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.
I have a few better (in my opinion) motives to why I am not getting any fair phone:
• There’s not such a thing like ethical consume under capitalism.
• It isn’t environmental good to change from a working phone to anything.
• The new costs above $600 and the old ones costs around $400. This is a bunch of money and here in my country is almost 2 monthly minimum wages, without taxes, of course.
So I am sticking with my old Samsung, thank you.
It isn’t environmental good to change from a working phone to anything.
They keep saying that themselves, no one actually tries to sell you one if you have a phone already.
The most sustainable phone is the one you already have
Aham, all the people that are talking about buying one Fair phone these days doesn’t already have cellphones. That’s veeery credible…
Wireless earphones/headphones are more expensive and sometimes inconvenient. People defending companies say “you can get a pair of wireless buds for like 20 dollars” you can, but how much are they going to last and how shitty will they feel and sound? Even when buying them for a high price, their batteries will wear out. The worst thing is adding this port doesn’t affect you in the slightest if you don’t use wired headphones, so couldn’t you just shut the fuck up if that’s the case?
One thing people don’t/forget to mention, is that the microphones in even earpods tier wired earphones will sound infinitely better than most mics in Bluetooth headphones, even in the multiple hundred dollar tier range.
Also, you won’t be forced to go into crappy mono sound mode when on call using Bluetooth headphones. When I use BT headphones with my laptop, I almost always use the integrated mic on the laptop instead of the built in ones in the headphone due to this.
That is just plain wrong. Phone calls are always mono. Also, audio quality via bluetooth can easily be as good as over wire, and many bt headphones have great microphones.
I know phone calls are always mono. The reason I mentioned laptop use is because I could also play other stuff in the background along with the phone call, and forcing the headphones into Bluetooth phone call mode makes the overall audio quality crappy. That’s why I use laptop integrated mics to keep the headphones in stereo mode.
This isn’t a discussion about wireless vs wired though, this is a discussion about whether or not an ancient standard that has already been replaced should be reintroduced just because some people have been using that standard for a long time…
There are USB wired hearphones, there are even adaptors for your old 3.5 mm jack devices, so how is this about wireless vs wired?
IMO, once phone manufacturers decide to remove headphone jacks from their devices, the discussion of wired vs wireless is inevitable since you are forcing customers to make a choice/sacrifice. Headphones very much still use 3.5mm jacks, especially in high end headphones where there are also other types of plugs for balanced audio. Wireless tech is not going to replace it anytime soon, and headphones that end with a USB port are few and far between. Although there are solutions out there like dongles and Hi-Fi Bluetooth receivers, to some they are still an extra thing to manage, while with a built in headphone jack all of the hassle would be gone.
There are arguments saying the headphone jack takes up too much space which could be made room for something else like a bigger battery and more components. To that I say to take a look at the iphone 6 or phones nowadays that still retain the headphone jack. Absolute disgrace that everybody has jumped off the cliff with Apple.
Wireless headphones aren’t the only available option… There are USB earplugs and there are adapters. The only argument you have is “but I can’t charge my phone while listening to music”…
Yes but I have audiophile headphones that I used to be able to use on on my phone without needing a dongle which I lose and need to replace everytime I plug the headphones into something else Can u name a solution for this that doesn’t involve replacing dongles constantly
Can u name a solution for this that doesn’t involve replacing dongles constantly
No, but I don’t get why anybody owes you a solution… We are talking about smartphones here, not professional audio devices… Most people don’t care about using professional studio headsets with their smartphone, so I don’t understand why you expect smartphone manufactureres bending themselves over backwards just to satisfy a small minority of people like you when that would mean that 90% of people now have a plug that they never use…
I’m guessing you never lived through the iPod/MP3 player era? You do not need a professional audio device to enjoy music. Most people would happily live by with a crappy $20 earbud.
You have to remember that not that long ago, every phone used to have a headphone jack built in. It wasn’t until Apple created the problem of removing the headphone jack, and created the solution in the Airpods (which generated massive amounts of profit), that other manufacturers followed suit. It never was organic.
It’s useless to argue with this guy, he’s just going around shouting that the audio jack is obsolete, doesn’t even know what obsolete means and is just throwing a hissy fit.
He can’t name a solution, it’s just everyone’s else problem that we want to use the better option.
One thing that saddens me as someone from a third world country when I see people with that attitude and supporting the corporations’ decisions, is that I see how much we are fucked and we don’t matter at all.
Any earphone option besides the ones with the jack are more expensive, even USB ones. Wireless phones are much more expensive, and the ones we can afford become defective so fast.
It’s also sad to see people telling how the common stuff around me is obsolete. Well, I get it, we’re the global waste from a capitalist view, but it still hurts to see it in action. (I wonder how people around here would react if they knew that microusb is still widely used around here and a lot of people don’t even have type c cables)
In the end, companies will do anything they want and people will support them blindly. I just hope my current phone lasts for a good while, because not only I can’t afford a new one, but, if I can’t get one with an audio jack, I will simply have to listen to anything aloud for a long time.
You can say that something is obsolete when a superior alternative is created, and is widely available.
E.g. you can say that cassettes are obsolete because cds exist, or that cds are obsolete because of streaming (arguably), but saying that one of the most widespread and reliable connectors is obsolete just because you think it’s old is just an idiotic thing to say.
On one hand i welcome what fairphone and also nokia, motorola and others are doing, making replacement parts available to the general public, but still i think Fairphone are huge hypocrites as of right now because of their choice and lame justifications. I expect this crap from apple, not from the “bastions of repairability and sustainability”
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.
lol wtf
All of those things seem vastly more important than a headphone jack!
I’m not discounting their achievements but if they truly want eco friendly in mind then they would retain the headphone jack so people don’t have to buy adaptors or get new wireless headphones they didn’t want in the first place.
I guess? Seems incredibly minor lol
It would seem so, but it’s also arguable that by removing the port, you are forcing customers to buy wireless headphones that are much more harmful to the environment, something that goes against their motto of eco-friendliness.
I guess I care more about workers and fair trade, but that’s a fair point. Wired earbuds are just copper whereas wireless use lithium and whatever minerals Bluetooth requires.
You can still use an adapter! Who is forcing you to buy wireless headphones???
Why not no adapters in the first place? They are still an extra thing to carry, not to mention how easy it is to lose or break them.
I can’t imagine that being too much of a hassle when the adapter is affixed to your wired earbuds which you already carry.
Can’t speak for other people, but I myself have multiple IEMs, and would use it on my phone and PC. The dongle would not be fixed at all times in my example.
Edit: forgot ewaste link, added dates
Always great to be cautious of corporations and what PR they say until proven otherwise.
At the end of the day profit is the goal of corporations to a certain point.
We decide what we want to support, if they don’t have what you want then you do not buy it.
Louis Rossmann videos on subject:
Fairphone thoughts & commentary with Louis Rossmann [Oct 11, 2021]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhLtyrRwGcg
The fairphone reduces ewaste - by removing the headphone jack… [Sep 15, 2022]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRdL0StldJM
Why I was wrong about fairphone [Jan 3, 2023]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAogtqyN22M
edit: words and sentence
At the end of the day profit is the goal of corporations to a certain point.
I’d say otherwise, that the profit motive is not the main goal until a certain point. After that point a corporation will exist only for the profit motive like any other one.
I stand corrected
I can kind of see what you mean, I think, hahaha
So I thought to myself…why?
Why? There are various arguments as to why the old audio jack standard is obsolete, but this discussion was essentially settled with the Fairphone 4, which was the first one that did not have a headphone jack. And they released a detailed article describing their reasoning…
https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/9836188988049-Audio-jack-3-5mm
The community has been requesting this for a couple years
The community? It’s not as if Fairphone just willy nilly decided to get rid of the headphone jack, this was done with feedback from the community in mind… Just because you are loud and passionate doesn’t mean that your opinion is the only one that represents the community’s… As a fairphone user and “member of the community”, I say fuck the 3.5 mm jack… It’s an ancient standard that was obsolete years ago,
And just to be clear, this isn’t a discussion about wireless vs wired earbuds. You can have wired USB earbuds, you can even use your old 3.5 mm jack headphones with an adaptor. This is a discussion whether we should switch back to an ancient and inferior standard just because you are used to it…
Just add the headphone jack, shouldn’t be too hard.
And this entitled and wilfully ignorant attitude will make people take you even less seriously… You can’t “just add the headphone jack”, decisions like that have an impact on all of the design of the device and have to be carefully evaluated… You simply going “come on just do it, how hard can it be” will not convince anyone…
The only ignorant answer i’m seeing is from yourself.
The headphone jack is an inexpensive small connector that offers far better quality than bluetooth does (i.e. lossless audio), is universal and is a really inexpensive feature to add to a device.
The ONLY reason it has been removed is to push the sales of wireless headphones and earbuds. Fairphone got rid of it and soon after started selling bluetooth devices. And you just bought the marketing. As for the usb adapters, those are an extra point of failure and easy to misplace.
For all the good things Fairphone did, this is a really shitty one. If Sony can keep the jack on all their devices, anybody can, and the rest are excuses.
You don’t like the jack? You can just keep using bluetooth.
Their responses address commenters directly, with an apple-esque “you are doing it wrong” attitude, instead of focusing on the actual subject matter - the 3.5mm jack itself. It’s not really a discussion, it’s much more comparable to victim blaming and trolling 🤷♂️. People are looking for a discussion, not an attack thinly veiled as a “solution”. No point engaging IMO.
Regarding the actual topic though, I’m fully in agreement with you.
Here’s why I don’t feel as if bluetooth or dongles are an appropriate replacement: https://lemmy.one/comment/2684726
Since then I’ve also realised driver & codec support will slowly become a big issue as we move forward with dongles and bluetooth headphones, especially for people who prefer to keep their devices for longer
The headphone jack is an inexpensive small connector
It’s still an unnecessary addition to modern smartphones that has an impact on design, etc…
offers far better quality than bluetooth does
And once again, you ignore what I wrote in my comment and try to turn this discussion into a discussion about “wires vs wireless/bluetooth” when it’s obviously not…
As for the usb adapters, those are an extra point of failure and easy to misplace.
If using an adapter is too much of a hassle for you, get a wired USB headphone… It’s funny, you pretend that the only viable options are either bluetooth or an obsolete standard. We already have a new standard… We had it for decades now… And it’s already built into and used with virtually any modern smartphone. But no, because you are used to your old standard, you demand that the old standard is still used in addition to the new standard…
If Sony can keep the jack on all their devices
This isn’t about what we could and couldn’t do… We could go back to using cassettes if we wanted to, there just isn’t a good enough reason to do it as far as most people are concerned…
Look at your comment, you can’t give me a good reason for your argument. Your only argument is “but it’s not that much of a hassle” and “everyone used it in the past so we should continue using it”…
You don’t like the jack? You can just keep using bluetooth.
I can just use bluetooth, or I can just use USB. So can you.
But can you give me one argument why we should, in addition to having both bluetooth and USB interfaces on our smartphones, have an additional plug using a standard from the 1950s that we can ONLY use for audio when we already have to have a USB plug that can also be used for audio?
No, just because you say “it is obsolete” doesn’t make it so.
Yes, i’ll give you my argument. The headphone jack is an industry standard, has been for decades and will be for much more time. Audio equipment, recording interfaces, anything that has a minimum of quality standard uses wires and jacks.
The 3.5mm jack adds 0 latency and allows for much, MUCH, higher audio resolution and don’t have to compress the audio before allowing you to hear it.
The usb plug is just a stupid cop out. It’s not really a standard, is something that was born as an excuse. Why should i have a more fragile connector that has to rely on electronics when i can use a cable that i can fix myself if it breaks? Also, please point me in the directon of some high end headphones with a usb connector. And i mean high end, reference quality, not some brandless crap from amazon.
Because Fairphone are arguing in bad faith. If they were really concerned about repairabilty, they would have kept a reliable and easy to fix jack instead of selling overpriced bluetooth earbuds.
If anything, this whole ordeal is a constant reminder that corporations are not our friends, and that some people will somehow just blindly defend them.
No, just because you say “it is obsolete” doesn’t make it so.
It’s not obsolete because I say so, it’s obsolete because it has no function that cannot be replaced with USB, an interface that is already present on every modern smartphone…
The headphone jack is an industry standard, has been for decades and will be for much more time
The fact that we have done something in the past or had a certain standard is not a good argument for keeping it indefinitely…
It’s not really a standard
Of course it is… Apart from the Iphone, every smartphone has an USB C interface… Yes, it is kinda a mess with differences in quality etc, but as far as the interface goes, USB C is the standard nowadays…
Why should i have a more fragile connector that has to rely on electronics when i can use a cable that i can fix myself if it breaks?
It’s already there… Even if you have a modern smartphone that still has a 3.5mm jack, you still have to have a USB port to charge your phone, etc… So the actual question is:
Why should a modern smartphone have an additional 3.5mm audio jack that servers no function other than audio when that function is already taken care of with USB (or wireless)? I can see an argument if we were talking about audiophile tech, but we are talking about smartphones…
Also, please point me in the directon of some high end headphones with a usb connector. And i mean high end, reference quality, not some brandless crap from amazon.
What do you mean with “high end”? “Audiophile stuff”? The focus is obviously on wireless stuff nowadays because most people don’t care that much about audio quality, especially not when listening on their phones, but there are USB headphones:
https://www.androidcentral.com/best-usb-c-headphones
Because Fairphone are arguing in bad faith. If they were really concerned about repairabilty, they would have kept a reliable and easy to fix jack instead of selling overpriced bluetooth earbuds.
Why? It’s just another additional port that can break… I’m sure selling wireless earbuds played a role in their decision, they are a business after all, but that doesn’t mean that it was the only factor in their decisions or that there aren’t viable reasons to move away from the headphone jack…
If anything, this whole ordeal is a constant reminder that corporations are not our friends, and that some people will somehow just blindly defend them.
Of course corporations aren’t our friends, they are businesses… And you can imply that I’m “blindly defending them” if you want, just as I can claim that you are blindly clinging to an outdated standard that has by today virtually completely disappeared in the smartphone world and that there would be no benefit in bringing it back…
How is it obsolete, I understand a lot of people not needing it but all Audiophile products still need a physical connection in the form of 2.5, 3.5 or 4.4mm jack. 3.5mm has been a standard for the longest time.
I’d rather have that instead of a additional adapter to connect my iems. Only benefit in my case was that it allowed me to use a balanced connection for the same added cost.
Wtf? You can use a $1 usb-c to audio jack dongle and use any headphones or headsets that you want. You don’t have to use Bluetooth.
