iPhone 7 Plus Makes Hissing Sound Under Load, Some Users Complain (businessinsider.com)

Several commendable users are complaining that their iPhone 7 Plus handsets are making a "hissing" noise especially when they do some heavy weight work. Some users note that this issue extends to the iPhone 7 as well. BusinessInsider reports:Stephen Hackett, cofounder of podcast network Relay FM, tweeted that his iPhone 7 Plus "makes terrible noises when under load," and shared an audio clip of the noise. TechCrunch writer (and former Apple employee) Darrell Etherington responded that his "brand new, just-unboxed [device is] doing the same thing right now." It sounds like the problem isn't affecting all devices, and it's not immediately clear what's behind it. Hackett said on Twitter that Apple will be replacing his device with a new one, which suggests it's a defect rather than just an unexpected quirk of the new smartphone's design. There's some speculation out there as to what's causing it - but nothing concrete yet. Engadget's Jon Fingas suggests it could be "coil whine," a process where electronics make an unintended noise while working, for example.

Comments

Don't buy the first batches...

[hcs_$reboot]

I always wait a couple of months before purchasing a new device, especially in the smartphones department.

Re:Don't buy the first batches...

[dgatwood]

Customers were told that they wanted thinner, stronger, and water resistant.

FTFY.

"I would buy a new iPhone if it were just a little bit thinner," said no Apple customer ever.

Re:Don't buy the first batches...

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Who (i.e. what customers) asked for this un-feature to be thrust upon us consumers?

"Please remove the headphone jack so I'm forced to buy new hardware" said no one, ever.

I can pretty much guarantee that no customer ever asked for this "feature". As for their remark that it was "courage", that's utter bullshit.

Storming the beach at Normandy took courage.
Running into a burning building to save someone is courage.
Martin Luther King Jr. standing up for equal rights was courage.
Jacklyn H. Lucas, who jumped on two grenades to save his buddies showed courage.

Removing a fucking headphone jack from a phone doesn't quite cut it in my book, sorry.

Re:Don't buy the first batches...

[whoever57]

Wait, who is asking for thinner?

Those people who put their phones in a fat extended battery case? </sarcasm>

#hissgate

[Anonymous Coward]

#hissgate

Re:The Holy Ghost of Steve Jobs Says

[dgatwood]

What do you expect when the phone doesn't have a headphone jack?

The headphone ports

[Anonymous Coward]

...They're haunting Apple. "Bring us baaaaaack.....*hiss*......Bring us baaaaaaack....."

Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?

[number6x]

Someone at Apple has been coding in Python instead of Swift.

Apple Iphone Proud Sponsor

[Oswald McWeany]

Apple iPhone, proud sponsor of house Slitherin.

Probably a combination of factors

[wierd_w]

Given that Apple is apparently quite obscessed with making their device the same thickness as a sheet of onion skin paper, the issue is likely a combination of things.

Namely, thermal noise needs to be overcome with higher voltages, which then get switched at pretty high speeds. That switching of higher than normal voltages (because it is under load, and having to overcome passive cooling only) coupled with a most likely saturating floating ground, means RF signal leakage. Given that one of the proposed reasons for Apple's removal of the headphone jack was that they were having problems with RF noise being produced and picked up on the headphones (and nothing to do with "Courage") I find this likely, and suspect the issue to be more systemic than apple wants to admit, especially in light of the Samsung battery disaster.

(EG, the reality that you can't reasonably push a design that thin without having very real problems with the electronics does not fly well with the ivory tower designers with sticks up their asses at Apple, but their marketing droids pay better attention, and realize this is a potential problem they need to be mum about. I would expect higher rates of failure from out of expected tolerance voltages on devices driven hard, and apple blaming the users, rather than the hardware like they should be.)

Re:Probably a combination of factors

[viperidaenz]

That's actually an explanation for their use of the word courage. It takes courage to release a product full of design flaws, masked by removing features you can't get working.

Terrible noise?

[nuckfuts]

I take it this is a first-world definition of "terrible"?

I had to turn up my speakers to even hear the video.

Re:bad inductor selection

[willy_me]

The big change in DCDC design is in the different modes of operation that a DCDC controller can support. It used to be simple pulse width modulation but now we have pulse width modulation and, to use a term adopted by Linear, "Burst" mode DCDC converters. The purpose of the "burst" mode is to achieve low power level efficiency by on/off modulating the DCDC converter. The resulting on/off modulation can be within the acoustic range even if the actual DCDC converter is switching in the MHz range. So Linear, TI, Analog - they all now support their own version of a "burst" mode.

In the past 5 years, far more parts from various manufacturers are available for designing systems that goes to sleep but require always-on power rails. You used to have to pair a DCDC and LDO together to achieve the best of both worlds. And companies like Murata have capacitors specifically designed to assist in alleviating the whine. Check out their product line for a more detained description. I have designed and built power supplies that have had a noticeable whine - typically under low load. So I can confirm - it is the caps.