You might have heard by now that Apple is probably ditching the headphone jack on the next iPhone.
Without the headphone jack, we'd be left with either the iPhone's Lightning port or Bluetooth to listen to music.
This poses a problem for iPhone users who have a favorite pair of headphones that plug into the regular 3.5mm headphone jack.
Indeed, my colleague Tim Stenovec just got a nice pair of expensive Bose noise-canceling earphones for Christmas, but they'll probably become obsolete when he buys the next iPhone. He's not happy about it, and might return his cherished new earphones.
So, what would it be like if Apple ditched the headphone jack and customers were forced to buy Lightning-enabled headphones? I used a pair of Philips Fidelio M2L headphones with a Lightning connector for a week to find out.
I also carried around my old earphones with a 3.5mm connector because the Philips headphones didn't come with an adapter, and I thought I'd need them for devices that use the "old" 3.5mm headphone jack. It's also "realistic" that I'd still have my old 3.5mm earphones around to use as a spare.
Using Lightning headphones for a week
The first problem right off the bat: I was carrying around two pairs of earphones instead of one.
It didn't add any weight in my backpack, but it was something else to think about packing. If I forgot my 3.5mm earphones at home, for example, I'd be stuck with listening to music at work exclusively through my iPhone and the Lightning headphones because my computer doesn't have a Lightning port.
And would you believe it? I forgot my old 3.5mm earphones one day. I had taken them out at home to listen to music on my computer at home and forgot to pack them back in my bag.
So, I listened to music from my iPhone at work with the Lightning headphones, which was using up its battery while there was a perfectly good computer with eternal power sitting right in front of me.
And then it came. The low power alert. I can't charge my phone and listen to music at the same time, since both plugs require the Lightning port, so out came the Lightning headphones, off went the music, and in went the iPhone charger.
To be fair, my iPhone wasn't fully charged, but this wouldn't have been a problem if the headphones came with an adapter, or if I bought an adapter. If they had, I'd connect them to my computer and charge my iPhone separately. These just aren't things I'd usually spend time thinking about with my old 3.5mm earphones.
And so I sat without the option to listen to music until my iPhone finished charging a couple hours later.
While my iPhone was charging, I had to watch a video, but I couldn't watch it on my computer because I had no way to plug in the Lightning headphones to my computer. That fateful day, my iPhone was the only way to watch a video with headphones. I had to unplug my iPhone from the charging cable and plug the Lightning headphones back in so I could watch the video on my iPhone. That's much more of a hassle I'm ready to deal with.
Otherwise, it wasn't so bad on days when I remembered to pack my old 3.5mm earphones. I'd just need to get over the fact that I had to buy an adapter or a new pair of Lightning headphones just so I could listen to music on my iPhone.
So was it good or bad?
Clearly, it felt like I took a step backwards by using Lightning headphones, at least without a 3.5mm adapter I could use to plug in to my computer. Sure, it was my fault for forgetting my spare headphones, but it was never a problem before.
Also, if I had forgotten my old 3.5mm earphones for the plane trips to and from Las Vegas for CES, I would have been pretty upset because entertainment systems on planes only have a 3.5mm jack.
The Philips Fidelio headphones have a built-in digital-to-analog converter that boosts the overall quality of the music, and they sounded great. The sound was a little sharper and clearer than I'm used to with the old 3.5mm earphones. But they're very pricey at $300, especially when they don't have a microphone for phone calls, which is an odd omission considering these only work with Apple's iPhone (or iPad).
By the way, the cheapest Lightning headphones available right now are around $150.
Overall, it wasn't a great experience. If Apple kills the old 3.5mm headphone jack, the best option is to use Bluetooth headphones, which works with pretty much any device with Bluetooth, including your iPhone and your computer. Some of them even come with a cable for situations that call for them, like when you're on a plane and you can't use your Bluetooth.
