New 11 and 12.9-Inch iPad Pro Models Have No Headphone Jack

[Mac 128]

I almost admire Apple for sticking to their guns and removing the headphone jack wherever possible.

Right, you mean like they did on the totally redesigned MacBook Air? Oh wait, they left the 100 year old audio jack rather than putting one USB-C port on each side to make it more convenient for the customer.

Asking legitimately and purely curious, but why do you do that? Other than if the battery is dying, I can't ever recall a moment where I listen with headphones AND charge at the same time.

Audio professionals and musicians will need this ability. Now they'll have to plug in a string of dongles, or buy a MB Air, which still has the 100 year old headphone jack.

 

[Sasparilla]

What a bummer, since they'd kept it around, it was nice.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

It's not like Bluetooth is a thing. Right?

It isn’t on most soundboards where I play.

 

[djdj]

Between this and the lack of Touch ID, I'm going to pass on this round.

The lack of a headphone jack on my iPhone X drives me crazy. Almost enough to switch to something else.

 

[DoogH]

For me, This is kind of unfortunate, because I like to charge my iPad and use my headphones at the same time, which unfortunately is going to cause a problem.

Use Bluetooth headphones.

And yeah, removing the headphone jack just encourages future soundboards to support Bluetooth.

 

[dannyyankou]

Makes no sense. There's enough room in there to put one, surely.

But, but 15 percent thinner!

 

[smorrissey]

Wee, lets celebrate buying new adapters!

 

[5105973]

Oh well I think for the sake of what’s left of my sanity I’ll not be updating iPads this year. My iPhones are all on lightning connectors. So I finally have a decent collection of lightning earbuds and dongles. I’m not going to try and deal with usb c on one device and lightning on another. That’s a pain to pack.

Isn’t there anyone at Apple who reviews the product line and sees they’ve got no consistency? They’ve still got 3.5 mm on the laptop, USB-C for the new iPads and still lightning on the brand new super expensive iPhones which they now encourage us to keep past a year.

What the heck? It’s going to be painful and annoying to transition gradually, so just rip that bandaid off and get all the products on to USB-C on the same year so people who are upgrading everything this year have one connector to rule them all.

 

[0970373]

Right, you mean like they did on the totally redesigned MacBook Air? Oh wait, they left the 100 year old audio jack rather than putting one USB-C port on each side to make it more convenient for the customer.

Wireless headphones aren't great for DJing. There's just enough latency to make mixing difficult or bad. I agree there should be USB-C port on each side though.

 

[erinsarah]

For me, This is kind of unfortunate, because I like to charge my iPad and use my headphones at the same time, which unfortunately is going to cause a problem.

Not if you buy AirPods, which is OBVIOUSLY what Apple wants you to do.

 

[timber]

Almost every single time I use my iPad I use it with headphones.

And I use it a lot on planes stretching the iPads autonomy meaning I need to charge it and use phones at the same time.

I seriously dislike charging things and headphones is ones of those uses where I see no benefit in limiting myself.

When it is time to upgrade my iPad I will have to really think this through. Android phones are great but tablets don't even exist to begin with.

2 USBs would be something I could live with.

 

[erinsarah]

Wireless headphones aren't great for DJing. There's just enough latency to make mixing difficult or bad. I agree there should be USB-C port on each side though.

Yeah, I’m just now realizing that we’ve gone from the awkwardness of having to flip your usb connector over because it was upside down to the awkwardness of having to flip your iPad over because the connector is on the other end and both ends look the same now.

 

[Falhófnir]

I don't really mind that they got rid of it.. but it's a shame it doesn't have 2 usb-c ports to make up for it.

I'm slightly more hesitant with this than when they got rid of it on the iPhone (I virtually never use headphones with my phone, but I do with the iPad). It would definitely have been nice to ship some USB C earbuds with it (I know they never have with iPads, but the price lol!)

 

[HangmanSwingset]

It doesn’t have a what? Who’s Jack?

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

So umm...anyone knows of a usb c to vga adaptor with a built in headphone jack?

But why does a Bluetooth evangelist like yourself need an outdated headphone jack?

 

[44267547]

It's not like Bluetooth is a thing. Right?

Bluetooth isn’t a solution to everything, especially for wired audio, that’s not always necessary for my situation when I have expensive wired earbuds and headphones. No need to be naïve about the fact that Bluetooth doesn’t compare to wired in terms of audio.

 

[Fly360]

Right, you mean like they did on the totally redesigned MacBook Air? Oh wait, they left the 100 year old audio jack rather than putting one USB-C port on each side to make it more convenient for the customer.



Audio professionals and musicians will need this ability. Now they'll have to plug in a string of dongles, or buy a MB Air, which still has the 100 year old headphone jack.

You always had to use a dongle for audio stuff with the iPad. Now with usb c you have more options. You can use a audio interface now

 

[44267547]

Not if you buy AirPods, which is OBVIOUSLY what Apple wants you to do.

I own the AirPods, great product. But that’s not the answer to my question. Realistically, the AirPods don’t provide the audio experience that I would be looking for in terms of media on my iPad, or my wired headphones/earbuds are superior over the AirPods, but the AirPods are excellent terms of convenience in other situations.

 

[seanjs]

Don’t worry. USB-C to lightning to 3.5mm should do the trick.

But the headphones I use are Lightning that connect to my iPhone so....

 

[jonblatho]

Makes no sense. There's enough room in there to put one, surely.

The headphone jack is 3.5mm in diameter. Considering the jack alone, and not the components needed to go around it, that leaves 1.2mm on either side of the jack in a 5.9mm-deep tablet.

They still need to fit the display glass and chassis in those 2.4 millimeters.

There's also no way it could go under the display in a tablet that thin.

So, no, there's not "enough room" for a headphone jack in there.

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

Use Bluetooth headphones.

And yeah, removing the headphone jack just encourages future soundboards to support Bluetooth.

3.5mm socket isn't just for headphones. It's a universal analogue output.
Edit: with zero latency.

 

[B4U]

Good. No one wants a headphone jack in 2018. The higher prices and no headphone jack represent key features that all apple fans will love!

In fact, considering that this is essentially an Iphone XS plus max, where the screen size is 2x bigger than the iphone XS plus max, apple should have priced it at exactly twice the price! $2198!!

This Ipad is severely underpriced!!

“No one” is always a bad example.
Have you ever tried using on long distance flights?
Not to mention the fact that even Apple’s own offering still suffer from the Bluetooth latency.

 

[MoJoRo]

It isn’t on most soundboards where I play.

Well if you're using a soundboard, presumably the soundboard has a headphone jack?

**EDIT**: Sorry, I originally interpreted "soundboard" as an audio interface you were using. Which is the easy answer. If you're doing professional audio with your ipad, there are lots of usb audio interfaces that add a lot of functionality in addition to a headphone jack.

 

[typecase]

I don’t get Apple’s war on this useful connector. So many good headphones aren’t Bluetooth and the high end ones are always wired and I always thought Apple had a special place for good audio owing to Steve’s love of music. There is ample space for one, especially in an iPad, why not give the consumer a choice? Completely user hostile. I’m hating most things they put out now where they sacrifice usability for thinness.

 

[QuarterSwede]

For me, This is kind of unfortunate, because I like to charge my iPad and use my headphones at the same time, which unfortunately is going to cause a problem.

Not that you want a dongle but they do make one already that will allow you to extend the port and add a 3.5mm headphone jack.