A couple hours before I was on the edge of getting a Fairphone 5 but I read the specifications and didn’t see 3.5 mm audio jack anywhere. So I thought to myself…why? The community has been requesting this for a couple years ago now so why not. They’re already making money on the phone, they’re really pushing for people to get their wireless headphones? Just add the headphone jack, shouldn’t be too hard.
They said they’re treating their workers fairly, sourcing from ethical sources, renewable claims, repairability claims, and supporting foss projects (they donated a fp4 to CalyxOS to support development). All of these are amazing, so adding a little headphone jack shouldn’t be that hard in the grand scheme of all this.
*Add the headphone jack and I’ll be happy to support and get a fp5.
Funny you say this because I’m using one as I write this. Why? Because simply plugging in my headphones into the phone is way faster then connecting ones using bluetooth, because I just have pair of small cheap headphones in my backpack and because I wanted to listen to music now. Yes, I have BT headphones but those are big (over the ear headphones with big case) so I left them at home. Yes, I could get spare, small BT headphones but those are way more expensive and I would have to remember to charge them. Also, if I forget to bring headphones to work desktop support can give me a pair… with 3.5mm jack. So I’m also avoiding phones without a jack and it’s not because I’m stubborn. It’s because every now and then I still find myself using it. The day I stop using it I will be ready to get a phone without it.
You using obsolete technology doesn’t make it any less obsolete…
Why do you keep trying to turn this discussion into a discussion of wireless vs wired? I’m not saying wires are obsolete, I’m saying the 3.5 mm standard is obsolete when it comes to modern smartphones because it’s a standard from the literal 1950s (which is ultimately based on a standard from the 1800s)…
I don’t have a 3.5 mm headphone jack, yet I can simply plug my wired headphones in using a wire too and just use it without bluetooth… And I can use the same standard plug you too have in your phone already… Why do we need an additional interface just for headphones when I can use the one that I already need to have in the first place?
It does actually. The fact that I can go to literally any electronics store and choose from dozens of different 3.5mm jack headphones, the fact that my laptop, my PC, my BT headphones and my phone all bought within last 2 years have 3.5mm jack interface literally proves that it’s not obsolete, it’s still in use. I would say that in the near future it will slowly become niche (jack interfaces will be in use in musical instruments for a very long time. find a entry level electric instrument with BT please) but it’s definitely not obsolete. You’re making things up.
Yes, with time more and more people will buy USB-C headphones, it will become a standard and dropping jack will not be an issue but the problem is phones makers, following Apples stupid idea, started doing it first. One of phone’s functions is being a portable music player. Why start removing jack where they are used the most? I wouldn’t complain if my BT headphones used USB-C for wired play, they came with non-standard cables anyway. I use my PC with BT headphones (almost) exclusively, I wouldn’t care if it dropped the jack. People complain because with phones they are losing function they actually used, not some obsolete port no one was using any more.
While I share your disgruntlement, this is both cheap and easy to use. Should you have to use it? No. Would needing it stop me from getting a phone I otherwise wanted? Zero chance.
Oh, I agree. If it came down only to mini jack or no I would just get the phone and the dongle. The thing is, when I’m looking for a new phone, I check the price, if it’s LOS compatible, if it has pinhole camera, how long will it be supported and so on. When I’m down to couple of equally good options and some of them are ‘dongleless’ I will go with that. It’s a small issue but it’s not a non-issue.
And once more it turns into an argument about definitions… I thought it was clear from context, but I’m using “obsolete” here to mean “old fashioned” or “outdated”, a perfectly viable way to use the word “obsolete” if you ask me… And I mainly used it because as I mentioned, this discussion was settled with the previous fairphone… Perhaps a better word to use is redundant and/or outdated.
The jack has been THE standard for decades, arguably centuries… Frankly, I am surprised how fast the smartphone world switched. But of course it doesn’t disappear over night, but that doesn’t make it any less outdated/obsolete or whatever word you want to use here… And there will still be viable headphones with the 3.5 mm audio jack, just not in the smartphone world… That’s why I wrote “the standard is obsolete when it comes to modern smartphones”…
The 3.5 mm jack is going to disappear from the smartphone world completely. Will it still be useful in some other cases? Sure, I don’t see a viable replacement in some parts of the audio world. But in the smartphone world, where every single mm has an impact, it is, in my opinion, simply obsolete, especially when you already have other interfaces built in that essentially can do the same thing already… It’s just additional space being used that is not needed…
It already is a standard and it has been a standard for almost 10 years by now…
Of course they did, nobody wanted to be first to challenge a standard that was always the norm with portable devices, but no smartphone manufacturer wants a plug in their device that is unnecessary or redundant, which is why most followed once the first major player made the move.
Because at the end of the day, it’s useless space… And I get it, switching a standard, especially a standard that is so widely used, is always annoying for some time-period. But the switch started 7 years ago…
No, people complain because it’s a change and change is annoying… There is no actual loss of function, the audio jack doesn’t have any function that USB doesn’t have.
Well, I think you’re simply wrong. I remember when PC makers stopped including floppy disk readers in the computers. Everyone just shrugged because no one was using them any more. Same happened when laptops and cars stopped including CD players. Same with many different ports and connectors. This is how it should be done: you introduce new, better standards, people switch and when it’s actually obsolete (no one is using it any more) you remove it. People were (and are) still using mini jacks and companies simply decided to force the new standard on people. That’s why people complain.