Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
You're describing an abuse. Removing the optical drive allows you to offer a different kind of product, as the optical drive is huge and thick. The headphone jack is not meaningfully thicker than the lightning port in the context of a phone or tablet - those devices will always have to be thicker than X on account of the nature of human hands.

So, Apple gains a small amount of space - space that already plentiful and unoccupied in the iPad. In turn, the customers lose meaningful utility. Over time, the bad will generated will harm Apple.


users dont lose a meaningful utility. they can still use their headphones. it's just an extra step for them to do so.
 
I hope the new Pros aren't fragile. The 2017 iPad Pros were already thin enough and as a result were easy to snap in half. Those bend tests are scary.

Thinner and lighter new iPad Pros? Yeah that's cool, but don't let that compromise the structural integrity of the device and its features. If Apple does axe the jack then that'd be a shame considering how large iPads are and how much room they have to play with.

Making a device thinner has more negatives than positives.
 
I hope the new Pros aren't fragile. The 2017 iPad Pros were already thin enough and as a result were easy to snap in half. Those bend tests are scary.

Thinner and lighter new iPad Pros? Yeah that's cool, but don't let that compromise the structural integrity of the device and its features. If Apple does axe the jack then that'd be a shame considering how large iPads are and how much room they have to play with.

Making a device thinner has more negatives than positives.

We don’t need it to be thinner for ****’s sake

iPads have been thin enough since at least 2013
 
Iiphone-x-teardown.jpg
apple make devices thicker only if it's absolutely necessary. a headphone jack isn't absolutely necessary

Think we are mixing up terms, I meant depth into device, not the Z height. Here is image inside IPX where you can see how far items like the lightning port and SIM cards intrude into the chassis:
 
We know there is depth for it as they can make depth as large as they want, bezel or not. Probably could fit in its height too, as that’s barely changed and there is some spare room on current Pads, but more likely they just don’t see need to bother with it anymore.
By depth I don’t mean device thickness, I refer to how far the headphone plug inserts into the hole.

(Forgive the crappy photos.)

When the bezel is thick enough, it can accommodate the headphone jack:

9657C60C-4B20-40A7-AB03-A6601760C4E0.jpeg



What do you do when the bezel is too small?

2EC84271-317D-4384-8576-090742E3C47B.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nugget
Personally I don’t have a need for a headphone jack. Making it thinner at the expense of battery sucks, same as with the iPhone.

I can see merit with the headphone jack, but there are ways and means around everything. Switching to USB-C makes sense for consumers, but not Apple for proprietary reasons, they’ve held out this long, why change? Eventually when USB-C (D?) is measurably better than Lightning, Apple may concede defeat and switch to a universal connection, but whilst they make more money from their own licenced one, and have very little reasoning as of now for switching, they won’t.

I am waiting for the base model iPad to switch to a full screen, but with the Education drop earlier this year, I’m not liking my chances. Full screen 9.7” with Apple Pencil support would be ideal for me.
 
If the device is sufficiently thin, the display and the headphone jack can’t stack, and they certainly can’t occupy the same space.

I’m curious, how does the USB-C or lightning port ‘stack’ under the display then?
 
  • Like
Reactions: iSilas
Guys stop whining. The industry is moving towards wireless audio. You guys remind me of some people in my previous company who refused to learn microsoft office because they are used to and comfortable with the manual practice.
 
Good. No one uses headphones on an ipad anyway. If you want to use headphones u should just buy the $160 EarPods.
I don't see the sarcasm symbol that is so obvious but people will think you're actually serious. As someone who uses wired earbud nightly on my iPad I can't imagine having an iPad without the ubiquitous jack. As an aside, Apple's EarPods hurt my ears so don't be saying what people should buy. News flash, this just in… the EarPods work with a headphone jack in the device as well as without the jack. Let people use what they prefer. The reason I continue to use my 6s is because of the removal of the jack on the new phones. I refuse to reward a company for reducing usability of a phone or an iPad.
 
We don’t need it to be thinner for ****’s sake

iPads have been thin enough since at least 2013
Calm down, there are bigger issues in life to be angry about.

Also, if you’re so concerned about how thin Apple makes their products, write them a letter. I’m sure it would do more good than barking about it here.
 
Calm down, there are bigger issues in life to be angry about.

Also, if you’re so concerned about how thin Apple makes their products, write them a letter. I’m sure it would do more good than barking about it here.

I won’t complain to them because I’ll keep buying their stuff anyway. It’s just that complaining on the internet is free and fun. And after buying a MBP and an iPad Pro I don’t have much money left
 
  • Like
Reactions: jaxemer11
More people will be mad about the lack of a headphone jack than the number of people who would have used the jack if it were included.

It stated with the iPhone, so this is only a repeat.. They'll settle down, then wonder what all the fuss was about.

You can't fit something big on something this thin. I would prefer the visual style any-day. Compromises are compromises.
 
It would of course be nice to keep a headphone jack, but if the trade off is for water and dust resistance, I could live without it. I almost always use AirPods for the iPad now anyway, and keep a Lightning adapter with my Bose earbuds. Water and dust resistance will allow the iPads to be used in a lot of work and play scenarios.
Don't buy that bull about having to get rid of ports/jacks for increasing water resistance. Perhaps you think Apple's engineers are less capable than those of Samsung. Face it, it is about increasing profits.
 
Y'know, I can buy their cock and bull about needing the internal space on an iPhone, but iPads are larger and are utilized in a significantly wider scope of scenarios, some of which uses the headphone jack to output audio without the need of toting additional dongles or adapters.

But whatever. This company is deep in their bubble and stopped caring about real-world usage long ago.
This removal of the analog headphone jack has more to do with locking down audio content and enforcing DRM. Future music will be streamed and paid -- users will own nothing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iSilas
I’m curious, how does the USB-C or lightning port ‘stack’ under the display then?
It depends on the thickness of the connector and how far it intrudes into the body of the device. Lightning is thin, and there’s likely room above it to accommodate the display if it needs to stack. iPhones are much thicker than the rumored sub-6mm thickness of these new iPads.

The headphone plug is 3.5mm and the jack adds even more more. If you’re then at maybe 4.5mm including the PCB the jack mounts to, and add the back cover and the front glass, even with no display you’re probably at 5.5mm. And the plug itself is about 12mm deep, much deeper than Lightning.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Eddie Beeps
Ok, first off, I don’t pretend to be much of an audio guy. I have headphones that work for me and that’s about it. But you mentioned the industry standard headphones, so I did a quick google search. The headphones you listed can be bought on zulily for $69. On eBay for $35. I find it crazy that an industry leader for headphones can be that cheap and we are all paying $150 or more for a pair. We are all doing it wrong. Zulily here I come!
Well, you are not an audio guy, by your definition. Those particular headphones are used because they're relatively cheap, produce a neutral flat response, and hold up, day in and day out. The Sony MDR 7506/V6 has been in production for 33 years for a reason. From the wiki: "Sony MDR-V6 is a large diaphragm folding pair of headphones, the initial entry in Sony's Studio Monitor headphones, one of the most popular model lines among professional audio engineers."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_MDR-V6
If you want to hear music and film the way the creators intended, you might want to try these headphones. Even if you never become an audio guy, it's always good to expand your horizons.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gnomeisland
There is no big picture here. Nothing is stopped by offering the port. You can do all the fancy wireless stuff while still offering the port. That is just simple fact, and arguments from the other side read like cult speak.

It's not that I don't 'see' the bizarre argument you are making, it's that I reject it as a way functional adults should think.

I would agree with you IF the idea that Apple wants to “force” people to use wireless headphones held any weight with me.
It does not.
When Apple removed the headphone jack from the iPhone 7, they gave some solid reasons:
*It did not fit at the bottom anymore w/ the Taptic Engine & new solid state home button
*They tried moving it to the top, but it interfered with the antennas
*It made it that much easier to make it waterproof
I believe that all the crowing about how great & freeing bt audio is was more or less to soften the blow. I think that Phil was being completely honest w/ the “space is at a premium & it didn’t make sense for us to include this large antiquated part” comment, if not a tad disingenuous in giving any other reasons. I think that was 100% of it right there.
I don’t think Apple gives a single f**k whether you use analog headphones. I know I won’t give mine up!
Thank goodness they’ve made it ridiculously painless for me to continue using them & until they completely remove a charging port altogether, I don’t foresee even the slightest difficulty.
As some of the math nuts have pointed out... it looks like they’d have to over double the bezel size to leave the audio jack in this iPad. I strongly believe, whatever the narrative, that’s the sole reason it went bye bye.
I have about a 1/2 dozen REALLY nice sets of headphones- from Grado, Sennheiser, Koss, AudioTechnica, Etymotic, etc.
Years ago now, I simply slapped a lightning plug on each one (3/$10 from 3rd parties), & forgot about it. It hasn’t changed my listening habits, nor audio purchasing decisions one iota! I don’t understand all the griping... it never even seems to be from audiophiles at all- just rando people annoyed they had to put an adapter on their Skull Candies, or whatever. *shrug*
Choose your battles. This one is an absolute non-issue... the very slightest & vaguest of one time minor “inconveniences”, in the 2 second process of clicking the adapter on your pair of headphones.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.