We’re now a few years into this life experiment where our smartphones don’t have 3.5mm headphone jacks. While Apple wasn’t the first company to kick things off, it certainly feels like the company gets a lot of flack for it anyway. Then again, that’s probably how it should be.
After all, it’s been many years since Motorola was the company dictating change in the mobile market, right?
In any event, we’re a ways into this by now and yet I still see it brought up every once in a while. Actually, quite a bit, depending on some phone reviews for newer handsets. There are some folks out there that like to give negative marks to handsets that don’t have a headphone jack, and positive marks for the ones that do.
I could understand that sentiment the year the iPhone X was unveiled, sure. Maybe even the year after that! But by now it feels like it might be a bit egregious at this point. At least in the grand scheme of things, because most companies offer some kind of assistance in the matter.
Whether it’s wired headphones in the box that connect to USB-C or Lightning, or a dongle accessory, they’re not leaving you out there in the cold completely. But then again there are some instances where being mad makes perfect sense. Like, for instance, with the brand new Google Pixel 4 which drops the ball in a couple of ways. First, it doesn’t have a dongle of any kind to connect 3.5mm headphones to the USB-C port. But, perhaps worst of all, the phone doesn’t even come with any wired headphones in the box at all. On the other side of that coin you've got LG's brand new G8X ThinQ which still features a headphone jack.
Now, Apple was thrown under the bus for dropping the headphone jack while at the same time promoting its brand new truly wireless headphones, AirPods. Which made sense! Kind of. Because while Apple was most definitely trying to push AirPods (which worked!), the company at least still included a pair of wired headphones in the box. I used those for months before I could finally get my hands on a pair of AirPods and it was just fine.
I will say that I know a lot of people had some great wired headphones and that, basically, seemingly without warning, they stopped being supported by some phones out there. Even the Galaxy Note 10 from Samsung doesn’t have the headphone jack anymore. But like I said above I think maybe the window of grievance has probably passed by now.
Then again, maybe it hasn’t. I’ve asked in the past if you’d be willing to buy a new iPhone if the company brought back the 3.5mm headphone jack, and now I’m wondering if maybe you simply refuse to upgrade to a newer handset in general because you don’t want to give up your headphone jack. So let me know where you stand on the headphone jack problem these days!