The rumors of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 having no physical buttons have been greatly exaggerated. However, the rumors about no headphone jack are spot on.

(Image credit: Ben Geskin)

Reliable Samsung leaker Ice Universe has answered a recent rumor story by ET News. The South Korean publication says that the Note 10 will have neither buttons nor a 3.5-millimeter stereo headphone jack.

But the mighty galactic cat is calling bull on half of that story. In a tweet today, Ice Universe claims that Samsung tried the no-buttons approach but ultimately decided to can the idea after some testing.

“[The Samsung Galaxy] Note 10 pursues stability and maturity,” he says, “in the first version, [the] Note 10 did not have physical buttons. It was very radical but it did not pass Samsung's rigorous testing.” The final version still retains its physical buttons, which is reflected by the render made by renowned future phone concept artist Ben Geskin (shown at the top of this post).

Vivo and Meizu both created phones with no buttons. One, the Meizu Zero, failed to grab enough attention in its Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign and it was unceremoniously cancelled. The Vivo Apex 2019, however, is going ahead as a concept phone like the original Apex.

Hit the road, Jack

Unfortunately for fans of the 3.5mm jack, Ice Universe agreed with ET News on the fact that it will not be there: “As for the headphone jack, [the outlook] is not optimistic.”

Samsung’s move to ditch the headphone jack has been brewing since 2018. The Korean company killed it on the Galaxy A8s. Then, it was rumored that the Galaxy S10 would keep the jack (which it did) but the Note 10 would be the first top-of-the-line Samsung phone to ditch the analog sound connectivity standard.

If the Note 10 is successful, we can expect Samsung to ditch the headphone jack across its entire line, like almost everyone else.