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.
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While I share your disgruntlement, this is both cheap and easy to use. Should you have to use it? No. Would needing it stop me from getting a phone I otherwise wanted? Zero chance.
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And once more it turns into an argument about definitions… I thought it was clear from context, but I’m using “obsolete” here to mean “old fashioned” or “outdated”, a perfectly viable way to use the word “obsolete” if you ask me… And I mainly used it because as I mentioned, this discussion was settled with the previous fairphone… Perhaps a better word to use is redundant and/or outdated.
The jack has been THE standard for decades, arguably centuries… Frankly, I am surprised how fast the smartphone world switched. But of course it doesn’t disappear over night, but that doesn’t make it any less outdated/obsolete or whatever word you want to use here… And there will still be viable headphones with the 3.5 mm audio jack, just not in the smartphone world… That’s why I wrote “the standard is obsolete when it comes to modern smartphones”…
The 3.5 mm jack is going to disappear from the smartphone world completely. Will it still be useful in some other cases? Sure, I don’t see a viable replacement in some parts of the audio world. But in the smartphone world, where every single mm has an impact, it is, in my opinion, simply obsolete, especially when you already have other interfaces built in that essentially can do the same thing already… It’s just additional space being used that is not needed…
It already is a standard and it has been a standard for almost 10 years by now…
Of course they did, nobody wanted to be first to challenge a standard that was always the norm with portable devices, but no smartphone manufacturer wants a plug in their device that is unnecessary or redundant, which is why most followed once the first major player made the move.
Because at the end of the day, it’s useless space… And I get it, switching a standard, especially a standard that is so widely used, is always annoying for some time-period. But the switch started 7 years ago…
No, people complain because it’s a change and change is annoying… There is no actual loss of function, the audio jack doesn’t have any function that USB doesn’t have.
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I think there is a fair argument to be made that back when apple pushed away from it, it was forced. I personally didn’t care, but I understand why some people did.
But that’s not what we are talking about, we are talking about today… What’s done is done…
Most people weren’t and certainly aren’t… The people who still cling to the jack never seem to understand this, but most smartphone users simply don’t care about audio quality on their phone… Most people don’t even listen to music on their phone… And among those who do, most don’t care or even notice the loss of quality with wireless… And for the few who care, there are alternatives, such as adapters…
And just as a reminder, we are talking about the upcoming fairphone 5, a device that has the goal of lasting 10 years… There is no reasonable justification for putting a port on it that has by now virtually disappeared from the smartphone market and that most people would never use…
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If you think that it is a bold statement you absolutely live in a bubble…
Most people in the world do own a phone… About 75% of the global population… It’s just that most use it to access the internet, write mails or, you know, call people…
As your study says, young people do listen to music on their phones. It even surprises me a bit that they only listen to 44% of their music on their phone, but otherwise, no objection. But not every smartphone user is a young person… And even those that do use their phone to listen to music, not all of them listen with headphones. Many use it to play music in their car, or connect it to speakers, or even use their built in speakers, etc.
I used to, but the thing is, I do actually listen to music on my phone. Not as much as I used to, but I still do from time to time. And many in my immediate environment do too. But overtime, I realized that most people don’t use their phone the same way I do, especially older people and non-technical savy people. Most listen to music in their car, or on the radio.
In reality, most people simply did not really care very much… And more importantly, virtually nobody cares today…
Correct, and virtually everyone just shrugged and accepted it because most people did not care all that much…
My dude, people have already moved on years ago… Apple removed the jack in 2017… Which is why I think it’s ridiculous that people still act as if this is a controversial issue, let alone a dealbreaker, looking towards the future…
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But I have never claimed that “people don’t use phones for music”, I claimed that most people don’t use their phone to listen to music on their headphones… Many do, me included, but most simply don’t…
But I don’t conclude that nobody cares… Obviously at least some people care, this post was made by somebody who does for example… But the thing is that a majority of people don’t…
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