
Apple's £999 iPhone X suffering from 'crackly' audio, some users complain
Quality control not all it could be for a device that users could end up spending £2,300 or more on

While Apple's new iPhone X flagship (ie: expensive) smartphone hasn't been plagued with quite the volume of problems of Google's (almost equally expensive) Pixel 2, it hasn't exactly been smooth, either.
The latest glitch to affect early adopters of Apple's £999 iPhone is complaints of an irritating audio problem for some people.
According to posts on Twitter, Reddit and MacRumors' forum, the issue presents itself when listening to music or any other audio out of the speaker on the front of the phone at anywhere approaching 100 per cent volume. Some users report that it only happens at max volume, while others have problems right down to around 70 per cent.
@MacTrast @MacRumors Am I the only iPhone X user experiencing issues with the earpiece speaker emitting static/crackling noises when the volume is maxed out?
— Joseph (@Sublimeside) 9 November 2017
Unfortunately, the problem's not just present for media playback, as it also affects call quality, according to the feedback online. It even happens on alarms, according to complaints.
Apple appears to be replacing handsets that are returned to its stores and are found to have problems, but that's probably not a whole lot of comfort to anyone that just handed over £999 or more for a new phone.
While it's only a very small percentage of devices likely to have the issue - millions have been sold, and the reports aren't that widespread - it's still common enough to have been noticed by users all over the world.
What makes predicting the prevalence of the issue more difficult is that many people simply don't listen to any sort of audio at maximum volume very often, and so may not have noticed it yet. And then add to that the frustration of not knowing if it's a hardware problem that applies to multiple batches, or a software issue.
It joins a growing list of niggles for Apple's newest high-end handset. Last week, it transpired that the device also hates cold weather and is suffering from FaceID and faulty 'green line of death' screen problems in some cases.
Once again, if you've spent a whole load of money on this phone and have any of these issues, you should get in touch with Apple for an exchange or fix.
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