I see a lot of people complaining that the Fairphone 6 doesn’t have an Aux jack.
Just use an adapter cable.
A 3.5mm Aux jack takes up a significant amount of space just to connect a few wires that could be connected through USB-C anyway, that space could be used for a bigger battery.
Even if there was a good enough reason to keep Aux it should be 2.5mm Aux and not the usual 3.5 as it does exactly the same thing but uses less space
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Once again, remember folks, this is unpopular opinions. Which means this is a good post, not a bad one.
But…but…but…
I just wanna strangle him. Can I strangle him a little? Just a little choke…
So long as you promise it’ll be under 10 seconds
Longer!! I want to see the light
Funny saying this to the moth guy
This. This is my legacy now 😭
You’re going need an AUX cord for that.
Good thing it isn’t plugged into anything
Yes, if you can untangle the aux cord currently strangling you, you can turn its power against him
strangle with upvotes
Well, that’s definitely an unpopular opinion.
For me, there are two reasons losing the aux port sucks. First, it means I have to pay extra for functionality I want. It’s not like the phone is cheaper without the aux port so it’s just more money out of pocket for me. Second, it means I have to keep track of a dongle. Something I’d be using nearly everyday.
The funny thing about battery size; they could make the phone 1mm thicker and you’d get way more battery capacity from that than removing an aux port.
Also, wireless sucks dick. May as well give my own unpopular opinion.
I used to be a big fan of rhythm games on android, but the loss of the headphone jack has completely killed it for me. Bluetooth latency is still like 200ms, it’s insane. I can’t stand to even watch video with it
You can have wired USB C headphones with no latency.
Also any good headphones should compensate by delaying the video a bit. At least on iOS with Airpods the audio and video are almost perfectly synced. Same with any other bluetooth headphones I’ve used. I did have a REALLY old BT speaker with like a 500ms delay and that was very noticeable. But that speaker is over 10 years old and cost $20.
Also any good headphones should compensate by delaying the video a bit
Video yes, but that doesn’t work with games. New Bluetooth devices are a lot better than older ones when it comes to latency, especially Bluetooth 5 devices I’ve noticed, but they’re still not very good. Wired or dongle-based wireless still have way, way better latency
The fact that codecs like aptx aren’t ubiquitous on all android devices is one of the biggest reason why it never switch back. Aptx when the two devices support it is beautiful. Low latency, high quality. Perfect. But even nice devices don’t always support it (I’m looking at you google) It’s a solved problem, but manufacturers can’t get their shit together.
Then you have manufacturers like Sony who produce butt loads of Bluetooth paraphernalia, but can’t make Bluetooth on their phones work for shit. Bluetooth key for his Tesla doesn’t work for him unless his wife turns off BT on her phone first.
The funny thing about battery size; they could make the phone 1mm thicker and you’d get way more battery capacity from that than removing an aux port.
Z space is not at a premium, X and Y space are. A 3.5mm jack takes up a TON of space in all dimensions. The PCBs of modern phones are TINY compared to the phones of old.
“a TON of space” Give me a break, older phones that were quite literally a small fraction of the size of modern smartphones were able to house them just fine. The space is minimal and everyone knows it. The reason that Apple got rid of it was mostly so that they could push their first party wireless headphones and make a killing. And it worked out very well for them. Everyone else followed suit because… Apple did it!
Z space is at a premium too, because consumer studies (according to Fairphone) show that people want slimmer phones. More so than functionality like 3.4mm TRRS.
If the solution to a problem that didn’t exist before is “buy an extra thing” it’s not a solution. It’s bullshit to sell you even more garbage you shouldn’t need.
At some point technology moves on.
At some point we had to give up VHS for DVD It’s time to let go of Aux just like we let go of VHS
Ok, so what should replace the aux port? Becuase right now it seems to be just an adapter … for an aux port. That’s not moving forward, that’s just adding extra steps.
USB-C can replace Aux
IMO, everything that can be USB-C should be, that way we can have one cable for everything.
So how do I charge my phone while also having it connected to my wired headphones?
Should I get a docking station for my phone now? Add multiple USB-C ports to phones?
Realistically you don’t NEED to do that, unless your battery is cooked. You can just charge your phone when not listening to music
If you really must then a simple splitter does the trick.
If this isn’t acceptable, then I’d argue that phones should have two USB-C ports, instead of one Aux and one USB-C
So what you’re me offering is limited use cases and additional equipment to achieve something that I can currently do with an AUX port.
This is not an upgrade or improvment … that’s just enshitification.
If this isn’t acceptable, then I’d argue that phones should have two USB-C ports, instead of one Aux and one USB-C
That is slighlty better, but a lot of headphones don’t actually support sound via USB-C and I’m also not aware of cheap, wired earbuts that use USB-C.
Sometime in the not so distant past I could have said: “but a lot of radio’s don’t actually support CD’s and I’m also not aware of cheap, radio’s that use CD’s, or a place to buy Cheap CD’s”
At some point we had to ditch tapes for CD’s or Digital media.
We can’t just stay stuck in the past because it’s convenient in the short term.
Something funny about those: sometimes they just don’t work. Seriously. Depending on the phone, the brand, those splitters just will not function because the phone decided it cannot do both power and media from the same port at the same time, if it’s split up. I tried 4 different ones before finding out my phone is too dumb for it, and same with most friend’s phones.
Classic management response for problems they created: “You don’t use your device that way, and if you do you are wrong”
Bluetooth has replaced the aux port
i held out for quite a while, but i got a shokz bone conducing headset about five years ago and i had to admit, the sound quality is pretty good, so i got a fairbud xl more recently and they both work great with my phone. i still use a wired headset and mic with my pc thoughBluetooth has replaced the aux port
No. It’s an alternative that trades sound quality and delay for being wireless. Not a replacement.
it has though, at least according to most phone makers
the average person (me included) isn’t bothered by the minimal loss of quality and latency, at least on the moveThere really is no perceivable difference in audio quality between wire and bluetooth. Especially considering most people use Spotify. Also most consumer headphones aren’t great; you’d have to use audiophile level gear to maybe hear a difference.
I don’t think I’m an audiophile, but I stream my own flacs with 800-3000 kbps and there is a very noticeable difference in quality between the bluetooth- and the wired connection on my Bose QC Ultras.
Out of curiosity I did a quick test with Sennheiser Momentum 4 using 1000 kbps flac and I personally couldn’t hear a difference that I wouldn’t call placebo. If I wanted to I could convince myself that BT sounds better. But there really was no difference in quality. Only the tuning might be slightly different.
One cause of a difference could be whether the headphones use their built-in DAC or the phone’s.
To the phone? Really, really doubt it.
Why do these threads keep assuming everyone has high quality aux headphones lying around and nobody has wireless headphones, almost a decade after this trend started? Even assuming you don’t have a prior investment in earphones, unless you’re fine with the shitty bundled earbuds you need to buy new stuff regardless of the connection.
The best pair of BT headphones is still incapable of the sound quality that wired ones have. Plus the latency that even the best that Bluetooth has to offer, plus the fact that an aux port is virtually indestructible, and even if you managed to break it, you can still plug your phone in to charge or transfer data. USB C ports aren’t as hearty and if you mess it up with it being plugged in while walking around with it in your pocket, your phone is then kinda fucked.
Either you never used a good wireless headphone or a bad wired one. Sure the best wired headphones might have higher quality than the best wireless ones but that’s once again not something everyone will have lying around. In my personal experience every set of wired earbuds / headphones I’ve used (stuff my parents had lying around and ones bought for / gifted to me) sounded worse than all but one pair of wireless ones I’ve used.
Latency does not matter with audio and can be compensated for with video. Only place it would matter is gaming and even some of those might offer compensation options. Not to dismiss that it might be the decisive factor for some people but it hardly applies to everyone.
You quite obviously don’t have much of an understanding about how Bluetooth, DAC’s, bitrates, or latency work. You are right about latency not mattering for audio, at least. You can also compensate for the lag in video’s if if available. It isn’t on most streaming services, so the audio just stays a bit off. You can’t do anything about it in games, with a few quasi exceptions. Some headphones will have a “game mode” to lower the latency down so it isn’t as noticeable, but this is accomplished by lowering the bit rate even further. In other words it cuts the audio quality down so it has to send and read less data in order to convert it faster. Even with the crappier audio there’s still noticeable lag.
Can’t you accept that someone who knows what they’re taking about might have a different opinion than you? Bluetooth bitrate is once again a non issue for most situations. Unless you’re listening to lossless audio (e: or the headphones are stuck in headset mode) Bluetooth has a higher bitrate than what you’re listening to. And I’d argue with most headphones you hit the limits of the hardware way before you hit
any bitrate limitationsstill. (Edit: what I meant is, if the hardware is capable of delivering better sound quality than what standard codecs can support the manufacturer will then include higher quality codecs)I didn’t know streaming services didn’t have audio latency settings, that doesn’t sound ideal. Latency is very situational in how much it matters to different people with different content (game streaming is a thing) so I’d still not write bluetooth off, but if it does bother you do use wired headphones
Right?
I just want to hitch my working Clydesdales to my Toyota because I want to avoid the emissions, but it comes with a fucking engine instead and no place to mount the yokes! They don’t need ANY gas and can even drive me home at the end of the night. Who has the money to go full electric when the wagon was working PERFECTLY fine.
It’s bullshit to sell me all this garbage I don’t need.
I disagree, truly unpopular well done.
But why remove it? Having the option is more convenient then having an adapter, reduces e-waste and you never have to play the “Where the hell did I leave the dongle?” game ever again! 2.5mm sounds great in theory but the vast majority of stuff you’d listen to music on uses 3.5mm.
Solid unpopular opinion.
reduces e-waste
This is technically becoming less and less true as time goes on. Keeping the 3.5mm port only reduces e-waste for buyers who already own 3.5mm accessories. Fewer and fewer of today’s younger generations own any 3.5mm devices at all, as more and more devices are unifying toward USB-C. In fact, fewer and fewer people today own any type of wired headphones.
The e-waste is now coming from the older, holdout consumers who are sticking to their 3.5mm accessories, as they’re the ones requiring extra dongles to keep their obsolesced technology functional.
And the non-3.5mm audio equipment is, itself, also e-waste with non replaceable batteries. It’s also generally lower quality than analog.
Exactly. The real e-waste is the millions of wireless headphones going into landfills each year when the non-replaceable batteries die.
Wires fail too. I’ve gone through way way more wired headphones than wireless.
Probably a majority of waste in this context is from people swapping devices or airlines giving shitty corded headphones on every flight.
Not in my experience. I still use BT headphones I bought in 2019, but all the wired headphones I had before that were dying every year with the same cable problems. The only long-lived wired headphones I had were expensive Sennheisers with thick coiled cable, but those were always destroying jack port on my phone with their fat lever of a connector.
Cables just shit for mobile application, they’re always in the way, and always getting yanked around.And here I am still using my headphones that are older than the first smart phone.
My wife’s wired headphones are also last forever. She never listens to them while moving, only when she sits at the table and her phone lays firmly on it. If she needs to move, even in a different room she takes her headphones off, and only put them back when she is sitting firmly and the phone is stationary.
I admittedly have a bunch of headphones because I won’t make my family listen to my music that they hate, but I have different pairs for stationary listening and moving. When I am on the move, usually doing chores in house, I’ll have my phone (or now portable music player since my Pixel 4a got nerfed into oblivion) in my pocket and use my wired IEMs. I greatly prefer over ear headphones, but they aren’t so great when you’re on the move. The only headphones I have ever had break in my decades of using them were a pair that I let someone else use. Some (many?) people are just really rough on their things, I don’t get it.
Which, let’s be honest, is exactly the use case we are all talking about here I think. I also mounted my headphones to my “listening post” and casually slip my head between the always open ear cuffs to reduce wear and tear from putting them on and taking them off.
This is why I NEED the aux jack on a phone: minimizes the waste of swapping my listening post when I changed from walkman, to MP3 player, to iPod, to 1st gen iPhone.
At this point, why even have a phone? Even cheap stationary player will give much better sound quality
Type c supports analog audio, you can have a wired earphones with type c connector, with exactly the same parts as a classic earphone, just not 3.5mm but type c connector.
Type c also supports digital connection for interesting applications where the dac is in the earphone.
Lmfao. The audiophile community would burn you at the stake.
I’m used to catching flac from those guys. ;)
That’s a good pun right there
The audiophile community is too busy masturbating to their golden powercables
Not enough room for a 3.5mm audio port, but we absolutely must have a 50MP dual camera plus TOF sensor!
It’s more that it’s redundant and takes up a lot of space, you can just use USB-C
Yeah just remove the camera and connect an external camera to the USB-C port.
Just give me a featureless brick and I’ll pay for the dongles I want. Like the screen dongle and the sound dongle. All through USBC ofc
Framework actually kind of did this with their laptops ports 🤣
Show me an affordable dongle that supports full speed passthrough charging and clean audio simultaneously. Then, I’ll agree on redundancy.
Fuck you, well done.
Extremely misinformed post. Upvoted.
2.5mm plugs suck ass. My first smart phone had one and I HATED it. It’s so tiny, fragile, and I DETEST working with it.
I actually much prefer working with the 6.5mm Aux jack, but when every mm counts, you need to weigh up the pros and cons and see if 2.5mm, 3.5mm, 6.5mm or No Aux is best.
Counterpoint:
External DACs on multiple recent generations of Pixel devices frequently experience severe distortion and Google seems to not give a shit about fixing that.
I literally cannot use wired headphones or speakers with my phone even with relatively high end equipment without horrific audio glitches.
I have issues even with the simplest Apple USB-C to 3.5 mm dongle on my phone. The USB side rocks back and forth, disconnecting from the phone and exploding my ears with popping noises.
It’s also flimsy as hell.
On top of all other issues, those fucking dongles wiring breaks really fast
And wears out your USB plug exponentially faster.
Also, the 3.5mm audio port on your phone has another reason to exist.
Your music is digital until something converts into an analog waveform that your headphones or speakers can use. That thing is the digital to analog converter aka a DAC.
The quality of the DAC directly effects the quality of the audio. The cheap dongle you buy on amazon for a few bucks is the cheapest pos that exists. Most phones with a 3.5 output will produce better sound because the manufacturer can elect to put a better DAC in the phone hardware. In fact, a high quality DAC built into the phone would be a nice selling point for audiophiles or a nice upgrade for those who might otherwise choose to buy an external dac–now they dont have to.
When a headphone is connected to the USB-C port via passive adapter, the phone detects this and uses the USB-C port in a pincompatible way; nothing electrical changes.
This came with a cheap phone I bought in 2017 or so, there are no active components in there as far as I know.
Apples dongle is $10 and very high quality. It uses the same chip that was previously internally in the iphone. Good adapters aren’t that expensive.
Dedicated DACs for phones started taking off right as the 3.5mm jack was getitng killed anyways. All the hardcore audiophiles I know that listen to music on their phone use one of those because they can actually drive good headphones. It was kinda perfect timing.
I don’t understand how people like Bluetooth earbuds.
You have to constantly clean them because of ear wax for starters, and they’re much more uncomfortable if you’re sweaty. Not to mention all the years of doctors saying don’t use Q-tips because it pushes ear wax into your ears just for everyone to start shoving buds in there anyway. To bad the younger generation didn’t get to learn about wired clip-ons or flat cables. Wish they still make them but I suppose bonephonesoike Shokz are safer for when cycling.
Then there’s the battery issues. That just feels like a downgrade. Not only is it yet another thing you have to remember to charge, but they can run out of battery. Aux version literally never runs out of battery. Maybe if we had a new gen of battery that lasted months sure, but we don’t yet.
And lastly battery on phone isn’t an issue. I have an Xperia 1 V and can easily use the phone all day without running out of battery, and it has a headphone jack.
Not all Bluetooth earbuds are in-ears.
And I prefer charging than having to deal with a cable all the time and the jack is a real dirt magnet.
Idk how you’re getting your jack dirty. I guess if you go mudding outdoors, but then your USB C port would have the same issue.
Also, if the earbuds aren’t in-ears, aren’t they just clip-ons or headphones? I think buds by definition go inside your ears
Idk how you’re getting your jack dirty.
Dusty warehouse environment. Even with my phone staying in my pocket most of the time; it collects dust in the ports and has to be cleaned regularly. I’m glad I only have one port to clean now.
Also, if the earbuds aren’t in-ears, aren’t they just clip-ons or headphones?
Sure, but nobody said you can only use wireless buds. If you don’t like in-ear style headphones/buds try a different style.
These used to by my wired earbuds of choice; I swapped the replaceable cable with a usb c one. There’s also a bluetooth cable/adapter you can buy.
I haven’t actually used them much though because I primarily switched to some wireless Raycons 2-3 ago years now. They’ve been fantastic and I’ve gotten so used to being untethered from my phone that I don’t think I’d ever go back.
8-10 hrs of runtime and only about 20min to charge; More often than not, I’m only wearing one anyway, so one charges while the other plays audio. Swap as necessary or listen to both and take an occasional break (which is good for you anyway). They charge in the case whenever not being used, and the case wirelessly charges whenever its on my bedside table, or from usb c if you ever needed it. I’ve yet to kill all three batteries, even with continuous use all day long.
Dusty warehouse environment. Even with my phone staying in my pocket most of the time; it collects dust in the ports and has to be cleaned regularly. I’m glad I only have one port to clean now.
You might want to look into these for the USB port:
https://www.amazon.com/usb-c-dust-cover/s?k=usb+c+dust+cover
They also have them for aux jacks and other ports, for those using headphones.
Hope you’re masking up too
Edit: the Sony’s are wired. Thanks either way since I’ve been looking for something like that but wired, didn’t know they were still made
Edit2: nvm, they indeed don’t make them anymore
My wife used to work in a bakery and her phones always broke up because all the ports got extremely dirty with flour.
Yo I love my bonephones
Depends on what you’re doing with them. If I’m listening to music and want fidelity, I use wired headphones (also with my Xperia 1 v), but if I’m at the gym I much prefer my Bluetooth headphones as they’re generally easier to keep in my ears for long periods of time. Just a point of reference though, I’m not recommending the airpods style of Bluetooth headphones, I’m talking the older style wired connecting the two earpods and when you’re not using them, they magnetically join together around your neck. They’re actually pretty decent with Bluetooth 5.2, can get a couple of days of battery life and charge quickly over USB c if they’re low.
Yeah the sports clips make more sense to me than the buds tho. Or in general, because they have at least better battery life
Compared to what?
Corded earphones that go in the ear would give you the same problem. You can buy over ear Bluetooth headphones, and the ones I use for work have a charger where one battery is in and one is charging.
Shokz batteries last forever and still let you hear surroundings, so they are go-to for leaving the house. And for just audio, phone battery doesn’t matter either.
No cables for Bluetooth, and I wouldn’t wear earbuds anyway.
Additional bonus: my wife and I used to dance before kids and we can connect TWO sets of headphones for same audio without having to be touching, or we can listen to same audiobook while walking.
Of course, no cable snags or tangles either.
that space could be used for a bigger battery
This is the truly bizarre part. Removing thr 3.5mm port is about thinness.
It is the antithesis of increasing battery life.
Yes, optimizing thinness is the antithesis of increased battery life.
A 3.5mm AUX jack takes up a significant amount of space just to connect a few wires that could be connected through USB-C anyway, that space could be used for a bigger battery.
The USB-C is unavailable because its being used to keep the phone powered. Is your solution to force everyone to carry yet another dongle in the form of a splitter?
How often are you really charging your phone while also using headphones, and do you really think that usecase is widespread enough to warrent an extra connection?
It’s >0, which is all that matters IMO.
Literally daily
In this case you can invest 7 bucks in a good splitter.
I have two and they have had endless connection issues. Also, the DAC in splitters is terrible, so this requires a USB-C splitter followed by an external DAC. It’s pretty unwieldy.
Also, on my previous phone without a jack the USB-C port started having charging issues after a couple of years due to wear. I’d be less annoyed about it if they had multiple USB-C ports, but a single port device is a bad idea in general.
If you’re using an older battery (which we should be as much as possible) then plugging in is needed more frequently. Upgrading every two years is not good for the environment, and certainly not good for the child slaves mining the parts for our batteries.
Wireless charger.
Now that’s what’s up. Was thinking the exact same thing. Non-issue.
This seems to be the common reason which really baffles me. I just replaced my 5yr phone with a refurbished phone. My battery was at 75% health and I would just charge in the morning or night. I feel like charging devices when not being used is pretty easy, though I guess if someone is chained to their phone 24/7 it may be a bit harder to accomplish.
A bad cable and entirely useless for the given scenario. Nice.
What makes it a bad cable?
This is the only audio cable I’ve needed/wanted for a phone in around 5 years. (note, the picture is just an example of the style, not the exact brand I happened to purchase)
For years I refused to even try wireless headphones/earbuds because I was stuck on hurdles like battery life, Bluetooth reliability/range, or the possibility of losing one; but once I actually gave some a try, particularly a good quality set, I honestly couldn’t be happier and have come to prefer them over wired headphones quite significantly (specifically for mobile devices). It was genuinely a mental hurdle more than anything. Once I got off my high horse, stopped hating wireless headphones mostly on principle, and realized they actually fit my needs perfectly; I’ve found the only place I want/need both aux and power connections is at a non-bluetooth stereo.
So now, when I want to charge while playing music at a stereo; this cable is perfect, providing power to the phone and audio to the stereo without some bulky dongle hanging off of your usb c port wearing it out. Since switching to wireless headphones, and buying one of these cables, I have had no desire for anything else.
Dafuq kind of take is this?
notices what sub we’re in
oh, I see. Carry on.
