Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.