Report: Samsung will strip the Galaxy Note of its headphone jack and buttons

Enlarge / The Galaxy Note 9.

Android Police has a report on the Galaxy Note 10 that Samsung fans probably won’t be happy with. David Ruddock claims the Galaxy Note 10 will be Samsung’s first flagship to remove the headphone jack, taking one of the last wired audio options off the flagship market.

Samsung isn’t just stripping away the headphone jack, though; the report claims the phone will also lack physical buttons. The volume rocker, power button, and Bixby button “will be replaced by capacitive or pressure-sensitive areas, likely highlighted by some kind of raised ‘bump’ and/or texture along the edge,” according to the report. This is something we’ve seen HTC do with the U12+ last year.

Physical buttons can be a failure point for a phone. The cutouts weaken the case and make devices more susceptible to bending. Plus, like a headphone jack, they’re an ingress point for dust and water. Still, Samsung was able to score an IP68 water and dust resistance rating on the Galaxy S10 with both of these features.