Sony is bringing the 3.5mm headphone socket back to its flagship phones

Sony has announced its new 2020 flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 II, and one of the features that it is reintroducing is the 3.5mm headphone socket. 

There's something about the humble 3.5mm headphone socket that stirs passion in smartphone fans. Apple was one of the first to remove the headphone socket, stating that it took "courage" and many others followed suit, stripping premium devices of the legacy connection and leaving for entry level devices.

It's a move that's generally been greeted with derision from smartphone fans, removing something reliable, removing the flexibility to have an audio output and charge the phone at the same, removing the choice to use existing high (or low) quality headphones without a dongle. 

Sony did just that in 2019, pulling the 3.5mm socket off the Xperia 1 and the Xperia 5 and leaving it on its lower spec device, the Xperia 10. Now it has reversed the decision, with Sony telling us that it's based on customer feedback. 

Sony also happens to be one of the biggest retailers in headphones - many of which are wired - so it makes perfect sense. If you don't want to use it, the phone is still waterproof, and Bluetooth headphones work as they would with any other device.

So raise a cheer for Sony; rather than pigheadedly following the market it's decided to do something that's actually useful for its customers.

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