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Buying Headphones in 2018 is Going To Be a Fragmented Mess (theverge.com)
Vlad Savov, writing for The Verge: At CES this year, I saw the future of headphones, and it was messy. Where we once had the solid reliability of a 3.5mm analog connector working with any jack shaped to receive it, there's now a divergence of digital alternatives -- Lightning or USB-C, depending on your choice of jack-less phone -- and a bunch of wireless codecs and standards to keep track of. Oh, and Sony's working hard on promoting a new 4.4mm Pentaconn connector as the next wired standard for dedicated audio lovers. It's all with the intent of making things better, but before we get to the better place, we're going to spend an uncomfortable few months (or longer) in a fragmented market where you'll have to do diligent research to make sure your next pair of headphones works with all the devices you already own.
Unless there is a single wireless standard and codec, nothing will be better than the old trusty 3.5mm connector, and even then it will still be questionable. Guess what, the analog, wired connection works, 100% of the time. If for some reason you find it's not working, you simply plug the cable back in and your working again. No wireless standard can state that fact, nor will they ever be able to.
Even the "standard" 3.5 mm jack is fucked now.
There's TS (mono), TRS (stereo), TRRS (stereo+mic), and now TRRRS (fucking bullshit). TRRS has been abused a lot in the past, with people using one connector for video, moving ground around, etc. The most recent disaster with TRSS was the confusion between the OMTP and CTIA standards. One has left, right, ground, mic, the other has left, right mic, ground. Depending on what your device has and what your headset (or TRS headphones) have, you can have issues ranging from added noise, the mic not being detected or usable, or even the voltage being fucked to the point you can't drive your headphones.
If a phone is thinner than 3.5mm, it's difficult to hold anyway.
According to hardware designers I've talked to, the thickness of the 3.5mm plug isn't the issue. The problem is its volume and placement. It consumes 240 mm^3 on an outer edge, on one end of the phone, which is incredibly valuable real estate in a modern phone, because that's pretty much where the antennas have to be -- and phones have a lot of antennas, because they have a lot of radios (e.g. LTE requires 8 radios, and most phones support 5+ bands, plus Wifi, bluetooth, GPSr and NFC). It's also where speakers have to be, and they also require some depth, so significant volume. And where the charging/data port has to be.
So from their perspective, being able to shift audio output functions to the data port and wireless frees up important volume and makes it easier to fit ever more stuff into an ever-smaller space (yes, phone thickness does come into play here).
What's the obsession with making phones paper-thin at the expense of durability and utility anyway?
Dunno. But it's undeniably what consumers want. Thick phones don't sell. Maybe it's not what you want, but the market focuses on volume.
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The Switch uses a standard headphone jack.
No, it doesn't. A standard headphone jack takes a 1/4" plug. The Switch has a standard mini jack taking a 3.5mm plug.
And it's not a standard headphone jack either, because it is TRRS headset jack and not a TRS headphone jack. Depending on where the connectors are, it may not work. It's a "works with most", not "works with all".