Fairphone 5 Launch
From their newsletter:
📸 Premium 50MP Triple Camera System
The Fairphone 5 comes with a 50MP selfie camera, a 50MP main camera with a finely tuned Sony lens, and a 50MP ultrawide camera for that perfect, cinematic shot.
⚙️ 8 Years of Software Updates
Packing a unique, long-life Qualcomm Octa-core chipset, the Fairphone 5 comes with clean Android 13, zero bloatware and at least five major software updates. That’s future-proof!
🎯 5 Years Warranty
The Fairphone 5’s modular design makes it super easy to repair by yourself. Add to that a five year warranty that’s twice the industry standard. The Fairphone 5 is definitely built to last.
♻️ Made fairer than ever
The Fairphone 5 is made with 70% fair and recycled materials in fair factories under fair working conditions and is a 100% electronic waste neutral. That’s fair!
Genuine question, but for the common user, why should a phone have a headphone jack?
Can't speak for everyone but here are the reasons I prefer an actual jack:
3.5mm headphones are extremely universal and can be used for any audio device. USB-C and Bluetooth headphones cannot
Bluetooth is extremely inconsistent when paired with multiple devices and often gets disconnected because of competing devices
I can't charge my phone and listen to USB c headphones at the same time
Manufacturers claim the removal of the jack was to improve the water resistance. I have never dropped my phone in water and would be willing to risk it.
I already have too many wireless things to charge
I have a small stockpile of broken wireless headphones. Meanwhile my 10 year old wired headphones are collecting dust
I have never lost something more often than that tiny ass USB to 3.5mm dongle adapter
I distrust large corporations with incentive to get consumers to buy more stuff from them
Don't forget Bluetooth has absolutely shit audio quality while using the microphone with how it handles call audio (although I'm praying BLE audio fixes this). Also true wireless earbuds can't compare at all to wired earbuds microphones in the slightest.
Well TBH, I have been exclusively using Bluetooth headsets for like 7 years now and I've had a good experience with that.
I would recommend either big clamshells (I use a rather expensive but awesome Bose 700) or necklace designs like my LG tone 800 hbs headsets (I got like 4 of those over the years). I bought a pair of extremely expensive Sony WM-1000XM 4 that suck donkey balls for a long list of reasons, but not Bluetooth.
Barring some connection issues sometimee, Bluetooth is really quite nice and allows me to walk around freely. I haven't missed the jack plugs ever, really.
Genuinely, good for you. I don't want to switch to something more expensive, that probably wheighs more on the environment (batteries tend to do that), that I'll lose more easily, that can catch connecticity issues, that force me to turn on bluetooth... And that's okay we just have different priorities. What bugs me is only yours ever seem to be catered to nowadays, even though mine don't seem particularly rare and you can ignore jack plugs easier than I can listen to music while plugged on my external battery
I've been using the same (comparatively) cheap Sony WIC100 in-ear Bluetooth headset every day for several (over four?) years now. It's lasted longer than basically any of the cheap wired earbuds I kept replacing before ever did, and still has all-day battery life too. I haven't been particularly careful with it; Generally, I've just crumpled it up and stuffed it in my pocket with my keys, and probably semi-regularly snagged and yanked it on stuff pretty hard. Losing it is not really a concern; It's all one flexible piece, and it's basically the same profile or even slightly bulkier and heavier than wired earbuds when coiled up (but still more convenient when worn, because it doesn't run the length of the torso). Plus they can just dangle safely from my neck when I need to hear stuff around me, which neither wired headphones nor "true wireless" headphones can do.
I agree with all your points in principle, and I still pay attention to the headphone jack when evaluating phones. But the corporations that make our consumer electronics have decided this is the trend they're going with. Ultimately, you can either adapt, stop using the technology, or make your own with Raspi and SLA or whatever.
Are you a plant? You legally have to tell me if you're a plant
…No. It seems like a bad time to be a plant. Too many wildfires, weird things are kinda happening to atmospheric composition, plus invasive species everywhere— Ugh, pine beetles crawling all up in my skin, hogweed taking my nutrients? No thank you. Maybe later— Definitely want the autotrophy eventually, but taking like a 95% hit to metabolic rate and being unable to go indoors obviously wouldn't be acceptable either…
Seriously though, the comment you replied to also mentioned a few products by name, so I thought I'd reflect that hey, Bluetooth hasn't been quite as bad as I'd expected it would be, even if most headsets are either overpriced or garbage.
Good point there. Bluetooth works well for me but it sucks that you don't get to use your option anymore.
I guess it has to do with jack plugs being really old (were talking over 50 years here) ND whilst that shouldn't matter, manufacturers want to appear new and improving even though there is little to improve on that plug....
Your point is generally well taken, but your first point about 3.5 mm jacks being universal isn’t really true any more. It’s nearly impossible to find a device these days with a 3.5 mm audio Jack. It sucks but it’s true.
Only if we're talking about phones. My computer, work laptop, steamdeck, and my monitor all have audio out via 3.5mm jack.
I have a speaker set and a pair of headphones, and I can mix and match when and where I want to use them, which is great.
I hope removal of headphone jacks stays limited to phones (and reverses course eventually)
Other than the 3.5mm still being universal basically everywhere except for phones, it's also universal in a purist physical sense.
Any old piece of scrap copper wire connected to a 3.5mm jack, wrapped vaguely into a coil, and placed next to something magnetic, should form a working speaker compatible with the 3.5mm jack. It won't sound hi-fi, but it will work, because unlike Bluetooth or USB-C where you have to read hundreds of pages of standards and do a bunch of engineering just to figure out how to understand the signal, the signal in the 3.5mm jack basically is the sound.
This has direct practical implications as well: The transparent simplicity vs opaque complexity is why wired headphones can be so cheap and yet so reliable, or as hi-fi as your DAC and the speaker cone will allow, whereas Bluetooth devices are comparatively expensive, a mess to connect, fragile, bandwidth-limited, and environmentally and ethically dubious.
Bluetooth, and even USB-C, is basically black magic— Which wouldn't be so bad, except that it's also glitchy black magic. And this remains true regardless of device availability, because it's determined by the physics of the technology itself is implemented.
TBH good sounding IEM/Headphones actually worth keeping for years today are almost all modular. IEM/Headphones worthy of playing from a jack will not sound great from a trash built-in one and will need extra AMP/DAC anyway.
Funnily enough, the best AMP/DACs you can get today all use bluetooth. They are even good after the battery dies since they are also wired DAC/AMPs. There are some where a battery change is also likely. IEMs have TWS converters as well.
It is all pretty convenient without a builtin jack, unless you are really running dry on cash and/or dont even care about the most important part which is audio quality.
....to plug headphones in. How is this a genuine question?
People still use their phones to listen to music and wireless earphones are almost universally garbage, require charging, and produce insane amounts of e-waste. Wired headphones don't have these issues
Lol its a given that it would be used as an audio solution. I guess what im getting at is if you're not an audiophile or have a specific need, most people don't care about an aux Jack. Personally, I hate the feeling of a cable when I go out, shopping or for a run and I want to listen to a podcast or music. I strangely feel claustrophobic. And also, I feel wired headphones are far more disposable than wireless. Over the coarse of 6 years, I've only owned 2 different pairs of wireless buds. Before that I can recall countless mix of cheap and decent wired headphones. This is just me though, which is why I wantedbto,see the discussion for wider use cases for the average consumer.
For headphones.
USB-C dongles are notoriously prone to breaking and also are another bunch of silicon and plastic that contributes to e-waste pollution.
though truth be told, most phone 3.5mm outputs suck donkey balls because of massive output impedance and signal to noise ratio on sensitive headphones (of which most portable audio devices are) and companies should be ashamed of putting these hunks of shit in their phones.
To have a convenient cheap set of earbuds that keep working, never need any charging nor can be lost.
You can find those everywhere for like 5€, if you don't get them for free with certain devices.
I still have a couple laying around that have never been used.
I don't get battery operated devices for things that don't stray further than 1 meter from the device they are connected to.
Media playback is always 3 seconds delayed through Bluetooth for me, it's annoying. Plus I like the wired headset I've used for 7 years.