Thoughts on the iPhone 7
This post is a follow-up on my previous post about the iPhone 7.
Apple last week announced the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch Series 2. As predicted, the iPhone 7 will no longer have a 3.5mm headphone jack. Now that the dust has settled somewhat, I figured I’d throw in my two cents.
Apple’s Phil Schiller claimed that the reason Apple did it was courage. I heard that, and had I been drinking something, it might have come back up through my nose. Apple says that it takes courage to try something new. I personally find that to be a load of BS. Look, I get it, its old technology, but it’s still the de facto standard. Removing it is going to make it difficult for a lot of people to listen to their music on their phones. Apple is providing headphones that plug into the lightning port which isn’t bad until you realize that you can’t charge your phone and listen at the same time (this is also ignoring that I feel the standard headphones are uncomfortable in the ear anyway, but that’s a different story). They also are nice enough to include a lightning to 3.5mm adapter, which is also sweet...until...wait for it...you can’t charge and listen to your headphones at the same time. Belkin released a dongle that allows you to plug in 2 lightning cables into your phone, ostensibly one for your headphones and one for the power cable. This is all well and good, until you realize you will then need 2 dongles to listen to 3.5mm headphones and charge your phone at the same time.
It’s just an ugly solution. Ignoring the fact that I personally would want multiple adapters and dongles to keep with me at my various locations so I don’t constantly have to move them around and potentially lose them, it’s just obnoxious. Add to this the incompatibility with the Apple computers (Macbook, Macbook Pro, iMac, etc) and it’s kind of a WTF moment.
People have also made the argument that it allows the phone to be slightly thinner. Thinner isn’t necessarily bad, but hardly what determines my buying decisions (within reason of course). I might’ve been willing to buy this argument, except for the fact that there is still a bump in the phone for the camera lens. Couldn’t you just make the phone a little thicker and make the lens flush with the case? This would probably allow enough room to re-add the 3.5mm jack!
Instead Apple wants to add their own proprietary standard to things making it difficult for people to move in and away from their platform. I love me Apple products, I think they’re great pieces of technology that are incredibly functional, well designed, and a pleasure to use. I just don’t know I can even begin to get behind this change, which is a shame because of all the other improvements Apple put into the iPhone 7 and the improvements they’ve made with iOS10 (which I love on my iPhone 6 by the way). Despite how I feel, I haven’t completely ruled out upgrading to the iPhone 7, but I’m currently leaning towards either sticking with my iPhone 6 or waiting to see what Google brings with their rumored Pixel and Pixel XL phones in early October.
There’s also rumors of Apple inquiring about the 3.5mm headphone jack in the Macbook Pro. This would likely mean the same thing there as well. All I can say to that is NO!
