iLounge has some very interesting information today about discrepancies in the sonic quality of the microphones in the Wi-Fi-only and 3G iPad 2s. iLounge explains that this is because the iPad 2’s microphone hole has been moved from next to the headphone port in the original iPad, to the middle of the iPad 2, just above the front-facing camera. It is also a different shape now, being more like a pill shape than the tiny dot of the previous version. This therefore means that in the Wi-Fi-only iPad 2s, the microphone hole is still situated in metal casing, but in the 3G versions, it is placed in the plastic strip at the top, which houses the antenna. iLounge says that it has tested the recording quality of the microphone in both versions, and has found that the Wi-Fi iPad 2 has “markedly cleaner audio†when compared to the 3G model’s sound, which it says is “slightly muffled†and “echo-proneâ€. They say that the issue is even more apparent when the iPad 2 screen is facing towards you, which is exactly when you’d be using it for FaceTime, of course. For some reason, iLounge found that the GSM 3G model’s sound quality is slightly better than that of the CDMA model. Will be interesting to see if, following iLounge's report, Apple takes notice and decides to do anything about it. Watch this space, as ever!
Source: iPad 2 Wi-Fi, 3G models show microphone differences | iLounge News
