iPhone 7 Modder Adds A Headphone Jack, But It Wasn't Easy

While some users may have adjusted well to the fact that the iPhone 7 and its big brother, the iPhone 7 Plus, don't have a headphone jack, others have not. Case in point: Scotty Allen, otherwise known as the host of Strange Parts on YouTube. He has taken it upon himself to add a headphone jack to the iPhone 7, and of course, he documented the entire process in a new half-hour video.

Allen, of course, starred in a viral video where he built his own iPhone, so he seems like the perfect man for the job. His quest to add a headphone jack to the iPhone 7 begins innocently enough, as he cracks open a used phone to see if there's actually any room to add one. There is, as it turns out, but the process of adding a headphone proves to be much more complicated than grinding down some spare plastic and drilling a hole.

Allen runs into quite a few problems along the way, from messing up a soldering job because his microscope isn't up to snuff to breaking expensive accessories he has to buy directly from the Apple store. Further complicating things is the fact that you can't simply use existing wiring to hook up a headphone jack, unless of course you're okay with disconnecting your lightning port and never charging your phone again.

Thus begins an entirely new adventure in which Allen creates his own circuit board that will allow the phone to switch between playback through the headphone jack when earbuds are connected and charging through the lightning port. The process of creating and producing a new circuit board takes weeks on its own, and by the end of it all, Allen has spent months trying to add a headphone jack to his iPhone 7.

If you have the time, you should absolutely watch the video in full, because it's fascinating to see what kind of modifications Allen needs to make in order to add something as simple as a headphone jack to his phone. The video ends with Allen addressing Apple directly, telling the company that he would love to buy a phone with a headphone jack from them. With Apple's iPhone reveal event just a few days away, we have a hard time believing they'll listen, but Allen's pleas can't hurt.