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Samsung Kills Headphone Jack After Mocking Apple (macrumors.com)
Last week, Samsung introduced its latest smartphone, the Galaxy A8s. Not only is it the first phone of theirs with a laser-drilled hole in the display for the front-facing camera sensor, but it is also their first phone to ditch the headphone jack. Slashdot reader TheFakeTimCook shares a report from Mac Rumors that takes a closer look at the move and the hypocrisy behind it: [The A8s] is also Samsung's first smartphone without a headphone jack, much to the amusement of iPhone users, as Samsung has mocked Apple for over two years over its decision to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 in 2016, a trend that has continued through to the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR. While on stage unveiling the new Galaxy Note 7 in 2016, for example, Samsung executive Justin Denison made sure to point out that the device came with a headphone jack. "Want to know what else it comes with?" he asked. "An audio jack. I'm just saying," he answered, smirking as the audience laughed. And earlier this year, Samsung mocked the iPhone X's lack of a headphone jack in one of its "Ingenius" ads promoting the Galaxy S9. Samsung isn't the first tech giant to mock Apple's decision to remove the headphone jack, only to follow suit. Google poked fun at the iPhone 7's lack of headphone jack while unveiling its original Pixel smartphone in 2016, and then the Pixel 2 launched without one just a year later.
Who is this "Headphone Jack" and why has this multinational corporation murdered him?
And why do they mock an innocent piece of fruit?
And don't tell me to RTFA or even the FS.
Samsung is simply cutting costs on their budget line up by removing the headphone jack. Multiple accounts indicate the jack is still present on their upcoming flagship S10.
How many users of phones without notches or holes drilled though the screen are going to have to suffer with unusable screen space on their phones due to app developers and content developers having to develop for the lowest common denominator. Were pretty much getting to the point you have to assume the edges of 5-10% of a phone's screen are unusable because you dont know what kind of notch, hole, curved corner or other bullshit might be in the screen.
So much for a bezel free phone, when now that 5-10% of the screen itself is now the bezel and has to be assumed to be unusable, lest some part of your content gets cut off.
Wouldn't it be better as "Samesong"?
#DeleteFacebook
Apple has removed the headphone jack from ALL of its phones. Samsung removed it from one midrange phone, and still offers dozens of models with it. This is clickbait, pure and simple.
No root, no buy.
MY PHONE HAS ONE, a headphone jack. But for years I've preferred my Bluetooth headphones. I have a nice stereo for those times I want high quality sound, but why bother with the lower quality stuff in my phone?
My brother, a hifi snob, has electrostatic headphones for his musical journeys. But he doesn't listen on his phone either (which also has a headphone jack).
So where are the hifi snobs who get their music on a cell phone while they're out and about, and can't tolerate Bluetooth? Are they doing FLAC on their tiny phones? Ridiculous!
...omphaloskepsis often...
Android has a new DisplayCutout API for this. It's usually in the notification area, so it only affects apps that block that.
Area man constantly mentioning he doesn't own a television.
Audiophiles? A cheap pair of corded headphones is around $5 and I don't need to charge them or worry about power at all. I don't like having extra things that need charging.
I say this as someone who jumped hard onto bluetooth, but then realized the damn cord was more convenient.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Some recent android devices without headphone jacks use the same antenna for both WiFi and Bluetooth, and this is a huge problem if you are streaming content over WiFi and want to listen to the audio via Bluetooth headphones. I nearly pulled the trigger on the purchase of a Huawei android tablet before I found a bunch of online reviews of people who claim the device fails at streaming standard definition content (Netflix, YouTube, etc) when using Bluetooth headphones. Don't pre-order devices and make sure to read those one star reviews.
Always running out of battery, headphones jacks are good backup.
[($)]
Yeah, the lack of a headphone jack probably annoys audiophiles, but if you're really that picky about your audio quality, you're probably using a standalone media player.
No need for that. USB-OTG to a DAC/headphone amp. And wired headphones retrofitted with a balanced plug.
Wireless is useful for when working out, and you don't want to risk snagging any wires. But it sounds like shit, unless your phone and receiver both support AptX-HD (ok) or LDAC (better). Especially AAC, which Apple uses, is max 250 kbps, which is less than most MP3s these days, and unless your file was AAC encoded to start with, full of recompression artifacts. Just don't bother for anything more complex than audio books or third millennium noise. There are AM radio broadcasts with better quality...
Bluetooth things you have to keep charged. So if you use a headset once or twice a week you just want to leave in your jacket pocket because you use it only when you receive a call while outside, you're out of luck. Dongles add weight, break down and require replecement (my kids go through 1-2 Apple headphone adapters per year as they just stop working) or simply don't work well (I work with a person who's never been able to get his Pixel to work well with a small wire only non-chargeable headset to work, every time he tried, at some point during the call we'd have to wait for him to switch to speakerphone because the headset stopped working). That and bluetooth is not as reliable as plain old wired headset - interference, compatibility and reliability/software bugs issues plague them constantly. I have a Plantronics savi-7xx and it works great with Galaxy S9+ if I only enable bluetooth when I want to talk, but if I keep bluetooth enabled, few days of going in and out of range of the thing results in one way audio connection only, I can hear the caller but they cannot hear me - disabling and re-enabling bluetooth fixes it.
>"Dude have you seeen the specs on this thing?!> [google.com]. 100 DPI? My non smart phone from 2009 had a better screen!"
Ones he was quoting went off sale years ago. Let's look at the now 2-year-old Moto G5Plus which I bought a year ago from Costco for $189.
1080P screen on a 5.2" screen = 424ppi
> It is IPS?!
Yes
>The CPU is 5 years old and 2 generations behind the budget grade snapdragons which powered my old Windows Phone.
It is an 8 core Cortex A53 @ 2Ghz and seems very speedy to me. Much faster than the Nexus 5. And the Snapdragon 625 is only 2 years old.
>"Tiny battery life"
3000mAh is not tiny. Again, much longer battery life than the Nexus 5.
>"and no mention of ram which makes me suspicious."
5plus 2GB. 5plusS 3GB LPDDR4
>"Can it even boot anything after 6 marshmallow"
Android 8.1 Oreo
>"or run apps?"
Yep. And GPS, decent cameras, fingerprint sensor, headphone jack, and SD card.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
>"It probably has USB-C to 3.5mm audio adapter and you can keep using your existing headphones"
Which you inevitably never have with you when you need it.
Which doesn't allow charging and using it for music at the same time.
Which uses more battery.
Which almost never comes with the device, meaning more $.
Which is more weight and complexity when using ultra-light/thin wired earphones.
Just give me a headphone jack! Which, typically also work with wired headsets and microphones (3 stripe).
Serious question: do you know about the "Live Listen" capability of Airpods?
Here's a good article on it: https://www.imore.com/how-make...
It essentially turns AirPods into hearing boosters.
Check it out and see if it fits your needs. Yeah, you'll have to charge them, but that's pretty painless and the case keeps them charged pretty well.
Same here. Not to mention the possible security implications of using Bluetooth.
Which would require an adapter to connect to your 3.5mm headphones. So if you're going to make your users get an adapter anyway....might as well be USB-C. Tomato, toe-mah-toe.
I've personally been using a phone without a headphone jack for several months now and haven't missed it. I never used it on my previous phone - I went Bluetooth "everything" quite awhile ago.
Why are the people in the "Bluetooth" camp always making this out as though we have to choose one or the other? There's no reason you can't continue to ignore the headphone jack for the Bluetooth you find more convenient. Removing the headphone jack has no impact on your use, so why can't they just leave it and give the consumer more choice.
The cost of the jack is a non-issue in a device costing as much as a major appliance. We don't need to remove the jack because it is "hampering the thinness of the phone's design" -- because they don't need to be thinner. People are already complaining about phones being too thin to be structurally resilient depending on the material. The waterproofing argument is bogus, too. Handset makers are not making the phones more water-resistant after removing the jack than they were before they removed it.
What is an actual legitimate reason that it is necessary the jack be removed?
A coworker lamented his dead headphones on his way to babysit a late meeting.
"I should have charged" "Oh do you want to borrow mine?" "I don't even have a jack"
It was an unusual sensation. It gave me pause the way that someone might have experienced when they first heard of a watch that needs no winding or batteries. "That's a thing? That's different than how I've always done it."
We have created entire new and exciting problems for the man of tomorrow. Except my phone does the same things as his. I'm pretty sure this is the opposite of progress.
A car stereo with Bluetooth costs $15. Walmart also sells Bluetooth adapters in the impulse bins at the check-out counters.
So? Lack of a headphone jack has nothing to do with annoying audiophiles...in fact it's more annoying to just us regular folk.
I have bluetooth headphones. The sound is great for my needs and they're pretty cool. But...
So yeah, I have Bluetooth headphones, but more or less I always carry a pair of ordinary earbuds as backup. Don't remove my 3.5mm jack, thanks.
I agree but in this case I might well add on one more - Lightning. USB C is the ubiquitous choice now and whilst lightning does have a few advantages (I prefer the physical connector for instance) I think it's likely time to just go USB C full time.
I also think that solves a lot of the "no headphone jack" issues - you could then have your wireless ones, but also there would be USB C ones from many manufacturers and sold without adapters. Whether it solves the issue in a manner that Apple would actually like it to is a different matter of course.
That's because in those instances something better came along.
I don;t see 3.5mm jacks are obsolete tech. Bluetooth is a step backwards. More reliant on batteries, less secure, lower sound quality. Where's the upside?
I thought "eh big deal, it will come with a dongle" when I got a phone without a headphone jack.
After actually having to live with it for a year, it has been far more annoying than I realized it would be.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I use Anker wireless around-the-ear headphones when I'm working out. I started around 2 years ago and will never go back to wired headphones - there's nothing more annoying than cords getting caught on something, or you're on the treadmill and move just a little too far back and your phone gets tugged and ends up flying off
The battery lasts for at least 8 hours which is good for 4 days workout. Charging them is easy, just plug into any micro-USB cable. It's a trivial inconvenience.
I also don't understand the 'poor quality' sound comments - I had my annual physical a few months ago which includes a hearing test. Absolutely no issues with my hearing whatsoever. However, I cannot detect any decrease in sound quality of wireless vs. wired, and I've tried really hard. I mean, maybe if you're an audiophile and are listening to very specific notes or music, maybe you can tell the difference. But for the other 95% who listen to music when working out, on the train, or working around the house, I don't know if it's really a problem
You CAN use Bluetooth on airplanes. I do it all the time. When I enable flight mode on my phone (S9+), it disables WiFi and Cellular radio but not Bluetooth.
Also, the FAA permits Bluetooth: https://www.faa.gov/news/press... Excerpt: "Devices must be used in airplane mode or with the cellular connection disabled. You may use the WiFi connection on your device if the plane has an installed WiFi system and the airline allows its use. You can also continue to use short-range Bluetooth accessories, like wireless keyboards."
Wired headphones. They just work.
You never expect irony, do you?
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