Starting at the iPhone 5s, there’s a steady rise of interest in replacing the power/audio board. Unique page views of Lightning port replacement guides within one year of publication. So I gathered page views from within one year after the publication of our Lightning/headphone jack guide publication. We don’t always have a guide ready the moment a device drops, or even at the same time every iPhone cycle. Who cares about Lightning ports?įirst up, page views on our Lightning/headphone port replacement guides. It was also the peak of people’s desire, or maybe tolerance, for fixing that port. The iPhone 7 was a turning point for the headphone jack as a consumer convenience. But, in our experience, they either break or go missing the third time you remember you have them. Square, the company whose headphone-jack-based card reader jump-started its small-business appeal, transitioned to wireless readers.Īpple and other phone-makers typically provide 3.5-mm-to-single-port dongles. Many smartphone makers followed suit in removing their jacks and selling their own AirPod clones. Those basically disposable, $100-plus gadgets could soon be the company’s third-most-popular product. Coincidentally, the company simultaneously had ready wireless headphones designed to easily pair with other Apple devices- AirPods. Apple’s stated reasons were to save space inside the phone, improve water resistance, and shift audio processing from inside to outside the phone. What changed after the iPhone 7 Among other things Apple now had room for inside their 3.5-mm-less iPhones was a barometric vent, equalizing internal pressure with outside conditions and aiding altimeter accuracy.Īpple did, of course, remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7, and every iPhone thereafter. But some of it is landfills full of tiny circuit boards and non-replaceable batteries. After Apple found the “courage” to drop headphone jacks, many things changed about iPhones, people’s affinity for Bluetooth, and the design of Lightning ports. Were we right? Were iPhone owners forced to fix their Lightning port more often for the next five years? Not exactly. “But Bluetooth still sucks (both in function and battery impact),” we wrote, “and adding more non-replaceable batteries to a product sucks even more.” We did note one non-port-bending alternative: wireless headphones. What’s more, with a broken Lightning port, you couldn’t charge your phone, back in those pre-wireless-charging days. Because you’re essentially doubling the use of a port that’s proven delicate in phones-past. Will also increase the failure rates of the Lightning-port-audio. Making the Lightning port the only slot for wired headphones, we guessed: But between 75-87 percent of iPhone 5- and 6-series owners looking for port repair guides were looking for Lightning replacement, not headphone jacks-the charging port was a lot more likely to break. The headphone and Lightning ports were, before the iPhone 7, consolidated in a single assembly-replacing either one required replacing both. Much of iFixit’s technical writing team agreed. iFixit, JHeadphone/Lightning port connector in the iPhone 6S.Īndrew Goldheart wasn’t alone. Removing the headphone jack and consolidating its function into the Lightning port will lead to more broken Lightning ports. Seeing this ominous change, one of our teardown engineers considered this and proclaimed a looming repair problem: 3.5 mm, or stereo jack) from the iPhone 7. A little over five years ago, Apple was rumored to be removing the headphone jack (a.k.a.
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