A couple hours before I was on the edge of getting a Fairphone 5 but I read the specifications and didn’t see 3.5 mm audio jack anywhere. So I thought to myself…why? The community has been requesting this for a couple years ago now so why not. They’re already making money on the phone, they’re really pushing for people to get their wireless headphones? Just add the headphone jack, shouldn’t be too hard.

They said they’re treating their workers fairly, sourcing from ethical sources, renewable claims, repairability claims, and supporting foss projects (they donated a fp4 to CalyxOS to support development). All of these are amazing, so adding a little headphone jack shouldn’t be that hard in the grand scheme of all this.

*Add the headphone jack and I’ll be happy to support and get a fp5.

https://calyxos.org/news/2022/02/25/device-support/

https://shop.fairphone.com/fairphone-5

  • ghandi9@lemmy.meg.li
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    10 months ago

    with an apple-esque “you are doing it wrong” attitude

    You make it seem as if it was just apple that wants to get rid of the 3.5mm jack in the smartphone market, which is simply not true… I don’t care for apple at all and I don’t see what apple has to do with this discussion… That discussion has already been had, back when the fairphone 4 was released, but some people still make the exact same arguments as in the years before…

    focusing on the actual subject matter - the 3.5mm jack itself

    The subject isn’t whether the 3.5mm jack itself is a viable standard… The subject is if it is a viable standard for modern smartphones… And by now, the direction is clear…

    I don’t see the 3.5mm jack disappearing completely anytime soon, but in the modern smartphone world, I don’t see a reason why we should cling to the 3.5mm jack when we already have USB as a standard that has the same functionality… Especially now, when the switch has already happened…

    Here’s why I don’t feel as if bluetooth or dongles are an appropriate replacement

    Great, but can you also tell me why USB cable headphones are not an appropriate replacement? This is what I find so frustrating about this discussion, people always pretend that the options are either keeping the 3.5 mm headphone jack forever or using bluetooth headphones…

    • DrRatso@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      USB headphones is yet another product manufactured with a narrow usecase, the audio world by and large outputs to either 2.5, 3.5 or 4.4 every step of the way. USB is completely phone centric.

      • Lack of a unified USB standard, meaning you will still have to deal with adapters to have compatibility across all devices. My PC for example only has USB A, my phone has lightning, my wifes has usbc, many peoples office PCs will also not have USB C just yet, although it does become less common to have a device without USB C.

      • USB output is digital, that means that you need to convert it to analogue, so your headphones need to put a DAC into them or the wire.

      • In many cases of headphone use you will actually not want the USB such as working with them in professional environments where you will be plugging them into an audio stack, where the autput is analogue already.

      • Some headphones need an AMP so power straight off the USB is not an option.

      • Balanced output.

      A standard jack covers most usecases, headphones will never move to USB standard, they are analogue devices and should not have to have USB support on their end.