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Comment by wongarsu | Hacker News Reader

The thing is, you were already able to use wireless headphones on phones with a 3.5mm jack. Removing it didn't add new capabilities, it only removed a feature many people liked in a thinly veiled ploy to get everyone to buy Airpods. Sure Airpods are great, but my wired headphones were great too, and in many ways better.

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Headphone jack represents an opportunity cost - including it means you can't use the volume for e. g. baterry, camera or simply nothing (making the phone smaller).

I don't think that's happened in practice. If anything in recent times the smallest phones are getting bigger, and truly small phones (like the iPhone minis) no longer exist.

So you think that the space which was previously occupied by headphone jack is now a hole of empty space within the phone?

I don't believe that, either the space is used for something else, or the phone is in some way made smaller.

Possibly not for many phones, but don't forget, the innards of phones get rearranged a lot between generations at times, and the only thing that can easily change in volume is the battery.

Fo if you consider a phone with say an 8 hour battery life, I would imagine the extra space of a jack gives maybe 10? 20? minutes of battery life? while adding an extra layer of complexity viz. Bluetooth (wireless interference, potential pairing and charging issues etc).

To extend the analogy, would you be okay if laptop manufacturers removed LAN ports as wifi "works just as well"? (Wifi is likely probably much closer to ethernet, unlike BT/3.5mm.)

BTW, some devices like iPads that don't have cellular slots... have a plastic shim/object in that place. So sometimes it isn't empty space, it's worse - it's (marginally) extra weight.

Sony’s Xperia line is some of the smallest & lightest flagship phones while having a headphone jack and a microSD slot (& can unlock unlike Zenfones) so I don’t think these are good excuses.

Does microSD slot and headphone jack take volume? If yes, this volume can be used in a different way.

The microSD doubles as a second SIM slot so no, not really. 3.5 mm jack doesn’t get in the way of anything & I use it more than 50% of my time when the screen is on so it more than makes up for the space. I don’t know many devices competing @ 157 × 68 × 8.2 mm (6.18 × 2.68 × 0.32 in) & 168 g (5.93 oz).

Additionally they threw in 2 extra side buttons that can be used for the camera but also mapped to other functions—like for me that is the push-to-talk button for Mumble.

I think the point is that this repurposing doesn't seem to actually result in any tangible benefit to the user.

I have hearing aids. They double as my earphones. Why would I want plug in headphones?

Granted, this is a weird edgecase.

It doesn't apply to you, but it applies to 99% of earphone/headphone users.

We’re having 2 different conversations.

I’m talking about adapting to new phones, you’re talking about why headphone jacks are good.

You're not having 2 different conversations, he's raising a perfectly good point.

Your argument is "new thing is good".

His argument is "new thing existed before old thing was removed, so removing old thing didn't make new thing better".

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