OnePlus 6T Trades the Headphone Jack For Better Battery Life (techradar.com)

OnePlus CEO Carl Pei confirmed to TechRadar that the OnePlus 6T won't have a headphone jack. Instead, it will feature a larger battery that will be "substantial enough for users to realize." From the report: Our first line of questioning was obvious. Why? Why ditch the jack? Why ditch it now? For Pei, it's about timing, and creating the best smartphone experience. "When we started OnePlus, we set out to make the best possible smartphone, but making a great phone doesn't mean putting every component available into the device," he said. "You've got to make decisions that optimize the user experience, and understand that at times things that provide user value can also add friction. "We also had to think about the negative side [of removing the headphone jack] for our users. We found 59% of our community already owned wireless headphones earlier this year - and that was before we launched our Bullets Wireless headphones. "If we were to do that [remove the jack] two years ago, the percentage [of wireless headphones owners] would have been much lower and it would have caused a lot of friction for our users."

Pei went on to explain that there are user benefits to the removal of the port, which should bring some comfort to OnePlus fans already pouring one out for the headphone jack. "By removing the jack we've freed up more space, allowing us to put more new technology into the product," he said. "One of the big things is something our users have asked us for, improved battery life." Pei wouldn't be drawn on what the "new technology" will be, but we already know the OnePlus 6T will feature an in-display fingerprint scanner, which will eat up some of the space left by the exiting jack. Pei did mention they will include an adapter in the box to allow users to use wired headphone.

Comments

Personally

[Cesare Ferrari]

It's one of the only features I use on my feature phone. You could take out the cameras, GPS, motion sensors and probably half a dozen other bits i've never heard of let alone used, but the headphone socket is important to me.

Re:Personally

[msauve]

OnePlus is now off the list.

They're idiots, all. It's not a "headphone jack," it's an analog audio jack. It works with headphones, but having bluetooth headphones doesn't help with connecting a phone to an older car or a stereo. Nor does bluetooth support the quality of a direct connection. BT audio is more complex, costly, and inconvenient. And I'd rather deal with a cord which has to go all the way from my ears to my pocket than have to worry about keeping the non-replaceable batteries in headphones charged (yet more planned obsolescence). A line level analog audio signal is universal - audio is analog, after all.

And the "we traded a jack for more battery life" is pure and simple bullshit. Compare the size of a jack to the size of a cell phone battery, and one can easily understand that the additional volume from removing the jack can add no more than a couple of percent to the battery capacity. "Pei did mention they will include an adapter in the box to allow users to use wired headphone." Guess what? The DAC in that adapter sucks way more battery than the infinitesimal bit gained by removing the jack.

Just make the damn phone thicker, which will allow a real increase in battery size, and also make it easier to hold. And make it a user replaceable battery instead of designed in obsolescence. Finally, no one outside of your marketing department gives a shit about edge-to-edge screens. Notches must die. Bezels make phones easier to hold. Smartphones all basically look the same, with only minor differences. Stop pretending there's any "style" involved, and stop doing stupid stuff like removing functionality so you can pretend there is.

Wireless headphone so called "experience"

[guacamole]

Wireless headphones experience is still crap. I have tried many wireless headphones, and despite paying around 150USD each time, I always ended with headphones that are less comfortable and sound worse than my wired 40 dollar Koss PortraPro or 60 dollar Sennheiser PX100-ii. Moreover, these super duper "advanced" and expensive headsets have a tendency to stop working within a year. I refuse to carry that stupid dongle. It's just another item that will get lost and it's just plain inconvenient to use.

As for Oneplus, all I can say hasta la vista. It was good while it lasted. I recall the first Oneplus One from 2014 which had flagship build and specs for just 300USD. Now that was a value. But now that Oneplus is another +500USD phone that follows the worst trends, whether in pricing, cheating in benchmarks, or deleting the headphone jack, all I can do is stop considering Oneplus for my next purchase.

Can't help but wonder...

[gchat]

that this whole jack removal thing is somehow industry forced. Maybe a requirement for 1+ to sell their device (for the first time) via a major US carrier? I can understand the reasons to remove the SD card slot and for non-removable batteries, even though I don't agree, but regarding the headphone jack there is literally no reason at all (more space, outdated tech is just... laughable) except one... DRM.
Also, 1+ plus knows the majority of their customers are power users which won't accept this change lightly. They also ridiculed themselves (just like Google did) because they followed this trend only a few months after mocking their competitors for doing so. So either Pei was somehow forced to it make this change or he is a complete idiot. I don't think the latter is true.
Doesn't excuse his action though...