Instead of the notch, I wish more smartphone makers would copy the Apple headphones

For that reason, Apple is often referred to as a trendsetter in the smartphone marketplace. Just look at recent history if you need proof — the iPhone 7 made the black color cool again and competitors scrambled to launch "special edition" black versions of their current smartphones; the same generation of iPhones also removed the headphone jack and, for some reason, other manufacturers decided that it's now OK to do so on a mass scale; the iPhone X came out with a notch, which is — for some reason — a controversial design decision, but a lot of Android manufacturers chose to roll with the same concept, despite many users saying this is the last thing they want to see on their phone.

But I'll be talking about one type of "Apple copying" I wish I could see more, but I don't. And that's the EarPod design. I wish that instead of jumping on The Notch trend or hastily removing headphone jacks, manufacturers would copy one simple thing — the shape of the EarPod earbuds.

Why? Because I want to see better choices of earphones bundled with our handsets. Now, "better" is a subjective point here, but hear me out.

Let me start with the personal point — and I am fully and completely aware that this is an issue that doesn't plague the majority of users out there, but a good portion of us for sure. And that's the simple fact that in-ear headphones just don't fit all ears. It just so happens that my ear canals are somewhere between the default size rubber tips that all in-ear headphones ship with. Using an M tip causes pain as I jab the headphone in, while using an S size results in the right earbud constantly falling out.


Again, sure, you can say that's an individual problem seeing as I may have weirdly-shaped ears. But a simple Google search turns up a ton of pages with guides on how to put in-ear headphones on. Yes, there are enough people out there having trouble with these things to warrant the existence of various guides across the Internet. Seeing as headphones are supposed to be a pretty intuitive product to use, I'd say this speaks heaps and bounds about the in-ear buds' comfortability.

We actually ran a poll a couple of weeks ago, asking if people liked their in-ear buds. Yes, 63% voted on loving theirs, but there's a 37% chunk that either hates them or simply puts up with them.

In my eyes, Samsung was on the right track with the headphones it made for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7 era devices. These were derived from the EarPod concept, but were tinier and more elegant. You could rock them without a rubber tip or choose to add one to improve the earbuds' grip inside your concha. As I said above, the options here can be expanded quite a lot — the sky is the limit.

The in-ear choice feels like a bit of a cop-out to me. They are easy and cheap to make and since they isolate outside noises by way of the rubber tip you jab in your ear, they get a natural boost in punch and bass response without much effort. What I am wishing for here is to see a concentrated push to improve the bundled headsets for our $700+ devices and I do believe that going for an earbud design and working up from there is the way to go.