Why wouldn't you prefer a headphone jack in your phone? It is yet another option for headphones that worst case you don't use. The only reason it has been removed is because it saves companies a few cents on the cost to build the product.
Credit where it's due, Bluetooth headphones have come a long way. I like the ones I have now. That said, removing the jack and micro SD slots was extremely anti consumer and they should come back.
The headphone jack would be less painful of a loss if phone manufacturers started adding a second USB-C port on top of the device. That way you wouldn't have to choose between charging your phone, listening to your game without lag and in privacy, or carry a dongle to try doing both things at the same time.
This poll kind of sucks for data gathering. You ask two different questions but there's only one set of answers. Even the first question alone asks if we use and/or require, which should be separate.
To answer though: I use my headphone adapter whenever I travel but don't have a regular headphone jack. A jack is not absolutely required for me to purchase a phone but the adapter is.
Yes. It's my way of voting with my wallet. I already have a few nice headphones and I'm not replacing them just because phone manufacturers are cheap and lazy.
Besides, I hate batteries. They always die at the most inconvenient time. And USB-c just for audio is way overkill.
I hate to say but the poll is biased because you asked two questions that are not the same.
I currently have a phone without a jack, so the first question is obviously no. But the second question, would I prefer it, is a yes.
So there's a group of people who would prefer it, but it's not a deal breaker for them in your data, but they answered a different question than the headline.
Yes! No.1 reason: microphone quality! I have to attend many calls every day and no Bluetooth headset (BT v.4 > 5.3, SPS, AAC, LDAC) has even come close to the simple quality of a ~25,-€ wired headset.
Nice bullshit poll making 'Yes' the pre-selected choice and clicking an other option not changing it, even when its highlighted. Dragging choices is absolutely counterintuitive and actively misleading. Lets start a poll if people like murder and wonder about the 50/50 result at the end.
I'm not a fan of BT headphones. It's three things (2 pods and the case that charges them) that you have to juggle and keep charged, vs just one that works whenever the device it's plugged into works. Wired headphones have a nice additional perk of discouraging people from interacting with you, while (at least anecdotally) the BT ones seem to lose that deterrent... and the venn diagram for times I want to use headphones and the times I don't want to deal with other people is just one crisp circle.
I always try to pick out a phone that has a 3.5mm jack, but that's becoming increasingly hard to do.
Yes!
I do still use the headphone jack. Bluetooth is trash and suffers from extreme latency and is not capable of the same quality of a wired connection.
I recently bought some bluetooth earphones (sony wf-c500) after many years of avoiding it.
I was under the impression that things had improved but bluetooth is still as bad as I remember them. The audio latency on windows alone is unreal but another kettle of fish.
The real disgrace is that phone manufacturers removed the MicroSD card slot and then tried to justify it with weak excuses that didn't add up. MicroSD/SD cards have also recently become much quicker but nobody was using a MicroSD card as primary storage anyway so it was irrelevant and a weak argument at best.
The only reason why phone manufacturers did remove it was to charge you much more for the large storage capacity phones. I would also say the price increase for that given storage space was and is also vastly more expensive than it actually is. In other words it is a cash grab. Its also of no coincidence that many phone manufacturers also now sell their own shitty Bluetooth headphones.
We can also sight the absence of charging cables/cords and wall plugs/power bricks.
Not to mention that people these days are more privacy focused and tech savvy and begrudgingly use android or apple phones as they know with each update their privacy is being further eroded away. Whilst also being undermined by manufacturers with such things as planned obsolescence and them deliberately making it difficult if not impossible to repair your own phone.
...and phone manufacturers wonder why nobody wants to buy a phone anymore. Dumbasses!
The truth is there are many more number of reasons why phones are garbage these days.
The poll/voting process is flawed & I don't like that.
That said, idk, I'm a blue collar working adult & the aux/wired connection isn't a necessity in my daily life. I can often, if not always, blast my music on an Ion loudspeaker. Car has Bluetooth. Home, I've got Bluetooth.
But that's just not the point for me; my phone has an aux port & I rarely use it. Used it to connect headphones on a walk last week. It's nice & I like having the option. Getting rid of it was purely an anti-consumer move, so needless, and obviously they can build it into the phones without detracting from battery or taking away from water resistance. Everything I've heard justifying removing aux is either a lie or an excuse.
It's a nice to have and frankly aside from maybe water resistance there's no good reason to remove it. The 3.5mm jack has worked since the dawn of portable music, doesn't require often fickle pairing, and of significant issue to me at least doesn't have the potential for some future DRM scheme when the media companies decide you have to use their special app to play something. It's much the same reason I resisted HDMI for as long as possible.
That said, I do use wireless and probabbly would routinely even if the current phone did have a jack, but I would very much like to have it there just for the option to plug a wire in and attach it wherever I feel like. Wouldn't be the first time an aux port or RCA adapter came in handy.
I usually use wireless headphones nowadays, but there are still plenty of instances where I'm happy to have the headphone jack. Random parties where someone needs to play music via the aux cable, going somewhere with only some small wired headphones in my pocket because I dont have space, etc. For me it's still quite important that my next phone has one.
I mostly use bluetooth, but the jack of my phone is not sitting there unused. I have wired headphones too, and I frequently use my phone as a microphone (because it is one) by connecting it to my computer by a jack cable.
Also, the next headphone of mine will probably be wired. Always keeping it charged is not really a problem, but the privacy aspect of Bluetooth has started to disturb me.
With a wired connection, you exactly know and control who connects to your devices, and at the same time you don't announce to the world that you are here.
Also, as I understand you can't use USB-C for audio and charging or data transfer at the same time, or even all 3 at the same time. Is that right?
That is critical functionality for me. Audio is not just entertainment, it could be an online meeting or other things too, and at one point I'll have to change my phone, or transfer files from it. However I don't have a USB-C phone so I can't test it, so I would appreciate if someone could confirm if this is actually the case.
No. I had jumped to BT long before Apple* first dropped the hole. I hate cords; I hate the tangle and snagging. It's another lever with which to break a connection on the circuit board, and another ingress for water.
I know audio is better over cords, but I don't hear the difference, so the convenience won for me.
I just discovered that my phone sometimes autocorrects "Apple" to "asshole." Fun.
Man, fuck this straw poll website. VPN voting is not allowed? I’m not even on a VPN.
In answer to your question, OP: No, it’s not a requirement for me. I would much prefer if I had one, but it’s not that important for me, I don’t often listen to music from my phone, and when I do I’m in the car, so I just play it over Bluetooth.
Yes, I mostly use wireless earbuds but you never know when you have to use a wired earbuds like if you forget your case and your earbuds are out of charge.
I use wireless headphones for everything, I have a Bluetooth to aux adapter for my car, and I still won't give up my headphone jack. It's so useful when the batteries in those things die, or when you hop in a friend's car and want to play something without fiddling with Bluetooth pairing.
I'm still mad that all these major manufacturers just blindly followed Apple and took it out.
My current phone does not have a jack and my previous one did. I would prefer to have it since there are times I don't need/want noise cancelling and bluetooth, but I have no choice but to run down my headphone batteries more.
I found an ideal solution for this (in my opinion). A Bluetooth DAC. The specific one I have is the FiiO BTR5, but there are others.
For mine specifically, it has the standard 3.5mm output (TRS), as well as a TRRS balanced connection (I believe it's 2.5mm), and it can receive a signal from either Bluetooth or over USB from is USB C port.
The best feature of it is that I can charge it, while I'm using it. Which is something that most all-in-one Bluetooth headphones miss entirely. Even if they can be worn while plugged into a charger, many don't operate while they're being charged. All the true wireless (aka airpod style) by headphones, can't even be plugged into power directly, nor would it be possible to use them while they're charging in their case.
I can pick any headphones I want to use with it, provided they can operate from a 3.5mm connection (or something that can be adapted to 3.5) or by a balanced headphone connection.... Basically any ear-mounted sound generating devices that use a wire, can be used with a few exceptions.
I'm naturally very cautious, so I also have a charging dongle that has a 3.5mm audio jack on it as a backup. It can literally charge my phone and play sound at the same time... I'm tethered to my phone, which IMO, isn't ideal. With the BTR5, I can thread the wire through my shirt or something, and clip the unit to me or stuff it in a pocket and not worry about it. If I need my phone, I'm not fighting with how long (or short) my headphone cable is. The BTR also supports LDAC as well as aptX and related codecs, so it generally sounds excellent. It's a bit of a bear to get it set up, so I generally pull it out for long walk/work sessions away from my desk, or if I'm in a situation where I'm waiting for something to happen for a long time. I also have a handful of Bluetooth headphones, all of which have their (dis) advantages, and I flip between what I have as the need arises. I prefer the BTR5, but it's not always the best or most feasible given the situation.
IMO the BTR5 is better than just having a headphone plug on my phone, since the DAC and AMP in the device is known-good (many reviewers of audio stuff give it great ratings all around), and I can be untethered from my phone, so typing/scrolling/whatever is the same as normal; I'm not having to position my hand funny to avoid a bulky cable/adapter.
I had benchmarks that led me to the BTR5, and between it and the dongle, I have all my benchmarks covered.
I use a headphone jack when I'm looking for a particular listening experience, which I have amp / DAC / etc for. If I'm using my phone to listen, I'm both not worried about sound quality, and don't want to be tethered to it by a cord.
I suppose if I were really arsed about it, I'd just get a USBC dongle. That said, I can see where that would be a hassle for people that prefer wired, and I think I've held only a couple of phones in my life that couldn't have just accommodated a headphone jack instead of saving the 1.5 cents it probably costs to leave it out.
I'll admit, my initial decision to just use wireless was more from seeing the writing on the wall; airpods sales would need to basically evaporate to get most of the manufacturers to course change at this point. Hell, the phone I'm currently using is the first I've had in years that even came with a charging brick in the box, so I'm assuming ditching the cable is next, followed by microtransactions to use various built in apps and services... like the phone dialer. Need to keep them margins infinitely expanding to appease shareholders.
I have excellent Bluetooth headphones that last multiple days on a single charge. You would think that makes the headphone jack just not important anymore. But I live in a neighborhood with a very satured frequency band which is so bad sometimes that the thing I'm listening to cuts out every few seconds.
Every time this happens I am so happy that I can just plug in a cable and I'm making sure this option will be available to me in future devices. Wireless is not always great.
Wireless are more convenient for most use cases. I like the compactness of wireless earbuds, no tangled wires, and the charging case. I can even use just one bud at a time.
However, wired headphones have some advantages in rare use cases that wireless can't handle yet:
connecting two headsets at once so 2 people han watch a movie on a plane. Bluetooth can stream sound to only one device at a time (at least on android). With Jack you can just use a splitter
switching between devices easily. Just unplug and plug where you want it. With Bluetooth you have disconnect and reconnect.
you can easily plug it into aux without any pairing process, just plug and play. With rental cars i noticed the device memory is often full and i have to remove a device before pairing. Not as seamless as audio jack for once off uses.
I don't mind missing audio jack, but at least make usb c dongles interchangeable. Iirc you can't use the same dongles on samsung and Pixel device. I ordered one that did not work.
I keep my bluetooth and location off so it easier and faster to just plug in headphones. For now I'm trying to get a phone with a jack. Hope they will keep making some.
I don't get it. This poll is largely in favor of jacks. I love my Bluetooth buds so much more. No more with I have to deal with broken wires. No more do I have to deal with moving my hand and accidentally snagging the cord, forcing my phone to the floor. No more do I have to deal with the cord creating noise as it rubs against the zipper of my jacket...
I was gifted a phone without a headphone jack after my last one died a few years back. I miss it all the time, remembering to charge bluetooth headphones and not losing bluetooth buds is tricky for me. So a lot of the time I just dont play music anymore. Very annoying.
Honestly, I hated the wire part of my wired headphones for years. I tend to listen to things while I'm doing chores around the house and I can't tell you the amount of times the cable caught on something and sent my earbuds or my phone careening to the floor. Or was forced to untangle myself from a door knob. Or forgot I had earbuds on and stood up from my desk only to throw my phone to the ground.
I went on a bit of a journey with bt headphones but eventually got a pair of Sony Linkbuds and a $30 Bluetooth thingy for my car that plugs into the aux jack, and never looked back. Every other day I plug the case in on my nightstand along with my phone. Nbd. Linkbuds don't have the best sound quality I've ever experienced in BT buds, but the comfort wins over all others.
I also recently got a pair of PineBuds Pro for $70 and man that battery case is legit. I only have to charge that beast once a week. Just waiting on someone to release a better sound profile for those things because they are BAASSSY. But beyond the bass, the potential sound quality is actually quite good. I'm looking forward to what the pine64 community does with these.
I'll also say that I have audiophile hearing (I've been tested) and I absolutely hear the difference in sound quality using BT and a good set of cans - when it comes to earbuds, the difference is negligible between wired and wireless. Given that 1. I'm more often listening to words than music from my phone and 2. The convenience, I'll go for wireless more often than not if given the option. Plus, outside of niche phones and defunct LG phones, I never saw a headphone jack that could properly drive a good set of cans. There are way more output devices I would choose over a phone to drive high quality audio.
That all said, do I think manufacturers should remove the headphone jack? No. Apple did it to sell more airpods. Everyone else did it to save a nickle on their costs. Just because I don't use it doesn't mean it should go away. If anything, there's an accessibility element. BT buds are expensive. USB-C / Lightning buds are expensive. Aux buds are cheap. And wired buds are the easiest and cheapest way for someone to get audio out of a phone or talk on the phobe without fucking holding it in the air to broadcast their conversation to the world. And for that reason, I think the jack should ABSOLUTELY come back.
I'm somewhat surprised by the result if I'm honest. I have switched to wireless and won't go back at all. I do understand the use case for those who want them too but I did not realise it was such a popular request in modern phones!
I feel like every comment I'm reading assumes there's only two options - either headphone jack + wired headphones, or no headphone jack + Bluetooth.
I just use a USB-C dongle with a headphone jack on it. It'd be nice to have it built-in, sure, but the dongle is only a few bucks, small, doesn't really add a lot of extra stuff to carry if I'm already carrying headphones.
It's not a deal-breaker for my if a phone doesn't have a headphone jack because if it doesn't I can easily add one.
I use a Samsung galaxy note 9 which has a Jack because i want a Jack. I replaced the screen twice after it broke just not to buy a diff phone. Fyi note 10 comes without a Jack
I'm fine with the dongle because all I ever use the headphone jack for is for listening in my car (no bluetooth), so the dongle just stays on the end of the aux cord in my car.
No dongle would obviously be better, but it's a very minor inconvenience for me,
I'm in the minority that basically never needs one and is okay with using a USB-C dongle in those cases. But I don't mind phones having one, and perfectly understand the argument for keeping it. Form over function is definitely a factor in modern phone design.
I have once owned wireless earbuds. It was cool to have free head, but I was too lazy to keep recharging them like every week or so. They finally died. Or at least the case did. I have replaced the charging chip in it, but it only extended the lifespan by a few weeks. It's now unable to charge both earbuds at once. Still, better than self-heating short-circuited case.
I just don't like them overall. Battery, latency, audio cuts after a bit of silence (power saving), and at the end, more waste.
I still use Bluetooth audio, but differently. With my laptop. When working on laptop, I have my earphones connected to it. But it is more convenient to play music on my phone, so I connect my phone to laptop for audio as well. In fact, I feel like the sound card in my laptop sounds a bit better than my phone, and with laptop I can use aptX HD.
I only buy phones with headphone jack. But the way things are going,these greedy manufacturers will sooner or later make it obsolete. Just like the new shitty trend of selling phone without charger in the box.
I've never had a need for the headphone jack, so I didn't care one way or another when they started dissappearing. But, I can definitely see how removing such a simple and cheap port from phones would be such an issue for a lot of people. No one should be forced into replacing accessories that work perfectly for no reason, just adds to all the damned e-waste already generated.
I ended up getting Bluetooth headphones when I upgraded my Pixel. I deliberated over it for AGES.
Charging them is less annoying than I thought it would be (I bought my headphones in January and have only had to charge them about 4 times??) but it annoys me that you can't just plug them in and they work. Talking to anyone on the phone using them is terrible. Bluetooth cuts out sometimes, randomly. I miss my wired headphones :(
I've managed to avoid giving up the headphone jack, using a Pixel 5a right now. Although when I eventually have to get my next phone I have a feeling there might not be many choices left with the headphone jack.
Yes I need, I use more the jack headphones than my Bluetooth ones. If I had to buy a phone this feature would come into consideration, with a heavy weight
My fold 4 doesn't have one, and it's a huge pain in the ass, since literally every other device I have has one. Even my 2021 car has one.
On a plane? Forgot my dongle at home. In a friend's car? It doesn't work, all they have is 3.5mm and then a lightning cord. Can't even use it at home with my noise cancelling or opened backed headphones.
It's the most annoying part of this device. It came bundled with the bad Samsung bluetooth earbuds, which helpfully developed a click in one of the earbuds less than one year into ownership. They retail for about $300, laughably.
As someone who currently uses headphones throughout pretty much all his free time, yes I use wired whenever possible and my current phone was one I got because of the headphone jack. Last thing I want is to have to stop listening to whatever I'm listening to all because my bluetooth headphones need a charge.
Currently I'm stuck with a pair of shitty dollar store headphones, but they are so much better than the wireless ones I have because of just how long I can enjoy music, videos, etcetera, without needing to worry when my headphone battery needs charged. A headphone jack is extremely important to me.
I don't even want one. I was initially mad that big comoanies have such power to decide what I want for me. People always say "let the market decide" but the decisions really do come from the top and are often cynical as fuck. But no, I don't really want one.
Definitely prefer a phone with a proper jack over one without. I know there's adapters, but that's taking up the only available slot, and I don't appreciate that at all.
I've been using my Bluetooth buds for a couple of moths now, and while loving them, I don't want to be limited to only Bluetooth for my audio, be for unfortunate cases when the buds don't work, or for something as simple as having a great wired pair at hand.
My phone doesn't have a headphone jack but even before they started disappearing I rarely used them anyway, much prefer wireless
I'm of the probably unpopular opinion around here that the less cables and IO I need the better, will often transfer large files over lan on WiFi rather than plug in because often in the time I've found a cable, plugged in, set the right USB mode, found the file on my phone's filesystem and transferred it the slightly longer wireless transfer would be done
Have a ThinkPad which has a ton of IO, but I think a couple thunderbolt/PD ports, a usb port and maybe an ethernet port if you do lots of fiddling with networking are plenty
Oh micro SD on the inside of phones too someone else made a point about that but that's more an upgradability/maintainability thing imo
I would probably prefer having a headphone jack. I am using wireless buds though. The problem with them is the price. While you can get decent wired earbuds for around $100 or even slightly less you have to pay at least $300 for decent wireless ones. Seriously I tried a few, but they all sounded like absolute garbage. It's probably a cheap DAC in all of them combined with even less available space due to batteries and other electronics.
Another downside is that you can only use them for like 5 hours at a time. It is fine most of the time, but on long train rides I hit the limitation a few times.
Overall I am happy with the wireless ones, they are convenient, but it is really expensive to replace them and you have fewer choices, so having wired headsets as an option would be great.
I never tried wireless Bluetooth interfaces though and I suspect they might be better than the inbuilt jack of phones which would make them obsolete in my opinion.
I simply cannot imagine buying a phone without a headphone jack. I want as few things as possible that I need to keep the battery life of into account in my day to day life. Phones and laptops at least have display symbols for the battery life by default, I have never seen anyone in my country using cordless headphones that had some sort of indicator for how much battery charge remains in them. If some are sold in the first world then they would be out of my expense, and if there are apps available that would solve my gripe I have not encountered them. I do own a pair of my own, but I only use it in very niche circumstances for which I will have known to have charged it right beforehand, and I am lending them to family/friends more often than I am using them.
Even supposing that the battery thing wasn't an issue, the other hassles involved with going cordless (I've had to help people find them one they fall out of their ears way too many times for one lifetime) forbid me from ever even thinking about buying a phone without a headphone jack.
I voted wrong. Didn’t realize you had to drag. Oh well. I’m indifferent. Haven’t used one for years, but there are a few times it would have been useful
I use wireless headphones. However, I like to have non-distracting background music at work (open-plan office), and I won't put my personal files (music) on a company-owned laptop. So I run a wire from my phone's headphone jack to the laptop line-in, and can thus play music without any mixing of data.
Wish it did. My Airpods I was gifted died (I am not an Apple user and only used them because they were free), and I bought an inexpensive amazon replacement but it turns out they're so sensitive that the slightest adjustment of the earbud in my ear turns the sound off but very firm tapping does not turn it back on. It's so annoying and I have great wired headphones.
I strongly prefer there to be a port. I mostly use Bluetooth headsets, but sometimes your battery runs out, or you really want to use your super nice plug-in noise canceling headphones. It's better to have the option.
I use it, and would pick it over not having one for sure. It's not the end of the world for me. I can use wired head phones till the foam falls apart, and even then you can get new muffs, but bluetooth ones just die on me at some point and the pain of repair is pretty high compared to how much I care.
You can also get 90 degree angled headphone plugs which don't stick out much at all. Mskes me less worried when i have my phone in my pocket and I'm walking around.
As for 90 degree usb-c headphone adapters... nowhere to be found.
I have a jack. I do use it on occasion. But man some of you really, really hate Bluetooth.
It's not THAT bad. Maybe your phones just have a really shitty transmitter/receiver? Sure, it's not as good as it can get with a jack.
But I also don't want to have wires hanging while running or biking. Being able to change volume and songs without picking up my phone from pocket is also very convenient.
I still want a jack in my phone. But I really don't get the extreme hate on Bluetooth. It's not 2005 anymore. Bluetooth technology has progressed.
I want technology that's as uncomplicated as possible for accomplishing the task, so yes. Wired is better than wireless for anything meant to only work in proximity to something else.
I have too many pairs of headphones and have been buying more wired ones rather than Bluetooth as they just don't last as long (they are convenient, I'll admit).
The 3.5mm Jack is just so handy to have ratger than a dongle (SD card for storing all the music helps too).
Until reading this question, I completely forgot head phone jacks used to be a thing in phones.
In love my first gen AirPods and JBL over the ear wireless headphones. The battery lasts forever, and they easily switch between my devices.
I love not having cords!
In my car I just connect with wireless CarPlay and charge wirelessly as well.
I'd rather ditch the phone entirely than switch to one without a headphone jack. Too long to explain, but I have a thing against wireless, a thing against corporations making decisions for me, and a thing against phones in general.
Heck yeah, rocking the Sony Xperia with the headphone jack as a big selling point for me, alongside the lack of notch etc. I use it most days with my Apple ear buds coupled with wavelet auto eq. Genuinely sound great and subtle enough to feel comfortable with them in public. I have a pair of wh1000-xm3s In my bag but I go for them far less often.
I greatly prefer it. Basically all high quality headphones are wired only... and even an equivalent wireless headphone is more expensive and more stuff to carry (gotta carry those charging cases with them). Just give me my damn port.
No, and I don't miss it at all.
I've used BT headphones even when my last two devices had jacks and wouldn't want to go back.
Prior to that, I can't count the number of times I would snag the wires on something or get them tangled in some way.
Now I use my BT bone conduction headphones everywhere.
I just got a new phone that doesn't have it, and I very strongly miss it. I hate having to charge wireless devices. Everything that I can, I get wired.
Doesn't help much that lately it's been getting harder and harder to find good compact wired earphones, most companies pivoted to wireless... And of those that I find, most are the in-ear type with that rubber tip you squeeze deep into your ear... I also don't like that. Guess I'll have to move to over-ears for everything.
Yes. I use my headphone jack at least 3 times a week for 4 hours at a time went I'm on dialysis.
Plus for home listening I have a nice pair of over ear headphones which I run off a mobile DAC/AMP which connects to the phone via 3.5mm aux cable.
I won't buy a phone if it doesn't have a headphone jack. Hence my previous phone was an LG30 and my current is a Sony Xperia 10iii.
I once tried using Bluetooth in ear headphones at dialysis and the damn thing fell out of my ear and onto the floor. Had to leave it there for hours until I was unhooked from the machine. Thank goodness the cleaner never came to sweep otherwise it would be lost forever.
With wired this is not a problem, neither is forgetting to charge them since they don't need charging.
Yes yes two thousand times yes, Why would I have to worry about charging one more device if a cable can deliver ten times the quality at the same price?
As someone who currently uses headphones throughout pretty much all his free time, yes I use wired whenever possible and my current phone was one I got because of the headphone jack. Last thing I want is to have to stop listening to whatever I'm listening to all because my bluetooth headphones need a charge.
Currently I'm stuck with a pair of shitty dollar store headphones, but they are so much better than the wireless ones I have because of just how long I can enjoy music, videos, etcetera, without needing to worry when my headphone battery needs charged. A headphone jack is extremely important to me.
I finally tried a little Bluetooth amp and found my wired earphones sound better than they ever did plugged into the phone directly. Couldn't hear an improvement when plugging into the usb port and using as a usb DAC. So i guess the high quality ldac codec must be kinda good.
Would still prefer the 3.5mm option of course - much more useful for aux out.
I use my audio jack in my car. The car has Bluetooth but only supports calls, no support for music.
Another point to make is that people here are saying wireless headphones are just as good as wired ones nowadays, but I don't think that applies to cheap ones.
Nowadays I very rarely use headphones with my phone out in public, so I don't see much purpose in spending money on a good pair for myself. I bought a cheap set of wireless ones awhile ago and they're terrible. They always struggle to connect to my phone and they have abysmal range, it struggles if my phone is sitting next to me rather than in my hands. I find any pair of cheap wired headphones you can get from any corner shop or supermarket is way cheaper and much more reliable than most cheap wireless ones.
My phone (Pixel 7) does not have one. On occasion I use a pair of wired USB-C headphones but only for media. I do not use headphones for calls. Bluetooth in the car for calls and YouTube Music.
I want it and use it and therefore got a S10+ just bc it's Samsung last flagship that featured it. What's even more annoying, that my 10" tablet hasn't got one there is absolutely no shortage in space on that device why you had to drop it.
I missed it until I got AirPods. Now I got the pro ones and they’re amazing. I also use BT receivers if I want to plug to a stereo system or something like that.
I mean, why in the world with someone at all concerned about security want a way to listen to their phone without the chance of someone listening in because of bluetooth?
It's preferred, but not a requirement. There are plenty of cheap usb-c to 3.5 headphone jack adapters available. My current phone has a headphone jack though.
I much prefer wireless headphones, because I keep breaking every plug. I even tried soldering them, but that ended in a catastrophe lol. That being said, I recently lost my wireless pair and had to pick my old K450. Now I'm grateful that I picked a phone with a headphone jack. I wasn't even checking if it has one while buying.
I do not use mine, because if I want to listen to something in public, I just save it for later, when I'm home. Then I can play it at whatever volume I want.
Back when I went to the gym before covid, I had a dedicated music device I used for music, not my phone.
My phone (Pixel 6) doesn't have one but I wish it did. I still use an aux cord to listen in my car or to plug into my amplifier when I practice on headphones, so I have to use 3.5mm to USB-C converter dongles. I also can't charge my phone while using an aux cable now which is annoying.
I was annoyed when I found out the phone I was considering didn’t have a headphone jack, but after checking the prices of Bluetooth headphones, I wasn’t as concerned. The battery charge for the headphones lasted longer than I was expecting, too. Now I’ve grown to prefer them, and wouldn’t go back even if I had the option.
I don't care about the headphone jack. Bluetooth earbuds are super convenient, and when I want higher quality I plug in a Fiio BTR5 to the USB-C port and use that to power good headphones. Way better than a built in dac/amp would be.
I have it but I have never used it. I've been using my Galaxy note 9 user since December 2018. I have active noice cancelling headphones for most scenarios and true wireless earphones for gym.
I have had exclusively Bluetooth headphones for almost a decade at this point. I keep a backup pair of wired usb-c earbuds in my glove box in case I don't foresee needing my wireless buds.
Controversial take - sometimes you've just got to adapt to the times. I'll never forgive everyone for removing SD expansion in phones, because there's absolutely no replacement except "buy our expensive cloud storage and own nothing ever!" or "spend SIGNIFICANTLY MORE THAN THE ACTUAL COST OF FLASH STORAGE to increase your onboard storage!" which are both unacceptable. But wireless headphones are perfectly acceptable. If I want an audiophile experience, I'm absolutely not using my phone anyways.
I'm probably the odd one out, and I used to be infuriated by the idea that my phone didn't have a headphone jack, but I got used to not having it.
I only use wireless headphones now, and I have a USB-C adapter I can use in case I do want to use an aux port. Have been tempted to buy some decent "Chi-Fi" wired earphones, I do miss higher quality sound.
I use bluetooth earbuds for work - I used wired buds up until this job, but I ended up constantly ripping them out of my ear by accident, UUUUGGGGHHHHHH. But I would still be using wired if I could. My husband also uses wireless earbuds at work, but needs a headphone jack to play music through his ancient work truck. He had an adapter while he had a phone w/o a jack, but then he couldn't charge his phone while listening to music. I know there are splitters out there, but we didn't end up buying one, and he just replaced his phone with a new one that includes a headphone jack.
I wish my tablet had a headphone jack. I have to use an adapter but I would want one on there by default. I haaaaate bluetooth headphones. Too much delay. And no, I don't have a phone.
I am once again telling you to use an adapter or external dac.
Not as someone who only uses bt headphones, but as someone who owns more sets of wired headphones than almost everyone itt.
Stop relying on a dac included as an afterthought. Stop relying on a port that was never designed for pocket use and routinely tears the end off your $300 senhausers.
I used to be quite hardline on this, however now I use a portable DAP (Hiby R5 Gen 2) for my music. It has a class A amplifier, balanced output, a Terabyte of storage, and streams Qubuz Hi-Res. So I don't use my phone now.
No, I really enjoy my shokz bone conduction headphones for general work calls, audiobooks, chores, running, etc. It's like I simply have the audio in my head.
They are Bluetooth and last all day, sometimes multiple if I'm not in meetings all day. They are waterproof, I can even swim with them.
Honestly running got me away from wired headphones the most
I stopped using wired headsets loooong before they started taking them off...my HP iPaq had Bluetooth and my iPod didn't--that's when I bought my first Bluetooth headset.
I bought a new smartphone a few months back and I didn't realize it doesn't have a headphone jack until recently. That was the first instance when I wanted to use it. But it turned out that BT was supported in that case too.
I absolutely see how removing jack is a problem for some people, but there is also a significant group which couldn't care less. I haven't used wired headphones in years.
I thought I did and was so against manufacturers removong them. Until I got Airpods. So much better. Perfect ear fit like no other. No cable mess. Instant auto connect between devices. I can ping them. And they’ve held up longer than any cable headphones as well, whose cables always break. And they get tangled. I’ve had the Airpods for three years now and they still hold battery for a full day use for me. Charging them fully takes like 15 minutes.
I’m sure there are similarly good headphones for other brands, this is just my own experience with Airpods.
In case I must have a cable for some reason I can plug in a tiny 3,5mm adapter through the charging port. So that’s not a problem either.
Also the phone has better water and dust resistance with one port less.
I bought a used phone and needed good low light camera for documentation of network closets, so I had to compromise on the wish for a headphone jack. Now I got an adapter that I use at home to use my headphones for calls. On the go I have noise cancelling equipment that uses bluetooth anyway. It would still be more handy to have the jack built in.
I feel like every comment I'm reading assumes there's only two options - either headphone jack + wired headphones, or no headphone jack + Bluetooth.
I just use a USB-C dongle with a headphone jack on it. It'd be nice to have it built-in, sure, but the dongle is only a few bucks, small, doesn't really add a lot of extra stuff to carry if I'm already carrying headphones.
It's not a deal-breaker for my if a phone doesn't have a headphone jack because if it doesn't I can easily add one.
Mine doesn't have a headphone jack but Xiaomi did provide a Type C to Headphone jack adapter in the box. It would have been better to have it embedded in the phone itself. But now, what happens is I don't use the phone while it's charging. So good enough for me.
Admittedly I tend to always see as a bad thing whenever I see phone models without headphone jacks, that said for the last five years I've been using phones without headphone jacks and using the wired headphones they came with is enough for the few times I need to use them.
The relationship I have work my phone is that I don't necessarily have a phone that I can use as a music player, as much as I have a music player/internet device that I can call with.
I haven’t used wired since around 2013, and would have switched to jack-less if available at that time. I don’t understand the “anti-consumer” theories around their removal. Most people who end up buying phones without jacks end up buying BT headphones from a manufacturer other than the phone one. Unless you think there’s a conspiracy where Sony and Bose are giving kickbacks to Samsung and Apple…
With the jack-to-lighning adapter that came with my iPhone I can easily use my wired headphones those 2 times of the year. The rest of the time, my phone is a tiny bit smaller that it otherwise would be.
I haven’t missed having a headphone Jack on my phone for at least 10 years. I’m perfectly happy with the performance of my AirPods and other Bluetooth headphones when I’m on the go.
Fidelity on the go isn’t a concern for me as long as it’s ‘good enough’. All the ambient issues makes high fidelity pointless imo when I’m anywhere but home, where I’ve got my real audio setup.