LG Nexus 4 users complain about buzzing noise in earpiece

Google’s latest offering LG Nexus 4 may have sold out within hours of its release, but users are reporting a problem with the earpiece of the phone already. In a thread on Google’s Android project website, over 130 users have claimed that a buzzing sound is emitted from the earpiece of the handset.

While some have complained that the sound is faint and intermittent, for some the static is loud enough to be a real nuisance. The worrisome bit is that it sounds more like a hardware issue than a software one. Some believe that it could be a shielding issue with the interior electronics of the handsets making the sound audible only when the device is close to the ear. If it indeed turns out to be a hardware glitch, Google will have to replace handsets rather than simply release software patches to deal with this issue.

Buzzing in earpiece reported by LG Nexus 4 users

Since the issue is not very widely reported, it is being speculated that only one batch of the Nexus 4 could have this problem. It might be too early to conclude anything, since the phone was released only a fortnight ago. Neither Google nor LG has released an official statement addressing this issue.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

“Reviewers have not spotted this issue on any of their Nexus 4 devices and we find that this may be a small issue that has come with a few of the manufactured units. With a small calamity of people coming out and saying this, we cannot see it being a user fault, more a manufacturing fault,” reports  Tapscape.

The Nexus 4 developed by Google along with LG was launched with much fanfare earlier this month. The phone has a quad-core processor, a crisp 4.7-inch (320ppi) display, and with wireless charging. You merely need to set the phone down on a charging surface to power it up without the hassles of wires. It works on Android v4.2 said to be the simplest and smartest version of Android yet. The camera promises to be a different experience altogether, allowing you to capture shots in all directions to create 360-degree experiences that you can share on Google+. You can also add your Photo Sphere to Google Maps for the world to see.

Android v4.2, which is featured on the Nexus 4 will bring along other great goodies. These include Gesture Typing, which lets you glide your finger over the letters you want to type on the keyboard—thus adding the functionality of the Swype keyboard into the stock Android keyboard. Android v4.2 also adds support for wireless display so you can wirelessly watch movies, YouTube videos, and play games right on a Miracast-compatible HDTV.

Nexus 4 has already been found to have a redundant LTE chip, the discovery of which prompted users to think that the handset could probably run on the LTE network in the future. LG has announced that this will not be the case.

The handset is currently all sold out and will be ‘coming soon’ back to the Google Play Store. Hopefully, Google will have acknowledged this issue and dealt with it before releasing a new batch.