Brace yourself: Samsung could drop the headphone jack from next year

It’s the news that no one wanted to hear — Samsung may be considering dropping the headphone jack from its future devices. According to ETNews, which cited an industry source, Samsung could begin to drop the 3.5mm headphone jack from its devices as soon as next fall.

This means the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 appears to be safe. ETNews quotes a parts industry insider as saying that the company is currently considering making the change from either the Galaxy Note 10 or the Galaxy S11. Instead of a headphone jack, the company will apparently rely on a combination of the phone’s USC Type-C port and everyone’s favorite accessory, the headphone dongle.

Read: Samsung Galaxy Note 10 codename hints at further S Pen improvements

The source does not say why Samsung would want to get rid of the headphone jack. ETNews speculates that, like other manufacturers, the company simply wants to save space for other parts.

While ETNews is generally pretty in-the-know when it comes to Samsung, this is still just a rumor. Samsung isn’t expected to release the Galaxy Note 10 for another year and the Samsung Galaxy S11 is likely to be around 18 months away. While Samsung is probably making plans for the Galaxy Note 10, it’s unlikely that many decisions have been finalized relating to the device.

Samsung has been pretty much universally praised for its decision to keep giving its flagship devices a headphone jack. However, as other manufacturers increasingly make the decision to remove the jack, it was always going to become more and more likely that Samsung eventually follows suit.

If anything, Samsung has done well to keep the jack for this long. By fall next year, it will have been a full three years since Apple first removed the headphone jack from the iPhone 7.

Next up: Samsung Galaxy S10: What we know about Samsung’s next big thing