OnePlus 5T to retain 3.5mm headphone jack – Read full text of Pete Lau's post

New Delhi: Putting speculation about the 3.5mm headphone jack in the upcoming OnePlus 5T to rest, Pete Lau, the company's Founder and CEO, has announced the smartphone will retain the standard headphone jack.

Lau, in his latest forum post on the OnePlus online community, cited "audio quality" and "user freedom" as the key factors for this decision.

Here is the full text of his post.

Hey everyone,

In the past, we’ve made some jokes on this subject, but today I wanted to dig deeper into our decision to keep the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Whether it’s in the area of hardware or software, our focus is on producing superior product experiences. Every feature, removed or added, is based on our understanding of user needs. For the time being, we think it’s best to stick with the headphone jack. Here's why.

First, audio quality. When we surveyed the OnePlus community, 70% of users told us that their priority was sound quality. On the whole, wireless earbuds aren't there yet to provide the same quality of audio. Are the best wireless headphones comparable to the best of the wired? That's possible. But as you get closer to the under $200 category, the options are more limited. Keeping the headphone jack allows our users to continue to take full advantage of the excellent range of audio choices on the market. Not to mention our own Bullet V2 earphones. ;)

Second, user freedom. Nearly 80% of our users use in-jack headphones. At one point, we thought about using another USB-C port to replace the 3.5 mm audio port. The advantage to USB-C is that it would have let us further slim down our flagships. However, the question we asked ourselves was whether replacing the 3.5 mm jack with a USB-C port would bring a noticeably improved experience for our users. In other words, is it worth the trade off? And our assessment was no, this design decision was not worth taking away our users' freedom to use their favorite earphones and accessories.

Don't get me wrong. Wireless audio technology has a lot of potential. And if you prefer wireless headphones, our flagships have excellent Bluetooth capability for this choice. But our goal from the beginning has been to bring better technology to the world. That's why we prioritize the user and make good technology accessible. Sometimes, industry trends go against our core beliefs. This is one of those times when we respectfully disagree on what it means to be courageous. That's why we're proud to announce that we're keeping the headphone jack for the OnePlus 5T – and confident that our product decisions for our upcoming device will offer the best flagship experience possible.

Never Settle.