Inside iPhone 7: Why Apple Killed The Headphone Jack
There is a lot of controversy on Apple removing the headphone jack on the iPhone 7. John Paczkowski from Buzzfeed has the lowdown on why it was removed.
A tentpole feature of the new iPhones are improved camera systems that are larger than the cameras in the devices that preceded them. The iPhone 7 now has the optical image stabilization feature previously reserved for its larger Plus siblings. And the iPhone 7 Plus has two complete camera systems side by side — one with a fixed wide-angle lens, the other with a 2x zoom telephoto lens. At the top of both devices is something called the “driver ledge” — a small printed circuit board that drives the iPhone’s display and its backlight. Historically, Apple placed it there to accommodate improvements in battery capacity, where it was out of the way. But according to Riccio, the driver ledge interfered with the iPhone 7 line’s new larger camera systems, so Apple moved the ledge lower in both devices. But there, it interfered with other components, particularly the audio jack.
Second, there was an unforeseen opportunity to increase battery life. So the battery in the iPhone 7 is 14% bigger than the one in its predecessor, and in the iPhone 7 Plus, it’s 5% bigger. In terms of real-world performance gains, that’s about an additional two hours and one hour, respectively. Not bad.
Even better, removing the audio jack also eliminated a key point of ingress that Riccio says helped the new iPhone finally meet the IP7 water resistance spec Apple has been after for years (resistant when immersed under 1 meter of water for 30 minutes).
I personally am mixed. I’m willing to give up on the headphone jack. The headphones I use 99% of the time are the Apple EarPods. Saying that, the removal of the headphone jack could lead to minor issues in how I use the iPhone. There are times I like to listen to Apple Music in my car. Unfortunately my car does not always want to listen to my iPhone. For some reason the audio will not play through bluetooth or through the Lightning cable via USB. When it does this, I just plug an audio cable into the headphone jack and connect it to the auxiliary jack on my car. I also keep my iPhone plugged into my car via the Lightning cable to keep it charged. It’s not pretty, two cables plugged into my car and iPhone, but it works every time. Audio through one, power through the other. Unfortunately with the iPhone 7, I will no longer be able to do this. It’s one or the other. Let’s hope my car likes the iPhone 7 better than my iPhone 6!
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