Why Are Phones Removing the Headphone Jack?
It has become difficult to find a flagship phone in the US with a headphone jack. The old 3.5mm plugs seem to be déclassé to high-end vendors, which want you to go wireless. You have more choices in the sub-$450 segment, though. Manufacturers here seem to understand that buyers of affordable phones might not be willing or able to spend their money on wireless headphones. Google and Samsung have abandoned the plug in their midrange models, but Motorola, OnePlus, and TCL all still sell current handsets with a 3.5mm headphone jack. You might notice that there aren't any iPhones in this roundup. iPhones haven't had 3.5mm jacks since 2016, and we don't recommend any phone that old any longer (mostly due to limited or ending software support). We think Apple's calculus for getting rid of the jack was a little different than Android phone makers. Instead of saving space for the battery, we suspect it was more about making money from its Made for iPhone licensing program for Lightning port headphones and, later, AirPods. But the effect was the same.