Dear Phone Manufacturers – If you remove the headphone jack, add a second USB-C port!

Over the past few years, I’ve slowly seen the decline of headphone jacks in phones. While I’m fine with moving to USB-C headphones (and there’s lots of benefits switching to USB-C audio), what I don’t get is a boneheaded decision by manufacturers. Not adding a second USB-C (or Lightning) port.

Seriously! If you’re removing the jack, just add a second port! Having two USB-C ports on a phone would be an absolutely killer feature. Here are some use cases that at least I can think of:

• Charge and listen at once!
• Charge and play games with a controller at once!
• Less wear on one port!
• Plug your phone into two computers for easy file transfer! (ok it’s a rare case but you know)
• Charge another wired device while charging your phone!
• Keyboard & mouse without any USB hubs!
• Use an Ethernet adapter and use another port for keyboard & mouse
• Dual-monitors with your phone!

And for phone manufacturers, you can’t make any excuses for not adding a second port…

We removed a headphone jack for more battery room!

USB-C ports take up less space…

We ran out of space!

No you didn’t, because somehow we’ve been stuffing more and more into our phones for years.

Waterproofing a headphone jack is harder!

USB-C ports are easier to waterproof!

We want to sell more wireless earbuds!

Fuck you! Give us choice! Or, at least, include a pair of wireless earbuds in the box!

Bluetooth audio: exists

I forget to charge half my shit at night! I just want to plug in my earbuds and be good to go, and not worry about a dead battery, or pairing!

also: Bluetooth audio is not better than wired audio. This is the same thing as saying Wi-Fi is better than Ethernet. Yes, Wi-Fi is convenient and works for 90% of uses – this goes for bluetooth. But wired, just like Ethernet, goes that extra mile.

For any consumers wanting a headphone jack: vote with your wallet! I love Samsung phones, but if the S11 doesn’t have a headphone jack (or 2 USB-C ports), I’ll be moving to a different line of phones. Even if they have extremely bad software support (*cough* LG *cough*)

(update – April 2020): I bought a note 10+, with one USB-C port. The only reason I did it was because it was a Black Friday deal, and it came with a pair of Galaxy Buds included.