iPhone 7: Do we really need the 3.5 mm port?

Image : elitedaily

We all know that Apple has announced their new iPhone on last week and as usual there have been lot of chit chats going on ever since. Before writing anything down I must say I have been using both android (Nexus 5) for developing apps and iOS (iPhone 6 Plus) for my personal use for sometime now and I put it out there because I truly believe a person must use a device before criticize/approve (And I know "approve" it's not the appropriate word here but I'm gonna use it anyway. *wink*) a device. Simply if you wanna blame Apple, first use an Apple, then you know what you are talking about. So let's get down to it.

Apple has been very famous for removing things. Steve jobs said it himself six years ago. Basically if it were't for Apple we'd probably still using computers with VGA and serial ports. What they do is they just take design decision no ones ever asked for simply because they don't care what you think of it because once it is released you're gonna buy it anyway. But what people don't know is that Apple is not the first one to remove the audio port from a device. Motorola Moto Z has released without a 3.5 mm port, only thing is when Apple does something the world takes notice.

So you all know what are the disadvantages of losing the 3.5 mm port so I'm not gonna talk about it. What people don't know is the advantages of  listening to the music through the lightening port, so I'm gonna talk about that.

Pros of losing the 3.5 mm

Yeah, you read it right. There are advantages of it as well. Actually pretty good ones. So here it goes...

• Thinner device 

Removing the circuits that did all the magic to work the analog headphones inside the device and the jack itself means that smartphone can be smaller than before. Or else we can use that extra space some additional task like for the battery. But surprisingly Apple has not using that factor into their device in fact in iPhone 7 plus they have been increased the thickness of the device by 0.2 mm compared to iPhone 6 plus. (Not to mention that they been using the same thickness since iPhone 6s Plus. And then again it's not a huge amount, but still?) 

• Improved audio 

When using the Lightening connection, headphone manufactures can use their own higher quality digital signal processors, DACs (Digital-to-analog converters) and amplifiers in order to provide a high quality audio. Meanwhile traditional headphones have to get used to what the iPhone can do with its analog circuitry. 

• High tech headphones 

Simply headphone manufactures can go crazy with the designs and the tech within in the headphone itself. For example, noise cancelling headphone will no longer needed additional batteries to do the magic since they can get all that power from the lightening port itself. 

• End of fake headphones 

It should be "End of fake headphones (at least for Apple)". Since now they have used an their propitiatory port for audio now they can force the manufactures into their MFi licensing program [1] in order to provide a high quality product to the end use as well as to reduce the number of knock-off earphones/headphones out there in the market. (And I know this is gonna be a disadvantage for some of the users out there.)

And as for the cons, the biggest drawback is the fact that there's no way of listening to music while charging the device. But personally that won't be a much of a problem for me because I normally use a wireless speaker if I wanna listen to music when i'm at home. But overall there can be many disadvantages/advantages could be there, where we notice them while using the device. (From the UX perspective) But I'm very sure about one thing, that even though all of the other mobile phone manufactures laugh at Apple at the moment, eventually they will follow the exact same thing. That's what history taught us so far anyway...

[1] https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/

Reference:

1. http://www.forbes.com/
2. http://www.theverge.com/