Samsung has always kept up with the increasing demands of the modern era. The Company just launched the Galaxy S10 Plus. Now, the Company has announced the Galaxy Note 10. Samsung talked about the upgraded features, new design, and even introduced another second model called Note 10 Plus. However, the company skipped out the most important detail that there was no Headphone jack on the Note 10. The company showed a slide in which the headphones were attached to USB-C port and a speaker grill. Therefore, there were no headphones.
If Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 9 without a headphone, it would have been big news. However, in 2019, Apple has also removed the headphone jack from all its models. Similarly, Google, Huawei, and OnePlus have also removed Headphone Jacks in their newer versions. Therefore, this news about Samsung removing headphone jacks from Galaxy Note 10 isn’t that big. More importantly, this move clearly signals the end of the headphone jack on phones.
However, we can’t say for certain that it is the end of the 3.5 mm audio jack. The reason behind it is that LG and Motorola still have headphone jacks on their phones. Motorola removed the headphone jack from Motorola Z phone back in 2016. However, the company reintroduced it in the 2019 Moto Z4. Now that Samsung has removed the headphone jack in Galaxy Note 10, it is almost certain that other phones won’t have them too. Therefore, we can safely say that most smartphones won’t have headphone jacks from now on.
The headphone jack was the most popular and widely used gadget, for a long time. You can use the same pair of headphones in Galaxy Note 9 as you can in iPhone 6S, Mac PC Laptop and many other devices. A few decades ago, you could only insert headphones in a quarter-inch adapter for high-end stereo systems or a 2.5 mm adapter present in small electronics.
However, the use of dongles and adapters has become common, especially if you want to use the same headphone on multiple devices. Still, dongles can be a bit annoying. The important thing to note is that companies haven’t introduced any universal standards instead of the headphone jack.
There is a lightning connector on Apple’s wired headphones. However, all other headphones have either USB-C dongle or USB-C headphone. Nevertheless, USB- C isn’t the same across all phones because the digital signals need to be converted into analog signals, at some point. Sometimes, this conversion occurs within a smartphone, like LG-G8 and V50; both have an inbuilt digital to analog converter (DAC). However, other times, it happens in the dongle. Some phone makers have also introduced a proprietary feature. For example, the HTC noise cancellation feature means that you can only use it on headphone jacks that are compatible with an HTC dongle. Therefore, it won’t go in any other adapters.
Then, there is the feature of Bluetooth, which is universal. Even toothbrushes have Bluetooth these days. Therefore, Bluetooth can be an alternative to the headphone jack because you don’t require any cable for it. However, the problem with Bluetooth headphones isn’t the audio quality or the connection. The main problem is the price.
Apple Air pods cost $199, and the casing costs $79. Google’s Pixel Buds cost around $160. However, there are also cheap alternatives to these expensive headphones. For example, at Walgreen, you can get a pair of sports earbuds at $16. However, their sound quality might not be as good as the Apple Air Pods. Still, you can buy many cheap headphones for the cost of a single pair of Air Pods.
Let us go back at Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10 launch event on Wednesday. The Company reasoned that the main reason for not including a headphone jack was to free up the physical space and create more space for the battery. Samsung also claims that 70% of their users use wireless earbuds, instead of headphone jacks. Therefore, it seems that the era of the headphone jacks is finally over, and it is time to move on.
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