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The iPhone 6s has the worst Bluetooth performance ever.

S

scaramoosh

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 30, 2014
856
930
I go for long walks with my dog every day, I bought a pair of wireless Beats headphones because it's a good time to listen to music for a few hours a day. However I've noticed that the music keeps cutting out constantly like if you hit a portable cd player and the music skips. The Apple site says to put your phone in your left pocket and to face the antenna outwards, this improves the situation, however it's still not perfect and I cannot believe that is meant to be an acceptable work around to an obvious design flaw.

I've been to the Apple store, exchanged the headphones, the new ones did the same thing. I then bought a few different cheaper earphones from Amazon to test out, while they perform better than the Beats (lol) they still have this issue. I decided to then get my phone exchanged, it still has the issue, even the guy's phone in store had the same issue.

How is this possible for the most expensive phone on the market to suffer from such poor bluetooth performance? I can stand there all day at work and it's fine, then as soon as I'm outside walking about for a few hours, it all goes to **** and becomes unbearable. I can only guess the movement of the phone is causing it, if I move my head side to side it'll cause the issue too, if it's windy it'll do it more...

The only phone I've had this problem on, no other phones I've tested it on suffer from this.
 
Another reason you're having this issue is that while indoors the Bluetooth signal can bounce off walls and other surfaces to reach your headphones and while outside it does not always have that luxury, this degrading the signal. Granted this could still be a Bluetooth issue with the iPhone in general, but I've noticed the biggest degradations to Bluetooth signal are always layers of clothing/building straight blocking the signal and wide open spaces where the signal has a hard time getting from your pocket to your headphones. It would also depend on where the Bluetooth receiver is located on your headphones.
 
My 6S seems pretty good but it doesn't have the range/power as my 5S.

I know this for several reasons, with my 5S in its dock in my work vehicle I can get out and goto the trunk without any problem. It would also reach from being plugged into my Mac in my office to my living room which is adjacent without much problem.

6S has trouble with both. And on rare occasions I can hear it cut out when using Bluetooth normally.

However overall I find it to be good enough. I'm surprised you'd have so much trouble with the Beats. There aren't that many threads about the problem you're experiencing.
 
Yeah I got them replaced twice, second pair came with a dodgy hinge as well which pissed me off. Went tot he store today, the same thing happened with every iPhone 6s, but the iPhone 6s+ seemed to be better... probably couldn't cover enough of the antenna.

The staff just told me it's fine, how it is basically and there is no fault with my phone or headphones.

I'm just gonna put the Beats up on eBay and sell the 6s when the new 4 inch phone comes out, as I prefer the smaller phone and hopefully it'll have a different design. The 5c was my favourite, I prefer plastic phones but I never bought one myself because it was so down on power and overpriced for what it was.
[doublepost=1454849469][/doublepost]I'm always unlucky though...

iPhone 3GS came with lots of dead pixels
iPhone 4 had a purple line across the screen
iPhone 5s had a defective battery that would discharge from 100 - 0 over night.
Macbook 12 had a defective battery that did the same thing
iMac just came with a dent in it
iPhone 6 has these bluetooth issues and apparently so does the Beats.... I'm guessing they're both to blame.

Even the Naim Mu-So I just bought just disconnects from Airplay all the time, it's unusable. Maybe that's just Airplay though? If I play a video the latency is so bad the audio is 2 seconds behind. On top of that the speaker turns off on it's own.... why can't it stay on 24/7? Makes the whole thing ****. It has an alarm, I turn the alarm on to wake me up and the speaker has turn itself off so it doesn't work by the morning.

I would take it as a sign that Apple sucks, but I think it's my luck as my HTC One M7 came with a speaker grill coming off and my GS4 that I replaced it with came with a weird yellow blob on the screen.

Why me all the time?
 
Apple's bluetooth signal has been horrid for at least the last 3 generations. I can't keep my phone in my pocket and listen to my car bluetooth or headphones without cutting out. Hell, I can't even put the phone in my shirt pocket and turn the wheel with my left hand because it covers up the pocket/phone with my arm and cuts out.

It is pretty absurd. I am VERY anti the headphone jack removal unless this is corrected.
 
Could it be because of temperature instead? IPhone does not seem to handle Vinter temperatures well.
 
Gotta agree, the Bluetooth signal strength leaves much to be desired. Even my hearing aids, which has a bluetooth remote doesn't function too well when the remote is in the pocket or even shirt pocket (better in shirt but still).
 
I have to say the opposite. When I had the Samsung S6 I would disconnect from my huawei watch when stepping out of my home office, just in the next room . Leaving my watch now, and taking my phone the watch stays connected. I would pretty impressed with the range.
 
I've had no issues With 6s Bluetooth. I use it with my jay bird X2 and B&O H7 also with the B&O A2 haven't had a dropout yet. Also the plantronics voyager edge headset.
 
Is it working perfectly when you're relatively still though? Mine are fine if I'm still, it's when I'm walking around and it's moving in my pocket that it sucks.
 
I'm moving all the time when connected to my headphones the iPhone will be on my desk in my room and I'm all over the house sometimes a couple rooms away and have had no issues.
 
I can leave my 6s sitting on the coffee table and walk around outside with a connection between my Jaybirds or my Air Matrix 2 headphones. I was surprised that my :apple: watch has a connection out in the yard as well.
 
Yeh so you're not walking your dog with your phone in your pocket. Mine is fine if I leave my phone still..
 
RadioGaGa1984 said:
Oh I've walked my dog plenty and no issues and the gym no issues. You might have the phone looked at.
Click to expand...

I have twice, same issue twice, tried it on everyones phones I know and the same issue, the staff in store had the same issue :\
 
scaramoosh said:
I have twice, same issue twice, tried it on everyones phones I know and the same issue, the staff in store had the same issue :\
Click to expand...

Maybe it's not a BT issue? I have periods of stuttering during music playback and I am sure it isn't BT issues. There is a spot out on the pier where it is especially bad. All I have to do is move 100' in either direction and the problem goes away. I think that is a cell reception issue. I also have brief periods of stuttering that are independent of location and just go away after a few seconds. I think those are caused by my 6s getting very busy doing something else.
 
Hmmm... I just upgraded to a 6S recently and I tested a pair of wireless beat studios over the weekend. I was able to walk around 80 feet before the connection finally dropped .
[doublepost=1454885963][/doublepost]Also worth mentioning that if you plug your headphones into a Mac or PC, there is a very useful software update available through the beats website.
 
I'm on a 6S now and no issues with the bluetooth at all. Worked fine in both cars we have for phone calls and i recently got some not that expensive bluetooth earphones for a similar purpose, walking the dog, and of the few times i've used them to date they have been fine. i was out for a couple of hours the first time i used them and they never dropped out once and that was listening to cricket commentary using an internet radio app so it was streaming that through to the earphones so working the phone nice and hard.
 
I have a year old 6 plus and a new pair of Beats Solo 2 wireless and I'm amazed with them, use them at work all the time, sometimes the ph is in a case on my side (Otterbox Defender) and sometimes I lay it down on a table while working and I have never lost a signal.
 
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