iPhone4 Speakerphone

[drifty74]

Greetings, I'm new to the iPhone and new to this forum. I came from a BlackBerry Bold 9700. I used the speaker phone 90% of the time and prefer it because I can put it in my shirt pocket and do other things while talking on the phone. But since switching to the iPhone4, everybody I talk to says the sound quality sucks, both while listening to my speech and while talking themselves.

Actually, the audio (my end) of the sound is better on the iPhone than the BB, but literally everybody I talk to tells me they HATE the sound they're getting from my iPhone in speaker phone mode. If I switch to normal (non-speaker) mode, they tell me it sounds fine. I have tested this repeatedly, switching back and forth between speaker and non-speaker mode with several different people and the consensus is that the speaker function sucks for the person I'm talking to.

Any suggestions?

 

[rick snagwell]

get one of those super cool bluetooth's!

 

[ann713]

You might as well invest in a bluetooth headset.

 

[Dave Felix]

If its in your pocket wouldn't the microphone be covered up and cause muffled sounds on the receipts end? Either try not putting it in your pocket or as to the other posters.. a bluetooth headset would really come in handy if you're mostly hands-free.

 

[drifty74]

Thanks for those suggestions. Although I have had less than great success with blue tooth devices. Problem is, I have substantial hearing loss and wear hearing aids. So in order to use a BT, I have to remove a hearing aid and only a few I've ever tried delivered sufficient volume to really work for me. Another downside is that swapping the devices creates recurring opportunities to lose a hearing aid.

But I guess I'll have to go back to the test bench and see if there are any better ones out there now. It's been a few years since I tried to use one.

Update: Out of curiosity, I ran some sound tests, leaving messages on a different phone's voicemail, alternating back and forth between speaker and non-speaker mode. The results absolutely validated my friends' assessment. With the phone in my pocket the sound is practically inaudible. Turns out, the iP4 has a dual mic system, with the primary mic at the bottom, next to the connection port, and another smaller mic at the top, next to the headphone input jack. This system obviously creates a truly garbled, muffled sound when the phone is placed in the pocket. However, the sound is substantially better in speaker mode with the phone just sitting on a table in front of me. Apparently this permits the dual mic system to work as intended, which is with the face-to-face function.

 

[Dave Felix]

Thanks for those suggestions. Although I have had less than great success with blue tooth devices. Problem is, I have substantial hearing loss and wear hearing aids. So in order to use a BT, I have to remove a hearing aid and only a few I've ever tried delivered sufficient volume to really work for me. Another downside is that swapping the devices creates recurring opportunities to lose a hearing aid.

But I guess I'll have to go back to the test bench and see if there are any better ones out there now. It's been a few years since I tried to use one.

Update: Out of curiosity, I ran some sound tests, leaving messages on a different phone's voicemail, alternating back and forth between speaker and non-speaker mode. The results absolutely validated my friends' assessment. With the phone in my pocket the sound is practically inaudible. Turns out, the iP4 has a dual mic system, with the primary mic at the bottom, next to the connection port, and another smaller mic at the top, next to the headphone input jack. This system obviously creates a truly garbled, muffled sound when the phone is placed in the pocket. However, the sound is substantially better in speaker mode with the phone just sitting on a table in front of me. Apparently this permits the dual mic system to work as intended, which is with the face-to-face function.

Yes, very close to what I mentioned. Is there any clip ons that can just clip to your shirt or something without being in your pocket? or did you try flipping the phone upside down so you hit the primary microphone first when you speak?