Lenovo just held a press event where it launched several new phones including the new Moto Z. One feature quietly not glossed on was the fact there was no headphone jack. Instead sound came via the USB port.

Motorola aren’t the first manufacturer to omit the 3.5mm headphone jack and certainly won’t be the last. Using the USB Type C port for audio will emit a higher quality sound.

Apple are rumoured to remove this 50+ year old analogue part in the next iPhone.

So is it a disaster. Hardly. For years I have used the USB port to take audio from my phones and into a dedicated DAC to obtain the best possible sound quality. Audeze already sell the EL-8 that come with an Apple lightning connector to plug in to the lightning port. And there are other companies that have ditched the headphone jack connector on their headphones too.

The Moto Z does come with a USB Type C headphone adapter so you can still use all your old headphones.

So why the change. Well as I mentioned the headphone jack is old tech and is 50+ years old now. 24 bit sound can be obtained or higher from the USB Type C socket. 24 bit bluetooth Hi Res sound is now possible. So you can now connect Hi Res Bluetooth headphones and drop the wire altogether. Or if the device has Qi Wireless charging , you could use the USB Type C connector whilst charging.

This change will upset many people at first. Life changes so people will move on eventually and forget the past.

And lets not forget if you have no headphone jack, that is one less hole to let water in!