WSJ: Next iPhone to be minor physical redesign, loses headphone jack


The Wall Street Journal:

Among other things, those people said, Apple's newest phones will maintain the current 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays. Those are the sizes of the larger-display models Apple introduced in 2014, and refreshed with newer models last fall.

The biggest planned change in this year's phones is the removal of the headphone plug, which will make the phone thinner and improve its water resistance, said people with that matter.

This continues recent rumors that the next iPhone, presumably named iPhone 7, will both not look a lot different and may lose the analog headphone jack.

The rational for the headphone jack is to make the phone slimmer, although the new design is rumored to be only 1mm thinner. While the plug takes up physical space, there is also required circuitry involved in turning digital noise into analog. Perhaps some of that could be offloaded to an external converter on headphones or a Lightening adapter, which also open the door to possibly better audio performance. So, while the design may be slightly thinner, this also may open up more internal volume.

No major physical redesign will likely keep people from upgrading or at least complaining about upgrading. It's yet to be seen what the actual improvements will be in the next iPhone, but physical appearance is very important to many consumers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that 2017 Apple is expected to offer a significant physical redesign with edge to edge OLED screen and no home button.