OnePlus 6T Trades the Headphone Jack For Better Battery Life (techradar.com) 254
OnePlus CEO Carl Pei confirmed to TechRadar that the OnePlus 6T won't have a headphone jack. Instead, it will feature a larger battery that will be "substantial enough for users to realize." From the report: Our first line of questioning was obvious. Why? Why ditch the jack? Why ditch it now? For Pei, it's about timing, and creating the best smartphone experience. "When we started OnePlus, we set out to make the best possible smartphone, but making a great phone doesn't mean putting every component available into the device," he said. "You've got to make decisions that optimize the user experience, and understand that at times things that provide user value can also add friction. "We also had to think about the negative side [of removing the headphone jack] for our users. We found 59% of our community already owned wireless headphones earlier this year - and that was before we launched our Bullets Wireless headphones. "If we were to do that [remove the jack] two years ago, the percentage [of wireless headphones owners] would have been much lower and it would have caused a lot of friction for our users."
Pei went on to explain that there are user benefits to the removal of the port, which should bring some comfort to OnePlus fans already pouring one out for the headphone jack. "By removing the jack we've freed up more space, allowing us to put more new technology into the product," he said. "One of the big things is something our users have asked us for, improved battery life." Pei wouldn't be drawn on what the "new technology" will be, but we already know the OnePlus 6T will feature an in-display fingerprint scanner, which will eat up some of the space left by the exiting jack. Pei did mention they will include an adapter in the box to allow users to use wired headphone.
Pei went on to explain that there are user benefits to the removal of the port, which should bring some comfort to OnePlus fans already pouring one out for the headphone jack. "By removing the jack we've freed up more space, allowing us to put more new technology into the product," he said. "One of the big things is something our users have asked us for, improved battery life." Pei wouldn't be drawn on what the "new technology" will be, but we already know the OnePlus 6T will feature an in-display fingerprint scanner, which will eat up some of the space left by the exiting jack. Pei did mention they will include an adapter in the box to allow users to use wired headphone.
Personally (Score:5, Insightful)
It's one of the only features I use on my feature phone. You could take out the cameras, GPS, motion sensors and probably half a dozen other bits i've never heard of let alone used, but the headphone socket is important to me.
Re:Personally (Score:5, Insightful)
They're idiots, all. It's not a "headphone jack," it's an analog audio jack. It works with headphones, but having bluetooth headphones doesn't help with connecting a phone to an older car or a stereo. Nor does bluetooth support the quality of a direct connection. BT audio is more complex, costly, and inconvenient. And I'd rather deal with a cord which has to go all the way from my ears to my pocket than have to worry about keeping the non-replaceable batteries in headphones charged (yet more planned obsolescence). A line level analog audio signal is universal - audio is analog, after all.
And the "we traded a jack for more battery life" is pure and simple bullshit. Compare the size of a jack to the size of a cell phone battery, and one can easily understand that the additional volume from removing the jack can add no more than a couple of percent to the battery capacity. "Pei did mention they will include an adapter in the box to allow users to use wired headphone." Guess what? The DAC in that adapter sucks way more battery than the infinitesimal bit gained by removing the jack.
Just make the damn phone thicker, which will allow a real increase in battery size, and also make it easier to hold. And make it a user replaceable battery instead of designed in obsolescence. Finally, no one outside of your marketing department gives a shit about edge-to-edge screens. Notches must die. Bezels make phones easier to hold. Smartphones all basically look the same, with only minor differences. Stop pretending there's any "style" involved, and stop doing stupid stuff like removing functionality so you can pretend there is.
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Re:Personally (Score:4, Insightful)
OnePlus is now off the list.
They're idiots, all. It's not a "headphone jack," it's an analog audio jack. It works with headphones, but having bluetooth headphones doesn't help with connecting a phone to an older car or a stereo.
Exactly- the average car on the road is now 10 years old- they're lasting longer these days. I have a 6 year old car- I intend to keep it at least another 6 years (3 average phone lifespans for most people). It doesn't have Bluetooth. I use my analog out every single day.
I applaud a better battery- I'd applaud even more if they made the battery bigger without taking away a headphone jack. Make the phone 2mm thicker or give a bezel- that's a better trade off than removing the headphone jack. How much space does a headphone jack really take up. I'm sure this is more about the pointless "who can make the thinnest phone" dick swinging match than it is about needing space for a battery.
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Exactly- the average car on the road is now 10 years old- they're lasting longer these days. I have a 6 year old car- I intend to keep it at least another 6 years (3 average phone lifespans for most people). It doesn't have Bluetooth. I use my analog out every single day.
My Jeep IS 11 years old. It has the OEM stereo, without Bluetooth. For a whole $15, I added one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod... [amazon.com]
Plugged it in and leave it there. Now my phone sends music and GPS directions to my Jeep's stereo flawlessly. And I don't have to fuck around with an audio cable either.
Bluetooth mods vs. all other uses (Score:4, Insightful)
You can mod your own car.
(Personally, I've added two such gadgets, a similar to my mother-in-law's car, and one using the car manufacturer's proprietary connect on my mother's car)
But you won't by yourself modify every single analog only device, specially all those that you don't own :
- rental cars (these tend to be old and with as few options as possible)
- the speaker set at a friend's appartment when they throw a party, and some iPhone user want to stream their playlist instead of the friend's laptop's.
Also, bluetooth won't share sound (e.g.: two users watching s movie from the same tablet in a plane). Only some bluetooth headsets from some manufacturers are able to forward the sound stream to another headset *from the same exact brand*. We you and your girlfriend happen to have noise cancel headphone from two different manufacturers (say Bose and Logitech UE), you can't listen simultaneously. Whereas the analog cable doesn't give a fuck what brand is the other headset plugged into the other leg of the Y audio splitter.
etc.
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I haven't tried that brand, but I did try another brand and it didn't work very well.
Of course. Bluetooth also means extra battery drain too and possible security issues
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but having bluetooth headphones doesn't help with connecting a phone to an older car or a stereo.
Spend a few bucks for one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod... [amazon.com]
Works great in my Jeep.
than have to worry about keeping the non-replaceable batteries in headphones charged (yet more planned obsolescence).
So get a pair with a replaceable battery like I did. Been using them for 7 years....still haven't replaced the battery anyway though.
Re:Personally (Score:4, Insightful)
Whoosh. "Provides up to 10 HOURS playing time and only need 1.5 HOURS to charge it fully.(NOTE:Please charging Mpow with the equipped charging cable and do not charge for a long time.)" That's butt ugly and it doesn't even support AptX, so it's way worse than an analog connection. I can see why it's good for a Jeep.
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Engage your snob mode if you want to, but you'd never even know it was in use if you listened to it.
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Oh, and guess what? You can just charge it as you are going down the road - and KEEP it charged for that matter. In this application, the battery run time doesn't even matter.
Not any uglier than having a cable sticking out of your stereo - but if that's your style, you can still plug your cable into the stereo, and then plug this into one end of it and put it behind your dash, or on the console, or even up your ass for that matter.
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It's not a "headphone jack," it's an analog audio jack.
You mean the 3.5mm 4-wire headset jack [instructables.com]?
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Just make the damn phone thicker, which will allow a real increase in battery size, and also make it easier to hold. And make it a user replaceable battery instead of designed in obsolescence. Finally, no one outside of your marketing department gives a shit about edge-to-edge screens. Notches must die. Bezels make phones easier to hold. Smartphones all basically look the same, with only minor differences. Stop pretending there's any "style" involved, and stop doing stupid stuff like removing functionality so you can pretend there is.
But if they make the phone thicker they can't brag about how thin and light it is. 8^)
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This has been my experience with other Motorola phones. I'm not sure why Samsung can't put a decent battery in their phones.
Re:Personally (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Bad arguments (Score:5, Insightful)
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If you don't use the GPS and camera, why buy a phone with that stuff? You can get a MUCH cheaper phone without them.
Headphone jack is one of the features on my phone that I virtually never use. I'm happy to see it go.
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I'll help you out: "one of the only features" "feature phone" -> it isn't the only feature he uses, he wants a phone.
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I'll help you out: "one of the only features" "feature phone" -> it isn't the only feature he uses, he wants a phone.
My uncle Fred comes to family gatherings and brags about not having a computer.
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That's it. My penis, your butt, let's go.
AC held down Ol Olsoc and gave him the business for 7 hours.
You'd never go back to sheep, Sparky!
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sure, and then carry 2 devices instead of one. how do we award you a crown sir?
What 2 devices? A headphone and a phone is 2 devices. I just skip the cord part.
Y'all are excited about having to plug in two things, I don't plug in any except to charge the BT headphones when I get back home.
For the Battery? Lies (Score:5, Funny)
They had to make room for the notch.
Re:For the Battery? Lies (Score:5, Interesting)
They had to make room for the notch.
I still find it bizarre that such a tiny change can attract so much attention in mobile device world. There is so little innovation that people will have passionate, heated discussions (and spend significant extra $$$) for this year's device that has a slightly different screen: a notch, a curve around the side, no fixed buttons at the bottom, 0.5mm less bezel. None of this makes your calls more reliable, or gets you faster mobile Internet, or lets you view stuff you couldn't see before in apps or on web sites, or lets you type faster when you're sending a message. It's just not that important.
At least having a significantly bigger battery or a particular physical connector can make a slight but noticeable difference to what you can actually do with your phone, so that kind of trade-off is worth considering. The other stuff is 99% marketing because otherwise phones are like laptops a few years ago: everybody who wants one already has one that is good enough, and the upgrade cycle is slowing down as a result.
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This. The best bargain today in the mobile world is to buy last year's flagship model of your brand of choice.
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Personally, I'm a dumbphone hold-out. There is not very much I could do with a smartphone that I couldn't do better or at least more conveniently with either a small phone with much longer battery life or a larger device like a tablet or laptop or DSLR camera. It's certainly not a perfect solution; one significant exception is the increasing dependence on transport and parking apps, where it often would be more convenient to access them for a few moments from a device in my pocket rather than getting a tabl
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For me, the only reason that keeps me spending more than the minimum necessary on phones is cameras - i use these all the time. I'm rocking a Pixel just because of that.
Watch the Pixel 2/2 XL prices plummet in the next couple weeks when Google announces its third flagship. You can get a whole lot of phone for your money.
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Her android account is part of my custom domain, so it's pretty locked down, but I haven't seen an option to disable this.
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Of course, since track data is stored locally on the phone, that also means it’s limited.
Which means that while it appears to be a privacy issue, it's actually not. Compared to the 900 other problems with any Android smartphone that actually are privacy issues, but are hidden from you.
Funny how privacy issues usually revolve around perception, not reality. If I walk around with a camera pointing it at people, many will get very angry, but generally don't mind at all th
Re:For the Battery? Lies (Score:5, Informative)
for this year's device that has a slightly different screen
There is nothing slightly different about a notch. It upends 40 years worth of standardised visual screen space design by introducing an unoperable area of the screen that extends into content areas.
Not just that the notch is an ugly blemish but it also needs to be worked around content wise. Your camera takes square photos, you look at them, there's a black thing in your field of vision, hopefully it's not masking the fact that someone is hanging their dick out in the corner of your frame as you send that photo to your grandma. /extreme example
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There is nothing slightly different about a notch. It upends 40 years worth of standardised visual screen space design by introducing an unoperable area of the screen that extends into content areas.
Yes and no. We've typically used exactly rectangular screens on computers, TVs and more recently phones/laptops, but having irregular display areas and designing UIs to fit them isn't particularly unusual in more specialised devices. I haven't looked into how the displays in recent phones carve out the space for the notch, and perhaps there really is a change in the underlying technology if it's being done with a single panel, but to the user it's all a bit "meh, whatever".
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Software rounded corners would be the killer app. Give the physical screen sharp corners and configure the roundness through the settings app.
So my next phone will not be a OnePlus (Score:5, Insightful)
As the title says, it means my next phone will be another brand then... To bad since my current OnePlus5 is a great phone for a good price.
Instead of losing the jack, I'd rather see them add waterproofing, FM radio and an IR blaster.
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Not this year, next year, or even the year after.
I also have a 5T and it will be my notchjack holdout until the battery dies.
Might unglue the screen to replace it, too.
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Wireless headphone so called "experience" (Score:5, Insightful)
Wireless headphones experience is still crap. I have tried many wireless headphones, and despite paying around 150USD each time, I always ended with headphones that are less comfortable and sound worse than my wired 40 dollar Koss PortraPro or 60 dollar Sennheiser PX100-ii. Moreover, these super duper "advanced" and expensive headsets have a tendency to stop working within a year. I refuse to carry that stupid dongle. It's just another item that will get lost and it's just plain inconvenient to use.
As for Oneplus, all I can say hasta la vista. It was good while it lasted. I recall the first Oneplus One from 2014 which had flagship build and specs for just 300USD. Now that was a value. But now that Oneplus is another +500USD phone that follows the worst trends, whether in pricing, cheating in benchmarks, or deleting the headphone jack, all I can do is stop considering Oneplus for my next purchase.
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Try Sennheiser Momentum Wireless. They are really great.
But be careful with the charging port.
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Except if you lose it or reasonably expect to use a phone without a stupid dongle sticking out of the bottom of it. The only reason there is no headset jack and an ugly, losable dongle is to strongly compel people to fork out for expensive wireless earbuds.
Non-problems (Score:2)
The only reason there is no headset jack and an ugly, losable dongle is to strongly compel people to fork out for expensive wireless earbuds.
"Expensive"? You CAN pay a lot if you want to but it's hardly a requirement. You can get wireless earbuds for less than $20. The price differential with wired earbuds of similar quality is generally minimal if you bother to do any shopping.
As for losing the dongle, how would you do that? If you have one that you use you're going to put it on your headphone jack and probably leave it there. You're about as likely to lose your headphones as you are the dongle. I will agree however that dongles are a shi
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I have never broken a headphone jack on a device.
That defies belief, unless you don't actually use the jack very much. This connection type is notoriously flaky, and it has been since the days of the humble walkman. I've either tossed out or replaced the plug on scores of headphones, and had a fair number of loose or flaky jacks over the years. I've never had a device with a lightning connector, so I can't comment on the relative reliability - but your quote does not jibe with my experience at all. And judging by the people fiddling with their cords all t
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I have never broken a headphone jack on a device.
That defies belief, unless you don't actually use the jack very much. This connection type is notoriously flaky, and it has been since the days of the humble walkman. I've either tossed out or replaced the plug on scores of headphones, and had a fair number of loose or flaky jacks over the years. I've never had a device with a lightning connector, so I can't comment on the relative reliability - but your quote does not jibe with my experience at all. And judging by the people fiddling with their cords all the time, my experience isn't unique.
Lightning connectors are pretty robust, as long as you get the Apple version. The extraction force is significant, so if you get a Big lots version of the connector, the insulation will pull off eventually.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but....
As for the 3.5 mm jack, there are just some physical properties that make it very difficult to make a long lasting and reliable. They use spring metal to make and hold the contacts. Difficult to do at that size. The jacks especially are prone to damage w
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Except everyone has USB-C connectors. My macbook is 1.75 years old and I have had to get them replaced already. Using them with a dongle compounds this problem because there is only 2mm contact inside. Any sideways pressure on the dongle housing wears this out very quickly.
It isn't like I disagree that small connectors are a mechanical issue.
Its a sub-reason that I use Bluetooth headphones. N connectors, and no wire on a previously wireless device. The tethering wire is the main reason.
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What about the plug on the headphones? I don't know how you haven't had more failures. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent pressing my finger in a certain direction - or at least rotating a plug to a magic, delicate angle - to get the left or right earphone to work.
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Oldest is irrelevant. If it works, it's used. It works.
My parents had a rotary phone until the mid - 90's
It's an industry standard.
So was their rotary phone.
The fragile comment is also worthless. Fragile as compared to what? I have never broken a headphone jack on a device.
I've replaced many of them over the years. The 1/8th or 3.5 mm socket is a remarkably weak device. The biggest issue is that the simple metal springs are not robust, being a scaled down version of the ubiquitous 1/4 inch plug and jack. It is one of the weakest points on any device it is installed on. Professionals use them only if there is no other choice, because they are a very unreliable component.
Either way, he (like you) should cite some real research to validate your assertions.
SRSLY? Do your own research. Th
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The biggest issue is that the simple metal springs are not robust, being a scaled down version of the ubiquitous 1/4 inch plug and jack.
To be fair though, this is also a problem with every flavor of USB, and pretty much any non-locking connector type.
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The biggest issue is that the simple metal springs are not robust, being a scaled down version of the ubiquitous 1/4 inch plug and jack.
To be fair though, this is also a problem with every flavor of USB, and pretty much any non-locking connector type.
One of the reasons I use Bluetooth.
Your post gave me an idea. Mil-spec locking connectors on smartphones! Ugh, that's what happens when I get up too early.
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Please list the ways that a rotary phone is superior to a push-button phone.
Please list the ways that a 3.5 mm plug and jack are superior to bluetooth.
It's a phone for crying out loud. If I need high quality sound, I'll not be using my phone. And my real equipment does not have a 3.5 mm jack on it. That is all you need to know about how good that poor excuse for interconnection equipment is. The only thing worse is the micro phone jack. I've found some of them fail on first use. Science!
Y'all mini phonejack-o-philes are a real hoot. If you don't want a phone without one, don'
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have you ever tried to bludgeon someone to death with a touch tone phone? It's impossible. you'll only make them angry.
To really create the amount of blunt force trauma needed to do the job, you need the solid, hefty weight of an old school ATT issued rotary phone.
(see also: IBM model M)
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I hear that the next generation is going to have an innovative new feature where they've engineered a way of actually building the adapter into the phone! Courage and progress.
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"That little adapter that comes free with iphones isn't a big deal. You just plug it in and leave it there." I hear that the next generation is going to have an innovative new feature where they've engineered a way of actually building the adapter into the phone! Courage and progress.
Already has one - Bluetooth.
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3 years is a braggable age? My youngest headset is like 10 years old...
How are the batteries in that headset? Squeezing 10 years out of bluetooth headset batteries is pretty impressive.
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What BS (Score:4, Insightful)
More than one perspective (Score:2)
A headphone jack takes up a neglible amount of space compared to its use
Maybe for you but that's not universally true. I almost never used the headphone jack so it was a total waste of space for me. In a compact device with such a tight space budget there is no such thing as something that takes up negligible space. I get that many people like and utilize the 3.5mm jack and the benefits are not lost on me. But the simple fact is that tradeoffs are going to happen and no company can please everyone. And the evidence is clear that a LOT of people don't care about the 3.5mm j
Re:More than one perspective (Score:4, Insightful)
A headphone jack takes up a neglible amount of space compared to its use
Maybe for you but that's not universally true.
Nope, he's right, the space it takes up is negligible compared to its use. In fact I'd go as far to say it takes up no space what so ever in a device with a 4" screen. Here's a teardown of a Nexus 5x [cloudfront.net]... the "massive" headphone jack is right next to the guy's thumb... and the guy isn't gigantrathor, that's a normal sized thumb. That big thing he's taking out it he battery (which still lasts a day or 2 on my 2 yr old Nexus 5x)
I'm flying LHR to LAX (11 hours) next week. LHR-SIN (14 hours) next month, LHR-BOG (12 hours) in November and I'm thinking about a jaunt to Boston over the Christmas break (LHR-BOS 7.5 hours). No set of bluetooth headphones could last the duration considering that they'd also end up getting an hour or so use at LHR because security there is so bleeding efficient and customer focused. Add to this that a set of normal plug-in headphones will work on any 3.5mm jack. No worrying about bluetooth versions, compatibility, setup or any other bollocks, they just plug in and work.
Plus when it comes to hands free, anyone on bluetooth sounds like their in a lavatory at best. Some are down right shocking.
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Maybe for you but that's not universally true. I almost never used the headphone jack so it was a total waste of space for me.
Yeah removing that barely a finger nail's worth of internal space is really vital isn't it?
That's because you are only looking at the issue from your own perspective.
Yes, as a user of a phone who wants to plug any old pair of inexpensive earbuds into the phone.
Of course, if I were a greedy handset manufacturer who didn't want to bundle buds with the phone and wanted to upsell users to some wireless buds, then I might have a different opinion. But I'm not.
The reality is the headphone jack takes up an insignificant amount of internal space, and there is zero technical reason to
Move the jack to the case (Score:5, Interesting)
OnePlus CEO Carl Pei confirmed to TechRadar that the OnePlus 6T won't have a headphone jack. Instead, it will feature a larger battery that will be "substantial enough for users to realize.
If that's what their customers actually prefer that is a sensible course of action. Personally I seldom used the headphone jack on phones so I'm quite pleased to have the space budget utilized for other items like batteries. You may feel differently of course and that's totally fine but there are a LOT of people who do not actually care much about the 3.5mm jack. The fact that Apple sells tens of millions of iPhones without the jack is proof enough of that. People that need/want the jack are passionate about it but not as many as you might guess from the complaining.
Personally I think the best answer is to move the headphone jack to the cases that virtually every smartphone is put into anyway. Think about it. Imagine a smartphone that has a standard interface (contact or wireless) to connect to the case. Then you could put all sorts of useful equipment (headphone jacks, bigger batteries, ethernet or other ports, better cameras, good speakers/amps, extra storage, multi-meters, oscilloscopes, etc) into the case based on your particular needs at the time. It's kind of like the unix philosophy in hardware. You have a minimalist core system and then people add the components to it that they actually need. Since nearly everyone adds a case to their phone anyway it seems foolish to not make full use of that fact and put some real capabilities into the case. Plus it would seem to be a real economic opportunity since people LOVE to personalize their phones. I do a lot of photography and I would love to have a case with a much bigger camera lens and battery that integrated seamlessly with my phone. All the smartphone maker would have to do is provide a good interface and API for the hardware makers to play with.
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Personally I seldom used the headphone jack on phones
So you use the headphone jack.
My usage (Score:2)
So you use the headphone jack.
No. The last time I actually plugged a set of headphones into my own smartphone was about 4-5 years ago and I can probably count on my fingers the total number of times I've ever used ear buds since I started using a smartphone. I have a set of bluetooth headphones if I want to listen to something privately. My car also has bluetooth and USB so the headphone jack is completely unnecessary to me. I don't listen to music or other sound when I work or exercise. The removal of the jack from my smartphone d
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Apple or Samsung (Score:2)
LG tried something similar with the G5 and it wasn't a big hit. I don't know the reason. Probably because the phone itself didn't sell too well.
I would imagine because they didn't do it right and didn't make a big deal out of it. I wasn't aware they had even bothered to try. Realistically it would probably have to be Apple or Samsung or Google to get involved to really make it a reality - nobody else has the market share or brand cache including LG. Ideally it would be Apple since they are the main trend setter but I don't see Apple doing it because they seem to think expandability and customer choice are the work of the devil and they treat cas
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"Proper" cameras (Score:2)
If you do a lot of photography then buy a proper camera.
Already have a Sony A9 [wikipedia.org] but thanks for the unhelpful suggestion.
There are lots of times where a smartphone is FAR more useful than the best "proper" camera. Every pro photographer uses their smartphone camera routinely. Smartphones are more compact and light, take better than decent quality images and video under many circumstances, are unobtrusive, have VASTLY better capabilities for sharing and backing up images, bigger and better screens than any "proper camera", far better interfaces for point and shoo
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Stopped reading here.
Good.
Using the existing USB port (Score:2)
Fun fact, in a manner of speaking, we already have a way to do this.USB ports on the bottom of the phone.
True but it's not an ideal way to do it and the phones were never designed with that in mind. It also requires making a rather fragile pass through connection so you can charge your phone which shouldn't be necessary. It's something of a clumsy hack rather than a purposeful design. I'd like to see something purpose built to take full advantage of the idea without messing up the form factor (think electric contacts flush with the case with a sort of magsafe technology connector). That said, I'd certainly
Why?? (Score:3)
If the manufacturer wants more battery life, why not make the phone a bit thicker? My HTC U11 is around 7 mm thick (guessing, not measuring. For those who want it in Imperial units, you will have to google it.) and I don't think another 3-7 mm would make much difference to me. Granted, I don't know if it would be technically feasible to build a battery in the shape this would force (or make possible) so maybe it couldn't be done in less than an extra 5-20 mm.
As for the question of how much we would use the 3,5 mm plug: in my case at least an hour a day, on my way to and from work. As it is, I have to carry a short cable, with a USB-C male plug on one and and 3,5mm female on the other in order to plug my headphones into my phone. And I don't want to use some other headphones, because when I get to work I plug them into my laptop while connecting the phone to a charger.
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Better battery life... (Score:3)
Personally, I get enough battery life out of a OnePlus 5. A little more would be nice, but it's not that important on the phone.
Of course, what helps battery life is turning off unnecessary wireless connections - like wifi, and even bluetooth when you don't need it. And they'll be delivering Android 9, which should improve matters further.
Where I do have a problem with battery life is on wireless headsets - you just can't get anything that I am comfortable with wearing that has more than 8 hours continuous battery life.
When I'm travelling long distances, I'll use *wired* headsets - in order to improve my "battery life". So removing the 3.5" jack for slightly better battery life on the phone isn't solving any problems that I have. It is simply creating one.
Don't believe it (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, I don't believe it. The footprint of a headphone jack next to the USB jack isn't going to give any meaningful improvement in battery size opportunity.
How about make the stupid phone 1 or 2 mm *THICKER*. That would make a huge difference in cubic space available for a bigger battery. And now poll consumers- which would you rather have:
1) Crazy thin with headphone jack and X battery life
2) Crazy thin with NO headphone jack and X + 20 min more battery life
3) 2mm thicker with headphone jack and X + 20 HOURS more battery life.
Of course, I am making up the numbers, but you get the idea.
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You gotta pump those numbers up! Those are rookie numbers! ;)
Congratulations, idiots. (Score:5, Insightful)
You just traded my interest, for lack of interest.
Don't follow some idiot fad from Apple. Possible the most ubiquitous plug across the entire planet and you omit it?
Power varies in shape, voltage across the planet.
USB? I dunno, it might rival the audio jack, maybe for install numbers.
I don't want to charge headphones, I don't want to use USB-C headphones, I want to use the plethora (plethora!) of headphones I have, I want to be able to use /dirt cheap/ crap spare ones in my work drawer or work bag. I want to be able to pay $5 at the airport for a crap pair when I forget mine at home before a fight.
I have no interest in bluetooth / wireless audio. I LIKE the cable.
Nope, no sale. I will not.
Not that common (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't follow some idiot fad from Apple. Possible the most ubiquitous plug across the entire planet and you omit it?
A fad indicates that it will eventually pass. Tens of millions of phones are being sold every year without the headphone jack. It's not coming back so I suggest you get over it. It's a single tasking and relatively large connector which makes very little sense on a machine with a tight space budget and acceptable replacement options available.
USB? I dunno, it might rival the audio jack, maybe for install numbers.
"Rival"? Try vastly exceeds. Almost every low power device I have has a USB port. Computers, cameras, headphones, chargers, mice, keyboards, tablets, smartphones
on the philosophy of removing features (Score:2)
"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
An oldie but a goodie perfectly demonstrates how adding features can be a slippery slope into the dump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Waaaah! (Score:2)
We want our tangling wires!
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OnePlus (Score:2)
Guess I'm not buying (Score:2)
Because aren't used as phones anymore (Score:2)
If you think them as a spying devices on the other hand.. .
Can't help but wonder... (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, 1+ plus knows the majority of their customers are power users which won't accept this change lightly. They also ridiculed themselves (just like Google did) because they followed this trend only a few months after mocking their competitors for doing so. So either Pei was somehow forced to it make this change or he is a complete idiot. I don't think the latter is true.
Doesn't excuse his action though...
One for the Plug, and One for the Load. (Score:2)
Oh well... I guess I'll buy this phone for its other features, and keep my old phone for calls, videos, music, browsing, finance, games, and a few other things.
More battery life (Score:3)
You know what else gives a better battery life?
A thicker battery. In other words, something that's thicker than the enclosure of a headphone jack.
Never Settle (Score:2)
Analog hole is dead (Score:3)
The analog hole is now dead. There's few of us left who care.
This isn't just happening with cell phones. Browsing motherboards on newegg I keep finding ones that support 5.1 or 7.1 surround but only have a stereo out jack, instead of the usual 3 or 4. I guess they figure on using HDMI for audio?
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> With wireless headphones I could buy a pair with decent sound for $20 and be happy
Equally important, you could buy them *anywhere*. I've yet to see a wireless pair at a corner store.
Took a 4-hour train trip recently. Guess what I forgot? Lots of stores in the station had headphones, none of which would work.
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