Why I'm not getting a Fairphone*

/home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee to Technology@lemmy.ml – 0 points –

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.

https://calyxos.org/news/2022/02/25/device-support/

https://shop.fairphone.com/fairphone-5

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No, the need is still present. Headphone jacks are pretty essential still, wireless tech is not a replacement.

I'm not doubting you, just curious on the main use case

  1. Money - The cheapest actually usable wireless earbuds are like 50 bucks and they sound just like €5 wired Panasonic earbuds.
  2. Compatibility
  3. Nothing extra to recharge, no extra batteries to dispose of. Wireless earbuds are a lot more wasteful at the end of their life.
  4. Most likely higher audio quality than wireless if using SBC (depends on phone's sound card)
  5. Latency - Sure, modern wireless earphones/headphones may have tiny latency, but it can get noticeable when gaming
  6. FM Radio - no antenna, no radio
  7. Less RFI
  8. Power efficiency
  9. Microphone input - It's also an input. Wired input. Although it's only mono. I used that to digitize a ZX Spectrum tape I found, tape with unidentified music and recording from SW radio. No need to bring out my laptop for that. You just need a combo jack splitter.
  10. No audio cuts - Most earbuds just cut off audio when there's silence to save power, but that may also affect quiet audio. It also affects audio with cuts of silence in between. Each time they kick back, it's ever so slightly late, losing a bit of audio.
  11. Safety when watching that stuff - you connected wired earphones, the audio goes just into them. You may take your wireless earphones, you see the Bluetooth icon showing it's connected. Good. You play the stuff, you don't hear anything. You increase the audio level, the living room speaker is moaning. Shit.
  12. SSTV - this could be useful for hams. There's Robot36 and SSTV Encoder apps (F-Droid links). Using a phone with the radio may be pretty convenient, again utilizing the combo jack splitter.

Wired headphones? What else?

I haven't seen many people use wired headphones in a very long time, which was the impetus for my question

Because it's so rarely an option.

Really? They're much better audio quality than bluetooth.

I guess I worded it wrong. The time to protest was ages ago and it's too late now to convince any of the tech corps to change so good luck finding a phone in 2023 with a headphone jack. We lost.

Essential for what? Bluetooth used to be shit, but I've had very few issues with recent devices.

Bluetooth means a wireless bud/headphone, which means batteries and extra hardware to support Bluetooth and DAC, and an extra cable and charging adapter, and maybe an extra case. When it could all be driven by a simple headphone jack instead.

Bluetooth still lags. To this day. Don't ask me why or how, given it's the year of our lord 2023, but I can tell there is lag in most bluetooth headsets even in video content, let alone games.

So yeah, I have a Sony Xperia 1 IV, which not only has the headphone jack but forward facing stereo speakers and no notch or camera punch-hole. To my knowledge it's the very last flagship phone with that specific feature set.

I may be wrong but if I remember correctly the reason it lags is that until the recent forced earbuds explosion the bluetooth protocol was focused on low energy efficient transmission for personal smart devices, and audio transmission was just an "extra" feature

Yeah, but "recent" here is a bit of a stretch. Apple removed the headphone jack from their phones seven years ago. Lagless bluetooth audio is only just now tehcnically possible and still widely unsupported. it's absurd, and I honestly think it justifies not just seeking a phone with an audio jack but also moving on from the bluetooth standard altogether.

It still degrades audio quality and that's an area I refuse to compromise on.

The smartphone is not the expensive part of my mobile audio playback setup, I expect it to be compatible with the standard playback interface of wires.

No, they are not essential.. And this isn't a discussion about wireless vs wired earbuds.. USB headphones/earphones are a thing, the fact that you don't like wireless is not an excuse to demand that an ancient and obsolete standard should be reinstated when you have plenty of options to use wired devices without a 3.5 mm headphone jack..

They're actually fairly rare and not particularly compatible. My 3.5mm earbuds plug in natively to my Switch, my phone, my PS5 controller, my laptop and my desktop PC.

I recentlly upgraded my PC headset and moved the old one to use in my bedroom only to discover that because it's USB I can only use it with my laptop.

So yeah, no, not obsolete and not the same.

My only pair of earbuds have a wire. The connector is usb-c and my phone has a jack. So I don't even use the jack now

3.5 headphones that have volume controls and a pause/hang up button can't seem to last a year. I tried 2 and they both lasted 3 months