Microphone In iPad 2 WiFi Offers Better Quality Than 3G Model

If you’ve recently bought an iPad 2 WiFi + 3G (good luck finding one now with a 4-5 weeks wait on the Apple Store) and your friends have told you they can’t really hear you on FaceTime, that might be a problem with the microphone in your 3G model. According to iLounge, the iPad 2 WiFi offers clearer microphone quality as the microphone has been placed in the top metal housing, whilst it sits in the plastic antenna band on the iPad WiFi + 3G.

Perhaps due to this change in materials, the Wi-Fi model offers markedly cleaner audio than that of the 3G, which sounds slightly muffled and echo-prone as a result. Curiously, we found the GSM 3G model’s audio to be slightly preferable to that of the CDMA model, which seemed to suffer the issues more severely.

The iPad 2 saw a change in size and shape of the microphone, and iLounge reports the differences in sonic qualities can be clearly spotted in apps like FaceTime with the iPad’s screen facing the user. If you have a 3G iPad 2 and you’ve spotted these differences, too, please let us know in the comments below.

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