Most rumors we’ve heard about the iPhone 7 say it’ll be the first Apple smartphone to ship without a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Even the competition is reportedly planning to ditch the standard port in the future, with Intel looking to convince customers to adopt USB Type-C audio. But a new leak showing purported iPhone 7 parts seems to indicate that the death of the headphone jack may have been greatly exaggerated.
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Apple could eliminate the standard audio port in the future, but that might not happen this year if these leaks are accurate. The images were obtained by French site NowhereElse, which has shown plenty of pictures of alleged iPhone components over the years.
The images show a Lightning and 3.5mm headphone jack assembly that differs from the one available on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6, as seen in these comparisons.
The original images (left side in this comparisons) were posted on Chinese social network Weibo, so they’re far from official. However, this marks the first time an iPhone 7 report claims the 3.5mm port isn’t going away.
A recent leak suggested the iPhone 7 Plus will have the same size as the iPhone 6s Plus. The schematic said the handset would feature a dual lens camera on the back, but would lack a headphone jack on the bottom. There are various reasons why Apple might be interested in killing this old port and replace it with either Lightning audio or wireless headphones. One of the plausible explanations for this design decision is that Apple wants to reduce the size of the iPhone in the future. Such a move would be possible by removing the screen and the headphone jack, but without reducing the iPhone’s screen size.
