Samsung's Upcoming Galaxy S8 Flagship Smartphone Won't Have a Headphone Jack: Report (sammobile.com) 360
Samsung is planning to ditch headphone jack in its next flagship smartphone, called the Samsung Galaxy S8, reports SamMobile, a Samsung-focused blog that has a pretty good track record with these things. From the report: Removing the 3.5mm headphone jack enables Samsung to make the Galaxy S8 thinner while also freeing up more space inside for a bigger battery. Samsung may also integrate stereo speakers which some believe will be made in collaboration with Harman, a company that Samsung is acquiring for $8 billion.
Sweet (Score:5, Insightful)
Guess who's not buying an S8?
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Funny)
The burn victims?
Re:Sweet (Score:4, Insightful)
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So this wasn't just Apple.
All carriers will try to save a few cents on each unit by omitting a headphone jack.
"By the way sir/madam, have you seen our selection of premium headphones?"
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot, where a comment about someone not having enough mod points is marked up as "Informative". Now watch this one get modded up as insightful. Maybe later it will get meta moderated.
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Funny)
Guess who's not buying an S8?
The burn victims?
I wouldn't blame them for lacking the, uh, courage.
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Insightful)
The burn victims?
Heh... Samsung is never going to live down the S7 is it?
Especially if people keep confusing the Note 7 with the S7.
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Funny)
make the Galaxy S8 thinner while also freeing up more space inside for a bigger battery
So it'll burn longer?
Re:Sweet (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems cyclical, the leading manufacturer eventually gets complacent and arrogant and starts to think they know what the consumer wants more than the consumer does.
Copying Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Copying Apple (Score:4, Informative)
They've already said it's going to be USB-C and the audio will use that port.
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The problem Samsung (and all the other Android phone makers) have is that most people seem to want to buy an Android phone, so they figure out how much they want to spend, and compare features.
Samsung might find non-iPhone buyers really want a 3.5mm jack and so they go and buy an LG V10 as mentioned in this thread.
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Steve Jobs?
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Guess who's not buying an S8?
Me, for one. And that's too bad, I was actually considering it.
Re:Sweet (Score:4, Interesting)
'Samsung may also integrate stereo speakers which ...' ... will take up a lot more space than a 'phone jack, but has the benefit of annoying a lot more people. Win-win!
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Re: Sweet (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Sweet (Score:5, Interesting)
I stay a little behind the curve; I last had an S4 which I liked a lot, and then I upgraded to an S5 which I use now, and I'll happily show iPhone owners why this phone is so great (easily-replaced battery, SDcard slot, waterproof, etc.).
But the S6 was crap (it eliminated all 3 features!), the S7 brought back two of them but not the battery, and now they want to dump the headphone jack so I can't use my expensive Sennheisers at work or on an airplane? WTF are they thinking? No, I'm not going to use a fucking dongle.
So I guess when it's time to move on from my S5, I'll have to look at some other brand, like Moto or LG. Maybe even Huawei or some other Chinese brand; they don't seem to be as stupid about chasing Apple.
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Samsung tends to follow Apple's lead. It isn't as though that was unexpected....
Have courage; there will likely be copper-compatible options for some time to come. :-)
Re: Sweet (Score:5, Funny)
It's gonna die whether anyone wants it to or not.
Deader than LP's in England, no doubt. ;)
Re: Sweet (Score:4, Interesting)
That's plainly wrong about the waterproofing. I have a Galaxy S5 which has all those features and is waterproof. The main challenge for waterproofing is the ports; on mine, the USB port is covered by a removable waterproof cover, but the headphone jack is not (except for the cover built into my Otterbox, but that's not from the factory obviously). So I guess they figured out a way to make headphone jacks that are impervious to water. On Sony Experias I've seen, all the ports are covered by removable covers (including the headphone jack). So the requirement for waterproofing should not be a problem, though it might affect cost, but we are talking about "premium phones" here so that shouldn't be a big problem.
Now, if there's any left (my S5 is about 3 years old now), that I can't tell you. I believe someone here mentioned a current LG phone with a removable battery. Anyone want to chime in? But if we don't see phones with all these features much longer, it's not because it can't be done (my S5 proves this), but rather because the stupid manufacturers aren't bothering to make phones like that any more, and the stupid consumers aren't insisting on these features.
I guess I'll have to hang onto my S5, and install CyanogenMod on it.
Re: Sweet (Score:4, Informative)
A headphone jack can be all metal and plastic sealed tube and does not have to open up to the inside.
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Sad, because the S7 Edge is poised, hardware failure notwithstanding, be my longest-owned phone by the time I'm done with it. With 2 decades of cellphone ownership under my belt, that's quite a feat.
thinner = more likely to blow up (Score:5, Interesting)
thinner = more likely to blow up can we get one with sd card, battery you can swap, etc.
Thinner (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Thinner (Score:5, Insightful)
I always put cases on my phones precisely so they will be a little thicker and easier to hold. I find the thinner the phone the more awkward it is to use. Even to hold it in front of me an interact with it.
Re:Thinner (Score:4, Insightful)
However, it's easily possible to make a thin phone thicker with a case. However a thick phone cannot be made any thinner in such a fashion and I do remember back to when phones were much thicker and the only reason they weren't a burden was because they didn't have 5" screens. Try having a phone as thick as a Nokia 3310 be any wider or taller than it was and still be pocket friendly.
I think the real reason the phones keep getting thinner is that the components keep getting smaller and while a larger battery could be added, this would add to the weight of the device, which is what I think manufacturers really want to minimize.
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I think the real reason the phones keep getting thinner is that the components keep getting smaller and while a larger battery could be added, this would add to the weight of the device, which is what I think manufacturers really want to minimize.
Apparently not. It is now known that the note 7 exploded because the battery had no slack space for expansion. That 0.5mm of open space wouldn't have weighed much. Better rigidity of the phone wouldn't add much weight either.
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What kind of consumer are you? Don't you know you're supposed to be replacing phones once a week? :-D
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Would they hold up against repeated dropping? Probably not. But, then, I've never lost a phone to that in 2 decades; and I've thrown one phone through drywal
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Plus, Samsung's phones (which I love otherwise) are made of the slipperiest substance this side of greased Teflon. I could not keep the dang thing in my hands until I put a case on it. (Seidio case, also sold by Best Buy as their "Platinum" case. Since I had a Palm Pilot, my first criteria for a cell phone is that Seidio makes a case for it.)
I think if they don't have a headphone jack in future phones, though, that I may find myself looking elsewhere.
Re:Thinner (Score:4, Funny)
Obviously it's people with small hands!
/ I didn't say any names...
Re:Thinner (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously it's people with small hands!
/ I didn't say any names...
With a username like Oswald McWeany, you don't have to.
Re:Thinner (Score:5, Interesting)
Consumers inhabiting reality don't give a flying fuck. They want to know how well it handles scratching/dropping/bending. They want to know how long the battery handles the actual OS/software bloat in real-world conditions. They want to know if said bloat boots/runs stuff slowly, despite N specs. They want to know how it literally handles - how long takes a robotic hand on average to drop it, during randomized clutching gestures.
But none of that is in the RSS feeds. Only "7.93mm*!" or "Curved screen!" or "Thinnest bevel ever!"
Gee, no bevel. Anyone going to stick THAT in your jeans without a case? Anyone? Show of hands? Surely some of you can afford to be careless with devices racing to break $1000.
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Consumers don't care how the phone looks, or the look/feel of the phone? That's obvious bullshit. "They want to know if it boots slowly" - where do you even get that idea? Who cares, who re-boots their phone?
Apple told is they do! (Score:3)
Seriously, that seems to be the extent of the logic some of the manufacturers use. Apple has/had an obsession with thin, Apple did well, therefore we need to have an obsession with thin.
Personally, I say fuck that. Phones have gotten anywhere from thin enough to too thin. I had a Note 3 for a few years, which I was completely fine with in terms of thickness. However I recently got an LG G5 which is just slightly thicker, and I actually like it better. The slight extra thickness, combined with rounded edged,
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Obligatory Corner Gas (Score:3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Nope but some seem to think they do.
Case in point check how many of your co-workers are using a phone with a cracked screen.
That is the market they are selling to everyone else sticks their phone in a case that makes the phone about 4x larger and darned near impervious to 10ft drops.
Some people seem to prefer a cracked screen to even a minimal amount of protection.
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Do people really want thinner phones?
In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife; but that doesn't work so well with a tomato. SPLAT! Introducing the Ginsu Phone--chop, Chop, CHOP! (warning, keep phone in sheath when not in use. Works best with Ginsu shaving cream. Do not hold up to face when talking. In case you need to talk for more than four hours, do not use this phone.)
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I put a case on any phone i have. So: thin phone + thin case will be thinner than thick phone + thin case. I moved from a 5s to a 6s (broke the 5s, middile age man eyesight liked a bigger phone) and i like the thinness of the 6s.
YMMV,.
Soooooo lesson not learned? (Score:5, Informative)
Wasn't there an article yesterday saying that the battery problems with the G7 Note largely due to it being too thin? Which, given the circumstances seems to be a fairly strong thesis for the trouble. So why try to go thinner?
I get there's a lead time on design and engineering and that it's quite likely this particular design has been in the works before the Note 7 was even out the door. But it seems like poor management to not backup and start over just to be certain the same design flaws don't happen again. Starting by not having thinness as a goal.
Then again, I'm not an exec working on their quarterly bonus. I'm just a guy on the internet.
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Basic management philosophy:
"We must do X"
"Sir, it's not working - in fact, it's burning our customer base"
"We're not doing enough X!"
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Re:Soooooo lesson not learned? (Score:4, Informative)
Wasn't there an article yesterday saying that the battery problems with the G7 Note largely due to it being too thin? Which, given the circumstances seems to be a fairly strong thesis for the trouble. So why try to go thinner?
Samsung's problem was with the Galaxy Note 7 not the S7. (TFA is about the S8.) And the problem was not that the Note 7 was too thin, but that it was too thin for the battery. They should have provided about 0.5 mm room for expansion. They didn't, and as a result, the battery was squeezed when it expanded, and parts of its internals touched that were not supposed to. And kaboom.
I get there's a lead time on design and engineering and that it's quite likely this particular design has been in the works before the Note 7 was even out the door. But it seems like poor management to not backup and start over just to be certain the same design flaws don't happen again. Starting by not having thinness as a goal.
Given the disastrous blowback from the Note 7, I doubt they'll let anything in the 8th generation leave the factory until it's ready.
Disclosure: I own an S5. It does get warm if I'm charging it in my car with Google Maps running and it's in sunlight. But otherwise it has been trouble-free as far as heat is concerned.
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Wasn't there an article yesterday saying that the battery problems with the G7 Note largely due to it being too thin? Which, given the circumstances seems to be a fairly strong thesis for the trouble. So why try to go thinner?
Yeah. It was an article written by a group of software engineers who bought one, opened it up and declared themselves experts through conjecture, speculation, and stuff they may have read about lithium batteries on the internet.
But hey they got their company name on Slashdot so it was worth it.
Ever thinner (Score:5, Insightful)
enables Samsung to make the Galaxy S8 thinner
What is this fucking obsession with making phones thinner? I want a phone that's sturdy. I wouldn't mind my phone being two or even three times as thick, if it could have double or triple the battery life. What I don't want is a fragile, dainty phone that's going to snap in half if I hold it the wrong way. Who is asking for thinner phones?
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Yep. And then buy an after market phone case with built in back-up battery for it.
Re:Ever thinner (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah! People, stop fat-shaming my one year old phone! It's not how thin your phone is, wide phones can be beautiful too.
It's the hardware inside that counts.
Re:Ever thinner (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah! People, stop fat-shaming my one year old phone! It's not how thin your phone is, wide phones can be beautiful too.
It really is disingenuous to fat shame phones. Samsung unequivocally proved that no-one wants a hottie smart phone.
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I worry about depth.
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Who is asking for thinner phones?
What, you don't think we like the revenue generated from you prematurely breaking it? We love that shit.
What is this fucking obsession with making phones thinner? I want a phone that's sturdy. I wouldn't mind my phone being two or even three times as thick, if it could have double or triple the battery life. What I don't want is a fragile, dainty phone that's going to snap in half if I hold it the wrong way.
Fuck what you want. You'll get features you never asked for because it maximizes our profit. We love that shit.
Oh, and don't forget, you accepted the EULA when you opened the box, so we can sell everything you do to everyone. We love that shit.
Fuck you Very Much and Have a Nice Day.
Hugs and Kisses,
- The Smartphone Pimps
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I demand people stop having different interests than me!
Want a rugged phone? Buy One [catphones.com]
No headphone jack? (Score:5, Funny)
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I'd rather a headphone jack (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd rather a headphone jack than my phone to be slightly thinner.
Phones have been thin enough since 2010. Having a thinner phone is exactly dead last on my list of priorities... about two or three spots below having a headphone jack.
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Looks like I'm buying new batteries for my cracked Galaxy S5, rather than a new phone. Though maybe it is just time to transition fully away from Samsung.
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Doesn't matter, all content services will be subscription based affairs by then, which is what they really want.
Oh FFS (Score:5, Insightful)
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Samsung, Samsung, Samsung... (Score:2)
Sigh (Score:4, Insightful)
We're so innovative, we even copy our own competitors when they make a decision that's been widely ridiculed!
FFS, Samsung, you used to think for yourself AND make better decisions.
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Maybe these phone companies know something we don't. The US or the EU is going to enact a headphone jack tax to replace income tax. Your taxes hereon out are based on how many headphone jacks your devices have.
Apple and Samsung might be trying to save us money.
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Or the Bluetooth patent holders might be offering a discount if they do this.
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which competitor had the phone that blows the fuck up?
Thin (Score:2)
It will also be made thinner such that battery is squeezed so tight that there is impact/compression between the layers as it gets charged.
What could go wrong?
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... and with no orifice large enough (like, circular and 3.5mm large) to quickly vent any gases created by a shorted battery ...
No Deal - Thanks for coming out Samsung! (Score:3)
Still have to carry wired headphones when you travel anyways, until they install Bluetooth at each individual seat on the airplane!
No.
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Still have to carry wired headphones when you travel anyways, until they install Bluetooth at each individual seat on the airplane!
Um, what? I've been using Bluetooth headphones to listen to music/movies on my phone on transatlantic flights for years. Or are you talking about the cabin entertainment system? For that, I use the handy 3.5mm cable that came with the headphones.
It's 2017 (Score:4, Funny)
I can't believe we're sitting here, I'm 37 years old, and I'm finally getting stereo speakers. It's about time. I can't wait to turn 50, and get a headphone jack.
More room for the battery? (Score:2)
Judging from their recent track record, looks like we'll get to look forward to even bigger explosions in the future.
No thanks. (Score:4, Insightful)
Time to identify the best phone with 3.5mm jack, SD slot and removeable battery and buy it.
Always copying Apple... (Score:2)
and I'm a Samsung 'fan' - well, I was. They keep being morons over and over and it's getting tiresome.
The ONLY reason I stick with them is the physical home button, if they pull that, force edge displays and remove the headphone jack? Yeah, bye bye.
KNOCK IT OFF WITH "THINNER"!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
I own an S5, and was considering getting an S8, but unless someone can give me a better reason than "thinner, more battery room!" then I'll gladly wait for someone else to come along and eat Samsung's lunch.
How ironic.... (Score:2)
I've had Samsungs since the GS2 (Score:2)
I've had a GS2, GS4, GS5, and my wife had a Note3/
We just recently bought Asus' Zenphone Laser3. Thus far I've noticed that performs just as well as any other phone I've had, with the extra features of Android 6. It also gets *much* better battery life than any Samsung I've ever owned. At $270CAD, it's significantly cheaper than the major Samsung models, but has better specs than their "cheap" models (e.g. better CPU, 32GB instead of 8GB storage), and comes factory unlocked (with none of that lock-to-the-fi
this isn't news! (Score:2)
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http://wccftech.com/samsung-ga... [wccftech.com]
Great idea! (Score:2)
Apple, I think it is, is running an ad with some old guy sitting at the pool who turns the volume up on his iPhone and leaves it blaring on the table next to his lounge chair while he goes up and does a high dive. Thank goodness nobody with a brick handy wants to listen to anything other than the mariachi music at high volume
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Or, perhaps, headphones will start including their own DAC & Amp, and plug in via USB -- which means their performance isn't limited to the circuit on a portable device where the design priority is portability, not quality.
Or maybe people will switch to Bluetooth headphones and stop the getting the cord caught in clothes & yanking on your head.
Something's not right here. (Score:5, Interesting)
Every other report that I can find of this news anywhere on the web links back to Sammobile, who says that they can somehow "exclusively confirm" this, but does not mention *how*, exactly, that they were able to confirm it... The only reasons that I can imagine that they would not give this information are if they had acquired it by doing something of questionable legality and almost certainly unethical, or else they are just making shit up.
Maybe it's bullshit, and maybe not... but something's definitely not right here, and I think it's socially irresponsible to propagate this kind of story when it can't be confirmed.
Poll topic? (Score:3)
Would be curious to see a poll on this - do phones need to get any thinner?
I smell lawsuit (Score:3)
Thick Phones (Score:2)
I like thick phones and I can not lie ...
You other brothers can't deny
That when a girl walks in with a really thin phone
And a flat thing in your face
I couldn't resist with all the comments about not wanting thin phones.
It must be nice (Score:2)
I love when vendors think they are so big it magically earns them a license to dictate terms to their customers.
Depending on where you live anywhere between 25% and 75% iPhone owners around you will have chosen to place their phones in bulky protective cases. Millions of people want shit that works not glossy marketing gimmicks that are actually a liability (piss poor battery life, fire hazard, fragile, harder to use)
Then we have issue of vendors giving their customers the one finger salute by removing wid
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Yeah, and get lower quality audio... but it's an option. I'd rather get a different phone.
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I would think Samsung would be smarter then to drive away potential customers now.
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Buy a new truck?
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But my radio in my truck does not have blue tooth...
While I would agree that removing the headphone jack is really really really stupid, this very small demographic of people with old car stereos that want to use their phones via bluetooth is not only negligibly small, it's also very easily and cheaply resolved via something like this ($15): http://www.monoprice.com/produ... [monoprice.com]
Might take a minute to wire that in, but you'll have bluetooth in your truck then. It's kinda like the old tape player adapter so you could pipe your portable cd player output into your c
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Re:Bluetooth Headphones (Score:5, Insightful)
You can always use Bluetooth headphones.
You can try.
1. The battery goes dead after a short period of time, so then you can't.
2. You are in a WiFi-rich environment, which means you get about a 1' range for your bluetooth. I've actually been in places where even with the phone in my shirt pocket, if I turned my head left or right the signal was lost.
3. You have a smart watch which is linked via bluetooth, in which case you can't link a headphone at the same time (I've tried.)
4. You want to feed the audio to some wired system. (Yes there are bluetooth to jack adapters, but the one I have never seems to have a charged battery, so refer to #1).
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Indeed. At one point, Samsung was "the smart" equivalent to Apple. It had comparable hardware for much less money. They gained market share and good word of mouth and they raised their price to match. Samsung buyers became like Apple buyers- they stuck with the product rather than shopped around for a better deal.
Now Samsung has comparable hardware and comparable costs. Samsung has lost it's edge. Apple may indeed be the better deal than Samsung now.
Thank goodness there are other players in the market
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I must be outnumbered in the general public- I really like the headphone jack on my phone and use it almost daily. It sure looks like here on /. I am not alone. Somehow these big companies must have concluded that most customers don't feel the same way.
Smartphone vendors haven't accounted for what consumers want in quite a long time.
Every change and "feature" is designed around maximizing revenue. Make it thinner? It'll prematurely break, generating more revenue. Remove the headphone jack? They sell adapters. A display capable of resolutions beyond human capability? Tack on another $100 for "UltraHDPlus".
Once you realize this fact it will be easier to understand the bullshit behind design changes.