Smartphone manufacturers are taking away basic features including micro-SD card slots, the headphone jack and removable battery covers, which used to be standard in phones. Without these basic features, the value of owning a smartphone diminishes.
Apple was one of the first companies to remove the 3.5 mm headphone jack from its phones, starting with the iPhone 7, according to a Sept. 8, 2016 CNBC article.
After Apple decided to take away its headphone jack, it introduced AirPods, its proprietary Bluetooth earbuds, for the price of $159, according to the same CNBC article.
The current price for a pair of Apple earbuds with a 3.5mm connector is around $20, according to Best Buy’s website.
Samsung followed suit and decided to sell its own wireless earphones, Galaxy Buds, after removing the headphone jack from its smartphones even though it mocked Apple for not including one, according to an Aug. 8, 2019 CNBC article.
Phone manufacturers are price gouging consumers to buy additional products to fix problems they created by taking away basic features.
Another feature that’s being stripped from smartphones is the micro-SD card slot.
A micro-SD card is used to expand storage space in a phone or any device that can store digital files, according to a Jan. 28 Business Insider article.
Smartphone manufacturers have removed the micro-SD card so they can charge a premium for additional storage, according to a May 8, 2015 ZDNet article.
ZDnet is a news coverage site that covers trends on technology that matter to technical professionals, according to its website.
Not only are phone prices climbing, now people are getting charged for a manufacturer’s limitation of space.
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 5G lineup is the latest line of phones that doesn’t include a micro-SD card slot, according to a Jan. 14 Cnet article.
Cnet is an editorial site that covers consumer electronics, according to its website.
The Samsung S21 5G has an initial storage of 128GB that can only expand up to 256GB because it lacks a micro-SD card slot, according to Samsung’s website.
Phone manufacturers have also made it common practice to glue battery covers to smartphones, making battery replacement difficult when needed.
Smartphone batteries have a limited life, degrading over charge cycles, according to a Sept. 3, 2018 IFixIt article.
IFixIt is an independent repair company that believes everyone should have the right to repair the things they own, according to its website.
While Apple may not have offered removable batteries since the inception of the iPhone, it suffered through Batterygate.
Batterygate was a scandal in which Apple knowingly and secretly slowed down old iPhones released between 2014 and 2016, according to a Nov. 18, 2020 NPR article.
Samsung also went through a public relations nightmare regarding removable battery covers.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 had cases of it exploding because of its battery, to the point of having two recalls, according to a Jan. 22, 2017 NBC News article.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is still the only phone that is banned from flights, according to the Transportation Security Administration’s “What Can I Bring?” webpage.
If removable batteries were still around, maybe there wouldn’t have been such a large public relations nightmare that ended in a meme.
Although new phones are being manufactured without micro-SD card slots, headphone jacks and a removable battery cover, there are still smartphones that have these basic features.
The Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro is the most recent smartphone that has all the basic features, but phones like it aren’t promoted to the public.
Taking away basic features should not command a higher price on phones.
