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Headphone Users Rejoice: Samsung Reportedly Not Killing the Galaxy S8's Headphone Jack (thenextweb.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Contrary to previous reports, Samsung's upcoming flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone will come with a headphone jack, unlike the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and several other Android smartphones. The news comes from both Sammobile and Android Police. The Next Web reports: "Both Sammobile and Android Police are today reporting that Samsung is not actually killing the headphone jack. Sammobile, appears to be retracting its own report last month suggesting the jack would be dropped thanks to recent case renders, while Android Police has independently confirmed that the S8 will maintain the 3.5mm jack through its own source. In related news, Samsung's display unit may have also just given us our first good look at the S8. While there's a good chance the phone in the video is a generic model (it appears to be a render, rather than a physical object), as CNET points out, it looks an awful lot like the leaks we've seen from the S8 so far. There are also a few curious touches for a something that's supposed to be just a render, including what might be a faint visible antenna line (on the upper left corner) and a couple of LEDs or sensors to the left of the earpiece grill. By the way, there's also a definitely a headphone jack in this render."

7 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. good news by gravewax · · Score: 2

    If the headphone jack is their then my wife will swap from her iPhone 6 to that, she is already jealous of the quality of the camera in my s7 compared to her iPhone and constantly makes us swap phones when she is doing photos in less than ideal conditions, but the rumor that Samsung were headed down the same braindead path as apple was going to be a deal breaker. I guess we wait and see.

  2. Re:No Courage by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You mean "sudden outbreak of common sense"?
    As in, you don't have to get rid of a 3.5mm headphone jack just because you want to start selling wireless earphones?

  3. Nailed that by Tough+Love · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Oh damn, I nailed that.
    Only out by two weeks.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  4. Re:I link it to my car by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You don't have to use a cable if you don't like the cable getting in your way. That's the beautiful thing about this... it allows the customer the choice if using a 3.5mm connected device, or using bluetooth.

  5. Re: I link it to my car by Entrope · · Score: 4, Funny

    Letting users choose is the coward's way out! Courage involves forcing expensive, easily lost hardware with short battery life down customers' throats or into their ears.

  6. Headphone jack by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or, as Samsung refers to it internally, the battery overpressure release valve.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  7. Phones. by ledow · · Score: 2

    I still don't get why these phones are so damn big.

    I've owned the S4 Mini and S5 Mini and they are more than big enough, but it bugs me that - despite being otherwise close in spec - they never have USB-host enabled (which is basically a software option!) and other little niggles.

    But I can't buy a phone that doesn't have expandable non-cloud storage. I use cloud storage TOO but that's not what I want when I get on a plane and want to watch movies, play games, and read books.

    I also wouldn't touch one without a headphone socket. That's just stupid and somehow the fad infected the industry.

    I also wouldn't touch one without a battery I can change either. But it does bug me when they put the SIM / SD under the battery, that's just a pain in the arse.

    As such, despite being able to afford any of these these, I've stuck on the Mini models from several years ago because there's something stupid in all the other models they sell. Other manufacturer's don't get a look-in for similar reasons.

    I would PAY THE EARTH for a Samsung Android phone, no Samsung fucking apps on it, no "compulsory" apps at all, TWO headphone sockets, TWO microSD slots, TWO SIM slots, TWO removeable batteries, with an IR blaster (Mini's have it still), and all the usuals even if it was the size of one of these big phones. But they say that it's space that's at a premium, it's not. The Mini's are smaller and differ only in software, and minor details that I would never miss basically.

    Make me a "full-size" that has all the above, and I'd paid more than full-size prices. But you know what the problem is? You give me that and I'll keep it forever until it's literally dead (physically or technologically). But if you churn out limited shite, I have to make a choice when to ditch it even if it's for something that has things I don't really want.

    Boy, do I want the "modular phone" idea to take out. Gimme a base phone with 20 module ports on it for anything from Bluetooth, GPS, IR, headphones or whatever and I'd spend twice as much on modules as the actual phone itself.