This guy mods his iPhone 7 to add a working headphone jack

Many folks (me included) have been increasingly fed up with more and more smart phone manufacturers removing the 3.5mm headphone jack from their flagship phones. Personally, I find the idea of having to carry more adapters and rechargeable devices plain unnecessary and a step backwards, not to mention a way to squeeze more money out of consumers by making them pay for extra devices while their phones themselves are getting more and more expensive as time goes by.

However, as annoying as that is, would you try to physically modify your phone yourself? Well, this guy did.

Scotty Allen, a former software engineer based in China, got fed up with the idea of not having a 3.5mm headphone jack in his iPhone 7, so he decided to give it a try and install an internal headphone jack.

It all started earlier this  year after he decided to upgrade his iPhone 6 to an iPhone 7. He got annoyed at idea of not being able to use his favorite wired earbuds without without the lightning to headphone jack adapter. And so, our hero begins a difficult, but not totally impossible journey. However, things were not as easy as soldering a few cables, as he later found out.

After taking apart his iPhone 7, he noticed the jack would pretty much fit in the space used by the “barometric vent,” a BS piece of plastic Apple decided to install instead “in order to accurately measure altitude.” It turned out to be just a piece of plastic that holds some connectors on.

It took him 4 months, 7 custom circuit boards designs, 3 disassembled iPhones later, money, and lots of patience. But the reward was worth it; he now posesses the first and only modern iPhone with a headphone jack.

Take that, Apple! He also added more details and answers to some questions on his website. The design is also on GitHub, in case someone wants to give this a try and void their warranty. I just hope doesn’t decide to take legal action against him for the circuit board designs.

As smart phones get bigger, I wish they would also make a smaller version of the headphone jack in case the phones also get a lot thinner, or how about coming up with a new type of port that doesn’t make us choose between charging or listening to music with our wired headphones.