Eli5: why do wired headphones that plug into your phone never need to be charged but wireless ones do?

Question

I thought maybe they got power from the phone but then I remembered old headphones plugged into a phone jack separate from the charging port so how come one type never needs to be charged and one does?

In: 0

Answer 1

Because they’re taking power from the phone through the headphone port.

Speakers that take external power do so because the headphone port can only supply a certain amount of power.