zlacker

>>erohea+(OP)
Without a 3.5mm headphone jack, I would have to carry wireless earbuds, which would defeat the purpose.

>>nix0n+Z8
The thing I never understood about the headphone jack and its disappearance: it doesn't need to be a jack. It need only be three contact points. You could have it on the outside rim of a phone and have a magnetic sheath hold the headphone pin to it. But I suppose it's not just about getting rid of the jack itself but also any DAC component? (But, isn't it doing that anyway for the speaker?)

>>intere+En
The amplifier used for headphones is very different than what is used to drive a speaker. It's a totally different component. Also, remember, it's doing much more than just pumping audio out. Modern 3.5mm jacks on phones are 4 pin, generally, and you have to do the following (or, at least most of it):

* Detect if something is plugged in

* Detect if the thing plugged in is a 3 pin (stereo speakers), or 4 pin (stereo speakers, plus microphone)

* Detect what type of 4 pin configuration is connected (there are 2 standards, CTIA and OMTP)

* Detect button presses from attached headphones (volume up/down, pause/play)

* Detect the type of headphones connected (do I want to use the high impedance driver, or the low impedance driver)

And obviously: play stereo audio and record mono audio.

There's also some lesser used features that are sometimes supported over 3.5mm:

* Video output (!!)

* Antenna input, for use for FM radio

* Stereo audio input

* Optical out (not through 3.5mm TRRS, but it is at the end of the 3.5mm jack... Apple used to use these in their macbook pros)

>>Kirby6+6S
The amplifier used for headphones is very different than what is used to drive a speaker. It's a totally different component.

It generally isn't, no. Looking at a teardown of the iPhone 5 for example (just the first phone I thought to check) there is a single Cirrus Logic class D amplifier chip that handles both the speaker and headphone outputs. I don't know of and cannot find any phones that have a dedicated amplifier chip for the headphone output although I'm sure one exists somewhere.