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LeEco's Latest Android Smartphones Beat Apple to Removing the Headphone Jack
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There seems to be this unusual battle between USB C and Lightning and 3.5mm. I thought Lightning would be around for many years to come, but it's unclear now. My preference is something completely standardized across all electronic devices where the patent is free for use by everyone for inter compatibility reasons and reducing the nonsense with constant upgrading and adaptors.
I'm confused, is this sarcasm? The phone mentioned above is NOT putting the USB-C port in the "middle", it's on the bottom. That's where the headphone will connect.
Maybe you're confusing that with the fingerprint scanner which is in the back middle, a convenient if different location.
There is no reason apple can't roll lightning into their USB C handling (USB C on one end, lightning on the other). Lightning has it's own security built in so I doubt apple is going to move to a vanilla USB C for communicating with iOS devices.
Interesting. I didn't consider that as a possibility. Thank you.
I'll ignore your expiration date comment and just say that:
Lighting is still thinner than 3.5mm (width is OK, the fact that it has little thickness allows the phone to get skinnier). Also you can get higher quality audio from the Lighting port. Also the inner components of the 3.5mm use up a more space than the small Jack would lead you to believe.
So you have a port that can duplicate the function of the 3.5mm jack, the same Jack that is using up space.
The major reason not to nix it is that it's a widely used standard. However I doubt that would stop Apple. USB-C is a new standard that this Android phone can lean on, Apple is big enough to make Lightning port work (plus they own a headphones company that can immediately make compatible devices)
The title of this article is interesting. I did not realize we were in a race to see who could remove the jack first. Frankly I am glad that Apple did not win and hopefully is lagging at the back of the pack.
No problem. You can kind of think of it in the same way that Thunderbolt can support USB 3. Though thunderbolt was originally designed (by intel and Apple) for fiber optics, so that standard is going to be around for quite some time as we move forward with optic switches.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)#Copper_vs._optical
I will. It's over a century year old. I'll use lightning or Bluetooth headphones.
I agree. I am vaguely aware of the structure of a 3.5mm jack. So if Apple can do something smart like retain the 3.5mm due to being a ubiquitous standard but incorporate all the other tech, that would be a great way forward.
Just one question: How strong and durable is the Lightning connector assembly (both male and female sides) compared to the one for a USB-C connector?
Judging by how Apple removed ports with previous products, I don't think the 'financial impact' for their iPhone users bothers them one bit.
They sure did some drastic stuff like removing dvd drives from MacBooks Pro's and adding a usb-c port to the new MacBook model. I somehow understand those actions since it allowed them to make the laptops much more thinner and ligher. But the problem is, they are overdoing it and it's just for the sake of making it thinner which isn't necessary since iPhones are already really thin and it's making the battery capacity suffer. And with the MacBook, it was a stupid (or just greedy) decision to not add one more usb-c port, so you're basically obligated to get their expensive adapter. Which is exactly what they are doing now with removing the 3.5mm jack. They are making you buy another adapter which you'll easily lose or forget to take with you...
I had no idea that Apple has already released a device without a headphone jack. Can you post pictures of the packaging so we can see what is included?
Oh wait, you're just speculating, my mistake.
3.5mm headphone jack never needs charging sometimes simplicity beats design and expense for new equipment.
Maybe there was no support for it back then, or some other technical reason? It was the first Android phone after all.
I'm more amazed that no one remembers Oppo R5 from 2014, which also didn't have a headphone jack. For at least a moment it was the world's thinnest smartphone after all.
It's a Chinese company. What did you expect?
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I will. I don't really care what LeEco does because I've never heard of them.
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There's a lot of evidence that Apple's next iPhone will not have a headphone jack. MR has been posting articles about it.
I'd rather they replace Lightning with pushing everything through the 3.5mm headphone jack, LOL. At least then it won't slip out or randomly stop working all the time. Also, proprietary connectors are evil.
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It's annoying. The only time Apple removed something I genuinely didn't miss was when they took out DVD drives. Those things are huge and clunky, like having an extra HDD in there that you'll never use. But lacking ports is a serious problem, especially when the port you lack is the USB that almost everything uses, and other laptop manufacturers have shown that they can make a laptop with many ports that's thinner than Apple's laptops.
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I'll send pictures when they release it.
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Not sure if sarcasm, or?