Samsung’s headphone dongle leaks ahead of Note 10 announcement

Are you a current owner of a Samsung Galaxy device and a pair of wired headphones? Did it feel like someone just walked on your grave? It may be because pictures of Samsung’s upcoming 3.5mm to USB-C dongle just leaked as the final, irrefutable confirmation that Samsung will be joining the ranks of Apple, Google (not counting the budget Pixel 3A), and nearly every other flagship phone maker in killing the headphone jack on the upcoming Galaxy Note 10, via SamMobile.

The photos depict a dongle that is exactly as you’d expect: there’s a USB-C jack on one end and a 3.5mm input on the other. Samsung appears to be using a sturdier, tapered connector that slopes down to the wire, instead of the more fragile step-style of reinforcement that Apple and Google use on their respective dongles. (We’ve officially been stuck with these ridiculous adapters for long enough that I have apparently become a connoisseur.)

Samsung is expected to include the new dongle in the box with the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus, which will likely soften the blow. While the price for spare or replacement dongles hasn’t been announced, it’ll presumably fall near the same $9 to $12 range that other dongles cost.

But it’s not about how much the dongle costs. It’s the cost of the inexorable march forward of progress, regardless of what systems break along the way — the price of an industry that always insists that “new is better,” even if it isn’t the case.

With Samsung — the last major holdout — seemingly on board with the effort to kill the 3.5mm headphone jack, the war on the headphone jack is effectively over, and the dongles have won.