Apple is known as the first smartphone vendor to start leaving the earphone plug (3.5mm audio jack) on its smartphones, starting with the iPhone 7 in 2016. Instead, the use of earphones (EarPods) now plugs directly into the Lightning connector, which is also used to charge the battery and transfer data.
The breakthrough that was popularized by Apple was then followed by other vendors, especially on their flagship phones.
Although it has been popularized by Apple, the company from Cupertino, USA, is not the first smartphone vendor to spark the concept of eliminating the 3.55mm earphone plug. The smartphone vendor in question is Oppo.
Chronologically, the Chinese smartphone company was the first to abandon the 3.5mm audio jack, to be precise on the Oppo Finder smartphone. By removing the 3.5 mm audio jack, Oppo initially intended to show off one of the advantages of the Oppo Finder, namely its thin body design. Carrying a body thickness that reaches 6.65 mm, the Oppo Finder is known as one of the thinnest smartphones in 2012.
This trend was later adopted by Oppo on another smartphone, namely the Oppo R5 which was launched in 2014. The Oppo R5 slides with a thinner body with a thickness of 4.85 mm, barely thicker than the micro-USB port found on the smartphone itself.
Because Oppo is no longer equipped with a 3.5 mm audio jack, Oppo provides an alternative to using earphones by providing an additional adapter.
