Sony unconvincingly tries to explain why it ditched the 3.5mm headphone jack

There's a lot to like about the Sony Xperia XZ2 and Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact, including some Hi-Res audio tech, but the 3.5mm headphone jack has bitten the dust this time around. 

Sony has taken to its official blog to explain why the port got removed, and we're not entirely convinced.

"This is part of the shift to our new Ambient Flow design language," says Sony. "In order to create the beautiful seamless design, our designers needed to remove the headphone jack. Plus, we’re aware of the major market trend toward wireless headphones over wired headphones."

So there you have it – that "seamless design" just wouldn't have been possible with a 3.5mm port in there, despite these phones being thick enough to house such a socket. And the market is trending towards wireless anyway, apparently, so tough luck.

Living the dongle life

Of course we're not privy to the engineering secrets of Sony's mobile team, but Samsung managed to produce a couple of fine-looking, bezel-free handsets this year while making sure wired headphones would still work without the aid of a dongle.

As Sony's FAQ goes on to point out, an adaptor comes in the box, so you can still plug in your existing headphones if you're not ready to join the "major market trend" towards wireless anytime soon. The adaptor supports Sony's Hi-Res Audio technology too, provided you use a compatible headset.

Even without the headphone jack, we're pleased to see the design of Sony's phones moving with the times this year, and we've been impressed by the phone's performance and video capture capabilities.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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