Sumit Kumar Moneycontrol News
When Apple took away the 3.5 mm headphone jack from iPhone 7 in 2016, it was assumed to be a self-goal. But soon, many others followed suit, much to the chagrin of its users.
Huawei, Xiaomi, Motorola and even Nokia took the gamble of launching phones without the 3.5 mm jack and now OnePlus has taken it off from its latest offering the OnePlus 6T. But perhaps this time, users would not be bothered much simply because there's much more in the offing.
Taking away something as indispensable as the 3.5mm headphone jack was something only a behemoth like Apple could manage and it did cause consternation among users. The reason Apple gave behind taking off the headphone jack was, that it will free up real estate inside the phone to make more room for battery and other hardware.
That is precisely what OnePlus CEO Pete Lau also said while addressing leaks about the Chinese company getting rid of the jack. With the 6T, it seems Pete Lau has come right on his word.
OnePlus 6T offers an in-display fingerprint sensor and a 3,700mah battery. The battery is 400mah more than OnePlus 6, which does translate to more hours (depending on how you use it). The company claims that it has done some software optimisations and it is expected to increase the 6T’s battery life 23% more than the earlier version.
The phone feels premium with its 6.41-inch screen and it is snappy with the latest stock Android Pie and Oxygen OS on top.
The in-display fingerprint sensor is being claimed as the fastest in the town at 0.34 seconds.
At the India launch, Szymon Kopec, Product Manager of OnePlus, also offered some trivia about the in-display fingerprint sensor. He said that OnePlus did actually work on bringing the in-display fingerprint sensor on the OnePlus 5T itself but it somehow didn’t work out and they had to drop the idea.
Coming back to the decision of 'getting rid of the headphone jack', it must be noted that OnePlus did not jump the bandwagon back in 2016 and 2017 when a number of smartphone manufacturers followed Apple. Instead by keeping the jack, it was praised widely by OnePlus users as can be seen replies to Pete Lau’s post.
What’s remarkable though that in the same post, several users do write that "removing a headphone jack is a bad idea unless you are giving users a USB C to AUX adapter without charging extra money for it".
Stopping just short of being spooky, OnePlus has done precisely that.
Priced at a nifty Rs 37,999 for the base version that has 128GB of space, 6 GB of RAM coupled with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 processor - the OnePlus 6T does give a USB C to AUX adapter in the box. That is competitive pricing, better yet it offers 2018 features like a minimal notch, low screen-to-body ratio and the new in-display fingerprint sensor.
So in a way, OnePlus kept the users happy when it took the conscious decision of not adding the headphone jack and it has managed to keep the users somewhat contented this time around with the new, necessary features.
Having said all of that, one can't just dismiss the decision of removal of the headphone jack as something that the people will adjust to.
A large section of the technology fraternity believes that the future is wireless but an even larger section of OnePlus customers, especially in countries like India, where many are increasingly getting hooked to feature-heavy, economically-priced premium phones, it may come as a dampener.
Another thing that is missing in the package is wireless charging. Though the 6T does have a glassy-looking back, it doesn’t support wireless charging. Is it too much to ask for at this price point?
Many would argue that it probably is, but the thing is, if you’re throwing high punches you got to respond blow with a blow. Perhaps, one of the high-end versions could have thrown in wireless charging, just to test the waters.
Nevertheless, with another flagship-killer like OnePlus 6T, OnePlus is making things difficult for itself, what better can they do?
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