These Chinese phones beat Apple to removing the headphone jack
Rumor has it the iPhone 7 will ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead, you'll need to buy new Lightning headphones, use an adapter, or go wireless with Bluetooth headphones.
If it comes true this fall, there will no doubt be riots on the streets. Apple fans will be pissed at first, but will eventually get over it, defending Apple's design and engineering decisions. Android fans and phone makers will cry: "Ha, you silly Apple sheep!"
Actually, maybe it won't be that shocking. China's LeEco has already beaten Apple to the punch with a smartphone sans headphone jack. Three smartphones to be exact.
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To listen to music on the Le 2, Le 2 Pro and Le Max 2 smartphones, you'll need to use USB Type-C digital headphones, which the company will conveniently sell.
LeEco will offer earbuds with a remote and mic with a lossless digital decoding chip, dual rear acoustic chambers, and, get this, "solid bass sound that far exceed's Apple's EarPods." Those are the company's exact words.
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The other is a pair of headphones with active noise-cancellation and without an internal battery. The company says the headphones are comparable to Bose's QC25.
Phone-wise, the $170 Le 2, $230 Le 2 Pro and $325 Le Max 2 are pretty typical for Android phones. Notable features include a 10-core MediaTek processor in the 5.5-inch Le 2 and Le 2 Pro. The 5.7-inch Le Max Pro has Qualcomm's 820 chip and a whopping 6GB of RAM (most Android phones only have 3-4GB and the iPhone 6s only needs 2GB). All three have rear-placed fingerprint sensors and come in -- you guessed it -- rose gold.
With more and more phone makers incorporating USB Type-C ports into their smartphones, it could mean the 3.5mm headphone jack's days are numbered. Of course, if Apple does it on its next iPhone, there will be interoperability issues, since Lightning headphones won't work with USB Type-C ones, and vice versa.
The best headphone choices are starting to look like Bluetooth ones, which will work with any device, provided it is Bluetooth-certified.
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Topics Android
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
