Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Samsung's Upcoming Galaxy S8 Flagship Smartphone Won't Have a Headphone Jack: Report (sammobile.com)

Posted by msmash on from the bid-adieu dept.

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.

55 of 360 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet by bartosek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Guess who's not buying an S8?

    1. Re:Sweet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The burn victims?

    2. Re:Sweet by fizzer06 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Samsung fouled their nest, so I jumped ship to LG V10. Has user removeable battery, Good phone.

    3. Re:Sweet by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, 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.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    4. Re:Sweet by Mikkeles · · Score: 3, 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!

      --
      Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
    5. Re:Sweet by Holi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's rare that I wish I had mod points for an AC, but you sir deserve them all.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    6. Re:Sweet by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Funny

      Guess who's not buying an S8?

      The burn victims?

      I wouldn't blame them for lacking the, uh, courage.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    7. Re: Sweet by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Interesting

      guess its time to lok into LG or moto once again for me. ive been happy with the S line from the time i switched from a slider moto droid1-3 and i have an s7 now. I made peace with the internal battery but i use the jack and dont see me not using it and im not using dongles so. moto....LG, make me happy!

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    8. Re:Sweet by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 2

      Tim Cook

    9. Re:Sweet by clone73 · · 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.

    10. Re: Sweet by Grishnakh · · 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.

    11. Re: Sweet by Type44Q · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's gonna die whether anyone wants it to or not.

      Deader than LP's in England, no doubt. ;)

    12. Re:Sweet by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 5, Funny

      make the Galaxy S8 thinner while also freeing up more space inside for a bigger battery

      So it'll burn longer?

    13. Re: Sweet by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, 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.

    14. Re: Sweet by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 3, Informative

      A headphone jack can be all metal and plastic sealed tube and does not have to open up to the inside.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    15. Re:Sweet by suso · · Score: 4, 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.

    16. Re: Sweet by vivian · · Score: 2

      I hate my S7 Edge - but the thing was too expensive to justify replacing it yet.
      I also have a Note 2 which I love and would have bought an Note 7 except for the battery fiasco. I got an S7 edge instead and really regret it. The curved screen edge feature is bloody annoying - I constantly accidentally hit keys on the side when using the keyboard, from holding it, and yet find it really hard to hit the 1 key when trying to - it ends up miustyping as 2 - though that might be partly the fault of the curved screen protector I have on it. I also miss having the larger screen of a Note - it's harder to text on smaller screens. Wish I had gotten just a flat screen or mabey even another brand with a large screen.
      It's bad enough they took the replaceable battery away.
      If the jack goes, I'll never buy another Samsung.

  2. thinner = more likely to blow up by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    thinner = more likely to blow up can we get one with sd card, battery you can swap, etc.

  3. Thinner by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do people really want thinner phones? They all seem to put big old protective cases around them anyway.

    1. Re:Thinner by caseih · · 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.

    2. Re:Thinner by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3, Funny

      Obviously it's people with small hands!

      / I didn't say any names...

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re:Thinner by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't use a case on my phone, but if I did it would probably be to make it slightly thicker. I see a lot of people with cracked screens, but I buy my phones unlocked so I pay the full price which makes me a bit more careful with them so I'm not too worried about any drops.

      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.

    4. Re:Thinner by ClickOnThis · · 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.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    5. Re:Thinner by istartedi · · Score: 2

      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.)

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    6. Re:Thinner by sjames · · Score: 2

      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.

    7. Re:Thinner by Falos · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's not the consumers, it's the headlines. When a tech rag has 60 seconds to examine a maybe-functional prototype at an expo/con they're going to write about garbage. They're going to write about how firm and clicky the buttons are (with up/downspin vocuabulary, either is easy), they're going to write about what the texture of the back plate feels like, they're going to write about the physical appearance (!) of the camera module. They're going to fill a whole fucking paragraph about thinness, if they can.

      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.

    8. Re:Thinner by kamapuaa · · Score: 2

      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?

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
  4. Soooooo lesson not learned? by H3lldr0p · · 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.

    1. Re:Soooooo lesson not learned? by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, 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.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    2. Re:Soooooo lesson not learned? by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      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.

  5. Ever thinner by TroII · · Score: 4, 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?

    --
    "If there was a gay Afro-Puertorican Linux distribution, I'd give it a try" ~lucm
    1. Re:Ever thinner by Oswald+McWeany · · 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.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Ever thinner by OzPeter · · Score: 4, 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.

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    3. Re:Ever thinner by Nothing2Chere · · Score: 2

      It's not the width...It's how thick it is that counts.

      I worry about depth.

  6. No headphone jack? by SpankiMonki · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apple should sue Samsung for copying the iPhone...oh wait

  7. I'd rather a headphone jack by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, 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.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  8. Re:Bluetooth Headphones by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

    Yeah, and get lower quality audio... but it's an option. I'd rather get a different phone.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  9. Oh FFS by TheBilgeRat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My daughter purchased the new jackless iPhone. The misplacing of the adapter for a non-bluetooth pair of headphones has been occurring on a semi-regular basis. Its a terrible design decision. Not everyone wants to also charge their bluetooth headphones. Now, if they introduce a line of bt headphones that cost 20 bucks and don't suck we might be getting somewhere. Or at least include them instead of making it an upcharge.

  10. Apple told is they do! by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2

    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, makes it really comfortable to hold. Of all the smartphones I've had it fits in my hand the very best. I think they've got it pretty close to perfect in therms of thickness.

    Oh and it manages to have a removable battery, headphone jack, and SD card so that's nice as well.

    I get annoyed with the worship of the cult of thin. I understand the interest back in the day, I had an early Windows CE smartphone which was a massive brick and ya, I wanted something smaller. However we have gotten to the point where they are plenty thin enough and going thinner is less ergonomic, not more.

  11. Sigh by ledow · · Score: 3, 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.

    1. Re:Sigh by Holi · · Score: 2

      You think Apple wants to save you money????

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  12. No Deal - Thanks for coming out Samsung! by Atticka · · Score: 2

    Still have to carry wired headphones when you travel anyways, until they install Bluetooth at each individual seat on the airplane!

    No.

    --
    No sig here...
  13. It's 2017 by holophrastic · · Score: 3, 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.

  14. Copying Apple by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Except that in this case Samsung has a long history of copying Apple and apparently it seems to extend to even copying their stupid ideas. However it would be ironic if they put a USB-C on the phone and used that for the earphones too because then their phone would be more compatible with the new MacBooks than the iPhone.

    1. Re:Copying Apple by aergern · · Score: 4, Informative

      They've already said it's going to be USB-C and the audio will use that port.

      --
      Tell me what you believe...I'll tell you what you should see.
    2. Re:Copying Apple by youngone · · Score: 2
      I thought they had learned from their history of Apple copying failure after the S6, which had no micro-sd slot and sold poorly.

      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.

  15. No thanks. by JustNiz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Time to identify the best phone with 3.5mm jack, SD slot and removeable battery and buy it.

  16. KNOCK IT OFF WITH "THINNER"!!! by Verdatum · · Score: 4, Insightful
    WHAT, DID THE PHONE INDUSTRY GET CURSED BY A SHITTY STEPHEN KING NOVEL? I haven't wished my phone was thinner for a decade now. I haven't given a pair of fetted dingos kidneys how thin my phone is and I've never met anyone who has. The only allowable excuse for this is if the phone is able to come with a free Bluetooth reciever while selling them together at a lower full-retail-price than the S7.

    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.

  17. I've had Samsungs since the GS2 by phorm · · 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-first-SIM-card-used BS either).

    The only downside I've seen to it thus far is that it doesn't have a removable battery like the ZF2 had, lacks wireless charging (Asus: PLEASE add this to the next model), and you can't have a second SIM card if you want to use a MicroSD.

    Least to say, I don't see myself with any need to buy an S8 or any other Samsung. The more recent models already did away with removable batteries and don't support dual-SIM, so the only advantage they seem to have is the wireless charging. While I do love the charging, it's not a feature that I'm willing to pay double the price for nor submit myself to Samsung's dearth of updates for any non-current device.

  18. Re:Bluetooth Headphones by Obfuscant · · 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).

  19. Something's not right here. by mark-t · · Score: 4, 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.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  20. Poll topic? by Vegan+Cyclist · · Score: 2

    Would be curious to see a poll on this - do phones need to get any thinner?

  21. Obligatory Corner Gas by Yvan256 · · Score: 2

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  22. I smell lawsuit by frovingslosh · · Score: 2

    Boy, are they going to get sued by Apple for not having a headphone jack.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  23. Thick Phones by Bratch · · 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.

    --
    Beware of the Redittor who loans you a Sharpie.