Comment on The Fairphone 5 price has been dropped to €499. The phone is designed to be the most advanced environmentally friendly smartphone.

• Asetru@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  USB-C to headphone jack dongles suck. You lose them easily, you can’t charge your phone off they’re connected and off you disconnect your headphones the device still behaves as if they’re plugged in. It’s so much less convenient and on the other hand there’s just no downside to having a dedicated headphone jack, so I still don’t get why they’re no longer including them.

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  • Piece_Maker@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    As well as all your points (which I 100% agree with), my other issue with these dongles is simply that they stick out way more. If I buy a pair of headphones with an angled connector, I can plug them in and wrap the wire a little bit and then when the phone’s in my pocket, the wire takes up basically no space and doesn’t get smushed about by my leg.

    With a dongle, I need an extra couple inches of vertical space, and because the wire/connectors are sticking directly out the phone, they get bent all over the place. Absolutely crap design. Yes 90 degree USB-C to headphone jacks exist but they take up way more space than just a headphone jack.

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  • Lazhward@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    You lose them easily Just leave them connected to the headphones.

    you can’t charge your phone if they’re connected Dongles with an additional usb port exist.

    if you disconnect your headphones the device still behaves as if they’re plugged in. Again, leave the dongle connected to the headphones, not the phone.

    It’s so much less convenient It is less convenient, but I’d argue not by all that much. More importantly it’s not any less convenient for the vast majority who are already only using Bluetooth.

    there’s just no downside to having a dedicated headphone jack

    1. It’s an additional, and to most people superfluous, point for water ingress. Water damage is the most common type of damage in phones.
    2. It takes up space which could be utilised otherwise, like with a slightly larger battery or larger speakers or camera modules.
    3. It’s an additional part which needs to be manufactured, stocked, installed and purchased. Extra cost which only benefits a few. This is especially important to Fairphone in particular because they don’t use off-the-shelf components and promise to supply replacement parts pretty much indefinitely. I.e. Fairphone would have to design a custom module and then have that module in stock and manufactured specifically for them for the lifetime of each of their devices. That’s not a trivial expense.

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    • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      It’s an additional […] point for water ingress.

      the whole back panel is a big point of water ingress when that is not glued shut hard

      It takes up space which could be utilised otherwise, like with a slightly larger battery or larger speakers or camera modules.

      I never needed the additional camera modules, and there were phones with single camera module that made very nice images. the jack is also often at the top of the device where the battery doesn’t reach, but in my phone there’s also enough place for it between the bottom and the battery for a jack connector. in a fairphone

      It’s an additional part which needs to be manufactured, stocked, installed and purchased. Extra cost which only benefits a few.

      exact same opinion about multiple camera modules. nobody really needs them.

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    • Asetru@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I can’t have them connected to my headphones all the time because I connect headphones to other devices that all have a fucking headphone jack.

      1. It’s an additional, and to most people superfluous, point for water ingress. Water damage is the most common type of damage in phones.

      I’ve had watertight phones with a headphone jack over a decade ago.

      2. It takes up space which could be utilised otherwise, like with a slightly larger battery or larger speakers or camera modules.

      Yes. Anything you add to a phone is a tradeoff. No shit. These points are what is usually used to justify the lack of a jack. But maybe, just maybe, they don’t save as much money as they make with selling wireless headphones and this is just an excuse? Especially the big companies like Apple or Samsung that sell their own peripherals? And this whole thing is just an excuse to sell overpriced gadgets that need to be replaced every few years because of their batteries? Maybe, just maybe, it’d be valid if consumers still had a choice and could pick phones with or without a jack and would have to pay for the luxury of using decent headphones with a few milliamperehours?

      3. It’s an additional part which needs to be manufactured, stocked, installed and purchased. Extra cost which only benefits a few. This is especially important to Fairphone in particular because they don’t use off-the-shelf components and promise to supply replacement parts pretty much indefinitely. I.e. Fairphone would have to design a custom module and then have that module in stock and manufactured specifically for them for the lifetime of each of their devices. That’s not a trivial expense.

      Manufacturing a phone is not a trivial expense. Removing features is a business decision and a headphone jack costs money but doesn’t earn any whereas they can produce more cheaply without one. I get it. It’s just that doing so requires you to buy and use battery powered headphones that are much less sustainable than traditional magnets tied to a cable. How a company that lives off its promise to safe the world jumps on that wagon is a miracle to me. Companies that remove headphones don’t care about audio quality (which is why Sony still produces phones with audio jacks, I guess) or sustainability. Which is odd for a company like fp.

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      • Lazhward@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        requires you to buy and use battery powered headphones

        This is simply false though, we’d agreed that you are required to buy and use a dongle, and that this is an added inconvenience. But you are not required to switch to wireless headphones and your old cans haven’t suddenly become useless. People still have a choice between wired and wireless, wired has just become a little less convenient, that’s all. I completely agree with you that people shouldn’t go out buying new gadgets if their old stuff is still functional, but you can just continue using your old headphones if you get a new phone if you buy a dongle with it. Inconvenient yes, but not the end for wired headphones.

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• nekusoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Yup. If anything, they should add a second USB-C connector. Much more versatile and you can still charge your phone if one of them dies.

  These flaky, but simultaneously bulky headphone connectors need to die. They’re inferior in pretty much every way imaginable.

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• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I’m going to lose that dongle. You say further down that I can just leave them connected, but I use my headphones with more than my phone (laptop, desktop), and those other devices have a headphone jack. Leaving it plugged in to my phone sucks too, for obvious reasons.

  I don’t care about water ingress. I’m happy to give up water resistance and have a slightly thicker phone if it means I get a headphone jack, bonus points if it’s easier to open the phone for repairs.

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