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

[ztw2002]

we all know Samsung will eventually remove headphone jack but on the side note, this phone looks great comparing to XR.

 

[worldvga]

ohh!!! here they come coping again, it was all known that this would happen.

 

[justperry]

I tried AirPods and a whole host of other wireless EarPods at my local Bic Camera store, and none of them fitted my ears well enough. AirPods especially, with their 'one size fits all' approach, were a terrible fit. They would slide out within 10-15 seconds while standing still. Walking or running would probably shake them out in seconds. Basically unusable. Not only that, but the fact that after 12-16 months of use the batteries can barely hold a charge, makes them basically a disposable product. At $150 a pop, and with no better solution forthcoming form Apple, I'll instead suffer the frustration of Apple's misguided "courage".

You know what you get if you bring/send them in for battery replacement....new ones because even Apple themselves can't open them without breaking them.
Just sad where this goes.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

What the ****ing hell is wrong with Samsung? A display with a hole in the middle??

 

[ROGmaster]

Right, it’s not. The title of the article makes it seem somewhat like it is by stating “Samsung kills headphone jack in latest...”, which this phone is likely paving the way for that the ‘true flagships’ with the S10/Note 10 will also not include the 3.5 Jack either. This particular model phone is more geared towards other merging markets, but should be less of a ‘shock’ once the S10 is announced somewhere around February that it likely will not include the 3.5 Jack either.

The S10 will have a 3.5mm jack, Note 10 it's possible that will not include it(but that's not confirmed).

 

[Ploki]

I have had an iPhone 7 for over two years now, and I still think it was asinine to remove the headphone jack in favor of the Lightning connector.

At least Samsung is using a standard port - USB-C, so one adapter (or one pair of earphones) would work with any other standards based device. Apple is now eliminating the Lightning port in favor of USB-C, so now you have to have three different ways to connect headphones to a device in the Apple ecosystem. This is just dumb and sloppy.

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.

Problematic.

Only 4 generations of iPhone used the 30pin connector.
It was too clunky for 2012.
Lightning was introduced in 2012.

USB-c was finalized in 2014.

Had they switched in 2014, people would be pissed they had to buy new accessories AGAIN after just two years.

Imo they should’ve skipped lightning, use 30pin till 2014 and switch to usb-c directly on the iphone 6.
Or at least switch to usb-c on iphone7 when they removed the headphone jack and switched all their computers to USB-C

 

[justperry]

I still don't understand how people STILL don't have wireless headphones of any kind by now... It's basically 2019 ffs

New ones cost money, old ones in landfill, others prefer wired, wired sound quality is better, you need more reasons.

 

[jona2125]

People use whatever included in the box. If there’s no headphones at all, they’ll just buy whatever cheapest option they find.

This: I have a very wide variety of wireless headphones that I love and they are great for dedicated listening moments but there's something so nice and convenient of pulling out a very pocket friendly strand of headphones and not having to do any pairing, worry about charging, or possibly lose. They're cheap, work, and if I happen to forget them somewhere it's no big deal. I love wired headphone buds because of the unplanned simplicity. Carrying AirPods/Momentum/Bose/IconX around adds significant bulk because of the case (don't often have the convenience of a backpack, just my jean pockets) and going without the case is okay but then they're dead within a few hours. I have gone through 15 Lightning to headphone dongles already because they wear out so fast yet the headphones I use them with are still going strong. I sincerely regret decisions like this but I definitely understand them at the same time. Maybe once the headphone jacks all disappear we will have better solutions for wireless. BeatsX have been decent but they're still more bulky than regular wired headphones and of course need charging and durability is poor.

 

[DNichter]

Not surprising at all. We all knew Samsung would do this eventually. I am not sure if I like the design as I need to see how the software is with the pinhole. In the end, it's Android - so there's probably a hundred phones just like it.

 

[justperry]

Like OLED displays that Samsung had for years and eventually Apple copied.

Nope, Samsung makes them to Apples specifications, not only that, Samsungs OLED displays on their own phones are oversaturated.
My Xs looks way better than any Samsung OLED.

 

[BvizioN]

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

Never mind the 3.5mm headphone ghost thingy.
Why is Samsung struggling with the chin part of the display? Is it really that hard to have it as thin as a side part of the display?

 

[justperry]

I found a leaked photo of one of the early prototypes...

Nice, hilarious.


But you should have cropped the picture on top so you wouldn't see the top of the phone.

 

[curtvaughan]

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

Which isn't always a good thing.

 

[otternonsense]

It remains a fundamentally user unfriendly move, and "just buy BT earphones" is no way around it.

At this point in time though I can somehow sort of maybe perhaps overlook removing the headphone jack on a phone. Where I find it completely egregious and a total d!ck move was Apple removing it from the latest iPad Pro and not even include a usb-c to 3.5mm jack in the box.

 

[TheDreaded26]

Not loving the front facing camera...

 

[31 Flavas]

It is also Samsung's first smartphone without a headphone jack, much to the amusement of iPhone users, as Samsung has mocked Apple for over two years over its decision to remove the headphone jack​

So what’s the conspiracy here? Samesung wants to sell you AirPods and dongles, too??? Or an AirPower charging pad while you listen to music on your lightening headphones? Planned obsolescence? Dont tell me they’re intentionally just being hostile to their customers or obsessed with being thin and light......​

 

[ksec]

I have had an iPhone 7 for over two years now, and I still think it was asinine to remove the headphone jack in favor of the Lightning connector.

At least Samsung is using a standard port - USB-C, so one adapter (or one pair of earphones) would work with any other standards based device. Apple is now eliminating the Lightning port in favor of USB-C, so now you have to have three different ways to connect headphones to a device in the Apple ecosystem. This is just dumb and sloppy.

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.

I don't think they are moving to USB-C at all, at least not on iPhone. The used USB-C for iPad is because iPad needs to adopt to professional usage, and USB-C has the speed and power, and possibly in the future used as Thunderbolt. iPhone doesn't need any of that.

 

[31 Flavas]

Wow, now millions of more people won't be inconvenienced either

Right why’d they remove such a critical connector!! I mean, they’re not Apple afrer all.

 

[spacemnspiff]

No FaceID equivalent, hole in the screen - horrible design decision, mocking Apple and then copying Apple = fail.

This is basically how a 4-5 yr old behaves, cannot make up their minds and throw tantrums = Samsung.

 

[Return Zero]

Which is why its referred to as "nearly edge to edge".

Story was edited after I posted that. Originally it said what I quoted.

 

[Perene]

This: I have a very wide variety of wireless headphones that I love and they are great for dedicated listening moments but there's something so nice and convenient of pulling out a very pocket friendly strand of headphones and not having to do any pairing, worry about charging, or possibly lose. They're cheap, work, and if I happen to forget them somewhere it's no big deal. I love wired headphone buds because of the unplanned simplicity. Carrying AirPods/Momentum/Bose/IconX around adds significant bulk because of the case (don't often have the convenience of a backpack, just my jean pockets) and going without the case is okay but then they're dead within a few hours. I have gone through 15 Lightning to headphone dongles already because they wear out so fast yet the headphones I use them with are still going strong. I sincerely regret decisions like this but I definitely understand them at the same time. Maybe once the headphone jacks all disappear we will have better solutions for wireless. BeatsX have been decent but they're still more bulky than regular wired headphones and of course need charging and durability is poor.

Then there's also the fact the Airpods never last 5 hours in a single charge and... worse: if you leave them outside the charger case they keep broadcasting. There's no on/off switch. See what I wrote to the bug report:

https://pastebin.com/P0EcWXR0

And their response:

This is an engineering tradeoff. If we were to stop all paging and advertising while the buds are sitting idle on your desk, any time you picked them up and placed them in your ear, we’d take a few seconds to connect. We prioritize the more often seen user situation in which the user leaves the buds out only when they intend to use them relatively soon after.

I prefer my wired headphones plugged 24/7 to the device, that way I can fetch them easily (and if I kept removing I would damage/wear the headphone jack, eventually - that's why it's better to stay there).

Provided, of course, this doesn't lead to undesired bugs and further battery drains:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-headphone-adapter-wifi-interference.2155178/
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ne-adapter-draining-a-lot-of-battery.2156206/

Then you also have EMF concerns over wireless headphones... not a good idea to use these many hours daily.

Besides even if I were to use another wireless headphone that doesn't mean it would be better than any other I have here, in terms of comfort or sound quality. There are many aspects to consider when choosing a headphone.

For example, a Sennheiser could offer better audio quality than the Earpods, but there are other aspects that will determine which one will be more suitable, comfort is only one of them, how much pressure it's against our ears, many models are bad in this regard and we won't like using more than a few hours.

We may also think a Sennheiser offers the best audio quality in the world, but it's heavier and bigger (not ideal to carry it anywhere), and not suited for these Apple devices, where they would probably need an amp.

My point is that we can find all sorts of headphones out there, and for some specific reason (besides the ones listed) a person could prefer a wired model over a bluetooth one. That's why I think it's stupid to send a message (regardless of being able to continue using them with a dongle) that everyone should only get a wireless headphone and all the others are relics, outdated.

 

[sterlingindigo]

Came here for the “turntables”.

 

[curtvaughan]

Hey, everyone has their likes and dislikes, but... have you tried going to a BT headset?

Yes. It doesn't even compare to my high end wired experience. Three things for phone jack haters:

1) How did retention of the jack hinder your use of bluetooth?
2) What was gained by removal of the jack? I don't want to hear "thinness", as the phones were plenty thin to begin with (my 6S+ is fine, thanks Apple).
3) Waterproofing isn't sufficient reason for the jack replacement. Phones with a "68" rating can be submersed in 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes (jackless); phones with the jack (67 rating typical) can be submersed in 1 meter of water for 30 minutes. I'd gladly sacrifice .5 meters for a jack, attached D/A converters, and no dongles.

I've never in the last 20 years dropped a phone in a toilet or dived in a pool with a phone; I use my wired headphones nearly every day. I'm fine with water resistance above 60. I don't want dongles. I want wired headphone sound quality. I don't any longer buy Apple phones or laptops due primarily to lack of jacks and ports. I will no longer purchase Samsung phones without jacks. Just fine with my LG phones - a V20 and now a V40, both of which have 4 channel DACs and phone jacks, nice cameras, and are plenty thin. Like with my iPhones (still have my 6S+), I put covers on them anyway. Over the years, there are some fine features of iPhones in the past which were worthy of emulating. Removal of the phone jack and removabal battery options weren't worthy of copying (V20 even had a removable battery; alas V30/40 do not). Funny excerpt follows (warning, good many f-bombs):

 

[ROGmaster]

Never mind the 3.5mm headphone ghost thingy.
Why is Samsung struggling with the chin part of the display? Is it really that hard to have it as thin as a side part of the display?

Simple.

The Galaxy S8s has an LCD Screen.
The Galaxy S8s has a 84.7% screen-to-body ratio while the iPhone XR has a 79.0% screen-to-body ratio.
The Galaxy S8s will cost around 350-400$

Satisfied?

 

[BlargKing]

Great. The dumbest trend in smartphones continues. I really hope my Blackberry lasts a long, long time.