Motorola announced two new smartphones at the Lenovo Tech World event in San Francisco on Thursday, and they're both missing headphone jacks.
Take a look at the bottom of the new Moto Z:
Nope. Nothing at the top, either.
The Moto Z and Moto Z Force are the first smartphones we're aware of that don't have headphone jacks. That's pretty significant because the headphone jack has been used to plug headphones into all sorts of devices for decades, and now they're slowly getting phased out.
The notion of removing headphone jacks was barely talked about until rumors that Apple would ditch them in its next iPhone that's expected to be released this fall. Instead, it's rumored that we'll be using Apple's Lightning port to plug in headphones either with Lightning connectors or adapters that would let you plug in your old headphones with the traditional headphone connector. And, of course, you'd also be able to use wireless Bluetooth headphones.
To listen to music on the Moto Z phones, headphones could be connected to the USB-C port with USB-C-ready headphones or with an adapter. Alternatively, people can also use wireless Bluetooth speakers.
There are several benefits of ditching the headphone jack, like better music quality and better controls over music apps and the phone itself. However, there's bound to be some controversy, as the 3.5mm headphone jack has been the standard for plug headphones into devices for several decades.
