(Posting this here rather than !askandroid@lemdro.id as it’s a quite general question)
I had a look at the GSM Arena phone finder, and it the choice is getting smaller and smaller every year (only 43 phones from 2023, reviewed by the site, had a jack)
The remaining ones are mostly
- Xiaomi Redmi
- Zenfones
- Sony
- Samsung entry range
So, has everyone switched to Bluetooth / USB-C dongles, or are there still a few people holding to the jack until the very end?
I’m in a mixed case, I do use bone conducting headphones that are wireless when on my bike, because ear headphones are a 100€ fine I would like to avoid. Well, also use a Cardo on my motorbike…
But on the treadmill or at home I use some good quality wired earbuds, with thick ribbon cable that doesn’t tangle up. It is just confortable for me and one less thing to charge and throw away after the batt says goodbye.
The phone: Ulefone Armor 21.
My preference while buying phone:
- “>8GB ram”
- “>250 GB storage”
- 120Hz display
- Battery capacity “>5500mah”,
- SD card option,
- Headphone jack,
- Pretty recent chip, if not the latest,
- Waterproof ip68 minimum
I don’t care wheather its Chinese or Taiwanese or American or any other.
I usually debloat the device on the first day. With ADB
I just got a Nothing phone 2, which doesnt have an audio jack. The only thing that’s really changed for me is I had to buy an adaptor for the aux cable in my car
@Blaze I’m not buying phones that often, but I recently changed to a Nokia G22 (yes, they also have phones with jack), and one of the things that made me decide on that was the jack as well. I got a pair of wireless headsets from work and I can say they’re pretty good, but I am still not over the thought that I have one more thing to charge its battery every once in a while. Wired headphones are pretty much okay and I don’t see any problem with them that would make me switch (at least right now).
Thanks for sharing! I just had a look at Nokia phones, the G22 is a bit too large for me, but the X30 seems interesting (though a bit pricey)
@Blaze It is larger than I thought, indeed 😁 but I see they still tend to stick with stock Android even though they’re not really releasing any android one phones any longer.
Only With the 3.5 mm audio jack. Bluetooth devices always have some delay, never are immune from connection problems or intermittent readback (especially if you have other devices you switch between), and don’t last as long as they advertise. The delay thing is particularly irksome on the phone and watching videos. Much less important for music, but I’m not the kinda guy who plays music a lot. The battery thing is probably less of an issue these days, and could maybe be discarded, but I also forget to charge important devices, so that’s a me thing and party of the reason.
My hill is the microsd card slot. I might have to figure out how to make my note 20 ultra last another 40 years, though. :-(
On another note; if compatible, APTX Bluetooth codec is pretty lag free when watching streaming videos. For local videos, there is a bit of noticeable lag on a lot of players, but I use VLC and it has an audio/video sync setting you can manually adjust so it matches up correctly and it will forever save that setup for you.
Agree on most of your your points. Which phone do you use?
The No-Longer-Supported LG G7 ThinQ. Not upgrading until it blows up in my pocket.
I buy mid-range devices, so while I haven’t gone out of my way to get a device with a jack, my current device still has one, and it is the OnePlus Nord N200 5G, but if I did not have it, I would not be upset about it.
I’ve given up but I do wish there were better USB-C audio solutions. Android has always been lacking in the USB audio department and I have often been left feeling defeated when a car or other stereo system has USB audio input that only works with iPod/iPhone. It’s just sad that even now with USB-C, audio output with Android is still so finicky.
I just add a usbc to audio/charging dongle to them. Getting a phone with a audio jack I feel like is when I wanted to keep the hardware keyboard, I was just walking the boulder up the hill I just was like there was an easy off that mountain.
For me the usb c to audio Jack adapters were a letdown. From the three I bought - all of them had a constant static noise. Especially hearable on lower noises. Don’t know if it was just the adapters I got, or if it was just a quirk my phone had, but I’ll stick with the dedicated usb jack for now.
I bought one off the shelf at like Target or something before I got my first pair of Bluetooth headphones. The adapter is trash. Static noise like you said and when slightly kinked it just stops working. It’s not like I used it forever just fine before it started doing all this…it was trash to begin with. Apparently a lot of these adapters are just known to suck.
To be honest I would have thought I would have got the same, I got some random one and its worked good for over two years now. I only use it for audio books so maybe I am missing out on some fucked up things in the connection.
I had that only when they got damaged, but they easily get damaged
Only with audio jack
Which phone do you use?
You won’t find it in the west. Its Infinix X6831
Thanks
Still a requirement for me. I listen to music and podcasts while I run, and I run a lot. But I don’t want to deal with the privacy issues of leaving my BT on when I leave home. And USB dongles physical connections just aren’t as reliable with a lot of motion.
I run also, and trust me try wireless, such a better experience without the entangling cables. Specially for sport.
I know, it’s defo more comfortable. Like I said, I just can’t deal with the privacy issues related to BT. If there were earbuds supporting some kind of privacy friendly wireless protocol, I’d use them.
Do you want to elaborate on the privacy point?
I personally don’t care if somebody snoops on the music I hear…
It’s not the music, it’s location data. BT broadcasts a unique ID to your device. Every device with BT will receive that ID to check if it knows you. That’s inherent to the protocol and works as designed. Apps will be able to learn yours and other peoples location that way. That’s basically how Apples Airtag network operates.
That would be in the few meters range BT works…
And maybe the attacker needs to know already that you are you for that to work…
Of course if you use apple or google or Samsung stuff, in general if your stuff is already tracked to you…
I drive mostly around, they can already track me with my car license plate. BT doesn’t give out anything of added value.
So no, I do not really understand the issue, but this doesn’t mean I don’t respect your choice.
I think you severely underestimate how our devices are networked nowadays. It’s not about the device directly next to you. It’s about what is beeing agreggated in the back end. Google and Apple have an extensive BT and Wifi map that can locate specific devices very accurately at all times. Which of course is enriched with other device data from installed apps, like where you shop, what you shop, maybe even vitals from your smartwatch etc. to create a scarily accurate persona attached to your name. That’s on a whole other level than what you can do with a license plate.
That being sad I respect your choice as well. Being privacy conscientious is a bit of work.
Which phone do you use?
Redmi Note 7. It’s pretty old. Luckily the batteries are still ok.
Thanks!
I’m pretty happy with Pixels for the moment, so it’s a $5 USB-C to 1/8" dongle for me. That or the Pixel Buds I got for free as as promo with the phone. I’ve never had to charge and use the converter at the same time, but I believe there are cheap dongles that can do that too.
There are but they are not reliable, even from reputable companies. I had both the ones I tried break very quickly, and moved back to requiring a headphone jack after that.
Which phone do you use at the moment?
Sony Xperia 1V
Thanks
It’s very good but very expensive and the software support is not defined (but previous ones have been 2 years of security updates, which is terrible). I’m hoping Lineage OS will extend the usefulness or I may regret it. I couldn’t find another phone that had microSD and headphone jack that I wanted.
I always hated the noise you got from wired headphones every time you moved, so I was very happy as soon as wireless headphones stopped being terrible. Now I only use wireless so I really don’t need a 3.5mm slot, and I can use an adapter on the off chance I do. Also I use GrapheneOS so it’s not like I really have a choice!
I used to hate Bluetooth, but that’s because the early versions were terrible. Painful to connect, frequent drops and disconnects, and very short range and easy to block the signal.
Since Bluetooth 4 it’s been great, and rock solid with Bluetooth 5. The only time I’ve had a problem is when I went into the other room and stood directly in front of a running microwave. I lost about half the signal until I took a step back.
Wireless headphones are far more convenient. Phone in my pocket, and I can walk around, clean the house, or work out at the gym, completely untethered.
Yeah I absolutely do not miss snagging my headphone cable on every door or drawer handle in a 1 mine radius. Also I think I used to go through 3-4 sets of headphones a year by wearing out the cable, spending the last few weeks precariously holding the cable 24/7 to enjoy the music.
Wireless does have it’s issues but I’m on my 2nd wireless pair, both bought in the £30 region and it’s probably been 5+ years since I used wired now. Battery hasn’t been an issue really, and although I lost one headphone on my previous wireless set, I can live with it.
I absolutely support the want for a headphone jack so people can choose wired, but I’d still choose wireless.
Begrudgingly given in.
Good fully wireless ear buds are truly an amazing convenience, but I value having flexibility and redundancy in my hardware more than having a slightly sleeker form factor. Thay includes things like removable battery, SD card slot, etc. Unfortunately, the market has spoken, and keeping those features limits you to a more and more niche selection every year. By now the tradeoff just isn’t worth it to me.
As far as USB dongles, I seem to have enough problems with USB-C ports becoming loose or flaky for charging that I avoid using them except when necessary. Wireless chargers abound in my house.
I have had similar issues with USB-C ports but avoid wireless charging as it often causes damage to the battery via excess heating (particularly if not perfectly aligned). I’d give up a 3.5mm jack for a redundant USB-C.
I’ve had 4x as many C ports die as I have Micro USB (and I’ve used micro ports since 2009 on multiple phones, numerous headsets, speakers, and small rechargeable devices).
C ports are awful for durability, despite claims they’re better than micro.
All my micro-usb phones have the port mangled or damaged over time. I had even to replace one, once.
All my usb-c phones have had zero issues with the port itself. And that’s as well true for my kids. Once they managed to break a micro USB but they never even had a single issues in USBC.
They stand much better the forced insertion/unplugging in my experience. yMMv.
I’m still using one with a jack (Asus ROG 5)
