Could the microphone hole be plugged up with pocket lint?
That actually happened to me when I was working in Japan.
I had put a protective cover on the company’s iPad and it took a couple of days to figure out that the protective cover was covering the mic.
Could the microphone hole be plugged up with pocket lint?
~~~
Yes, I was wondering the same. Maybe a bad mic.
I would try connecting some plug-in and/or bluetooth headphones+microphone device and talking to someone to see how it sounds to them.
Sounds like you have had personal experience with lint occlusion.
I got the lint issue with my charging port
Work in yard, get dirt and debris in pockets, almost prevents from charging it
Usb c