Just randomly sharing my experience here. My sister told me a few weeks ago she was going to change for a new phone (a Motorola, she likes AOSP-like experience). I noticed that her new phone wouldn’t get a jack.
“Yeah, I know, I hope I can make it work with a USB-adapter”. She has nice headphones that she likes to use, so USB-C earplugs were not an option.
Fast forward to today, she told me the adapter she got starts to malfunction:
- she has to twitch the jack in the adapter for the thing to work
- when she plugs the adapter in, Google Assistant takes over and randomly starts skipping songs.
She’s now considering getting wireless earbuds, but she’s not a fan of having to recharge them to be able to use them, and is also cautious about the e-waste potential.
I have a Moto G84 which does the job. It’s not the best phone in the world, I’m eyeing a flagship from time to time and keep the G84 as a “connected walkman”, but would it break today, I would probably get a G55 (https://www.notebookcheck.net/Motorola-Moto-G55-smartphone-review-Inexpensive-doesn-t-have-to-be-boring.932900.0.html)
That’s it for me, do you have similar experiences to share?
I will be sad when my S10 dies, purely for finding a headphone jack. It might sound dumb, but I only see drawbacks to bluetooth audio, as it’s not solving any problem I had to begin with. :)
My biggest regret was swapping out my old S9 for a free* “upgrade”. Miss that phone everyday.
Sony Xperias have headphone jacks.
Thank you! I had a look, as I thought they were discontinued in the UK, and it looks like I can get one sim-only from a few places. :) Awesome, that’ll do nicely when the time comes, thank you again!
I got mine from Amazon (Xperia 1 VI [XQ-EC72]) since the newest one is non-US, but cellular works.
This is why I don’t like the idea of one device for all my communication and media needs. I have smartphones for comms and dedicated audio devices for music and podcasts, with headphone jacks.
Honestly the more I think about this the more I think that you are not only right, but putting all of our proverbial eggs in one basket with smartphones was a horrible horrible mistake. We have done too many trade-offs for convenience.
Try to buy a digital camera today, pocket digital cameras basically aren’t made anymore. And even a mid-range pocket digital camera from the mid 2010s significantly outperforms a modern smartphone camera. It’s simple physics, bigger lens captures more light gives you a better picture.
Try to listen to music. Almost all the digital music we are served up is lossy compressed for streaming. And then we feed it into Bluetooth headphones with even more lossy compression. The sound that actually goes in the ears sounds like crap and bears little resemblance to what the artist laid down on their master, but we’re all used to it so we think that’s what music is supposed to sound like. A late 1990s Discman has significantly better sound quality even with a cheap DAC.
Try to do something online. A whole lot of new sites and services don’t even bother making a website, it’s just a promo to download their stupid privacy invading app. And if you want to do whatever you are doing on a real computer with a big screen, you’re SOL.
And then there is the unintended effect on our kids. I have always been an advocate of mobile technology. But I am looking at the actual effect of growing up with smartphones and tablets, and the result is an awful lot of kids with attention spans measured in seconds rather than minutes. Kids who can edit video and insert images into a document with their eyes closed, but can barely write three coherent sentences.
I have always been an advocate and user and enthusiast of smartphones and mobile technology. I buy this stuff, I use it, I recommend it to others.
But I think maybe I was wrong. I think maybe we all were wrong.
I look at the overall effect smartphones have on society, and I honestly can’t say the world is a better place as a result. We take crappy pictures, listen to crappy music, have crappy attention spans, but it’s all very convenient so we don’t care.I think maybe we were better off the other way. And maybe some of that inconvenience is a good thing, in the same way that having to do physical work is good exercise.
Agreed, really enjoy my fiio m15s
“USB-adapter” in this context used to be quite a shitshow.
I’ve seen at least the bastardisations of the USB-c spec where manufacturers just repurpose a couple of pins for analog audio. One for samsung, one for Xiaomi etc.
I hope most have gone over to being proper USB soundcards with a DAC today.
Might have missed it but still shocked that there are only a couple models that go for more than one USB-C port.
I have been of the opinion that the adapters are acceptable because you gain flexibility with things like external DACs, which several people have brought up, but having to trade between charging and wired devices or a truly overkill dock style dongle just seems so silly when phones absolutely have the space to put two ports.
I get it. However, I switched to having a good set of overear headphones connected via Bluetooth some years ago. I’ve never looked back, the freedom is amazing!
Yeah. Headphone jacks are essential only for people who own nice wired headphones they want to continue using.
If you are making music, so is the latency.
I just keep buying phones with headphone jacks. I use bluetooth headphones too, but have a wired set for fallback, especially when travelling.
Also, if you’re on a call or vc, a good wired set wth a well placed mike on the wire (e.g. marshall mode) gives you better sound quality and better exclusion of environment noise than any bluetooth headphones, and you don’t have to worry about earbud batteries running out mid call.
It limits phone selection a lot, but so far there has been good phones with headphone jacks every time
My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy A32, the last in the A3x line that has one. It’s really nice to have a headphone jack because… well, you plug your pair in, and it just works. You don’t have to worry about Bluetooth connections, or another battery that will die one day that you constantly have to recharge. Also, you get FM radio functionality on your phone, which isn’t really useful, but it’s pretty fun to mess with. I’m surprised Apple never had it on the iPod Touch despite the Nano and Classic both having it (some with a special accessory that unlocks the feature, some have it built in).
Also, support for my phone ends on Android 13 (One UI 5.1), meaning if I want new features (or even emoji updates), I have to get a newer phone, and that means either getting a lower tier model to keep that headphone jack at the cost of performance, or getting the same tier (or higher) at the cost of the jack. And I was never convinced by other Android phone manufacturers either, especially since companies like OnePlus don’t sell their products in my country, so my options are either Samsung, Google, or a whole bunch of Chinese companies, many have really terrible skins of Android. Either that or I get an iPhone, and none of the ones that are currently supported have the headphone jack. So I guess I’m sticking with my A32 until the day it nukes itself.
I got some bose bluetooth headphones probably 7-8 years ago at this point and they’re still working fine. I hate earbuds, personally, so that was never an option. I do hate having one more thing to charge and possibly die, but the noise canceling is also super helpful so that’s fine for me. I’ve had zero problems with google assistant or anything else, but I’m pretty sure I have it mostly disabled on my phone.
My friend group used to be very big on “pass the aux cord” when we’re hanging out. It was incredibly easy to switch out our phones (or iPods and portable CD players before that) to let all of us contribute music for the gathering.
Now? Ok, I disconnected from the BT speaker. Do you see it yet? Lemme try turning the BT speaker off and on again. [BING BONG!; “Connected”] Ugh, it reconnected to my phone. Let me just turn BT off on my phone and you try again.
It’s just such a PITA with BT, and having to keep USB-C and Lightning adapters on hand is even more annoying than that. If only there were a reliable and dedicated connection for audio devices…oh well.
On the other hand, YouTube and Spotify let you add songs to the queue from your phone without taking over the whole thing.
yeah, in case all of you use their services
Also BT has allowed multiple devices to connect to the same one for ages. Like since 4.0 at least.
I can have my headphones connected to my phone and my computer so that I just pause the audio on one and start up in the other. Sometimes the switch takes a second or two but that’s it.
It’s been like that for years on BT speakers, but probably not the very cheapest ones from like 5 years ago, (no offense to anyone I buy the cheapest ones I just happened to get a morr expensive one by luck back then), but my cheap-ass Chinese headphones can do that as can my generic brand bt speaker.
If you connect two devices, it usually prioritises the one which started playing media most recently. As in I put a song on, but then you click a song on your phone so it takes over.
So I feel like it’s more a skill issue with the guy you’re replying to but might just be older BT.
Lol welcome to old age pops. “You kids with your blue tooth get off my lawn!”
Headphone jack and removable battery are the two features I will not compromise on. Makes selecting a new phone pretty damn easy. I would have loved a fairphone but sorry, no exceptions.
At some point, you’re just not going to have a phone at all then, the way things are going.
The way things are going? EU just recently mandated that in the future batteries must be able to be replaced by the end user. There’s likely going to be more devices like this soon, not less.
Yeah, sure, but I don’t recall hearing the EU mandate headphone jacks. And I doubt we will, considering they’re tech that’s decades old, and less 3.5mm wired headphones are being sold each year. The EU is mandating things everyone wants in their phones, and most people want wireless. Now I know there’s a segment of the population that would violently protest that such a thing could even be possible, but digging your heels in and trying to stop the march of time has never, in all of history, worked out for anyone.
Well obviously if there was literally not a single new device matching the criteria available, then I would need to compromise on the headphone jack but if there is even a single device that still has it along with the other features then that’s what I’d get.
I did the exact same thing with my previous device, LG V20. I used it closer to seven years while waiting for someone to release a new model with a headphone jack and a removable battery. Then Samsung released such device and that’s the one I got.
If the EU law meets your expectations maybe the Xperia might fit your bill by then?
Well, for your sake, I hope they continue to make phones that meet your standards. Or that you find an alternative that suits you.
What is your current phone?
XCover 6 pro
Seems like a nice device, it was on my list for a while, but a bit too chunky
Sony XPeria still has jacks
Add ip rated and removable storage and you have my list. I have had to compromise on the removable battery on the last few phones though.
My device has both - on top of headphone jack and removable battery.
A “must”, only for a subset of users.
If it were truly a “must”, more people would be complaining.
I get it, you find Bluetooth unappealing for reasons, just like I find larger phones unappealing. Unfortunately, we’re a minority, neither of these are a “must” for most people.
It’s unappealing because it makes you extremely easy to track. So options without bluetooth are a safeguard for your privacy, which is a human right that has been heavily under attack for years. So in that regard headphone jacks are an objective must. Not enough people are complaining, true, but that’s because they don’t understand the technology and the risks are being obfuscated to them.
I actually quite like the Bluetooth DAC I got because of the disappearance of my headphone jack. It breaks that physical attachment of my headphones to my phone while giving very good quality audio.
I’d recommend checking out the Fiio BTR line if interested.
Thanks!
About 4years ago, I decided to get a phone that I could modify (custom rom, root and such) and that had a proper camera. So I got a xiaomi mi 10, which has no audio jack (or even sd card reader…)
The default adapter lasted about 3years (I dont use wired earphones that often) and I decided to get a “proper” one from a ugreen brand (I found reviews that their previous model was bad and they had released a new better one) (it’s this one
UGreen AV161). It seems sturdy (it has that fiberglass sleeve too), hoping it will last.It’s indeed bad that they dont put a headphone jack and I find it sad that fairphone dropped it too, cuz I’m thinking of buying a phone from them in the future. Not only it reduces the phone’s usability, but also indirectly forces you to buy wireless earphones. On top of that, using wired earphones puts extra wear on the single usb port (which I dont know how easy it is to replace it, I’ve only replaced a micro-usb port).
I dont exactly know where I’m going with this comment, but ok😅
Thanks for sharing the reference to that seemingly sturdy adapter, I’ll share it with my sister if she wants to give it a try.
I edited it to include the model I got.😄 So far it works, not sure how it will be performing in 4year.
The extra wear on usb-c port is definitely still an issue as I have had that be the reason for needing to replace my wife’s phone twice now. It was worse with micro-usb in my experience, but it stopped me from making use of my usb-c dongles. BTW, if you’re using usb-c DACs, most kinda suck. Weirdly, I found the one from Google actually had the best sound, but if you haven’t had an issue thus far then don’t sweat it.
It was worse with micro-usb in my experience
Indeed, I had to replace the micro usb port in about 4 years (and it was already mulfunctioning probably for years), while the type c port still works almost flawlessly.
About the dac, even though I dont think I can detect the difference, I remember seeing comments that the previous model of my adaptor had a bad dac (or it didnt even have one??), but they seemingly fixed it ij the new model.
(PS. I download flac songs, but I dont think I can tell the difference between a proper lossless flac and a 64kbps opus, lol. It might be bad equipment, it might be my hearing, it might be that I tend to listen at low volumes, a combo of all the above or something.)
It had to have a DAC if it was converting the bluetooth digital signal, but it could have been either a bad DAC or just poorly implemented DAC chip. I’ve seen it in a lot of these types of devices (Fiio, I am looking at you). It’s not like the chips are that expensive in comparison to the final price of the device.
Oh oops, I was talking about a type c to audio jack adaptor
indirectly forces you to buy wireless earphones
USB-C wired headphones exist
edit: lol, replied too quickly. You mention wired headphones in the next sentence.
A good quality DAC connected to your USB port will give you far better sound than having a headphone jack.
A good quality DAC connected to your USB port will give you far better sound than having a headphone jack.
Nobody’s advocating for taking the USB-C port away.
You didn’t know? You can’t have Bluetooth, a USBC port and a headphone jack at the same time. You gotta pick 2 of the 3
The jack is for convenience while you’re mobile. I have a good collection of really decent iems and use them all the time when I’m not worried about the cable snagging on something. At work I use BT, it’s okay but not great. But yeah, for my uses, a headphone jack is a must.
Good thing that type-c port is still there either way then.
For me I’m really split on wired vs wireless headphones as well. I do love how being wireless makes moving around easier. I’m sure we’ve all felt the rage when the wire gets caught and gets unplugged. But the amount of times I have to charge it while I want to use it is pretty annoying too.
You shouldn’t have to choose
For me, nobody makes wireless over-ear headphones for people with giant skulls. I have broken headbands over time because they aren’t meant to go wide enough to actually fit on my head.
IEMs aren’t really an option for me due to earwax (they either fall out, or the eartips degrade rapidly and I’m spending $20 every couple of months)
I am in no way trying to sell you on bluetooth headphones because I won’t use them either, but I imagine the Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless or AudioTechnica ATH-M50xBT2 would fit your head. Neither are exactly something you’d walk around town in, I imagine.
Funny enough, audio technica M50’s are one of the ones that broke 😅 the part just below the leather headband cracked and broke apart after about a year IIRC
Had some Beyerdynamic dt 770s that broke just above the swivel hinge too.
Currently using Sennheiser hd 58x jubilee, theyre holding up well and fit much better than the audio technicas.
The swivel hinge on the DT 770/880/990 family used to be sold individually under $2 for a reason :) I am surprised to hear your M50s broke that way though. I had Sennheiser hd600 and hd650s both crack badly and I had to buy entirely new assemblies for the headband, so I am surprised those are working for you. Good to hear though.
The Amiron/DT-1990/1770 family has a newer mechanism that is much more sturdy and I haven’t had an issue with my DT-1990s.
Kinda surprised the 58x is holding out myaelf. Didnt care for the circular earpads on the Beyerdynamics, just slid around all over the place around my ear (also wear glasses, because of course i need to have as many issues with my head as possible)
Ive been eyeing the Meze 99’s as well, been curious to try that style of headband (plus, not held together by glue. All fasteners.)
I found the Meze too small/tight for me, but they sounds OK. For the 58X, I am assuming you found or figured out yourself the safe way to band the headband for larger heads (if not look it up, probably have better luck searching for HD650 but the band is identical).
Maybe. I tried the Bose equivalent (the Ultra Opens), the fit was fantastic but audio quality was absolute crap for the pricetag (returned after less than 5 minutes of use)
I too have a larger skull (I shop helmets by size not style, if that means anything), and currently wearing a pair of shokz. I’m not the biggest audiophile, but I’ve tried a demo of the higher end one and it’s not too bad. Maybe give it a try?
That makes sense. I mostly listen to podcasts on mine so I don’t need super high fidelity.
I haven’t had a charging concern for Bluetooth for probably 10 years.
Today, my ear buds have a case. If I use them for music for 8 hours, they tell me they need charging. That’s how much they’ve improved.
The charging case rarely needs charging, and it supports wireless, so I just set it on the charging base.
Yeah once I had 8h multi connect headphones I was sold. Being able to take work calls at my computer, end the call, play my phone audio book or music while I do chores, get call notifications from my PC while I’m doing chores… All seamlessly, I was completely in.
Edit I’d be curious what the downvote is for here, just sharing an opinion.
