OnePlus has officially joined the anti-headphone jack bandwagon. The company’s OnePlus 6T won’t have the trusty 3.5mm port in spite of the majority of its consumer base wanting it around.
OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei officially confirmed the death of the headphone jack to TechRadar. He lists a bunch of reasons why it made this drastic decision, with the most important being timing. He claims that 59% of its community had a pair of wireless headphones earlier this year, even before the launch of its Bullets Wireless headphones.
Why OnePlus 6T Ditched The Headphone Jack
Now that the wireless headphones are out, Pei thinks the percentage is even higher. While more folks are buying wireless accessories, it still doesn’t change the fact that most people have 3.5mm headphones lying around. In fact, Pei took a Twitter poll before the arrival of the OnePlus 6 asking people if they like headphone jacks.
88% of the 19374 voters said yes. This was in March 2018, so it wasn’t that long ago that OnePlus was pro-headphone jack. The brand may officially talk about “the right time,” but there might be a more practical reason for the disappearance of the port – Oppo.
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The Oppo R17 Pro is probably the blueprint for the OnePlus 6T. The former doesn’t have a headphone jack, which means the latter won’t have one either. The two will likely share the same waterdrop notch design and in-display fingerprint scanner as well.
Pei went on to discuss the benefits of dropping the headphone jack. The move is going to free up space for new technology and better battery life. He didn’t specify what this new tech was, but it’s probably the under-display fingerprint reader.
OnePlus is making the switch a bit easier to swallow by including a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter in the box. It’s also announced a new Type-C Bullets wired headphones which will arrive beside the OnePlus 6T. It’ll cost Rs 1490 in India and be available through both online and offline stores.