I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back

We need to take into account _Accessibility_. A large use case that I&#x27;ve found most people seems to miss are individuals who are older and don&#x27;t have much experience with bluetooth or wireless technology. I&#x27;m fine with Apple removing the headphone jack, but they&#x27;ve alienated so many people to find their own path when they don&#x27;t include the adapter.<p>Anecdotal example: I recently purchased headphones for my 65-year old father and showed him how to use it, in preparation for his &quot;headphone jack-less&quot; future. After about a month (he lives in China, so I see him only a couple times a year), I asked him how it&#x27;s going and he said he doesn&#x27;t use them anymore because he just couldn&#x27;t figure it out. I tried to explain &quot;Turn on Bluetooth on your phone, then turn on your headphones, then hold down the button to pair, etc&quot;, but it was actually quite complicated because once he did this dance, 2 months later his phone restarted and bluetooth was off and we had to do it again. Software-wise, I can just send a link, but when it comes to hardware + software like printers, things become really challenging to explain.<p>I bring this up because if we&#x27;re moving to the &quot;wireless&quot; world, we need to really consider accessibility for the elderly. My father ended up throwing away these really expensive Beats headphones, went to his local market and bought some cheap Sony headphones and is now listening fine. I&#x27;m not really sure what&#x27;s going on happen when his next phone doesn&#x27;t have the headphone jack.

100% agree with this. Its pretty interesting that I almost never use headphones anymore now because bluetooth headphones require a few things: 1) preplanning&#x2F;foresight in charging the headphones 2) refer to number 1.<p>I have 2 really nice pairs of bluetooth headphones, and almost NEVER use them. Guess what pair gets used almost daily? my 15 year old beyerdynamic DT770s. 3.5mm or ¼&quot; plug, closed back. Not really the most accurate, but a nice bass heavy rich sound and plenty loud. they work with gear that is 50 years old and brand new(so long as they include a headphone jack). I have vintage analog synthesizers 80s and 90s samplers to &lt;2 year old digital synths. All work with these headphones.<p>Apple really really really really really really screwed up here. reverse course immediately.

The blog ends with the best and most insightful comment:<p><i>And no human’s life is measurably better since Apple had the “courage” to remove the 3.5 mm jack. But a lot of our lives are just a little worse.</i><p>The author also points towards active de-standardisation between Android and iOS:<p><i>&quot;if only there was one universal audio port they both could use&quot;</i><p>Apple gets an advantage from this with their iron-grip on compatible peripherals, but I don&#x27;t know why any of the Android manufacturers would follow suit. The ugliness of the impracticality of fashion.

Apple has had great success in the past by pushing new standards in computer peripherals, deprecating old standards, and generally moving the industry forward by fiat.<p>I think we&#x27;ve all benefitted somewhat from this attitude, even if it was inconvenient.<p>The distinction here is that the 3.5mm standard isn&#x27;t&#x2F;wasn&#x27;t a computer peripheral standard. It is&#x2F;was an audio industry standard. There are many uses for 3.5mm that have nothing to do with phones&#x2F;tablets&#x2F;laptops&#x2F;desktops.<p>Additionally, the audio industry has a different obsolescence timeline than computer equipment. Audiophile and pro audio headphones (for example) represent a significant investment and are intended to last many years.<p>In my view, Apple&#x27;s approach to this was a kind of chauvinistic hubris. No, I don&#x27;t want to use a $15 adapter of dubious quality on my $1500 custom molded in-ear monitors. No, I can&#x27;t just get a new pair. No, I can&#x27;t re-sell them, they only fit my ears. No, they wouldn&#x27;t sound the same even if a bluetooth version were to become available. No, I doubt the 4 person company that makes them is eager to try to figure out how to make a lightning version, even if they have the in-house expertise.<p>The decision really shows a lack of understanding of the world outside of computer manufacturing, and it is too bad others followed suit.

One of the things I feel happens in the tech world is innovation for innovation’s sake. In my opinion, “Real innovation” solves problems. What was the problem Apple was really trying to solve by removing the jack? The only thing I can come up with is to allow a “thinner” design.<p>In all the previous “radical changes”, they created a “better solution” to a problem. Take the removal of Floppies or CD drives, in both cases, the problem was getting data onto the machine efficiently. In both cases technology moved ahead and created better methods of moving data.<p>Please correct me if I am wrong here, but I fail to see what problem they really “solved” by removing the audio jack.

Apple and Google seem to have approached removing the headphone jack, not as a way to reduce costs to the customer by eliminating an obsolete feature they don&#x27;t use but, instead, as a way to increase the money they can squeeze out of customers by forcing them to replace perfectly good headphones they are currently using with new headphones <i>hopefully</i> made by Apple or Google.<p>I&#x27;m honestly not surprised by this. Headphone technology hasn&#x27;t really changed for many decades. A good pair of cans made a very long time ago are probably still a good pair of cans. I have some Audio Technica woodies that I absolutely love and are still going strong after more than a decade. To Apple and Google, this is a state of affairs that cannot be allowed to stand! Where&#x27;s the planned obsolescence and constant product turnover? Apple tried to make their earbuds a disposable commodity that need to be replaced frequently, but people caught onto the fact that it was just due to bad build quality and kept buying stuff from other companies. So, change up the connectors and force wireless standards that are, quite frankly, not that good for audio and ripe for eventual upgrade (i.e. bluetooth) into headphones so people won&#x27;t be able to use the same pair for decades. Profit!<p>So what should consumers do if they like their current headphones or just don&#x27;t want to deal with adapters, charging bluetooth devices, or sorting out multiple incompatible connectors? Buy phones that still have headphone jacks, like the Samsung S9.

Its sad to see the contortions my boyfriend makes to support his purchase of a headphone jack free android, despite his desire for high quality audio (he hates bluetooth with a passion). USB C to 3.5mm adapters are cheap, but break at the drop of a hat. His integrated speaker meanwhile has blown, and makes for terrible calls.<p>Headphone jacks serve a useful purpose, most phones could still have them without compromising other properties, but its been made fashionable to go without.

Rather than getting into the ins and outs of why they did it, who misses the jack, who doesn&#x27;t, why can&#x27;t we just agree based on the wealth of commentary here and elsewhere that for a significant minority - possibly even a very <i>large</i> minority - this removal represents a disproportionately high impact change?<p>It&#x27;s like admitting that people are entitled to mourn the removal of the jack is part of a slippery slope toward admitting that Apple - gasp - made a mistake, and that&#x27;s just untenable.<p>Apple makes a ton of money from this - they&#x27;re one of the main BT headphone vendors - so I actually don&#x27;t consider it a mistake on their part (they know exactly what they are doing) but for other manufacturers it makes no sense. No-one buys a phone <i>because</i> it has no jack. Some people though will rule phones out for dispensing with the jack. So why do they do it?!<p>For me for example, it&#x27;s literally the first thing I now consider: I will not buy a jack-less phone while alternatives are available. Don&#x27;t care about camera, brand, etc - any mid range Android with a jack will pretty much suit me.

While we&#x27;re whinging about loss of headphone jacks, lets add latency! Apple have always pushed their kit as being friendly for musicians and such. Now try playing an iOS MIDI instrument over bluetooth - with ~200ms delay between you hitting a key and hearing it. Useless and infuriating. So back to the dongle it is. Except of course if you want to charge and listen at the same time (which, you know, tends to happen when you are running a few power-hungry audio apps).

The most annoying thing about the missing headphone jack, is the missing headphone jack on other people&#x27;s phones. The people who ride public transport blaring bad music without headphones. Because Bluetooth headsets are a pain and the overlap between a) the type of person willing to annoy an entire carful of passengers and b) the type of person unable to manage the planning of wireless headphone charing ahead of time is nearly 100%.<p>And now that the cultural prohibition against making unnecessary noise is broken, it won&#x27;t be coming back easily.<p>Thanks Apple. Thanks...

USB-C audio wouldn&#x27;t suck if:<p>a) there was a standard protocol for a USB-C DAC that everyone supported (across desktop and mobile OSes) such that an end consumer could purchase a USB-C DAC and be reasonably confident that it&#x27;ll work universally,<p>b) phones came with more than one USB-C port, such that playing and charging at the same time wouldn&#x27;t be an issue<p>If anything, USB-C should&#x27;ve been a revolution, pushing the DAC closer to the speakers can help improve audio quality and getting rid of the DAC in the phone helps to level the playing field between devices. But the OEMs dropped the ball hard.

After saying I&#x27;d never get a phone without a headphone jack until Bluetooth codecs improved, I ended up getting a Pixel2XL through &quot;reward points&quot;. It&#x27;s a great phone ... and I&#x27;ve &quot;only&quot; been needed a headphone jack a dozen or so times in the six months I&#x27;ve had it. Not for headphone, but for other audio input or output requirements.<p>What an absolutely idiotic idea. I&#x27;ve started leaving those stupid dongles everywhere, but even they don&#x27;t for with everything. Fashion over function, with an eye to more lock-in.

I&#x27;m holding onto my 6s+ with a death grip.<p>If they had replaced the 3.5mm with another lightning port, I would have upgraded by now. This single port thing is just silly. Same thing with the latest Macbook Pros, the switch to USB-C doesn&#x27;t bother me, the low number of ports does.

I used to always carry a Y adapter so I could share my music with whoever I&#x27;m traveling with. No more of that :(<p>If any of you know Asian style box karaoke (small private rooms for 4 to 16 people) some places let you plug in external input... but of course they only have headphone cables so none of that anymore. I suppose they&#x27;re supposed to some how setup Apple TV&#x2F;Chromecast in every room?<p>Here in Tokyo anytime I enter a crowded train station or a crowded intersection my Airpods basically cease to function cutting in and out, mostly out, for the until I get out of the crowded area. Didn&#x27;t have that issue with my wired headphones.<p>I actually mostly like my Airpods but I do wish my phone kept the headphone jack.

Right now if you buy a macbook and an iPhone, you will get:<p>An iPhone with no headphone jack, a pair of lightning headphones, a lightning to usb charging cable<p>A macbook with a headphone jack and no usb ports.<p>Out of the box you cannot charge your phone with your laptop, or use either headphones for either. They could very well be made by separate companies. They have Zero out of the box connectivity with each other. I don&#x27;t care what anyone has to say about usb-c and the future: this is a step backwards for those of us in the present.

I&#x27;m voting with my wallet. My household will never have a phone that is missing the 3.5mm jack.

An unrelated note: there seems to be lot of comments in this thread that are downvoted just because people disagree with them.<p>I would prefer a culture where comments that you agree with are upvoted, comments that you disagree on you offer an alternative point of view, and only comments that are completely deragatory to the quality of discussion are downvoted.<p>Thanks!<p>And yeah, I love my 3.5 mm jacks, sometimes tech matures to a point where it really does not need to change for centuries.

My questions are:<p>1. What&#x27;s the value of a wireless connection to a device you&#x27;ll be touching when you use it anyway?<p>2. Assuming you value &quot;no cord tangles&quot; so highly that you&#x27;re willing to put up with Bluetooth, charging your headphones, risking dropping your AirPods down a storm drain, etc, why can&#x27;t the rest of us just have the jack as an option? Nobody&#x27;s saying &quot;remove Bluetooth.&quot;<p>3. What about the value of loose coupling and backward and forward compatibility? Given a couple adapters, I can plug my current iPod into a 1970s stereo, or plug a record player into my car stereo, and instantly have them working. Brand and device age are irrelevant. BlueTooth compatibility isn&#x27;t guaranteed between two devices made <i>today</i>.

I&#x27;ve hung onto my first generation Pixel for largely this reason. There isn&#x27;t a lot in the new models to entice me to switch however the loss of the 3.5mm port was the tipping point for me not to purchase either of the updates. I just put a new factory battery in my Pixel ($90 CAD) and it&#x27;s back to like new again. At the moment I think I&#x27;ll hold on to it for at least another year.

I don&#x27;t miss the headphone jack a bit. Apple forced me into trying bluetooth headphones and so far I&#x27;ve not looked back. For cases when I want a cabled connection after all (like in airplanes), I just use the adapter.<p>I had it a few times in the past that I used cabled headphones, ripped on the cable and smacked my phone on the floor by accident.

Apple&#x27;s removal of the headphone jack wasn&#x27;t &quot;courage.&quot; Courage was Steve Jobs determining that pen tablets weren&#x27;t viable back in 2000 and knowing later just when touch tablets were ready for the public. What Apple did was fail to realize that Bluetooth headphones are still a bit awkward and not quite ready for mainstream ubiquity. Instead, they took away something that just works and replaced it with something a bit over-complicated that is nifty in a propeller-head way. It was the opposite of what Apple is supposed to do.

I still want to be able to charge my phone and listen to music using the headphone jack. How is that not even a use case anymore? I don’t like the AirPods because they are too easy to lose, and I’m so clumsy with headphones that I buy cheap ones every month, which comes with headphone jack only.<p>I think Apple made a very bad UX, and never cared about users. I moved to Android phones as a result, which frankly aren’t as inferior as they used to be 4 years ago.

I am an audiophile and I don&#x27;t miss the headphone jack at all. I&#x27;ve always hated the headphone jack on most phones since most of them are inherently low quality. If you have a high end headphone then the weakest link usually is the DAC ( Digital to Analog ) chip on your device. While there are some devices which are made with high fidelity audio in mind ( LG V30 which does come with a headphone jack ), most of the devices in the market aren&#x27;t. Also good high fidelity headphones usually have higher resistance ( I use DT770 Pro regularly with is rated at 250 ohms ) and almost none of the phones in market today can drive them to the best of their ability. Historically I&#x27;ve always carried a mini amp(Fiio A3) to use my headphones with headphone jacks in my phone to be able to get good audio quality from headphones. Mobile devices just don&#x27;t have enough juice to give you good sound quality and drive high end headphones to the best of their ability. Even headphones rated at 32 ohms can benefit hugely from a higher audio output.<p>So for me, audio from a mobile device comes down to 2 use cases:<p>1. Calling and other low-fidelity tasks<p>I have a sennheiser bluetooth headphones which supports AptX for these purposes. Bluetooth is lossy and AptX gives you much better audio quality. They are rated at 10+ hours and usually work pretty well for calling and other light uses.<p>2. Listening to audio<p>I carry a portable DAC ( Fiio X3) but there are many portable ones available in the market. If you have an iPhone you can get the Fiio i1 which is based on apple&#x27;s lightning. A portable DAC will usually come with it&#x27;s own Amp and the audio output will be far better than what a standard phone is capable of. If you have high end headphones you&#x27;ll be pleasantly surprised at how much difference a good DAC+Amp combo can make. I exclusively use TIDAL for audio streaming since their lossless audio has much higher fidelity compared to other streaming providers.

I’ve tried AirPods, which sounded ok, but they fall out. The included headphones don’t sound good (and also fall out) compared to any of the headphones I already own. I’ve been to the Apple store four times in the last year and had to sit and wait to get a dongle replaced. Once, while in another country the adaptor just quit working. They had a certified Apple store, but the dongle was out of stock so I had to wait four days for one. The second day of waiting was in a motorcycle accident which left me in a hospital bed with no headphones.<p>I start a lot of audio&#x2F;visual sketches on iPad I can’t use Bluetooth headphones because of the quality and latency...<p>Get it together Apple, I’m really tired of this dongle adaptor’s poor quality and the kludgy nature of Bluetooth.

I don&#x27;t think I&#x27;ve ever used my phone headphone jack (still 3.5mm), but I will absolutely never buy a laptop without 3.5mm.<p>The article is spot on, no-one is served by this change, except manufacturers.

I flat out will not buy a phone without a headphone jack, and I cannot see this changing in the forseeable future.<p>Anything that could be added to a new phone model—a better screen, a faster processor, a better camera, etc—will not be enough to offset the inconvenience of being unable to listen to an audiobook on the subway because I inevitably forgot the damn adapter.<p>As long as there is one phone with a headphone jack, that is the one I will buy. If the only options are older devices, I will buy the least-old one.

Just bought an iPhone 6S four days ago because of this and the physical home button. $140 brand new.

Haha, I literally just got Amazoned this £130.00 order to enable me to use headphones with HQ sound AND mic WHILE charging my new iPad Pro 11&quot;, which only has USB-C:<p><pre><code> - http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.eu&#x2F;d&#x2F;dm8vC88 - http:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.eu&#x2F;d&#x2F;0o5f4JK </code></pre> And I KNOW I&#x27;m going to have a 50% chance this works, and 0% chance this works without either software or hardware problems. I&#x27;m psychologically for the random audio drop-outs and glitches when I slightly reposition the orgy-of-dongles (that is the collective noun right?)<p>I&#x27;m all over wireless as a concept, but BlueTooth can&#x27;t seem to handle High quality sound &amp; mic so, I consider removing the audio jack on the iPad pro to be a mistake. I don&#x27;t hate Apple, I don&#x27;t think they are offending me, I don&#x27;t bother trying to guess at why. I just plain think they have made a mistake.<p>And god damn, when I plug my headphones into an old iPad and ... &quot;it just works&quot; ... god damn.<p>EDIT: The above config of hardware works for sound! Yay! Not tried mic yet.

It feels to me like Bluetooth consumer products are a lot like consumer printers; for 90+% of users they will be obsolete before they &quot;just work&quot; to any layperson&#x27;s definition.<p>Every Christmas, you will have to fix your parents printer&#x2F;wireless home device which hasn&#x27;t worked for months and won&#x27;t work in 2 months.

This hasn&#x27;t bothered me in the least and I was fine with the change.<p>Before I bought an iPhone without the headphone jack I bought a SoundBlaster bluetooth adapter for my wired headphones - which I&#x27;m quite fond of - and so continued to use my wired headphones. I&#x27;ve only got the one set of headphones, so they stay permanently plugged into the Sound Blaster device. I&#x27;ll keep it until my wired headphones die or until there are a set of bluetooth headphones with a good fit and good battery life.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;us.creative.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;sound-blaster&#x2F;sound-blaster-e3" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;us.creative.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;sound-blaster&#x2F;sound-blaster-e3</a>

I still use the FM tuner built into Snapdragon phones.<p>I guess everyone else streams their radio these days.

I have a lovely pair of Bluetooth headphones, yet when I bought a new phone the other month I deliberately went for one that still has a headphone jack. Why? Because much as I love Bluetooth, I still use the jack. Maybe not every day, but if I want to plug into pretty much anything that&#x27;s not my headphones or my car then I need a jack.<p>Apple make a lot of money from phones. They also make a lot of money from Bluetooth headphones. It makes a lot of sense for them, from an ecosystem building perspective, to push people from cheap wired headphones to expensive Apple headphones. I&#x27;m less certain what non-Apple manufacturers expect to gain.

RHA TrueConnect is the best AirPods alternative I&#x27;ve seen. Fits different ear sizes (this was my problem w&#x2F; AirPods -- RHA&#x27;s come with many sizes of covering, including one that you can shrink and expands inside your ear like earplugs), good audio quality (RHA is good at it), look sleek and have a great case, use Bluetooth 5. Just wish I could use AAC and aptX with it for lower latency (I know they say they don&#x27;t support it -- I tried just for kicks and it removed the latency but added weird artifacts -- only noticed latency originally w&#x2F; macOS btw, not on iOS).

If you miss the headphone jack don&#x27;t buy an Iphone. When buying a product you are actually validating its design with your purchase. Every dollar is a vote and money is the only language companies talk.

More than the lack of headphone jack, I actually hate the lightning &#x2F; usb-c &#x2F; 3.5 mm inconsistency between the iPhone and Macbook. I mean, I usually would keep the dongle on my headset. But when I need to get on a Webex call or listen to music from you computer, I have to remove the dongle. I have misplaced them a few times because of this reason.<p>Although, I would say that the one upside of removing the headphone jack has been the release of Airpods. One you use them, there is no going back to wired headphones.

At the end of the article I find it amusing that the author states<p>&gt; I won’t start about how many times I’ve tried to use wireless headphones only to find them dead, because anything wireless is just another battery to worry about.<p>The same logic points that his _phone_ is also wireless. Maybe we should add a cord to that?<p>The responsibility to have the foresight to charge a device has, in my life, proven to be a small and reasonable request.<p>In many android cases (unsure about apple) you can even charge your head phones using your phone as a battery.

It is my strong opinion that Apple&#x27;s &quot;design courage&quot; is business driven than actual innovation. The reason being is that it was released the same day as the Apple AirPods. A similar comment can be said for Google&#x27;s &quot;design courage&quot; for the Pixel 2, when on the same day they released the Pixel Buds.<p>If they were concerned about space and waterproofing, could they have just made a magsafe lightning port instead of a hole taking that amount of space at the bottom?

I don&#x27;t miss the stereo jack on my motorola, I have wireless headphones, a car with BT and a jeep without BT. Walmart has these at the check out line, I use it in my jeep.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.walmart.com&#x2F;ip&#x2F;EliteMailers-Bluetooth-Receiver-Transmitters-With-Hands-free-calling-AUX-cable-Radio-Stereo-Adapter-Car-Charger-for-All-Smartphones&#x2F;525557240" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.walmart.com&#x2F;ip&#x2F;EliteMailers-Bluetooth-Receiver-T...</a>

The missing jack is all about expanding sales for Apple. Had they not bought Beats we would still have the jack. By removing the jack they can sell a hell of a lot more headphones to people by telling them that the new tech will make the music sound so much better.<p>Previously 150 dollar headphones seemed expensive. Now 150 dollar beats feel like the norm, even cheap.<p>We won&#x27;t be getting the jack back. Good for Apple but sucks for suckers -- sorry I mean consumers.

YES! I could have written this exact article. It rings true daily. Such a massive PITA, the number of dongles I&#x27;ve bought &#x2F; lost, etc. is unreal.

The headphone jack is still also the main way to guarantee your laptop wont make a sound when someone sends you a youtube video in a deathly quiet office!

But why can&#x27;t Bluetooth be fixed?<p>Imagine a protocol, where the phone broadcasts a low power wireless signal, encrypted, for anyone to listen to. The headphones decode this signal and plays the sound. No synchronizing, no fuzz.<p>The Bluetooth protocol does something royally error prone. My Windows computer will only connect to my headphones <i>if and only if</i> I tell Windows to connect and <i>then very quickly</i> turn the headphones on.

Based on all the other comments here I&#x27;m probably in the minority, but I still think the author should just get some decent Bluetooth headphones.<p>I have AirPods and Sennheiser Momentums. I&#x27;m looking forward to another year of my life when I don&#x27;t need to untangle a mess of wires in my jacket pocket every day. Battery life is very good, and I haven&#x27;t had any problems with running out of juice on these.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;utfbE3_uAMA" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;utfbE3_uAMA</a><p>video from &quot;Strange Parts&quot;, which after multiple tries brought back a headphone jack on a iPhone 7. It is described as not ready for prime time (see at the end <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;utfbE3_uAMA?t=1872" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;utfbE3_uAMA?t=1872</a> )

+1 for one extra battery to keep charged. I don&#x27;t like that. That&#x27;s precisely why I stopped using my Apple Watch after a few months.

I use a six dollars worth 3.5mm to blutooth reciever to convert my good old headphones into a wireless one. Didn&#x27;t regret since.

People just love to find things to complain about. There are a number of great options:<p>1)Get a different phone or keep your old phone. Noone&#x27;s forcing you to use one without a headphone jack. You could even use an older iPhone if innovation frightens you in general and you&#x27;re happy with your old setup<p>2)Get&#x2F;use an adapter. THey&#x27;re not expensive and sometimes come with the phone<p>3)Get&#x2F;use headphones with the new style of plug. You could probably use some new headphones as they get pretty janky over time<p>4)Use wireless. In lots of ways it&#x27;s objectively better. Yeah you may need to get used to a new thing, but being good at adapting to change is an important muscle to exercise.<p>Honestly every time there&#x27;s innovation there are all kinds of complaints, especially on here.<p>&quot;Why do I have to change to USB-C? I&#x27;m fine with my old peripherals&quot; (well your old computer still works with your old peripherals and if you want to use a new computer there are adapters).<p>&quot;Why do I have to change to wireless headphones?&quot; (you don&#x27;t. Your old phone still works with old headphone jacks and there are adapters)<p>The idea that older people are completely unable to handle plugging a headphone adapter in but are somehow able to plug a headphone jack in is just bizarre. You can just pretend that the adapter is part of the cable with the headphones and always keep them together.

&gt; Apple ditched the 3.5 mm headphone jack in the iPhone 7 for a Lightning connector<p>If this had only been the case, I would have been happy. Then we would have had two lightning ports on the phone, which would have been nice. No, all they did was take away a port, similarly to the 15&quot; macbook pro, where they went from 8 ports to 5. A very sad trend IMO.

15 years ago most phones didn&#x27;t have a 3.5 jack and you had to have a dongle. I don&#x27;t want to go back to that time.

The primary reason I want it back, is because audio though the jack of has usually been of better quality than audio though Bluetooth with another DAC. The difference can be enormous. Therefore it feels as a big downgrade to me.<p>And don&#x27;t forget that all these USB C and wireless options are possible without removing the jack at all.

One thing I don&#x27;t understand is that if the port size is really a problem, why don&#x27;t the big tech companies agree on a smaller format?<p>The same applies to ethernet. Pretty much all laptops have dropped the ethernet port, mostly because it too bulky for modern formats. Why can&#x27;t they simply agree on another socket?

We need a powerbank with a built-in Bluetooth to 3.5 mm audio interface. People tend to carry a powerbank around anyway, and having the Bluetooth thing built into it will ensure that this device will never run out of battery. Yes it&#x27;s going to be a niche product, but some people will love it a lot.

This isn&#x27;t important to most people and it is just an annoyance.<p>All of my devices have a headphone jack, BECAUSE I buy my devices with a headphone jack.<p>I have a LG V20 which had the best headphone jack on the market. People didn&#x27;t buy it. People don&#x27;t care about headphone jacks enough to buy headphone jacks in devices.

I cannot use wireless headphones. The battery on them dies within 15-20 minutes in sub-zero temperatures.

I would definitely understand if we were at a stage where AirPods battery would last half a year but we are not.<p>Battery-less cable beats wireless 2 hours of talk time quiet easily.<p>Wireless is the correct path but it was too early to get rid of the working standard without having a better alternative in my opinon.

3.5 Audio jacks are standard, just like the USB charging cable is a standard. Not using 3.5 audio jacks, leads to tremendous amounts of industrial waste in the form of old head phones with proprietary connectors.<p>I think it would be better if cellphones had both 3.5mm jacks and Bluetooth.

Next, get rid of the USB jack and get 100% hermetically sealed units? Apple already has Qi charging.

One of the big reasons given was to make a slimmer phone, but I&#x27;ve got the iPhone SE I use personally here next to the iPhone 7 I use for work, and, if you were to run your hand over them, you wouldn&#x27;t detect a difference in height off the table.

i love &quot;my not so expensive and average quality&quot; earphones. i simply plug it my iphone 6s, then my work laptop and when i&#x27;m home i use it while gaming with my MBP 2015. i sometimes forgot them in my pocket and find them while ironing my pants; they smell good, look very clean and work like a charm when i plug in to my phone. if i lose them or somehow they don&#x27;t work, i can buy the same for a few bucks. if i want i can use a cool bluetooth earphones but i really don&#x27;t want, and moreover i really don&#x27;t want to be force to do so

There is an easy solution to this problem. Not bying smartphones without a 3.5mm jack. So simple, so straightforward, and yet people complaining but still pretty much voting for being abused with their wallet.

Am I the only one that had issues with headphone jacks on multiple devices, from multiple headphones, with audio either not working at all or working on one channel only until I rotate the jack for awhile?

I would miss the headphone jack if I ever bother upgrading my iPhone. As it is, I use my Bluetooth headphones a lot at home. Noise canceling and no cord is pretty nice.<p>But for very good audio I use my normal sennheisers

When Apple first removed the headphone jack I was a big opponent of what they had done. It didn&#x27;t affect me personally though, as I had an old laptop and phone both with headphone jacks and no plans to upgrade. Still I was quite vocal about how stupid it was to remove them.<p>At the time I was working at home, and had an old set of Sennheiser headphones with a 3m long cable that I usually used for music. Occasionally I&#x27;d end up tangled up in the cable, all attempts to prevent it failed. For calls I had a cheap Sennheiser headset which did the trick, and did (what I thought was) a pretty decent job of blocking out noise when travelling.<p>Earlier this year I went back to the office, and needed some noise cancelling headphones, so got Sony MDR-1000X which are Bluetooth. The noise cancelling really puts the old headset I had to shame, when on an aircraft if I play light music I literally can&#x27;t hear any outside noise. They are comfortable to wear all the time (a few times in summer my ears did get a bit sweaty) and I usually charge them once or a maximum twice a week, even though I&#x27;m using them most of the day. When they say they are low I still get a few hours usage, so just put them on charge at lunch when it first warns me.<p>Compared to my old headphones the noise quality is about the same, but these have built in volume and track controls, and a microphone. Bluetooth just works for me, and the range is not a problem. I can easily have my phone on one side of my apartment, and listen to music on the other. I have them paired with my phone and computer, and can easily switch the source without major issues. It just works (apart from some weird Linux bug where it uses the wrong audio profile, but on other OSes it&#x27;s fine).<p>A few months ago I got a new phone and it didn&#x27;t come with an audio jack. I tried to find one that did, but this had the best specs for what I wanted, so it was a sacrifice I would have to make. The phone come with a dongle, but I haven&#x27;t even removed it from the packaging in the box. I just haven&#x27;t needed it, and don&#x27;t care that it&#x27;s gone.<p>Same thing on my laptop, it has an audio jack (output only) but I don&#x27;t care if it&#x27;s removed as I never use it now. On my PC I had to buy a cheapo USB sound card as the built in audio jack had lots of static, so I don&#x27;t really care if that&#x27;s removed either.<p>Bluetooth is good enough, it&#x27;s just going to be a while until a $15 set of Bluetooth earphones are at a similar quality level to a $15 set of wired earphones. I do agree the execution could have been done better by Apple (e.g. lightning headphones, which you can&#x27;t use on all Apple hardware) and it was possibly a bit premature, but eventually we would have reached this point.<p>As for the so called audiophiles who need it, wouldn&#x27;t you be better off with an external soundcard, rather than relying on whatever $0.50 chip the manufacturer can find?

Bluetooth is great until it isn&#x27;t. Settings get lost. Drivers need updating. Pairing gets confused. Congested environments can lock you out. You need to power cycle the device.<p>All solved with a cable.

Clearly the solution is not going back to a 3.5 mm audio jack, but to invent a new standard that everybody will support. We could alsa call it pulse jack and audio will be fixed forever.

hmm my 65 year old dad figured out bluetooth pairing with his car, and a JBL speaker i got him, BUT takes 10 minutes of fiddling around with car menus to pair my phone when im borrowing the car, AND when you pair more than one device to the speaker, there&#x27;s no easy way to switch other than going to bluetooth menu and finding the device (re-pairing each time).<p>i wish it was proximity aware and just chose the nearest device instead of trying to connect to most recent or nothing at all.

I still use an iphone with a headphone jack, but when the time comes I think the solution is to buy a bunch of dongles that dangle (hah) from every headphone cord I have.

Been hanging on to my 6 Plus for dear life for this very reason

A heretical idea would be to actually have two lightning or USB-C ports on the device.<p>No ports is a more probable future for the phones but I could see something like this on an iPad.

I find all reasons for ditching it excuses. &quot;Water proof&quot; - no, there are devices that can do both.<p>I would have been fine with this, if we would get 2 USB-C connectors then.

I bought a new TV recently and it still has a headphone socket and no option for bluetooth.<p>I would find it more useful to have a Bluetooth headset for my TV than I would for my phone.

The irony in all of this is that while trying to push for a wireless and one universal port(USB-C), we ended up with more cables, dongles and adapters than before.

I like headphone jacks. They&#x27;re small, harmless, useful, and work easily. A good idea would be to put them in a phone for customer and listener convenience.

I&#x27;m still pining for my old brick phone, where I could text with the phone still in my pocket, the battery lasted for a week, and the signal was strong.

Answer: Samsung Galaxy phones with better waterproofing IP68 vs. IP67 and they did it WITH a headphone jack. I expect S10 will also have 5G NR plus OS 9

Someone should make a high end smart phone geared toward audiophiles that has a 1&#x2F;2&quot; jack and an interface to plug in a tube amp.

I just need the headline. This is 100% what I wish I had in my damn phones.

im nowhere near elderly and have been using bluetooth in my car and with headphones for years and I still run into trouble a lot of the time. its just not ready yet

<i>stares at Ember mug in hand</i> You don&#x27;t know me!

&quot;arg, hold on one second, I can&#x27;t find my headphone dongle&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=-XSC_UG5_kU" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=-XSC_UG5_kU</a>

iPhone SE:<p>- It’s got the jack plug - I can type with one thumb - it doesn’t bend in my pocket - it’s way cheaper<p>I can’t think of anything the X has I am missing on the SE.

Headphone jack, water resistance, pick one.

Just buy a phone with a headphone jack.

Well! Buy the Galaxy S9 then. Easy.

apple ditched the floppy drive with the release of their g3 hardware, the ethernet port with the macbook air (and built in cd&#x2F;dvd drive), before that they ditched the serial &amp; parallel port, etc.<p>any of us still missing those?<p>needless to say that it kinda sucks when a new device forces you to buy new adapters &#x2F; peripherals, but in the long run, is this really an issue?

Why not instead use the 3.5mm standard for serial port and charging capability as well? now that would make a lot of people happy

What a well-articulated piece!

Why bother? I won&#x27;t buy iphone anymore

So you&#x27;re okay with hurting other people, especially the elderly, disabled and poor, because you get something.<p>I guess admitting that takes &quot;courage&quot; as well?

&quot;Without a doubt, even from the vantage of today, 2016 will go down as one of the saddest sack years in recent history. A reality show billionaire was elected president.&quot;<p>Right off the bat, in the first paragraph, with an unnecessary political statement. Turns off half the audience right there. Everything said thereafter is taken with a giant grain of salt.<p>Is this person living in such a bubble that he can&#x27;t have a conversation without mentioning Trump?

Meanwhile normal people outside the tech and HN bubble have moved on and forgot what a headphone jack is.

Apple, and all the other phone companies on board with this, seem to have made the gamble that there&#x27;s a whole bunch of other stuff people care about more than headphone jacks. And they seem to have been right.<p>I don&#x27;t miss my headphone jack - my phone still has one. If people really wanted headphone jacks, they&#x27;d buy phones with headphone jacks. But if you care more about the social stigma of having a blue bubble in iMessage or being seen with a previous-gen phone, I guess you&#x27;re stuck with no choice but to complain.