I find it interesting how every post I see on Lemmy about Fairphone always has half of the comments complaining about the lack of a head home jack, but in real life I don’t know a single person that really laments it’s removal. All the people I personally know are fine with Bluetooth headphones. This is just such a loud minority, it’s impressive. I know that there is overlap between people that want a headphone jack and people that want a repairable phone, but still, I feel it’s way over-represented in the comments.
I hated the loss of the jack until I got lightning/usbc headphones. The microphone and sound controls are so good I honestly widh my steam deck had a second USB c slot rather than a headphone jack
Since you asked, the lack of the headphone jack is the exact reason I have not upgraded my phone. I use my phone for music in my two cars and my home gym. None of those currently have Bluetooth.
Upgrading all 3 is just a matter of money of course - throw everything I have away & buy new. I see no reason to do that.
How about a bigger battery, so you just don’t need the battery bank, and the form factor is sufficiently large enough to handle without needing a large case?
The last several phones I’ve purchased have been so thin they were unusable without a case, and battery life about a day. They could double the thickness, still be less than a half inch thick, and add a battery 3 times the size of the internal one. That would get 2+ days of charge. With half the number of charge cycles, the battery lifetime would probably double.
Wonder if this problem will be “solved” with Qi2 (magnetic charging) in the future. Pixel 10 is supposed to have it if we’re talking Android. Otherwise with 2 USB-C ports you have Lenovo Legion 2 Pro and Lenovo Legion Y90 but that’s not mainstream
I had high hopes for wireless charging. But in the end it’s just heat and battery stress for no good reason. Just bring back some Pogo pens or maybe a couple of pads on the back of the phone or something.
They largely brought that on themselves. I mean obviously they did by removing the jack, but I think moreso by claiming to be better than the rest of the industry - and charging a premium for that difference.
When Samsung removed the jack it was annoying, and also very hypocritical as they had made fun of Apple for that just a year before, but it was to be expected from a corporation like that. These guys promised they weren’t like that, and then did the same thing.
You can imagine it like this: if you see an ad by a pop star trying to sell you some bullshit product that doesn’t work you’d think “that’s shitty” and move on. But if you saw the same ad, but instead of the plain old pop star it was the members of Rage Against the Machine, you’d notice that a lot more. Everything they had done before would ring hollow, and every time someone would bring them up you’d remember that they’re just posers looking to make a buck off of a demographic.
And that’s how I feel about this phone. Just posing as something better.
I can see that, that’s a fair point, but I don’t think it’s malicious from their standpoint. I just think that when you look at their sales, they really are trying to cut down costs as much as possible while retaining their main goals of being a repairable phone with ethical materials, because in the end, if they’re not profitable, they won’t be making phones anymore, and then you won’t have a company making repairable or ethical phones at all. Headphone jacks are a relatively easy thing to remove because realistically, very few people use them nowadays. There is a vocal minority that wants them but they really are just a minority, and catering to every single niche for a company as small as them isn’t realistic.
I mean, I didn’t give up anything? What do I have to give up? The user experience is objectively way better with wireless earbuds. You don’t have to care about a cable being tugged around, battery life is a non-issue for me. I’ve never ran out of battery on my headphones and modern connectivity is pretty good, I’ve never had them fail to connect or anything like that. The only people that have any sort of benefit from wired headphones are audiophiles, that I can assure you 95% of people are not. They will not notice a difference between the headphone jack and wireless earbuds. Even if you gave me a headphone jack, I wouldn’t use it. I just do not have a reason to use one. I’ve been using wireless Wi-Fi headsets for my PC for a long while now, I don’t even use a headphone jack on my PC. It’s just way more convenient having wireless headsets.
Only had an issue once in a busy airport, otherwise not an issue for me.
I’m not saying my case is universal and there’s no reason anyone would ever want a 3.5mm jack, but there’s plenty of people like me who would really never use it.
Yeah like I said in my original comment, if you don’t do anything serious with audio then it doesn’t matter. However if you do, then it matters and BT just simply isn’t good enough.
Apple themselves even admit this. If you open up Logic on iPad (a digital audio workstation made by apple) it warns you that using Bluetooth is going to suck.
Edit: Also worth pointing out my original comment isn’t about analog headphones jacks Vs Bluetooth it’s about wired vs Bluetooth. USB C is fine in terms of the complaints I’m making about BT.
I find it interesting how every post I see on Lemmy about Fairphone always has half of the comments complaining about the lack of a head home jack, but in real life I don’t know a single person that really laments it’s removal. All the people I personally know are fine with Bluetooth headphones. This is just such a loud minority, it’s impressive. I know that there is overlap between people that want a headphone jack and people that want a repairable phone, but still, I feel it’s way over-represented in the comments.
I hated the loss of the jack until I got lightning/usbc headphones. The microphone and sound controls are so good I honestly widh my steam deck had a second USB c slot rather than a headphone jack
You can get a splitter and/or dock to get there, but obviously it’s not as nice as built in
https://youtu.be/BqxHwgfu6Sg
Since you asked, the lack of the headphone jack is the exact reason I have not upgraded my phone. I use my phone for music in my two cars and my home gym. None of those currently have Bluetooth.
Upgrading all 3 is just a matter of money of course - throw everything I have away & buy new. I see no reason to do that.
You have been visited by the USB-C port. This post is now protected against headphone jack jihadists
Give me a phone with two USB-C ports so I don’t need a dongle when I wire up to my USB-C headphones and battery bank
How about a bigger battery, so you just don’t need the battery bank, and the form factor is sufficiently large enough to handle without needing a large case?
I’m all for making a phone thicker if I can still use it with one hand. Just not wider or taller.
The last several phones I’ve purchased have been so thin they were unusable without a case, and battery life about a day. They could double the thickness, still be less than a half inch thick, and add a battery 3 times the size of the internal one. That would get 2+ days of charge. With half the number of charge cycles, the battery lifetime would probably double.
I would actually spend money in this. :)
That wouldn’t be bad, for extra couple of bucks headphone manufacturers could give us C jacks and a pass-through as well.
Wonder if this problem will be “solved” with Qi2 (magnetic charging) in the future. Pixel 10 is supposed to have it if we’re talking Android. Otherwise with 2 USB-C ports you have Lenovo Legion 2 Pro and Lenovo Legion Y90 but that’s not mainstream
I had high hopes for wireless charging. But in the end it’s just heat and battery stress for no good reason. Just bring back some Pogo pens or maybe a couple of pads on the back of the phone or something.
USB-C FTW!
They largely brought that on themselves. I mean obviously they did by removing the jack, but I think moreso by claiming to be better than the rest of the industry - and charging a premium for that difference.
When Samsung removed the jack it was annoying, and also very hypocritical as they had made fun of Apple for that just a year before, but it was to be expected from a corporation like that. These guys promised they weren’t like that, and then did the same thing.
You can imagine it like this: if you see an ad by a pop star trying to sell you some bullshit product that doesn’t work you’d think “that’s shitty” and move on. But if you saw the same ad, but instead of the plain old pop star it was the members of Rage Against the Machine, you’d notice that a lot more. Everything they had done before would ring hollow, and every time someone would bring them up you’d remember that they’re just posers looking to make a buck off of a demographic.
And that’s how I feel about this phone. Just posing as something better.
I can see that, that’s a fair point, but I don’t think it’s malicious from their standpoint. I just think that when you look at their sales, they really are trying to cut down costs as much as possible while retaining their main goals of being a repairable phone with ethical materials, because in the end, if they’re not profitable, they won’t be making phones anymore, and then you won’t have a company making repairable or ethical phones at all. Headphone jacks are a relatively easy thing to remove because realistically, very few people use them nowadays. There is a vocal minority that wants them but they really are just a minority, and catering to every single niche for a company as small as them isn’t realistic.
cause you live in a part of the world, that has already gave up. including yourself.
I mean, I didn’t give up anything? What do I have to give up? The user experience is objectively way better with wireless earbuds. You don’t have to care about a cable being tugged around, battery life is a non-issue for me. I’ve never ran out of battery on my headphones and modern connectivity is pretty good, I’ve never had them fail to connect or anything like that. The only people that have any sort of benefit from wired headphones are audiophiles, that I can assure you 95% of people are not. They will not notice a difference between the headphone jack and wireless earbuds. Even if you gave me a headphone jack, I wouldn’t use it. I just do not have a reason to use one. I’ve been using wireless Wi-Fi headsets for my PC for a long while now, I don’t even use a headphone jack on my PC. It’s just way more convenient having wireless headsets.
Not objectively. There are plenty of problems with Bluetooth headphones. If you don’t do anything “serious” with audio it’s not a problem.
But:
All of this can be solved with USBC audio but that’s not wireless of course.
I cannot tell the difference
I cannot tell, even when gaming
Only had an issue once in a busy airport, otherwise not an issue for me.
I’m not saying my case is universal and there’s no reason anyone would ever want a 3.5mm jack, but there’s plenty of people like me who would really never use it.
Yeah like I said in my original comment, if you don’t do anything serious with audio then it doesn’t matter. However if you do, then it matters and BT just simply isn’t good enough.
Apple themselves even admit this. If you open up Logic on iPad (a digital audio workstation made by apple) it warns you that using Bluetooth is going to suck.
Edit: Also worth pointing out my original comment isn’t about analog headphones jacks Vs Bluetooth it’s about wired vs Bluetooth. USB C is fine in terms of the complaints I’m making about BT.
You don’t really know the meaning of objective do you?
Look at the thread for “objective” reasons people want the jack.