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. :)
this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
80 points (90.8% liked)
Android
17919 readers
153 users here now
The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!
Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.
πUniversal Link: [email protected]
π‘Content Philosophy:
Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.
Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: [email protected]
For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: [email protected]
π¬Matrix Chat
π°Our communities below
Rules
-
Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
-
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to [email protected].
-
Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to [email protected].
-
No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
-
No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
-
No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
-
No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
-
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
-
No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
-
No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
Quick Links
Our Communities
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
Lemmy App List
Chat and More
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Well, for your sake, I hope they continue to make phones that meet your standards. Or that you find an alternative that suits you.
load more comments
(6 replies)
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.
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)
load more comments
(8 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
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 okπ
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.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
No not it is not a must. And the vast majority of pwope don't care.
After experiencing true wireless ear buds, I'm never going back. Yeah no thanks, I don't want to be literally tethered to my phone.
Did you know?
Phones can have a headphone jack and still have Bluetooth for the people who don't want to use it!
Ok... Don't think I said they couldn't?
I still have been able to play games on my phone with truly wireless earbuds because the latency is awful. I'd love to have an option to plug in.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(7 replies)
she has to twitch the jack in the adapter for the thing to work
This is the downfall of all headphone jacks tbh
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.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I get it. However, I switched to having a good set of overear headphones connected via Bluetooth some years ago. Iβve 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.
I lost my jack during an upgrade last year, but I also got free buds with the phone. I thought I would hate them, but I actually listen to more music now than I ever did before because it's so convenient not to be wired to the phone.
We also have a couple of good over-ear wired headphones in our house, so I bought an adapter to be able to use them. I bought a no brand one for a few pounds off Amazon (just to try it out at first, really), so probably the DAC inside is not doing them justice, but they still sound great, much better than the buds. It still works fine now, so until it breaks, I'm pretty happy with it. If it breaks, I won't be happy with it, but then I'll probably get a better one.
For your sister, maybe try a different adapter if the connection's bad, assuming it's not filled with lint or something. Google assistant has only ever gotten in the way of everything for me, so don't enable it - not sure what to do about that.
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next βΊ