this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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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.

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[–] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 3 points 2 years ago

Since I went bluetooth I have to charge constantly which is annoying. But at the same time while I was wired the cBle always got in the way in a way so the phone would fall on the street or some hard floor at least omce but sometimes twice a year and breal.

Since I'm on bluetooth I didn't break any screen in the last 5 years. I'M NOT GOING BACK TO WIRED, IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE.

[–] eek2121@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I have not owned a phone with a headphone jack in a long time.

[–] cttttt@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

When the 3.5-less trend started setting in, I still had a phone with a headphone jack but started looking into wireless Bluetooth digital audio convertors just to prepare myself for the reality that it'll eventually be hard to find a phone that's both....good...and that I could plug my IEMs into.

One I settled on was the Radsone ES100. Besides allowing me to continue to use my headphones, one feature I really liked was its ability to store equalizer settings that could be used with any source, whether it be a Bluetooth device or one I plug the DAC into via USB. I found that there were equalizer apps for Android, but they kept getting killed because of memory limitations I guess. This device externalized the EQ.

Anyways some of the folks who made that branched off and made an even better version, the Qudelix 5K. It has the same features but does a better job of simultaneously connecting to multiple devices (but sadly it doesn't mix the sources...it just has a priority 😔😔😔😔). So I grabbed that upgrade and now the headphone side of my audio is locked in.

I found that getting a Bluetooth DAC helped me feel better about the trend of removing a standard audio connector from devices (which I gotta say, still makes no sense). It still frustrates me that I need to walk around with another device and the limitations of Bluetooth are annoying, but the cool thing is that when my last 3.5mm jack equip device (OnePlus 5) just stopped turning on, I just grabbed a random replacement phone (Pixel 5) and kept the same audio chain.

tl;dr - Consider just accepting that this is the trend for phones these days and try a portable Bluetooth (or even USB) DAC. When you find one you like, moving to any source will be less stressful. It won't matter if it has a headphone jack: you'll be able to focus on other features or even just get a less costly device that'll sound identical to what u know.

[–] bluetardis@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

I do. Every day. Decent headphones that block a lot of outside noise but don’t need a battery.

Constantly thankful that I don’t have to find a Bluetooth setup.

Contentious part is that I listen to high quality (generally lossless) ripped music. Bluetooth and some adapters do weird things with compression and you can really hear it.

[–] Senex@reddthat.com 3 points 2 years ago

Daily. Mostly Spotify and Youtube or when I don't want to listen to my wife.

[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I can just leave a spare pair of wired earphones in the car, desk, bedside, or wherever and they're ready to use without having to constantly carry an earbuds case around. Now I have to buy an adapter for each one I might use. Keeping several spare BT earbuds charged would be impractical.

And the adaptor then blocks the charging port, which has sometimes been a problem.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I use it every day, to store valuable pocket lint and bits of dirt.

[–] Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Very very rarely. I have a cheap Bluetooth adapter in my car, and I don't regularly use headphones because everyone I care about is immediately annoyed when they see headphones over/in my ears.

[–] mojo@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

I used to, but now don't really care. Earbuds are really nice, except Bluetooth pairing is complete ass and you need to worry about it being charged.

[–] nicetriangle@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

I don't have one anymore but even if I did I wouldn't use it. Much prefer wireless.

[–] tjsauce@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I used to use it, before buying a USB C headphone amp cause my headphones lacked bass

[–] thorbot@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I never do, because it doesn't have one

[–] murmelade@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Well I tried shoving the wire up my own ass but I prefer the songs on my phone.

[–] Revonult@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

If mine had one I would use it everyday. Idk why but I love wired headphones wah more than earbuds.

[–] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

When I had a motorcycle. This was a daily use item. Now I only use them when out on walks/hiking

[–] 01011@monero.town 3 points 2 years ago

My phones don't have one but I use a headphone jack on my tablet.

[–] spikederailed@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I did everyday in my car for listening to music when I still had my Pixel4a. Sadly it started to die and I replaced it with a Pixel 8(sans headphone jack) and had to buy a Bluetooth -> aux adapter.

[–] ajrwill@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Used to back when I was in high school and it was more common, but bluetooth earbuds have gotten really good sound-wise that the hassle of wires/dac/adapter isn't worth it nowadays for me and basically everyone I know.

Wired headphones sound better usually but I think anyone claiming they're superior to bluetooth in every way is being disingenuous and hasn't tried modern buds.

[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

Never.

You’ll never hear from the people who don’t miss it because it’s nothing for us to talk about, so it seems like everyone only wants them back when in reality the vast majority don’t care.

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 3 points 2 years ago

I used to use it everyday on my old phone, new one doesn't have it and I hate using the dongle. My USB-C port is already wearing out from it

[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I used to. Then I bought a new phone and forgot to check to see if it had one. It did not.

[–] Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 years ago

I bought 2 different Bluetooth earphones that I ended up rarely ever using and instead use my standard quality cable headphones.

[–] squirrelwithnut@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

My current phone (Pixel 8) and my previous phone (Pixel 3) don't have one. My previous phone before those had one but even then I never used it, because I've been using Bluetooth headphones for forever.

[–] Nyanix@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago

I used to every day when I worked at a music shop and would play audio demos from it. The loss of the port made my job VERY difficult to do. Now that I work in a new field and have had to invest in some bluetooth earbuds, I don't find that I'd need the port very often, though the audiophile in me misses it sometimes, especially since bluetooth can be so unreliable sometimes. Don't miss the dangling cable, but the thing is, I can bluetooth earbud on a phone that has a 3.5mm jack too, the fact that they removed it from phones as a standard when it's such a cheap part to implement is baffling, especially when we're paying tons for phones. I can have 16gb RAM, and 8-cores, bud God forbid I want to be able to plug in a speaker and have my phone plugged into the charger at the same time, like a repurposed old phone for a home audio system or something.

[–] Thassodar@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

I loved the headphone jack on the S10, but other issues I had with the charging port made me switch to an S23 at the beginning of this year. I generally do not like wireless headphones due to the possibility of losing them, but using wired headphones and requiring an adapter to use them (because the S23 has no headphone jack) is a pain.

Overall, due to the specific nature of my phone, I'd use wireless headphones to regain the ability to answer and respond to phone calls while walking and listening to music. If I could get a Galaxy S class of phone with a headphone jack again, regardless of the thickness, I'd 100% be all over it.

[–] notapantsday@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago

Never ever. It wasn't the reason why I got my current phone, but I thought I would use it at least sometimes. I don't.

[–] RinseDrizzle@midwest.social 3 points 2 years ago

Quite frequently for sure. I'm a musician in a band, a DJ, and working on becoming more of a producer. Plugging in for amplifying or sampling happens fairly often. Being an audiophile, I'm also partial to wired connections over Bluetooth which can be more unreliable in performance settings. Never wanted to mess with battery powered phones too. Already have charger fatigue pretty bad.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

If I had one, I would. I walked my kid to school recently and grabbed some wired ear buds for the walk back. I had to spend the walk back listening to boring nature and shit.

There is really no reason to not have one. It does not significantly increase the cost of the phone. The space saving excuse does not really hold water. If the Zenfone can fit one, then all the other gargantuan phones should be able to.

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

What headphone jack?

[–] JGrffn@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I use mine whenever I want to use my M50Xs. I tried buds, twice. Galaxy buds and Sony XM4s, the XM4s fell into a pool and the galaxy buds were simply misplaced. The galaxy buds sounded like absolute trash while the XM4 were actually decent, but why would I prefer them over the M50X? Now I'm switching from my note 9 to the pixel 8 pro and I don't know what I'll be doing about the lack of headphone jack.

My girlfriend has it even worse, her car only has AUX, no Bluetooth. I got her a Pixel 8 for Christmas, so she'll lose the only way to put music in her car. I also don't know what I'll be doing about that.

Honest take? We've got neural chips on our phones, we got cameras rivaling pro-level cameras, but we keep losing some very essential and basic features for no fucking reason. The headphone jack should've never been removed. Hell, the IR blaster should've never been removed, I'd kill for a high end phone with such things. Radio is another one, it's never going away as a means of communication, but fuck me for thinking I should have an antenna for radio in a box full of antennas for everything else, right?

Hey maybe I'm wrong about radio and it's just unfeasible to provide good quality signal for all things in a 6 inch box. Maybe I'm wrong about the IR blaster somehow even though TVs, LED stripes, and garage doors still use IR. But it's ridiculous to force no headphone jack as a trend that everyone just follows, all for pricier and shittier Bluetooth buds.

We used to be able to fit all this shit into phones back then, there's 0 reason to exclude them over size constraints now. If the reason is "butt fastah phowns", my 5 year old note 9 still feels more than snappy enough. Maybe we should spend more time making our shit efficient in order to use less space for heat dissipation, as well as better battery life or less battery size for the same battery life. Seriously who needs the kind of computing power found on phones nowadays? Is it really worth it to sacrifice basic QOL functionality for more speed?

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[–] learningduck@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

Not at all. Bluetooth earbuds are too convenient for me. I could just leave my phone anywhere in the house playing podcasts while playing with my baby.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sunk into the Samsung ecosystem. When they stopped including a headphone jack on my phone I had to go and buy Bluetooth earbuds. I have a practically unused pair of Shure wired earbuds that are fantastic that I simply can't use.

[–] coffeebiscuit@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

There are USB-c to mini-Jack cables/dongles.

[–] KiloGex@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I bought wireless headphones about 4 years ago and haven't used wired since. Even when playing through speakers, in my car, and all that I just use Bluetooth.

[–] a1studmuffin@aussie.zone 3 points 2 years ago

I use it a few times a month. I've got fantastic Bluetooth earbuds, but occasionally in zoom calls I'll switch from my PC to my phone on the fly, and the wired PC headset comes with me since it's got a nice microphone and noise cancelling. I can't imagine trying to switch quickly like this with Bluetooth!

I also tend to use wired headphones when commuting in busy areas (city train stations etc.) as Bluetooth falls apart in these conditions... dropouts piss me off. I listen to offline MP3s for the same reason.

I've gone without before - my last phone didn't have a headphone jack and I never bothered with the USBC dongle because it was a pain - but having the flexibility is more convenient.

I only upgrade every 4-5 years, so it makes it easier to find a newish phone that has a headphone jack. It frustrates me that new laptops still include headphone jacks, but most new phones don't. It's a stupid inconsistency.

[–] Metans@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Never for headphones, but I use an aux cable to connect to my amp and play along with music

[–] scoops@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Multiple times a day. I have a wired pair of nice pair of headphones at my desk at work. Using cable is the simplest way to switch between phone and computer. In the car 3.5mm, at the gym I have iems I like to use. The other times I find it valuable is plane travel with steam deck and phone easily swapping audio source for whatever I am I'm the mood for. On planes I use circum-aural with active noise canceling. At work I have on-ear. I have different headphones for different situations.

[–] protput@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Tbh. I love my Samsung buds. I don't understand people complaining about the hassle of wireless. It is the wires that are always a hassle imo. My earbuds just pop out the case and are ready.

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[–] Paranomaly@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Every day.

While I'm walking/commuting, I have my headphones in and am listening to something, be it music, podcasts, or audiobooks. Even on days I don't have anywhere to go I'll go on a walk for about an hour and will be listening to something the whole time. I'd buy a phone without a camera before I bought one without a headphone jack.

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