Ifixit gives fairphone 5 a 10/10 on repairability and maintanence

A solution to a problem no one asked for.

Begs the question why aren't charging jacks designed like audio jacks?

See, you just described a thing and made a statement, but I don't buy that one bit. I've broken several 3.5mm plugs but never once a USB-C.

I'm on the side of 3.5mm in phones, but there's a reason XLR and 1/4" are the industry standards for audio.

They could just make magnetic connectors with a shallow socket. But those would last longer and you wouldn't need to keep buying new stuff.

CC: @Petter1@lemm.ee

I’m sorry what? The 3.5mm is better because it’s rotational symmetrical?

Thats a minor win. You rarely really need that rotation capability, and what little you need can be made up with thinner cables (which is easier with a digital signal and DACs in the headphone, which can’t be done compatibly with 3.5mm and people are dumb) The you also have to sacrifice connection friction to gain rotation, and that has tradeoffs, especially when that friction is caused by a spring-loaded conductor (which also means more friction likely means fewer insertion cycles before friction starts dropping off).

It also really sucks at strain relief without massive dookie springs or rubber butts…and the bigger the strain relief, the more subjective it is to perpendicular force, which is really easy to do on a 3.5mm diameter cylinder of gold-plated iron/tin alloy with the fulcrum also being at the base of the cylinder.

Other cool thing about what could be done with USB-C headphones. A lot of companies put lead weights full-sized headphones for balance or comfort (more weight makes it feel more secure). Good Modern drivers don’t need to be as heavy as they used to be. How bout instead of weights, they use lipos? Now your headphones can charge your phone (when in wired mode, hell, I’m talking about fictional mid/high-end cans, they could have Bluetooth and ANC while we’re at it since they have power), and your charger port point is essentially moot.

3.5 jack port is definitely not more durable than USB-C. If you have good headphones, the change that the 3.5 plug is gigantic in length and the cable thicc AF which causes a lot of stress in the plug due to very large leverage. Additionally, I prefer to use the DAC integrated in my headphones rather than using the low quality tiny DAC in my phone. And in digital, the cable thickness does not matter really.

I recently bought a phone that lacked a 3.5mm jack, so I bought a splitter with a USBC charging port and a headphone jack. The problem I encountered was that the splitter reported to the phone that headphones were connected even if they were not. I was used to unplugging the headphones and have playback automatically pause, and resume when the headphones were put back in. With the splitter I was no longer able to do that. I don't know if I bought a cheap ass splitter or if that's the normal behavior for these things.

Negotiation is a thing for sure. It is possible, though I haven't ever seen it implemented, that digital audio over USB-C or bluetooth can be blocked by DRM. It would seem business suicide to do something like limiting audio output to certain audio products but I wouldn't put it past any short term minded profit seeking enterprise.

I think phones should have 2 USB-C ports

Live by the wire, die by the wire(with a 3.5mm plug/jack of course)

This and most phones literally let you do what you're saying right now.

OK

I've got the Bose QC 45 headphones which can do both Bluetooth and 3.5 mm. The audio quality is the same between the two delivery methods. The only difference I've noticed is an occasional video/audio synching issue with Bluetooth which quickly corrects itself and is usually only an issue with older devices. It's my understanding that this and the audio lag issue have been solved recently in newer devices.

I personally think Bluetooth is a shit standard that has slowly been fixed over the years, but it's pretty much 100% there at this point

The real question I have is: is a decent DAC that hard to find? I bought a shit one because it's only a back-up option for me, but I can't imagine the good ones are scarce.

Lol, your phone has not a good enough DAC that this would be hearable ä, but you do you

Just get a new car pleb.

Honestly Bluetooth in a car has been a must for me for like 10 years now. And having experienced CarPlay, that’s def next (especially for cars that support wireless and have a Qi spot. Thats practically magic)

Even if they gave us a second usb-c port instead of a 3.5mm jack I'd be fine with that, don't make me choose between charging and decent audio

In car, I can recommend using android in the car using the touchscreen of the car. There you can manage audio as well as charging the phone. One cable to rule them all.

The car doesn't have Bluetooth connection?

New headphones come with lightning and USB C cable these days

Attach the dongle to your wired headset.

Ancient tech? Looks at literally every laptop and desktop sold.

I can't tell you if any of my laptops have a 3.5mm jack. If they do, I'd rather have another USB-C port instead. And arguing that just because it's still used in desktop computers, then it can't be ancient, I'd like to draw your attention toward the rs232 port that still isn't phased out entirely.

Why would I buy a device missing a key component

In case I missed it, would you like to point out where exactly you're being forced to buy a specific phone?

I happen to be writing this on an android 13 phone with a 3.5mm jack (I had to check, but it's there), it's not like you can't get a phone with the connector.

If you can tell the difference between well-compressed, high bitrate audio and lossless audio played on the same equipment, then you’re in the minority. However it’s pretty easy to accidentally end up with a combo of phone / app / app settings / headphones that results in a suboptimal listening experience, either because you’re using a bad codec (like SBC on any device or AAC on many Android phones) or because your music is being compressed twice. You can avoid the latter issue by streaming uncompressed music or by using a combo that doesn’t recompress your music (like Apple Music -> iPhone -> Airpods Pro/Max).

It’s also possible that the reason Bluetooth headphones sound worse isn’t because of losing information but because the headphones just aren’t as good as your wired ones. If you get a portable Bluetooth DAC like the Qudelix 5k, you can connect it to your phone and connect your wired headphones to it.

You don’t have to be happy with Bluetooth. You can buy a USB-C DAC for like $10. Apple’s “USB C to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter” is 9 USD direct from Apple and it tested extremely well. You can use it on any modern phone or on your laptop or tablet, too. (You can also use the Qudelix 5k this way.)

If that adapter isn’t good enough (maybe it doesn’t output enough power for your high impedance headphones), then most phone’s built-in DACs + headphone adapters would have the same problem. Basically only Sony and LG (RIP) phones ever had especially good onboard DACs and amps, and even with them it would often make more sense to get a dedicated portable setup.

For anyone who is happy with Bluetooth, though, they don’t have to worry about all this and they get to reap the advantages of the headphone jack’s removal. The extra space can be used for more battery, if nothing else, and it’s easier to prevent dust/water ingress when you eliminate the headphone jack.

Also, I think you’re thinking of LDAC (by Sony), not aptX (by Qualcomm). LDAC is not lossless, either, but it’s much higher bitrate than anything other than the very recently introduced aptX Lossless, which - under ideal conditions - features lossless compression.

pfft musicians what the hell do they know about music

NOTHING

Actually it's even older. And it's also not used in a phone.

The argument that 3.5mm jacks are somehow superior to a digital stream is so laughably flawed. The 3.5mm jack is a shit connector, always has been. It got its success from being paired with the original walkman, not exactly hifi equipment. The durability of the jack is wanting and a few specks of dust in the socket and you're getting static when you move about.

I don't know how many sockets I've had to replace over time because a male jack broke off in the socket. It's one thing that the jack is so thin that it can break in your pocket. But when manufacturers then mount sockets, that doesn't allow you to push the broken part out, and also uses some weird one-hung-low socket with a weird footprint that you can't source with less than a 5k MOQ, and that is only after searching for an hour. Which then leaves you having to do all sorts of weird cowboy tricks in order to have a working sound output... Then you will get to my level of annoyance with the 3.5mm jack.

All those problems are not really a thing with 6.3mm jacks, but, by all means, keep believing that 3.5mm is superior because professionals use something that looks like it, and disregard everything else.

You’re basically making the exact same Betamax vs VHS argument. The only different is Apple is the Porn industry embracing Bluetooth in favor of wired products.

Bluetooth headphones have weaker audio

Please define "weaker".

forced path to profits for proprietary headphone sales

What are you talking about? How are you forced to buy some specific BT headphones for your phone?

And the argument about USB-C headphones being clunky? Sure, it may not be optimal, but you could always just buy a phone with a jack or give in and switch to BT.

In an end-user device? Yes, it's irrelevant. Use wifi unless you have a special usecase.

agree, and not just for 3,5mm jacks. If there is a way to do it with a cable, i will choose the cable instead of a wireless solution. The only time I didn't was with a wireless mouse that, after a while, I just kept on the cable anyway. They are so very convenient, especially the 3,5mm jack.

He didn't even make a point. That was all insult and comparisons that don't compare.

I'm sorry, but I had to say something. I'm so tired of non-technical people moaning about the out phasing of the 3.5mm jack, and especially the arguments about audio quality and vendor lock in that has been raised in this thread. I had to make sure that it was understood, that the view is not unopposed.

Could I have done it more diplomatically? Maybe, but I also wanted to drive my point home in as short a post as possible.

I asked chatgpt to help out rewriting my comment, but with your criticism in mind. It came up with:

While 3.5mm jacks may seem like a staple, it's worth noting that technology evolves. Much like the transition from 3.5" floppy drives, change takes time to be widely accepted. The omission of the jack in smartphones isn't about dismissing tradition but adapting to newer, more versatile alternatives. It's been nearly a decade since the OPPO R5, and as technology progresses, embracing these changes can lead to a broader range of innovative features.

I don't want to bore people to death, but I can also see now how perhaps I could have attacked the technology instead of the people.

We are better than our old /u/ on reddit, and we must strive to keep it that way. Competing with reddit on toxicity, will be a fight we'll never be able to win.

Thank you for calling me out on my BS, and helping us all to keep the fediverse a better place.