The Death of the Headphone Jack: Three Years Later

Apple removed the headphone jack from the iPhone in 2016. By 2023, virtually every flagship phone had followed suit. Now, in 2026, the headphone jack is extinct in the premium phone market and disappearing from budget phones too. Here's the state of wired audio on mobile devices three years after the last major holdout fell.

The Current Landscape

Phones with Headphone Jacks (2026)

Among phones sold in the US market, the headphone jack survives primarily in:

• Budget phones ($100-250): Samsung Galaxy A15, Motorola Moto G Power, some Nokia models
• Rugged phones: Cat phones, Kyocera DuraForce
• Sony Xperia line: Sony remains the only premium brand still including a headphone jack, specifically for audiophile-targeted models
• Gaming phones: ASUS ROG Phone and some RedMagic models include jacks for latency-sensitive gaming

What Replaced It

USB-C to 3.5mm adapters: The simplest solution. A $9 dongle converts your phone's USB-C port to a headphone jack. The Apple USB-C to 3.5mm Adapter ($9) includes a basic DAC and works with any USB-C phone, not just iPhones.

USB-C headphones and earbuds: Some headphones connect directly via USB-C, bypassing the need for an analog jack. Samsung includes USB-C earbuds in some Galaxy phone boxes.

Bluetooth audio: The most common replacement. Wireless earbuds and headphones have become the default. The Sony WF-1000XM5 ($279) and AirPods Pro 2 ($249) represent the premium tier of this replacement.

Has Audio Quality Suffered?

The Audiophile Perspective

Wired audio through a quality DAC (digital-to-analog converter) is still technically superior to Bluetooth. Bluetooth compresses audio, introduces latency, and adds another potential point of failure. Audiophiles are right that something was lost.

However, modern Bluetooth codecs have narrowed the gap substantially:

• LDAC (Sony): Up to 990 kbps — near-CD quality
• aptX HD (Qualcomm): 576 kbps — very good quality
• AAC (Apple): 256 kbps — good quality, universally supported
• LC3 (LE Audio): Better quality at lower bitrates than SBC

For 95% of listeners using streaming services (which are already compressed), the difference between wired and Bluetooth is inaudible.

The Convenience Perspective

No one misses tangled cables. The freedom of wireless earbuds — no snags, no cable noise, no accidentally yanking your phone off a table — is a genuine quality-of-life improvement. The trade-off in audio quality is imperceptible to most listeners.

The Practical Problems

What people DO miss:

• Battery anxiety: Wired headphones never die. Wireless earbuds need regular charging. Running out of battery mid-flight is genuinely frustrating.
• Latency: Bluetooth audio has 40-200ms of latency depending on the codec. For video watching, this is corrected by sync compensation. For gaming, it's noticeable. For musicians monitoring live performance, it's unusable.
• Cost: A decent pair of wired earbuds costs $15-30. Decent wireless earbuds start at $50. The price floor has risen.

How the Market Adapted

Budget Wireless Audio Exploded

The sub-$50 wireless earbud market barely existed in 2018. By 2026, dozens of brands offer competent wireless earbuds for $20-40. The Anker Soundcore Life P2i ($20) would have been unimaginable quality for the price five years ago.

USB-C Audio Dongles Improved

Early USB-C audio dongles were terrible — poor DAC quality, fragile cables, easy to lose. Modern dongles like the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm Adapter ($9) are cheap, sound decent, and work reliably.

For audiophiles, dedicated USB-C DAC dongles from FiiO and iBasso deliver studio-quality audio from a phone — better than most built-in headphone jacks ever offered.

Airplane Mode Works Better

Airlines now universally support Bluetooth on aircraft. The days of needing wired headphones for in-flight entertainment are largely over, though some older planes still require them.

Our Recommendation

If you care about audio quality: The Sennheiser HD 560S ($129) with a USB-C dongle delivers better audio from your phone than the built-in jack ever could. The separate DAC in a quality dongle often outperforms the cheap DACs that were built into phones.

If you care about convenience: Embrace wireless. A good pair of wireless earbuds like the AirPods Pro 2 ($249) with their transparency mode, spatial audio, and all-day battery life offers an experience that wired earbuds never could.

If you need both: Keep a USB-C dongle in your bag as a backup. Use wireless daily, and plug in wired headphones when you want maximum quality or your earbuds die.

Read our full wireless earbuds guide →

Read our full headphone guide →

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