Samsung Is Following Apple’s Lead And Yanking This Part From Its Phones

by Gavin Hanson

Samsung is reportedly removing a 3.5mm headphone jack from its 2019 phones in favor of pursuing wireless headphone technology, Korean IT news outlet ETnews reported Wednesday.

The Galaxy Note 10 and the Galaxy S11, the next iterations of Samsung’s flagship phones expected to be released in August, will be ditching the ubiquitous headphone port, following the lead of Google and Apple, according to ETnews. The outlet claims to have spoken with an “official in the parts industry.”

Samsung also experienced leaks this year regarding its last major Galaxy Note phone release, when VentureBeat writer Evan Blass tweeted out photos of the phone before it went public.

Samsung marketing Vice President Justin Denison spoke at the release of the Galaxy Note 7 in 2016 after Apple dropped the 3.5mm port. “Want to know what else it comes with? An audio jack,” he said.

After mocking Apple in 2016 for removing the popular port for headphones on its iPhone 7, new Samsung phones will require users to either purchase a 3.5mm to USB-C adapter or use wireless headphones to have a personal listening experience.

Despite Samsung’s 2018 “Ingenius” ad campaign that featured criticism of Apple’s removal of the headphone jack, Samsung users will not be able to charge S11 or Note 10 devices while listening to music unless they have additional or specialized equipment.

Relying on Bluetooth headphones has become a popular option for phone manufacturers since the release of the iPhone 7 in 2016. Motorola’s Moto Z nixed the 3.5mm in 2016 as well, and Google’s Pixel and Pixel 2 both followed suit in 2016 and 2017.

Tech industry insiders consider the 3.5mm port a hindrance to creating phones with larger touchscreens that bend around the edges of new phones. Google product chief Mario Queiroz told TechCrunch in 2017 the move away from the 19th-century technology that the 3.5mm is based on saves room internally to make screens that wrap around the phone.

Samsung’s Galaxy line of phones prominently features wrapping the usable areas of a smartphone touchscreen around edges to create more impressive displays but the company has held off on removing the port until its newest set of models.

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