Alternatively, if your current phone doesn’t have a headphone jack, do you wish it did?

  • Alto@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    More importantly it removes the expectation to include earbuds with the phone as well as allows them to sell you Bluetooth ones

    • abir_vandergriff@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Let’s be honest though, included earbuds were pretty universally garbage and the world is probably better off without the ewaste.

      That said, please bring back the headphone jack.

      • Alto@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Mostly true, yeah. The “AKG” ones that came with my S8 were honestly pretty damn nice though.

        • cloaker@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          AKG ones were always great. I have a USB C pair from an old Samsung and they’re good too.

        • Otter@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Yea I had a pair of those that I used for other phones, until I lost the pair.

          I tried getting some “oem” ones from amazon but they weren’t the same

      • edric@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        One positive for me about the included earphones is they are great utility earphones for when I’m mixing/mastering music. They have a pretty flat and even response so it’s one of the devices I use to test my music on “regular” sound systems to make sure they sound good on all types of equipment.

        • abir_vandergriff@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          That totally depends on what headphones though. Apple’s maybe, I wasn’t really too discerning last time I had some of those, but on Android it was a mess. Samsung had decent ones some years, Google’s were generally okay at best, and LOADS were just actual trash.

          • edric@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Yeah I forgot to mention I was pertaining to the apple wired earphones specifically.

            • abir_vandergriff@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              Color me surprised to hear that then. The few times I had used them, I couldn’t get over how uncomfortable they were for my ear (which is why I never used then much)

      • qupada@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I’ve always been lambasted for this opinion, but I feel the same way about the charging cable and charger.

        I do not want yet another 1 metre (if they’re even that, most likely 3 foot) USB-C cable that barely reaches from the charger on the floor to the bedside table - and largely precludes actually using the phone while in bed - nor particularly the included charger. So many things need to be plugged in these days that single-output chargers are also basically e-waste.

        Of course because some business genius had the idea that making the USB cable 0.9 instead of 1.8m saved them $0.06 per unit shipped, we all got lumped with those useless cables.

        Now of course there will always be people for whom it’s their first phone (or whatever situation), who do need those accessories. But all that requires is there to be a retail bundle with the now-accessory charger and cable. Preferably that bundle costs the same as the phone with them included does today and you get a token discount for the phone without them, although we all know it would never work that way :(

        • abir_vandergriff@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          I’m in the minority on this myself, but I fully agree. Honestly, I don’t even need the discount, tell me I can make a fraction less plastic waste and I’m pretty much there. When I got a new phone a couple years ago, I just put the cable at my desk so I had a spot to plug in misc stuff, but I definitely didn’t need it.

    • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is the real reason. The cost savings is negligible. But as soon as Apple got rid of the headphone jack, they introduced the AirPods.

      Then Google did it, Samsung did it, and every other phone manufacturer followed suit. They all have their own wireless earbuds.

      • HidingCat@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Fairphone did it too, of all the companies. Shows that the margins on these things are pretty big for Fairphone to do such a thing.

        • hypelightfly@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          It’s why I’m getting a Zenfone to replace my ~6 year old phone now instead of a Fairphone. It even has a far better IP rating than the fairphone despite the “horrible” water intrusion supposedly caused by 3.5mm jacks.

          Fairphones lying BS about why they removed the port convinced me to never buy one of their phones, even if I didn’t care about it.

          • qupada@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Sony listened to their customers complaints and brought back the headphone jack for the 2nd generation Xperia 1.

            Their phones continue to feature some of the best waterproofing (real world performance, and not just the rating they slap on it) in the entire industry.

            That has never been a justifiable argument against the headphone jack, despite being an all-too-frequent one.

      • tea@lemmy.today
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        1 year ago

        I really doubt this is the primary reason. I think it was multifaceted, but really the people in the business of designing phones were already using Bluetooth exclusively and felt that it was good enough. Some designs probably rushed it as a means to sell more premium headsets (Apple, Samsung), other saw it as removing an unnecessary redundant feature that was more prone to breakage and a waterproofing difficulty (Google). I think it really just came down to the personal preferences of the (affluent) people who were doing the designing, not necessarily a purposeful cash grab. It really was not great since wired headphones were way cheaper than their Bluetooth counterparts. Luckily Bluetooth has gotten much better and less expensive. I think there should be options for both.

    • weew@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Or they can include $20 wireless earbuds and say “Early preorder bonus earbuds, a $200 value if you ORDER NOW NOW NOW”