OnePlus Gives Users What They Want: The New OnePlus 5T With A Headphone Jack

OnePlus really knows how to put on a show.

The Chinese manufacturer had a few teasers in the form of tweets before officially announcing the upcoming OnePlus 5T, one of which is a spot-the-difference game and the other a guessing game.

That's fun and all, but the important part is that the next smartphone from OnePlus will have a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

OnePlus 5T Saves Fans From The Dongle Life

The current smartphone trend is all about removing bezels and, to the disappointment of many, the headphone jack. For a lot of users, that just doesn't fit the bill, but fortunately, OnePlus sees it the same way.

In a forum post, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has confirmed the OnePlus 5T's name and that it's going to come with a headphone jack "for the time being." According to him, the company is keeping the fan-adored audio port because of two reasons: audio quality and user freedom.

While the best wireless headphones can potentially go toe-to-toe with the best wired ones in terms of audio quality, the choices under $200 that can are limited, Lau says. In other words, without the jack, users are left with either terrible-sounding wireless earphones or expensive ones.

As a side note, Apple's AirPods and Google's Pixel Buds are below $200, so there's that.

On top of that, Lau notes that 80 percent of OnePlus users still use the headphone jack, saying that replacing it with another USB-C to make a slimmer phone just wasn't "worth taking away our users' freedom to use their favorite earphones and accessories."

"Sometimes, industry trends go against our core beliefs. This is one of those times when we respectfully disagree on what it means to be courageous," Lau writes, with "courageous" referring to Apple's decision to ditch the headphone jack starting with the iPhone 7. "That's why we're proud to announce that we're keeping the headphone jack for the OnePlus 5T."

Leading Up To The OnePlus 5T

On an interesting note, OnePlus tweeted a photo of its smartphones obviously with the purpose of bringing attention to their headphone jacks.

That's a no-brainer. Afterward, it posted another tweet with five cups of tea, more or less confirming the OnePlus 5T moniker.

Long story short, the takeaway here is that OnePlus is sticking with the headphone jack for now with the OnePlus 5T, but more than that, the smartphone maker has a flair for showmanship — sort of.

In other related news, alleged renders of the upcoming smartphone got leaked, tagged with a rumored launch date of Nov. 16.