this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
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The problem is that there are fewer and fewer options with a headphone jack. My current phone has one and I use it all the time.
Bluetooth sucks for a variety of reasons, such as:
I also like using bluetooth headphones sometimes, but having an option is good, and I don't want to bring a dongle around everywhere.
Honestly most of these points don't make a whole lot sense, yet these are the arguments I see every time wireless ear buds pop up in any conversation. Phones by nature are not private, and honestly, who is trying to intercept Bluetooth close to you anyways? Majority of what they would likely get is "oh another person listening to music or tiktok". I haven't charged my 3 year old $50 Bluetooth buds in weeks, and they are still sitting at great battery health. Proper research and care goes a long way, though the option to have replacement batteries is def a plus. And if you're going on long road trips, just pack an adapter and wired headphones if you're that conscious. What are you doing with your phone that you need top-tier audio quality on the go? Just seems like a very very niche market.
Bluetooth data is encrypted, that's not what I'm worried about. I'm more concerned about tracking.
Bluetooth transmits a unique ID, which can be picked up by any curious individual. That's pretty much how "Find my Droid" and "Find my iPhone" work, and providing even more devices to track isn't great. I can turn off the Bluetooth in my phone and use wired headphones to avoid it, and removing the jack makes that more annoying.
Why not? I often listen to music or whatever when exercising, riding transit, or doing yardwork. Having good sounding headphones is really nice.
Audio jacks cost almost nothing, and I can buy them for <$1 each from Amazon, less if I buy in bulk. So it's not a cost savings, and they're not particularly big, so why do they need to remove it?
Even if you don't care about privacy or audio quality, it's just really convenient to be able to use any cheap earbuds if you lose your nicer pair when on vacation or whatever. Why not have the option? Why force people to use an adapter?
I also have Bluetooth headphones (bone conduction for listening to audiobooks on my bike), yet I still prefer the wired headphones around the house, on walks, and pretty much everywhere else.
I think the removal is less so the conspiracy, and more so just spacing on the board or even just pure neglect at this point, but I could be wrong. But I'm good with every other point you threw up there. The tracking bit does make sense too, just no one has ever mentioned it. Though I still don't think anyone is hunting me personally lol. I understand having peace of mind is also good too, and honestly, should not be a luxury like it feels these days.
Yeah, I'm not being hunted either and probably never will be, but privacy is really important to me and just knowing that it's technically possible without even all that much work just really bothers me. I'm already not a fan of the only options for a phone OS being from Google and Apple, so removing the headphone jack just further reminds me that I'm not in control of my phone.
I would understand if it was totally obsolete, like the old FireWire port on computers or a barrel power jack now that USB-C is a thing, but imo an adapter isn't a replacement since it requires having and bringing an extra thing along.
And I don't think every phone needs to have it, and it's totally fine to have options with and without the jack. The cost difference between the two would be minimal, and in my case, I'd rather have a headphone jack than a third or fourth camera (I honestly rarely use my camera, but I use headphones a lot).
I def think the lack of devices with an aux port is an issue. Honestly the market is too samey right now. Everything that comes out just follows whatever design the last big phone. Evey phone just "has" to have an amazing camera, high resolution and high refresh rate screen, etc. I'm fine with aux ports, I just wish we had variety.
Yup. I don't need an amazing camera, NFC, under-glass fingerprint scanner, etc.
I just want a phone with:
But because the phone landscape sucks, my realistic options are: Google Pixel. Everything else has much too short of software updates, has a huge screen, or costs way too much. I'd personally be happy keeping my Motorola phone if it got security updates, but that ended so I'm looking for something different.
I just want to make calls, texts, browse the web, and run a few apps (work MFA, Lemmy, mapping app, etc). That's it.