It’s Official: Apple Just Killed Off The 3.5mm Headphone Jack

The rumours were true: Apple has ditched the 3.5mm headphone jack for the new iPhone 7. All this was done to make the iPhone one millimetre thinner. The decision is a controversial one as many iPhone users, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak himself, wanted the headphone jack to remain; no doubt a lot of people are mad right now. Here’s what you need to know.

There had been a persistent rumour that Apple was removing the 3.5mm headphone jack from its upcoming iPhone, sending a load of Apple handset users into a panic. The rumour has now become a reality. iPhone 7 users will have to rely on Bluetooth headsets, Lightning-based headphones or use a Lightning to audio adaptor to listen to music or make hands-free calls.

Why did Apple do this? The company believes it’s time to move on from the 3.5mm headphone jack if we want to get more innovation in headphone design and improve audio quality. To Apple’s Phil Schiller, who spoke at the iPhone 7 launch event in the US, getting rid of the headphone jack was an act of “courage”.

It’s not an ideal situation for people who want to charge their phone while listening to music or a podcast (I do this a lot). That is, unless you own a Bluetooth headset and, from my own personal observations, most people don’t. Those headsets aren’t cheap either. At least with the 3.5mm headphone jack, you could pick up a crappy pair at a service station if you’re desperate to listen to audio on your iPhone.

If you’re adamant in getting the iPhone 7 and you don’t have a pair of Bluetooth headset, we have a few recommendations here.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


27 responses to “It’s Official: Apple Just Killed Off The 3.5mm Headphone Jack”