar amp? Sadly normal. In your phone, NOT normal.
 
TruckdriverSean said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

I'd say that it definitely isn't normal to hear GSM buzz thru a phone's speaker. Last I heard, they were all shielded to prevent just such an occourance from happening. I haven't heard that on my iPhone 4, my 3G, my old LG Cu-500, or anything before that either.

Not uncommon to hear GSM buzz thru other types of speaker systems though, sadly. So if you're hearing it in your guitar amp? Sadly normal. In your phone, NOT normal.
Click to expand...

Looks like I'll be getting a replacement tomorrow then
 
TruckdriverSean said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

I'd say that it definitely isn't normal to hear GSM buzz thru a phone's speaker. Last I heard, they were all shielded to prevent just such an occourance from happening. I haven't heard that on my iPhone 4, my 3G, my old LG Cu-500, or anything before that either.

Not uncommon to hear GSM buzz thru other types of speaker systems though, sadly. So if you're hearing it in your guitar amp? Sadly normal. In your phone, NOT normal.
Click to expand...


I AGREE WITH YOUR SIGNATURE 100%!!!! no one will listen when I tried to point it out!!! think back to the last three iPhone announcements...when did steve jobs EVER mention a case? NEVER..but all of a sudden we "will want to get a bumper"?
 
I have no 3G here so totally on edge. I get the buzz in my computer speakers but not on the phone itself.
 
Ok thanks for the info, I'll try and get this swapped tomorrow, but won't hold my breath on them having stock!!
 
Martyimac said:
I have no 3G here so totally on edge. I get the buzz in my computer speakers but not on the phone itself.
Click to expand...

Same here. I get the buzz in my car speakers all the time. I didn't think about when it happened, but I seem to recall it only happened on EDGE as well. I get it when I'm driving though the country side where EDGE is dominate. 3G in town and I've never heard a peep. Though this is though the external speakers, never the internal headset speaker for any of my GSM phones.
 
ReflexReact said:
Ok thanks for the info, I'll try and get this swapped tomorrow, but won't hold my breath on them having stock!!
Click to expand...
How did you get on? I've got the exact same problem with a week 30 iPhone 4 delivered yesterday.

Rang an AppleStore - they were no help at all. Range AppleCare, they've taken me through resets and all sorts to see if it is a software/sim/hardware issue. Not getting much luck - still got the problem. Where is urs at?
 
GSM and iDEN phones were notorious for external buzzing of other speakers...I think the OP was talking about the phones earpiece, if I understand correctly, I have the same issue, I have a weird interference buzz in one room of my house, but the second I step out of it, the noise goes away...but even the other party tells me they hear horrible feedback. Never happened with my 3g/3gs
 
ReflexReact said:
Bloody hell, that would suggest I've got ANOTHER faulty iPhone. The first didn't vibrate! Damn apple!
Click to expand...
You mean this kind of sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emxPVUM3y54?

No worries, is perfectly normal. It happens to a lot of phones. When you are on 3G it usually isn't there. When you call over the normal GSM netwerk (GRPS, or EDGE) you can definitely hear it. It happens to almost every phone. You do not have a faulty phone.
 
ThatsMeRight said:
You mean this kind of sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emxPVUM3y54?

No worries, is perfectly normal. It happens to a lot of phones. When you are on 3G it usually isn't there. When you call over the normal GSM netwerk (GRPS, or EDGE) you can definitely hear it. It happens to almost every phone. You do not have a faulty phone.
Click to expand...
That's the noise... but I hear it on my handset when I'm on a call - as you say, not on 3G.

Surely the phone should be better shielded. I just took out my sim tried it on another phone - no noise at all on GSM. My friend's iP4 doesn't experience the noise.

Would be great to get a wider opinion - can some of you ip4 users try and make a non-3G call in a quiet area and listen for that interference buzzing noise in the background of your calls please? Thanks community.
 
I agree that it's a faulty phone if you're getting that.

A GSM phone on 2G does interfere with speaker amplifiers and/or radio transmissions but should not interfere with itself!
 
For anyone else who comes across this thread, I got a replacement shipped out by apple and it doesn't have the problem. If yours does, replace it.
 
I have noticed this is my house as 3G suddenly disappeared several months ago and it's GSM only. I took my first phone back because of it as I had never noticed it with the 2G/3G.

The replacement was the same, and the replacement for that (for a completely different reason) also had the GSM buzz. These were both week 26-ish.

I also have just received a week 31 phone not for myself, but just tested it now and I can hear the buzz. Most people I have mentioned it to cannot even hear it.
 
I hear the buzzing through OTHER speakers like my car.. But I never hear the buzzing through the iphone itself...

Others have said it to but I wanted to add: Get it replaced ugh.
 
That was one of the greatest benefits of switching over to Sprint. I always got amused by the fact that I could tell I had an incoming call before my Cingular Siemens S55 started ringing thanks to the GSM buzz on my radio.
smilielol.gif


As a matter of fact I had completely forgot about the GSM buzz until reading this thread...

Guess I'm going to have to start getting used to it again as I'm buying an iP4 before the end of the month. :rolleyes:
 
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