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The Galaxy Fold was the most exciting announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event. While the new S10 and its variants look like high-end phones, it's the Fold that captivated everyone's imagination. As Samsung CEO, DJ Koh, proudly declared during the event, the Fold "opens a new path for this industry". And apparently, it's a path that unlike the rest of the phones announced today by Samsung, does not include a 3.5mm headphone jack. .
This is a sour note on what seems to be a really interesting product. And if the Galaxy Fold represents the future of Samsung smartphones, it may be time for users to start saying goodbye to the beloved headphone jack.
The inclusion or not of a headphone jack is a decision that staged the phone manufacturers and we always know which side was Samsung. But now, Samsung is straddling the gap. On one side, there are the S10 phones, the ultimate refinement of the Galaxy S formula that Samsung has been perfecting for almost 10 years. On the other hand, the Galaxy Fold, which sets the stakes of the next decade. The past has a headphone jack; the future is not.
The headphone jack is not the only standard item missing in the fold. The microSD card slot, a feature that Samsung has already tried to remove with the Galaxy S6, has also disappeared. It only brought back (after customer complaints) with the S7 in 2016. Since then it has been a line item.
Samsung's decision on design may well be limited to space. Samsung packs a ton of technologies into the Galaxy Fold, and it's just possible that there's simply not enough room for a headphone jack or a microSD card slot, both of which usually take up a lot of room. inside. And as a first-generation device belonging to a whole new category, it is very likely that Samsung will continue to improve things for future generations, especially after receiving feedback from customers who actually use the phone after its release in April. .
Part of the problem could be the ease of use, too. Samsung envisions that the user returns and constantly folds the Fold while it rotates and changes screens. It is possible that a helmet wire does not make much sense in this context.
But there may be more than that. Samsung also includes a pair of its new Galaxy Buds wireless with the Galaxy Fold (this should also be the case, given the starting price of $ 1,980). This is a strategy that might suggest that, like Apple and its AirPods, announced coincidentally alongside the iPhone 7 when Apple broke the headphone jack, Samsung is trying to divert its customers from the analog port and push them to the digital, wireless future of a world of Bluetooth headphones. In 2016, we argued that it was a stupid and hostile decision to the user. By 2019, we could again support that – but the wireless headphones are a bit better.
As Samsung said during the event, the Galaxy Fold is supposed to be a high-end luxury device, and not a mainstream device in the same way as the S10 (and its headphone jack). But it is equally obvious that the idea of a luxury phone offered by Samsung is not one that attempts to describe all the features that a customer may wish for.
Hope is not yet totally lost. As mentioned earlier, Samsung experienced a similar cycle when it did not have a MicroSD card reader, but adds it again as customers ask it for flexibility. It is also possible that a similar change occurs on the line with a headphone jack for a future Fold.
But given the current trend of smartphone features to move from more premium options to more classic models, and to the flag that Samsung is looking to plant in the sand with the Galaxy Fold, it may be time to prepare for a wireless future … or to invest in a set of USB C-to-3.5mm dongles.
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