Sunday debate: Is removing the headphone jack the way forward?

21 January 2018
In this installment of our Sunday debate, we discuss whether removing the headphone jack is the way forward.

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Anonymous, 22 Jan 2018Enough nonsense already! It was proven that space is not a... moreThe fan that had to drill into the backplate, remove a component, move the battery and taptic engine so that they were squished together (a hazard which caused the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco) and machine the entire 3.5 mm port down to its metal barebone? Yeah, lots of space, right... The 3.5 mm port does not fit into an iPhone 7.

You can fit a car into a smartphone if you design it for that. But people want thinner devices, nicer designs, waterproofing and better battery lives. To achieve that you need to cut out the useless components. The 3.5 mm port functionality is already filled by USB-C/Lightning, so it has to go.

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    • 2portsplease
    • HCY
    • 23 Jan 2018

    FinnishInquisition, 22 Jan 2018Please post scientific sources to any or all of your conspi... moreI'm not saying any conspiracy theories or claims. This is all scientific proven research which I suggest you dive deeper in Google just as you suggested I should.

    Here's a couple links; exactly why there are bans on wireless devices in hospitals, nurseries daycares and even schools housing infants up to children 3 years old:

    wirelesseducation.org/1073-2/
    ehtrust.org/france-new-national-law-bans-wifi-nursery-school/
    thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/get-those-wireless-baby-monitors-out-of-the-nursery/

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • P@Y
      • 23 Jan 2018

      AnonD-731363, 22 Jan 2018Man my logic is good. I never liked it anyway other holes w... moreYou should read English 101 first before reading something about logic I don't think you understand it well.

        • 2
        • 2portsplease
        • HCY
        • 23 Jan 2018

        Prometheous, 22 Jan 2018That's because the research trying to prove that the radiat... moreThank you Prometheus for backing me up, bless you.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • pWQ
          • 22 Jan 2018

          As long as I'm able to use my portable headphone amp / DAC, I don't really care if the phone has the headphone jack or not. Can't really drive HD600's directly and my portable amp only has an USB-connector so I'm stuck with using adapters (USB-C - USB). My real portable in-ears are easy to drive, sound obviously gets better when I hook up the amp/DAC, so still going to go with that USB-adapter anyway.

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            • AnonD-525679
            • 6kV
            • 22 Jan 2018

            The least they could do is to put 2 ports instead of one (charge+audio).
            If they say it's a better replacement (and it's not, in no possible way), why should we have just one port...

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              • AnonD-731363
              • SH3
              • 22 Jan 2018

              s4f786, 22 Jan 2018So by your stupid logic all portable music should not be al... moreYes but they always set to max and walk on streets and stop care anything else.
              When you hit guy like that you will understand.
              They dobnt even react on red traffic lights for pedestrians.

                • A
                • Alien
                • 3RM
                • 22 Jan 2018

                FinnishInquisition, 22 Jan 2018Please post any proof of radio waves having any harmful eff... morehttps://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2013/dec/17/wi-fi-wireless-routers-plants

                Donno if it applies.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • 0BG
                  • 22 Jan 2018

                  FinnishInquisition, 22 Jan 2018Laptops and tablets don't have the same space constraints a... moreEnough nonsense already!
                  It was proven that space is not a problem and 3.5mm jack can be added to the current iphones even by fans. If they can do it, then Apple can certainly do it too.

                    Thesis86, 22 Jan 2018The average smartphone user still cares about the headphone... moreLaptops and tablets don't have the same space constraints as smartphones.

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                      • AnonD-731363
                      • SH3
                      • 22 Jan 2018

                      s4f786, 22 Jan 2018So by your stupid logic all portable music should not be al... moreMan my logic is good. I never liked it anyway other holes will atract my interests :-)
                      And anyway no matter what i say these companies want to remove jack and its their decision you will do nothing with that,
                      What you gonna expect a boycott? Or letter to the courts and the highest tribunal in Haag in Brusel i mean Belgium?
                      I dont think so.
                      We all have to cope with the same facts. Jack will be history and we all have to ascend over it.

                        Actually I hate the dongle on a phone that's make it more like an octopus and I hate the lightning connector's pin it is tiny and lack of durability.

                          AnonD-731363, 21 Jan 2018Man yes people have eyes but they are bind anyway and yet t... moreSo by your stupid logic all portable music should not be allowed, Bluetooth headphones can be just as loud as earphones, it's up to the user to set the volume, whether that's wired or wireless.

                            Anonymous, 22 Jan 2018He is right, you know. That of his is not a theory, it's ac... morePlease post any proof of radio waves having any harmful effect at all on the human body (extreme doses notwithstanding, like sitting in a microwave oven).

                            I'll give you a hint: there's none. There's no conclusive proof of radio waves causing any damage at all. The only interaction radio waves has in humans is non-ionizing and of the thermal kind.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • mJs
                              • 22 Jan 2018

                              Though i use a bluetooth adapter for 5 years now I still use my 6 year old headphones with it that has 3 meter cables. Weird eh? Well, I don't want the phone to be pulled out by dragging on the cable accidently also the phones have a 4cm long extended jack on it that makes the phone stick weirdly in my pocket when plugged in directly. I can tell you: It's handy not having a wire on your phone all the time also being able to talk hands free. But then again: bluetooth suc*s big time. The sound is "soso" even if the phones still are "THE thing" in monitoring any sound. The battery life is annoyingly short and most of all: there is too much bluetooth-devices! I get sound hick ups and disconnections every now and then and it doesnt help that people nowadays use crappy BT-Headsets that distort other connections. Oh well. Im into new tech, but removing the headphone jack is utterly annoying.

                                2portsplease, 22 Jan 2018You must be strong as Superman then since you are not even ... morePlease post scientific sources to any or all of your conspiracy claims. The burden of proof is on you as you make a positive assertion of something.

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                                  • AnonD-375713
                                  • P4m
                                  • 22 Jan 2018

                                  Lightning McQueen, 22 Jan 20182.5 jack has terrible audio output. That's why 3.5 is the o... more"terrible audio output"...

                                  ...
                                  ..
                                  .
                                  It's literally the same electrical connections...

                                  You trying to judge the sending device's quality on it's jack now. People please, that is exactly how they manage to pull trash like removing the jack and claiming it brings better audio quality cause digital.

                                    The average smartphone user still cares about the headphone jack. I've saw razor thin laptops STILL have a space for the jack, so smartphone companies have no excuse. Companies just do not like choice. Samsung and LG both have produced flagships with water/dust resistance with the jack. So that isn't an excuse. It is about ecosystems. The companies are trash in that regard.

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                                      • AnonD-375713
                                      • P4m
                                      • 22 Jan 2018

                                      Anonymous, 22 Jan 2018He is right, you know. That of his is not a theory, it's ac... moreI'll tell the (not so) short story about SAR:
                                      Since there is absolutely no conclusive proof that electromagnetic waves on the bands used by cell phones do absolutely any harm, just as a precaution in case it's ever found more conclusive evidence of harm, these levels (SAR levels) are set as a level that is so low, that it has no energy to do any significant harm, even if it was harmful indeed. They're basically in levels so low that gamma radiation would be close to harmless. By the way, yes you're surrounded day by day with cell phone radio waves, WLAN signals, TV signals, FM/AM radio signals, and the MUCH more harmful - solar radiation. Also, you get gamma radiation at random through many years of dispersion on the atmosphere. Heck the radiation from Fukushima and even Chernobyl are still lingering all around the globe, you get part of that daily.
                                      WLAN and Bluetooth work on the radio frequency close to what a household microwave oven does. Is it harmful because of this? Short answer: no.
                                      Long answer: On the power levels Bluetooth and WLAN use, and on the super low focusing of the wave, you get no significant electromagnetic wave absorption, hence why you don't get heat spots other than what is touching the hot surfaces of a phone. It just can't radiate enough to heat anything. For some information: a phone's battery is nowadays at least 5W/h. That is divided between all stuff inside the phone. All radios combined don't output even 1W, but even if it did, let's say you get 5h of that 1W microwaves. Now, a household microwave heats food right? At.... about 800W output. We're already using the phone's output radiation as something utterly ridiculously high (it's on the few milliwatts class on any phone instead of 1W). It would have produced in 5h the same effect of 22 seconds on a normal microwave. "But that does heat a lot!" yeah, when it's concentrated all inside the oven, and you don't have 5h to cool down stuff.
                                      Long story short: no radio signal in phones or other household equipment other than a microwave oven (INSIDE IT), does any harm. Also, before people go nuts on the microwave thing, no it's not gamma radiation, it only heats water, it doesn't give cancer.

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                                        • AnonD-655518
                                        • nIY
                                        • 22 Jan 2018

                                        Anonymous, 22 Jan 2018Yep i'm totally convinced Motorola removed it first because... moreYou could be right,, also how did each company "even though these phones are designed months beforehand" know that they would be building phones with 18:9 ratio bezel less style design. They must have spies in each company or its to do with component manufacturers and what they sell.

                                        So Lg,Samsung apple start 2017 phone design in early 2016 and suddenly changed to this small bezel design after decades of same design seems odd.