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.
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.
I know people don’t really value it these days, but to me there is great value in (stupidly) simple technology.
The more complicated a system is, the more prone it is to breakage. We have lots of areas in our life where we already rely on complicated circuits. I don’t need to add headphones to that list.
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.
You do realise that making a post like this makes wired users more likely to reply? I use wired daily, wireless too big and stuffy.
Good argument. But isn’t that always the case when asking if ppl are / aren’t into a topic? A person, who is invested in the topic is way more likely to reply. I agree with you, but I don’t know how I could’ve avoided said issue.
You can’t really avoid it in any easy way. If you could, the field of statistics would get a decent amount simpler. The only way to deal with the bias is with a survey pulled from random people, which you can’t really do easily here.
But this one will have a lot of bias, all the same.
Airpods are too big and stuffy?
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Throwing the case on a wireless charger every few days is better than dealing with the tangled mess imo.
Recent convert, I was 3.5 4L
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What headphones jack! There’s no headphone jacks anymore! They got rid of it because apple wanted to sell air pods!
God damnit!
No replaceable batteries, he SD card slots no headphone jack! Nothing!
(I am aware that there are still phones out there with headphones jacks but they’re either really low end or from a smaller manufacturer like Asus that don’t really sell at T-Mobile which is my service provider)
Move to mint mobile with the same number and you can basically use it on any phone. Then get a high end Sony phone. Thank me later. Its working really well for me.
I pay $180 for the year with Mint…I used to have the snap dragon 800 series phones only. Nexus 6P, Razer 2…But i’m currently on the Motorola Edge 2021 snapdragon 600 series and a Sony Backbone for the Gaming.
Unlimited talk/Tex 5G of full speed data and 2G after. It’s enough to stream my music for the month in my car. Otherwise i pull like 45-60Gb over wifi, because the modern day smart phone is just one step away from being the wrist computer from Final Fantasy Spirits Within.
Sony still puts them in all their phones.
I went that route with an unlocked ASUS zenfone and it turns out that phone is impossible to replace the screen on because replacement parts are not available where I live. I had to buy a new phone without a headphone jack. Check for parts availability before buying something from a smaller brand.
Motorola
I think people who dislike the headphone jack must be young and not have (good) wired headphones.
Older people (older than teenagers and young adults I mean) often have a few pairs of good headphones they got over the years, and it’s a massive waste to just throw them away and buy wireless because that’s what the trends demand. And in most cases wireless won’t sound as good, because the budget needs to go to bluetooth chips, and dacs, and batteries and all that crap, instead of just focusing on audio.According to Wikipedia, ‘The original 1⁄4 inch (6.35 mm) version descends from as early as 1877’, and it’s been an industry standard since then.
You can use it not just for headphones but as a line out, to connect all kinds of audio devices between them. You can hook up your phone to a car audio system, an old radio (if it has input, I think most do), a guitar pedal or an amplifier, a reverb or an effects unit, etc., just with the “magic” of wires.I’m 39, and I almost never used the headphone jack on any of my old phones, and I’m one of those that doesn’t miss the jack.
I get why people want it, I’m just not in that camp, and most of my friends are the same.
I’m about 20 years older than you, and the only wired earphones I have came with devices. They’re in a box with other crap I don’t use.
I haven’t used wired earphones since about 2006.
So yea, I don’t think “older folks have more wired stuff” holds true at all. All my peers embraced BT and were happy to ditch wires.
There are honestly no good wireless headphones out there. Yes, in the price range ~300€ you can get some decent earbuds. But still not even close in sound quality to what you can buy for 100€ with a wire.
Oh come on. For $230 you can get the Sony WH-1000XM4 (or similar). Works wired or wireless, active noise canceling, pretty long battery life.
For 99% of people, those are “good” wireless headphones. I’ve been very happy with my XM3s for five or six years now
Meh, this old argument.
You’re on a mobile device in environments with gobs of noise.
Damn few people could tell the difference in sound quality in those situations, fewer still would care (e. g. People like you. Not to be dismissive at all - that’s your thing).
A car is 70db+. Just being outside in a city you’re probably looking at a variable noise level of what, 40-70+?
If that’s important to you, cool, do what you like. But most people are looking for something with far less quality. You don’t need that kind of quality to hear a podcast clearly, or listen to “Dance Dance Track 15”.
You don’t need that kind of quality to hear a podcast clearly, or listen to “Dance Dance Track 15”.
You don’t, but once you’ve had it, turning back and going to something more expensive that is worse, more annoying to use and will be aproaching useless in 3-5 years? For what? Like it straight up is less convenient for me because i forget to charge it and then it starts dying mid-run or mid commute.
I have gone too far in the headphone hobby and have exited the nice middle zone where the headphone jack has value. It can’t power my headphones and my phone has no systemwide EQ so there would be no point anyway.
Some people in the headphones sub talked about using qudelix 5k to power it if you wanted mobile but at that point the jack becomes useful only for charging while listening (admittedly useful!). I don’t really think compromise free mobile listening works though, if you have good wired headphones they are fairly likely to be open back already. For those people, a midrange priced Bluetooth Focal Bathys is probably as good as investment as any other closed back for mobile.
Hence why I believe the headphone jack is for those in the middle of the pack: they have closed back wired headphones that are good enough to not want to use Bluetooth, but not headphones too difficult to power or a strong preference for EQ. Which is a ton of people to be fair. I only commented here cause you said “people who dislike the headphone jack must not have good wired headphones,” but I have several and don’t need a headphone jack in my phone. I’m aware that those in my position are a very small portion of the population and agree with most of what you said, just wanted to provide a different perspective.
Oh also, if you’re using an adapter for 1/4” to 1/8”, may as well just use a USB-C or lightning adapter. 1/4 or 2.5mm balanced and a shitload of power would actually make a phone jack useful for my case though!
According to Wikipedia, ‘The original 1⁄4 inch (6.35 mm) version descends from as early as 1877’, and it’s been an industry standard since then.
I could be mistaken, but I believe the modern headphone cable/jack is 1/8”.
1/4" are the bigger ones like the size of a guitar cable.
1/4"? Feh. I use only XLR for my audio needs. /elitist audiophile
You’re correct. But you can use an adapter. Some headphones (especially more expensive ones) come with their own. And some devices (like my USB audio interface) come with a big jack for headphones, but again an adapter makes it irrelevant whether it’s a small jack or a large one.
If you’re gunna use an adapter anyway then it makes it irrelevant whether or not there’s a headphone jack in the phone. People in this thread talk about how you can’t use expensive wired headphones with your mobile devices anymore as if adapters don’t exist.
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 use it all the time. I have lots of equipent that doesn’t use bluetooth that I connect my phone with.
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.
Me. I own both wired and wireless earphones and I want to be able to use both.
I recently switched to wireless over-the-ear headphones and overall happy. However, when it comes to earbuds - they would only be wired. Unlike my large headphones, which can be unscrewed for that, most earbuds would have trouble wen replacing the battery. And - maybe more importantly - easier to lose since they’re separate and so small.
Fair. Personally I prefer wireless, since my headphone wires break all the time due to heavy use, but I can understand, why you’d like to be able to use both.
Wireless headphones have to be charged so often, it’s just annoying. Good old trusty wired headphones never need to be charged.
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
I’m fine without the headphone jack to be honest… I kind of miss it, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy with my wireless headphones. But! Just make the phone thicker and get rid of the camera bump! I don’t like camera bumps!
the bumps are insane
I used mine all the time and do miss it. Now I mostly use wired headphones plugged into the laptop, and use Bluetooth or casting to speakers from phone. If you don’t use yours you won’t miss it.
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.
Every. Single. Day.
My cars bluetooth is broken, so I connect my phone via headphone jack. This way I can still use my cars speakers and mic to receive phone calls and listen to music or audiobooks on my one hour drive to work.
I also despise bluetooth headphones. My phones batteries last longer since I don’t use bluetooth anymore and I can’t be bothered to not lose them and always have them charged when I want to use them.
With my good wired Bose headphones I pay a third of what the wireless crap would cost, have better sound and they are always ready, easily to take care of and at worst slightly tangled from being crammed into a jeans pocket.
…How else am I going to plug my earphones in?
