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How many of you actually use the headphone jack on your phone?

On a recent post, there were a lot of comments, which said that they were missing the headphones on newer mobile devices.

How many actually use the headphone jack?

I ask, because I have one on my phone, since I really wanted one, but I rarely use it. Like Tops 1/Month.

639 comments
  • People like having choice, it was never about saving space in phones. I like my wired bose headphones that I've had for 15 years and will likely last at least 15 more. Those wireless ones are the definition of planned obsolescence.

  • I bought a USB-to-aux adapter because my current phone does not have a headphone jack and my vehicle doesn't have Bluetooth. I use it literally every day, sometimes for hours. It's utter nonsense that they are getting rid of them.

  • For me it's always been a dumb argument. There is no good argument for not having one

    • It costs maybe £2 to add a crappy DAC, amp, and headphone jack to a phone that is already ridiculously expensive.
    • The waterproof argument was destroyed by the S5, S6, S7, S8, and S9.
    • The iPhone 7 literally had the space inside for one!

    It's also weird to me that a lot of budget phones have them. Like why would a £200 phone have a feature a £1,000+ phone doesn't?

  • When I had one? Frequently. Especially when I traveled. My wireless earbuds would die but I had a pair of plug in earbuds I always brought as well. With my new phone, I don't have that option, so when my wireless ones die, I'll just sit there twiddling my thumbs.

  • I only use wired headphones.The annoyance of batteries, the higher prices and the much shorter lifespan makes wireless a no go for me.

    You can buy some nice wired headphones and expect them to last 15+ years if taken good care of. Good luck trying to keep wireless ones for more than 5 years with a good battery life.

  • Use it every day. Yeah wireless earphones are great, but they're far from perfect; some pairs have delays and issues with audio quality, turning on bluetooth drains my phone battery quicker, and I have enough devices which I need to maintain and recharge all the time - I can't be doing with another one.

    The only hassle you get with wired earphones is them tangling up and limiting how far you can move your head, but I'd take those over connection issues any day.

  • I use wired headphones every day. I always used my headphone jack.

    My latest phone doesn't have one, so I have to use a dongle to convert USB C to jack. I've looked at USB wired headphones but they just integrate the dongle and the choices are limited.

    I much prefer wired in-ear headphones when I'm out of the house, versus larger over ear Bluetooth headphones at home.

    Wired headphones are super convenient as they don't need charging, are cheap and easily replaced, give good quality audio because the technology is simple and analogue (converting now loses that benefit), and are convenient as I can pop them in and out, hang them round my ears and don't worry too much about losing them as they're on wires.

    It pisses me off 3.5mm audio jacks are disappearing - just to save phone manufacturers money or to make devices pointlessly thinner. Phones need a minimum heft and thickness to be comfortable to hold; I feel like they're chasing pointless design goals now at the cost of what the customer actually wants/needs.

    And wireless audio can be annoying when you have interference with Bluetooth, or the device runs out of battery, or are just more expensive so you worry about losing or breaking them.

    It's enshitification in the phone space.

  • I still prefer and regularly use wired headphones. More specifically, 100% of the time on my phone, and about 25% of the time on my tablet. I probably listen to audio on my phone a couple of hours a week. So not a ton, but equally also a fair amount.

  • I have only ever bought phones with a 3.5mm jack. I have expensive Sony headphones I use for music and would hate having that option taken away from me. That's why Fairphone is still a miss for me right now.

    All of my Bluetooth experiences from headphones to Alexa devices have been more of a nuisance than a convenience, often not pairing, randomly unpairing or forgetting connectivity, finding it difficult to unpair to pair another device, not finding devices literally centimetres away, draining phone battery faster, short bluetooth device lifespan, recharging requirements, sound quality, and price points all going against them. I have seen people unironically suggest adding a wire to the Bluetooth headphones so you could charge them from your phone while listening to music. Bluetooth isn't good enough to supercede wires.

    Usb C converter is not the same as plain wired connectivity, its more fragile than 3.5mm, it cannot be rotated or twisted, it is bulkier, prevents charging at the same time, and adds yet another small expensive wire to forget, lose, or break. It solves a problem no-one asked for. Anyone who doesn't want a smashed screen has a chunky case so phone thinness doesn't matter.

    I just want all of my tech to work with each other universally. We used to have the choice of both and I think returning to this standard will make everyone happy.

  • increase the depth of the back of the phone so there is no camera bump. then use the additional volume for more battery and a headphone jack. geez

  • It's actually the most useful port in my phone. Some of their best headphones out there are wired (those that don't target professionals at least), so it's nice that I just plug them in and expect them to work willy nilly. I can even use an external amplifier with it if need be.

    Bluetooth is still the worst thing I've dealt with in my life.

  • damn, we do give a shit about this! 500 comments in a day about something so simple

    maybe we should strike for this

    Bring BACK the JACK!!

  • Can someone explain to me why phones don't offer 2 USB-C ports on the top and bottom? It seems to me like that would be the perfect solution. Is this purely about selling bluetooth headphones or is there something else?

  • I used it back when they still put them in flagship phones. The audio quality is much, much higher than via Bluetooth.

    I use a DAC now, but it's not great...

639 comments