latest
Weekend poll: Do you still miss the headphone jack on your current smartphone?
Or have you adapted over the last half-decade?
Looking through the countless smartphones on sale for Black Friday and Cyber Monday this weekend, you're bound to notice one common attribute: the lack of a headphone jack. What started as a frustrating way for Apple to sell its (then-expensive) wireless earbuds to iPhone fans has spread throughout the entire industry, as companies like Google, Samsung, OnePlus, and so many more have all ditched the once-ubiquitous 3.5mm port.
Xiaomi Mi 10i takes on the OnePlus Nord, offering quite more bang for your buck
It's basically a rebranded Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G for India
Xiaomi has a bad habit of re-releasing slightly different variants of extremely similar phones for different markets, and it looks like the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G is the latest device in for this treatment. Today, the company revealed a strikingly similar Mi 10i tailored for the Indian market, coming with a 108MP primary camera, a 6.67-inch display, and the Snapdragon 750G.
Hear me out: Google should bring back the headphone jack
I know it's too late for the Pixel 5, but with Pixels moving downmarket, I think it's a good idea
Google's Pixel 4a appears to have become a sensation — even though no one has one yet. It's only open for pre-order, and already it's become the best-selling unlocked smartphone at Amazon and Best Buy. And that makes sense; it's a pretty great phone. But you know what else is great? It has a goddamn headphone jack.
Affordable Galaxy A21s brings quad rear cameras plus a headphone jack starting June 19
Not as sparkly as the forthcoming A21, but fits right into the €200 tier
It didn't take long for yesterday's leak to turn official — Samsung has announced another budget-tier Galaxy A phone for Europe. The Galaxy A21 has no sibling to speak of just yet, but the Galaxy A21s has the essentials for a phone of its price: a big screen, big battery, multiple cameras, and a headphone jack for good measure.
headphones wired using when swapped channels audio right and left report users OnePlus Some
Most 6-year-olds know their left from their right
Wireless Bluetooth headphones are better than ever these days, yet many of us are still holding on to our trusty wired headphones for their reliability. But for some of these users with OnePlus phones, a mysterious glitch has been swapping left and right audio channels.
Announced just earlier today, Samsung's Galaxy S20 series of phones don't have a headphone jack. This isn't the first flagship device from Samsung to skip out on the trusty, universal 3.5mm connector — the Galaxy Note10 holds that honor — but this is a much bigger deal. The Note series may be breaking sales records, but the "base" Galaxy S is the Samsung phone. For many customers, it's Android's official ambassador in the mobile world, representing the default experience, and the fact that it just lost the dependable headphone jack probably spells the eventual end of the connector for all Android phones everywhere, forever.
We might be setting the winter alight with new "Lite" Samsung smartphones: the Galaxy S10 Lite and Note 10 Lite have been circulating in the news, but details about them so far have been scant. Now, through India's 91mobiles and Steve Hemmerstoffer's @OnLeaks, we have gained some key insights on at least one of these phones and perhaps a close analogue of the other.
If the pot calls the burning kettle black, then later finds itself on top of the same fire, is it ethical to take that insult back? Starting in 2017, Samsung aired advertisements calling Apple out for not including useful technologies such as the headphone jack on their phones and inviting iPhone owners to switch to Galaxy. In 2019, the Korean manufacturer released its first major phones, the Galaxy Note10 and Note10+, without said headphone jack. And so, it was determined, Samsung had to pull those old ads off of the internet.
The Galaxy Note10 is almost certain to be the first generation in the series to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack. We've been told by our sources that Samsung will include a pair of AKG USB-C earbuds with every purchase to make up for the loss. It's also been said that dongles could also be in play here and, thanks to a leak, we're able to eye out what that dongle looks like.
The OnePlus 7 Pro is (by most accounts) an excellent phone, but there are still shortcomings. Like most flagship smartphones these days, it doesn't have a headphone jack, but OnePlus has also decided not to include a Type-C adapter in the box. To make matters worse, the company has taken a page out of Apple's playbook and nearly doubled the price of the official adapter.The OnePlus Type-C to 3.5mm adapter was initially released last year, to coincide with the launch of the 6T. If you lost the dongle included in the 6T's box, you could buy one from OnePlus' store for $8 (before taxes and shipping, of course). Following the release of the 7 Pro, the price was quietly raised to $12.95 in the United States.
Essential's PH-1 was criticized at launch for some valid reasons, like a mediocre camera, high price tag, and lack of a headphone jack. But great software and a falling price have earned it a small but impassioned cult following. Now the high-end niche phone from 2017 has a high-end niche audio accessory to go with it: the Audio Adapter HD. But a single-device, $150 external DAC/amp might be a bit too niche.
Read update
Essential's Audio Adapter HD has finally been announced. The company has been talking about the existence of this new external headphone jack/DAC since June, and this month's security update indicated we'd see it soon. But there are a few twists: It's 0, and a limited edition.
Smartphones have been around for over a decade now. In fact, the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, debuted 10 years ago today. It's not surprising that the category has seen some pretty horrible trends in that amount of time. We've compiled seven of the worst ones we could think of in this post, a couple of which are (unfortunately) still ongoing.
Back in 2016, we asked our readers about their feelings when it came to the still nascent trend of removing the headphone jack from phones. At the time, collective opinions were firmly against the concept, but 2016 was two years ago. Not two months later, Google would be cracking jokes at Apple during its Pixel launch event about the phone's "satisfyingly not new" headphone jack, blissfully ignorant of its coming hypocrisy.
When Apple released the first iPhone without a headphone jack two years ago, many - critics, consumers, and competitors alike - were quick to cry foul. The decision was widely derided arrogant and unfriendly, and CMO Phil Schiller took a well-deserved beating in the court of public opinion for calling the removal of the 3.5mm jack “courageous.”
Essential is one of the many smartphone makers that has eschewed the headphone jack, but what's this? You can get your headphone jack back thanks to Essential's modular accessory ecosystem—an ecosystem that will consist of two devices as soon as the new headphone jack adapter comes out.
HTC is going out on a limb with the U12+, which starts at $800 and won't be sold through carriers. You would expect to get all the bells and whistles when you spend that much on a phone, but HTC is cheaping out on the accessories. This phone lacks a headphone jack as so many others do lately. However, the U12+ won't come with an adapter for your 3.5mm headphones, either.
OnePlus has discontinued sales of the 5T in North America, indicating that a successor is coming soon. After teasing his followers with an impromptu poll on his Twitter, Evan Blass has revealed his first photo of the OnePlus 6. There are several things to get excited about here.
Unfortunately, the trend of removing headphone jacks from smartphones isn't ending anytime soon. Sony revealed its new flagship devices at Mobile World Congress last month, and among other major changes, there is no headphone jack to be found. Sony will include an adapter with those phones, but if you need to charge and listen at the same time, the company is more than happy to sell you a more complicated (yet still terrible) dongle.
We get a kick out of hardware mods here at Android Police. They're fun to see, and occasionally fun to do, especially when they make up for a product's shortcomings. Enter the Google Home Mini, a device which we mostly liked (when it wasn't bugging out). It did have one slight deficiency, though, and that was volume. It just didn't get very loud. But the folks at YouTube channel SnekTek took that as a challenge and installed an audio output jack for external amplification.