Google unveiled the Pixel 6A on Wednesday at Google I/O, and while it features a number of excellent specs for a mid-range smartphone, it lacks one that the company has celebrated on its A-series line for years: a 3.5mm headphone port.
As many smartphone makers have abandoned the headphone jack — a trend mostly started by Apple with the iPhone 7 in 2016 — its existence on the A-series line has become increasingly important. Google even produced a silly two-minute commercial praising the headphone jack on the Pixel 5A, which spoofed Apple’s lavish design movies. The video was named “The Circle Comes to Full Circle,” in part. The circle appears to be closing again since Google is apparently planning to remove the headphone port from its next phone.
The point is, this isn’t the first time this circle has completed itself. Google acknowledged this essential characteristic in one advertisement for the first Pixel, which was released in 2016, the same year as the iPhone 7, “3.5mm headphone jack satisfyingly not new.” However, the headphone connector was removed from the Pixel 2 a year later. The Pixel 3A, the first A-series Pixel, would bring it back, but not until 2019. Google has once again parodied Apple, only to become a parody the following year.
