If you’re an early iPhone 7 adopter, you’re already getting accustomed to life without a headphone jack. But what if it started to disappear from other devices you use everyday, such as your iPad or MacBook?
With a MacBook Pro refresh on the horizon, fans fear it will be the next device in Apple’s lineup to see its headphone jack disappear. The move could allow Apple to make its most powerful portable even slimmer, but would it be worth it?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we discuss whether the MacBook Pro should lose its headphone jack this year, or whether Apple should give consumers and the industry time to adapt to other standards.
Killian Bell: So, Apple did kill the headphone jack with iPhone 7, and it didn’t really create the kind of backlash some people were anticipating. By the time its new smartphones were made official, it seems most fans had already accepted its fate and the idea that they had to move on. But I’m not sure this should be the start of a trend just yet.
It makes sense for Apple to take the headphone jack out of smaller devices like the iPhone, because it has limited space to work with. That jack is pretty big, and it was taking up a lot of room that could be better used by other things — like great stereo speakers, bigger batteries, and a larger Taptic Engine in the iPhone 7.
That’s not quite the case with devices like the MacBook Pro, which recent rumors have claimed will be next in line to see its headphone jack disappear. This is a much bigger device, so Apple has much more space to work with. Plus the headphone jack on a Mac is often used for more than just headphones, making it even more necessary.
If Apple takes a similar approach with the new MacBook Pro as it did with the 12-inch MacBook, traditional USB ports will disappear this year, and they’ll be replaced by USB-C. Fans will already have to buy a bunch of dongles to make their existing peripherals compatible with the new notebook; they won’t want to buy yet another one just to plug in headphones or a mic.
What do you think?
Luke Dormehl: You’re right in saying that the reasons, or the ostensible reasons, for getting rid of the 3.5mm headphone jack change on a Mac versus an iPhone. Thinness is part of it, but space is obviously at more of a premium when you’re dealing with a device the size of an iPhone versus one the size of a MacBook. But I don’t think it’s a matter of if Apple gets rid of the headphone jack on the MacBook, so much as when it makes this move.
The company made a big song and dance about its vision for a “wireless future” and I think that’s going to extend to Macs in the same way it has to mobile devices. The big extra challenge is the fact that Apple’s Lightning EarPods aren’t going to work unless Apple adds a Lightning port to the new Mac as well. I guess we’ll be stocking up on Lighting-to-USB-C dongles.
It may shock you, but I’m going to agree with you that removing it from the next generation of MacBooks isn’t a good idea. A lot of the technology — particularly Bluetooth headphones with what, in my experience, includes latency issues — just isn’t ready for primetime just yet in some cases… at least not at the expense of the headphone jack.
But I think that Apple certainly will remove it, unless there’s an overwhelming negative response to the survey it sent out to users. It’s tearing off the band aid of 3.5mm headphone jacks, and this is being viewed as an extension of the same kind of forward thinking that got rid of the floppy disk.
So let me turn this around a bit, since I think we’re in broad agreement, and ask this: If Apple did set a precedent by ditching the headphone jack, would there be a plus-side in terms of forcing the industry to adapt to this idea of the wireless future sooner? Or would we just wind up with a lot more dongles in our dongle drawer?
Killian: Yes, I agree it’s a matter of when, not if. But I think Apple needs to give the ecosystem of Lightning and USB-C peripherals time to grow before ditching the headphone jack on Macs. The catalog of Lightning-compatible headphones and microphones is still so small, and much the same can be said about those that use USB-C.
As you point out, latency is an issue with Bluetooth. If you’re watching movies on your Mac, it’s not uncommon to see the picture out of sync with the audio when you’re using Bluetooth speakers. No one wants to have to put up with that. Of course, Apple’s new W1 chip that’s in iPhone 7 might change that, but then there’s still the issue of interference.
Macs are used for so much more than iPhones. If you use yours to make music or podcasts, you need the best audio products available. Losing the headphone jack and ditching traditional USB ports at the same time makes that difficult. The professional creatives Apple is so proud of supporting with its computers aren’t going to like that one bit.
I certainly think that by killing off the headphone jack, Apple is pushing the industry to adopt other standards, like Lightning. I’m sure headphone makers are already rushing to create Lightning-compatible options now that iPhone 7’s here, when they probably weren’t a priority before.
But again, I think the industry needs more time to catch up, otherwise it’s users that suffer.
Luke: Agreed. To be fair to Apple, all they’ve done so far is to ask the question: which is exactly what any forward-moving tech company should be doing. Prompted, I think, by the legacy of Steve Jobs and his tastes, Apple seems to love the idea of getting to some platonic ideal of the purest possible tech device: the fewest buttons, the least interface elements, a lack of instruction manuals and so forth. Sometimes these impulses to tear up the past are great, but they rely on the technology being at a point where this can be done safely. No-one missed the floppy drive when it was gone because we had rewritable CDs and, shortly thereafter, USB sticks became ubiquitous. CD/DVD drives were no great loss, because cloud computing and other technologies were at a point where we didn’t need them. I’m not convinced that’s the case with the wireless future just yet.
As you know, I write a daily “Today in Apple history” post, which dredges up some piece of Apple’s past and reevaluates it. Today I was writing about iSync and, more specifically, Steve Jobs addressing developers in 2002 about the way devices would talk to each other in the future. That’s exactly what iPhones and Macs and iPads do today with features like Handoff. Apple’s brilliance is about picking the right moment to do this. And I don’t think that moment is now.
As another question, then, what needs to change? If we’re saying we don’t want this to happen on the 2016-era MacBooks, when do you think we’ll be ready for this transition? What kind of timeline are we talking about?
Killian: I think Apple needs to give the industry another year. If it’s going to refresh the MacBook Pro this fall, I think we’ll be ready by the time next year’s refresh is due. By then the market will be flooded with headphones that use Lightning, and more accessories that use USB-C. There will be more dongles, too — and they’ll be more affordable.
Let’s hand this one over to the readers now. Do you think Apple should drop the headphone jack from the MacBook Pro this year, or should it give fans more time to adjust to life without it? Is the move even necessary in the foreseeable future given the space it has to play with in larger devices? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments!
Friday Night Fights is a series of weekly death matches between two no-mercy brawlers who will fight to the death — or at least agree to disagree — about which is better: Apple or Google, iOS or Android?
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
18 responses to “Should the MacBook Pro be next in line to lose its headphone jack? [Friday Night Fights]”
Simple: No.
The MacBook Pro is a professional machine, and as such many people use professional headphones with it (I use my Bose QC25s). This is a machine often used for creative purposes, where the EarPods just won’t cut it, even if they are fine for average media consumption like streaming music. Removing the jack and forcing users to carry another adapter isn’t a good idea.
Well, there are those that use a MacBookPro as a DAW and if they are using external AD/DA converters that’s connected via USB or Thunderbolt, they typically will have a 1/4inch headphone jack that’s using higher quality external DACs.
I do understand where you’re coming from. But for audio professionals that typically use external DACs? Many of them have headphone jacks.
With Macs, they aren’t as cramped for room like the iPhone.
But Intel is on a rampage telling every PC mfg to ditch 3.5mm and go with USB-C because they can use a USB-C connector. But will Apple listen to Intel on this? I don’t know.
I have a Mac Pro desktop, which is certainly a professional machine. I’ve got it feeding an external DAC that, in turn, feeds a dedicated headphone amp to drive my Sennheiser HD580 headphones. When I want to listen through speakers, I do rely on the headphone jack — as a source of S/PDIF optical digital out (a feature many users don’t know that their Macs provide) to an A/V receiver. But I never use analog audio outputs from my Mac.
They definitely need to wait until next year. I wonder what the chances of MacBooks gaining lightning ports are?
Besides zero? What possible use could there be for a lightning port on a Mac?
If they’re pushing people to use Lightning audio output on their iPhones, that will spur development in the field of Lightning Headphones. If they’re going to screw over 3.5mm headphone owners, they can at least not screw over the people who but Lightning headphones.
Why ? There is already a plethora of USB powered headphones on the market already, so what possible reason could there be to waste space on a Lightning port if the whole purpose of ditching the 3.5mm port was to save space?
So people can use the same Lightning headphones on either device.
That makes no sense whatsoever. They can already use existing 3.5mm plug headphones on either device only the 7 series requires a dongle. You’re assuming that everyone who owns a MBP also owns an iPhone.
Why should people need to buy different headphones for every different device?
Wisco, look at what I’m saying: why would they remove the 3.5mm port just to replace it with a Lightning port? That negates the purpose of removing it in the first place.
Hell if I know. I don’t want them to remove the headphone jack at all, but if they are going to then it seems to make sense to put in the same kind of port that the iPhone has, to allow cross-device headphone use.
I agreed with the removal from the iPhone, but i’d defiantly want to keep it in my Mac Pro (for now at least)
Unfortunately the 3.5mm is out for new MBP. Tim wanted it gone, faced lots of backlash, forged ahead with USB-C anyway, and is now just working on the right marketing spin for the rollout. (Two weeks ago was the survey amongst MBP users to help gauge fallout.)
BTW where’s the colorful function keys in the pic? That’s one of the best parts of the new machine!
Apple used to be about making ‘computing’ simpler and more accessible. Removing ports only reduces accessibility and over complexifies what should be simple as plug’n’play, to be replaced with a plethora of dongles, and work-a-rounds. Removing a floppy drive, to replace it with a cd drive made sense, removing a cd drive for external HD storage made sense, but removing an audio jack with nothing to replace, is ridiculous. May as well just use a chrome book laptop, or simply chuck it all and replace a Mac with perfectly good hardware from another vender. It is not like Mac OS is that much better than anything else right now, in fact, I suspect that Mac OS is now the most unstable of any OS I use at this point.
No, they have plenty of space inside, why not add even more of them. and a few lightning ports..
“So, Apple did kill the headphone jack with iPhone 7,”
They did not kill the headphone jack, it is alive and well across the globe and not going anywhere. They only killed it for tens of millions of future customers who now will *not* buy iphones because an iphone without a jack will be incompatible with the rest of their devices such as home and portable stereos, cars, headsets, etc.
And to think that the manufacturers of those devices will revise them to be compatible with the iphone is the ultimate in hubris.
/Betamax. Good luck.
No. They should not. Not on any professional level product, at the least, and honestly what’s the point? If I want to use wireless headphones I can. Please don’t force me to use wireless. Apple’s pride and arrogance will be their downfall – Mac sales are already dropping, this will only worsen the situation. I’ve been holding out for a MacBook Pro refresh, still using my 2010 model, but I find myself looking at Windows 10 models these days. My mother can have my MacBook Pro while I will probably end up with a Dell – the XPS 13 or 15. The reasons to go Apple for my professional needs are disappearing, along with FCP Studio, Aperture, Mac Pros and headphone jacks.