Samsung Kills Headphone Jack in Latest Smartphone After Years of Mocking Apple

[boodle]

For most day to day use cases I find actually holding my phone in my hand and pointing the screen towards my face so I can see it benificial.

The sarcasm is appreciated but not really helpful.
With TouchID the phone is unlocked by the time I look at it.

I can't operate the phone when it's sitting in front of me on my desk without picking it up first.

Using FaceID with Apple Pay sucks in a busy grocery or coffeeshop line.
Using FaceID in landscape mode when the phone locks while you're distracted for a moment sucks.
Using FaceID at the gym on an exercise machine sucks.
Using FaceID in any situation where your attention is not 100% on the phone sucks.

 

[ipponrg]

I did buy Bose qc II headphones so I could be more comfortable on coast to coast flights which are six hours.

Is the headphone dongle somehow related to my purchase?

If you had comfortable IEMs and didn't want to carry a dongle, then yeah it would be related to your purchase. Otherwise, no. Next anecedotal question please.

 

[Abazigal]

This argument has been repeatedly discredited. In the examples, you've given those ports and capabilities were replaced by better ports and/or capabilities.

The headphone jack is as universal to sound and other components as a doorknob, steering wheel, computer monitor to a door, vehicle, or computer, respectively. Gimping phones by removing the headphone jack and replacing it with a "dongle" or Bluetooth only makes the UX more cumbersome because now they have to manage another set of batteries and accessories that were not there before.

Now, you'll tell me about the joys of going completely wireless. I was on a 4-hour flight and my headphones ran out of juice. I had to stop listening to my device and charge them so as not to disturb other passengers. Another example of the joy of all BT/dongle life, I was at work and wanted to listen to a podcast without disturbing anyone else. Oh wait, I left my trusty dongle in my other work bag. Oh no! But the iPod Classic that I have in my desk along with a ... wait for it ... wired headphones didn't let me down. I listened to 1,000s of songs without EVER needing the headphones to be charged or dongled!.

The only reason why these companies are doing this is to generate other streams of income with the sales of dongles, licensing agreements, and expensive BT headphones.

The lesson Apple keeps teaching and others keep ignoring is; to create true meaningful change in a market you need to force change. By taking bold unapologetic stances. Here’s a touchscreen smart phone without the familiarity of a physical Qwerty keyboard. Here’s a large screen tablet without a desktop OS and desktop apps and file system. Here’s a smart phone without a headphone jack. Here’s a laptop with only usb c ports.

 

[mdelvecchio]

Lightning was a transitional connector. Everyone knew it. The standard is USB-C. Apple should have waited with removing the headphone jack until they fully transition to the standards based connector on their iPhones and iPads.

What nonsense — USB-C didnt even exist when Apple launched Lightning. USB-C is a copy of Lightning. But it’s smaller and more durable, so I doubt they will switch on iPhone. Not sweating it, since I prefer wireless these days and it’s easy to use my AirPods on all my devices.

 

[ilikewhey]

not really, because I don't even have a car that has a FOB. I still have a car (2015) that I put the key in the ignition to start. But just as you put your fob in your jacket, you can do the same with AirPods/case etc to secure them.

only difference is i don't ever have to take out the FOB, it stays in my jacket pocket and doesn't leave there, where the airpod you have to take it out to use them, they don't magically work in your pocket for you to listen to.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

only difference is i don't ever have to take out the FOB, it stays in my jacket pocket and doesn't leave there, where the airpod you have to take it out to use them, they don't magically work in your pocket for you to listen to.

that's as far as YOU know...so much for speculation. Sounds like you don't know from experience. LOL *being facetious*

 

[lederermc]

I have to say that when Apple removed the headphone jack I though it was the dumbest think they've done since the removed the floppy drive.. I mean the optical dive.. I mean the VGA port. I mean the DVI port. I mean the touch-ID. Every time Apple does something like this a year latter I think it was okay. They know me better than I know me.

 

[ilikewhey]

that's as far as YOU know...so much for speculation. Sounds like you don't know from experience. LOL *being facetious*

what speculation? i had Fob key for cars since 2011, never took it out of my pocket once to use.
the airpod you have to take it out of your pocket to use. i have no idea why you find that complicated??

 

[pmore]

At least they're using USB-C...

 

[cube]

At least they're using USB-C...

 

[boodle]

^Heh. Not routing analog audio at all is ten times worse than removing the headphone jack.

 

[Skoal]

Oh cool.....a thread where the kids get to post

As you post...

 

[Skoal]

uh thats not the flagship model, s10 reportedly will have headphone jacks, that should be more made aware so ppl be more informed that this model is more like a testing bed rather than representation of the rest of the samsung's product.

Informing people sounds like a job for Samsung since it’s their product line after all.

 

[Jack Neill]

Who gives af?

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

what speculation? i had Fob key for cars since 2011, never took it out of my pocket once to use.
the airpod you have to take it out of your pocket to use. i have no idea why you find that complicated??

I have no idea why you find keeping up with an AirPod complicated. Unless you're just quite the forgetful person. Glad you don't misplace your iPhone.

 

[TrenttonY]

Apple should mock them back. Why not. We need another PC vs Mac-esque campaign.

 

[ilikewhey]

I have no idea why you find keeping up with an AirPod complicated. Unless you're just quite the forgetful person. Glad you don't misplace your iPhone.

i don't find them complicated, im just pointing out referring airpod as key fob is not a fair comparison. keyfob u never have to take it out to use the car.

 

[rjohnstone]

What nonsense — USB-C didnt even exist when Apple launched Lightning. USB-C is a copy of Lightning. But it’s smaller and more durable, so I doubt they will switch on iPhone. Not sweating it, since I prefer wireless these days and it’s easy to use my AirPods on all my devices.

Standard Lightening cables are still capped at USB 2.0 data transfer speeds (480Mbps). USB-C defaults to USB 3.1 transfer rates (10Gbps) and can go as fast as 40Gbps using Thunderbolt 3 interface, and is backward compatible with previous USB standards. iPad Pro Lightening cables are USB 3.0 (5Gbps).
USB-C can also transfer a lot more power (up to 100 Watts) than a Lightening connecter can (5 watts for iPhones and 12 watts for iPads). This is why fast charging over a standard Lightening cable doesn't really exist.
As for the internal design, Lightening uses 8 pins per side, USB-C uses 12 pins per side.
So no, USB-C is not "a copy of Lightening" by any stretch.

 

[Mars56]

Who gives af?

the morons that made fun of apple giving up the headphone jack.

 

[thekev]

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about technology over the past several years it’s that eventually, everyone ends up copying Apple.

That's not always a good thing, particularly in this case.

 

[pmhparis]

Apple has Jony, what’s Samsung’s excuse?

A complete and total absence of courage.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

i don't find them complicated, im just pointing out referring airpod as key fob is not a fair comparison. keyfob u never have to take it out to use the car.

Oh okay. Touché!

 

[Marrakas]

Apparently, many others see clearly that it's mocking:

Samsung Mocks iPhone's Camera, Lack of Headphone Jack, and More in Latest Galaxy S9 Ads
Samsung’s advert mocks Apple fans and feature-light iPhones
Samsung returns to mock iPhone X buyers in latest commercial
A brief history of Samsung mocking Apple announcements

Apparently it doesn’t take much to «mock» Apple then it seems.

 

[ilikewhey]

well well well, now that the s10 is out, does the person who wrote this article feel silly yet?

 

[curtvaughan]

I have to say that when Apple removed the headphone jack I though it was the dumbest think they've done since the removed the floppy drive.. I mean the optical dive.. I mean the VGA port. I mean the DVI port. I mean the touch-ID. Every time Apple does something like this a year latter I think it was okay. They know me better than I know me.

They don't know me very well at all. If Samsung and Apple won't allow me to use my wired high quality Sennheiser headphones, then I'll move on to LG or whomever continues to support high quality sound technology. Bluetooth isn't that, yet. The headphone jack isn't a floppy drive - it's a professional standard in the sound / music industry. Floppies were dropped when booting and storing data on optical drives were becoming standard; PS2 mouse connections and serial RS232 ports were dropped when USB became ubiquitous and orders of magnitude superior. Apple dropped the headphone jack in order to sell their own bluetooth accessories. An unfortunate side effect is that other manufacturers have become accustomed to copying Apple - even when Apple's design decisions were flawed. Meh.