The smartest piece of Samsung's new Galaxy S9 phone is a decades-old component

Edoardo Maggio/Business Insider

• Samsung's latest phone, the Galaxy S9, is the last flagship phone with a headphone jack.
• Unlike Apple's iPhone and Google's Pixel line of phones, the Galaxy line has retained this crucial component that its competition deems outdated.
• In doing so, the Galaxy S9 has a major advantage over the competition.

The smartest piece of Samsung's major new phone is a decades-old component: the humble headphone jack.

Unlike the competition from Apple and Google, Samsung is retaining the headphone jack on its flagship smartphones. That means that the upcoming Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus still work with all your old headphones, in addition to all your new, Bluetooth-powered headphones.

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And that's pretty huge!

Both Apple's iPhone and Google's Pixel line of phones have abandoned the headphone jack in favor of wireless headphones. In both cases, you can attach an adapter so that your old headphones can be used - but in reality, it's a cumbersome and silly fix for a problem that previously didn't exist.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Starting with the iPhone 7, Apple ditched the headphone port in all new iPhones. Only the iPhone SE still comes with a headphone port.

The Galaxy S9 is, in many ways, a direct response to phones made by Apple and Google.

It's got a bright, vibrant screen. It's got a fingerprint sensor to act as a locking device, and a top-of-the-line camera for shooting crisp photos and videos. It's even got something called "ARemoji," which are curiously similar to Apple's "Animoji" technology in the new iPhone.

In one way, however, the Galaxy S9 does more than keep up with the rest: By retaining the headphone jack, the Galaxy S9 is far more user friendly than the competition.

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