5 ms·

As someone who has used BT headsets for 2 years now could you explain why it such a big deal? Is it the audio quality?

by lasgsf 9y ago

cryptoz 9y ago
I'm not OP but I have a Pixel 2 with no headphone jack and it ruins me daily. I have the adapter yes, but it is lost 100% of the time. And when I want to use it I cannot find it. I find myself literally standing in the cold with my ears freezing off and headphones in with no music. Because I left the house without the 1mm thick nearly invisible adapter. Not once in two months have I remembered it when I go out. I hate hate hate hate hate how much this phone cost and how vastly more inconvenient is compared to my last phone. I cannot wait for the return of the headphone jack on phones if true! Edit: how long does it take to switch your Bluetooth headphones from a computer to a phone? If it is more than 1 second, it's a stupid waste of time as well. I'm not putting up with that decline in usability especially if am expected to spend money on it and throw into the landfill my perfectly good headphones. No thanks.
- umanwizard 9y ago
  The person you’re replying to mentioned Bluetooth.
  - cryptoz 9y ago
    The battery will die. No thanks. They don't plug in to / work with anything else I own easily. No thanks. I already had headphones and am not buying more. Bluetooth pairing takes me on average 15 minutes and usually fails. I would have to be pairing like 5-10 times a day and that sounds like a literal nightmare.
- mscrivo 9y ago
  Why not just keep it connected to your headphones/earbuds wire all the time? Clunky, I admit, but at least you won't lose it.
  - cryptoz 9y ago
    How do they plug into anything else then? The computers I have don't take that port. My friends phones don't take it. My other devices don't take it. I can't leave it in without buying another pair of headphones for all my other devices.
- ryanwaggoner 9y ago
  I’m curious why you can’t: 1. Keep the adapter on the headphones cord 2. Get headphones for USB-C (or whatever the Pixel uses) 3. Get Bluetooth headphones I mean, I understand that you feel like you shouldn’t have to do those things, and you won’t buy one of these again, but it sounds like this is ruining your life. Why not just fix the problem?
  - cryptoz 9y ago
    1. How do I use the headphones in a different product then? 2. I have perfectly good headphones and am not buying more. Period. 3. Why would I spend more money on this for a product I hate? No way am I buying new headphones that I will hate. Bad idea for my sanity. I will fix the problem by never dealing with a crap phone like this. Next phone will definitely have a headphone jack.
    - zimpenfish 9y ago
      #4 Get a Bluetooth dongle like the TaoTronics TT-BA08 https://www.taotronics.com/taotronics-tt-ba08-bluetooth-4.1-transmitter-receiver-aptX-music-adapter-b.html?__adhoc_split_id__=90389002-eff2-a79f-f261-3172d621acaa https://www.taotronics.com/taotronics-tt-ba08-bluetooth-4.1-...
      - cryptoz 9y ago
        That sounds awful. I am not buying some something else that I don't want to own just to fix a problem that shouldn't be a problem in the first place. Also that page is a 404.
        zimpenfish 9y ago
        Page is working fine for me. Ho hum. And no, it's not awful, it's a pragmatic solution to not having to buy new headphones and not having to use a dongle - both of which were complained about :)
        9y ago
- zeveb 9y ago
  I really hope that someone from a phone manufacturer reads this: it's a textbook example of what you don't want your users to experience. > I hate hate hate hate hate how much this phone cost and how vastly more inconvenient is compared to my last phone. This, right here, says it all.
letmein 9y ago
not having to worry about BT charged headphones
- coldtea 9y ago
  And having to worry about cables.
hayanno 9y ago
The real question is why would you remove it ? To make the phone slimer ? I don't mind having a bigger phone if it's for better battery life and the presence of an headphone jack. How do I connect my phone to my computer ? Should I have two headphone : one for my computer who doesn't have BT and one for my smartphone ? This is total non-sense and I'm still looking for someone who give me a rational answer other than company selling more BT headphone at higher price than headphone jack.
- Bahamut 9y ago
  Disclaimer: I work for Apple, but for less than a year and not for a consumer product. I always suspected it was to push headphone tech further to a long term better experience - it has been a ripe target for the trend of eliminating the pains of wires. This trend has already dominated video games controllers, and is quite present with computers as well. Headphones are a logical target long overdue for improvement - the hassle of wires, and even a physical hazard in some edge cases (I have my own tale) should in an ideal situation be something eliminated. I think the theory that it was done so Apple could sell more bluetooth headphones is not how the company thinks - headphone accessory sales are a drop in the bucket financially. I think the decision to remove the port was made beforehand, and the company then invested in creating more bluetooth headphones as a response to that decision, not to drive it. Of course, I could be wrong, but the emotional conclusion that I’ve seen in multiple places doesn’t seem to have a compelling explanation as to why the headphone jack was removed. The company prioritizes UX in general and acts in response to the implications of the UX, not chase money and think of the UX second.
  - KingMob 9y ago
    In the past, when Apple removed certain hardware (floppies, CD drives) early, there was a clearly superior successor ready, and they were just ahead of the curve. But the headphone jack didn't have a clearly superior successor, and from what I hear, still doesn't. The overall UX (and sound quality) of Bluetooth is worse, not better; it's tough to beat the utter simplicity of plugging in a headphone jack. The only thing gained is no wires (and maybe some easier water-proofing, not sure). This is such a sideways move, it always struck me as a sign that Apple couldn't maintain Jobs's vision without him.
ck425 9y ago
When you invest in top quality headphones (£200+) then buying a new equally good wireless set will set you back £300+. It also means charging two different things, which is a pain.
vidarh 9y ago
One more thing to keep charged, and sound quality is wildly varying, and I keep breaking earplugs and have broken BT headsets in the past more than once. I'm very flexible about audio quality but still, the sound of even mid range BT headsets is really poor - I didn't ever realize until I had used a BT headset for a while, and then broke it (...) and used a cheap pair of earplugs for a while, and it was just so much better. If I can find BT earplugs that can match the quality, has at least a couple of weeks worth of battery so I don't run out because I've forgotten to charge on a regular basis, and that are substantially more solid, I'd love to not have the hassle of a cable. The "problem" is that I can pick up a pair of really cheap earplugs and know they'll work reliably and give me good enough quality and just work at any time. I can't the same for BT headsets.
cm2187 9y ago
My own reasons (and why I stopped buying new iphone models): 1. I only use high quality headphones that have a rubber membrane, as much because of the sound quality (insulating me from the outside world) and out of respect for my co-workers and fellow passengers (other headphones are super leaky). I haven't seen the major manufacturers making a blutooth version of their in-ear models. 2. Interoperability: I currently have one headphone I can forget in my pocket and it works on all my devices: desktop computer, home laptop, ipad, iphone. I don't want to have to carry multiple models and dongles. 3. I already have to deal with too many batteries, I don't want more batteries in my life, rather less. 4. The last time I tried blutooth audio (a few years ago) the quality was terrible and there was a significant delay (was a bose noise cancelling headset). Things may have improved but in any case I have never seen wireless technologies that aren't unstable in some ways 5. Blutooth headphones is not solving any problem for me. Why should I switch? Why should I have to deal with more hassle? What's the benefit to me? Feels like a user hostile move to sell more hardware, which annoys me and pushes me instinctively to resist it.
- coryfklein 9y ago
  Bluetooth headphones make headphones complicated. Where previously it's literally a wire with speakers on the end, now your headphones now need to run software and they have a battery. Previously a search for the right headphones was the intersection of few concerns: * Price * Sound quality * Comfort It was hard enough finding the right intersection of the 3 that fit me. Now I have to also balance the decision with: * Battery life * Ease of use (for HEADPHONES!) * Rechargeability * Connection quality Headphones are such a simple idea. For some people the complexities of bluetooth headphones are worth the cost, but I don't want my cell phone to force me to accept that trade off.
sapphire_tomb 9y ago
I've got a Pixel XL 1st Gen currently, which cost me about £800. I've also got a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort II over ear bluetooth headphones which cost me £300. With such investments, I'd expect to not keep losing the connection between the phone and the headphones - but I do. They drop out frequently on my way to work, where my trusty Shure SE315s never do. Also, Google seem to have done something terrible to their bluetooth stack since the upgrade to Oreo. My phone frequently soft resets whilst hooked up to Bluetooth (either my headphones, or my car - doesn't matter which). Again, not a problem when using the headphone jack.
- verbify 9y ago
  To be fair, the Pixel 1st Gen has a headphone jack. And the Pixel 2 has bluetooth 5.0 (compared to bluetooth 4.2 for the Pixel 1st Gen), which has significantly better range, reliability, speed, message capacity and data throughput. Google only dropped the jack for devices with bluetooth 5.0. It's a weak defence, because multiple people had issues with bluetooth on the Pixel 2.
untog 9y ago
Really the calculation is quite simple: is the headphone cord a problem for you? If it isn't there is literally no reason to have to deal with the charging, pairing and quality issues that come along with bluetooth headsets.
- rimliu 9y ago
  I was not aware how freeing it was not to have cord connected to your phone till I got Beats X.
  - untog 9y ago
    I'm surprised how many people feel this way. I have some bluetooth headphones and really don't care either way - the need to charge the battery and deal with pairing issues is a far bigger problem to me than a headphone cord.

As someone who has used BT headsets for 2 years now could you explain why it such a big deal? Is it the audio quality?

by lasgsf 9y ago

As someone who has used BT headsets for 2 years now could you explain why it such a big deal? Is it the audio quality?

I'm not OP but I have a Pixel 2 with no headphone jack and it ruins me daily. I have the adapter yes, but it is lost 100% of the time. And when I want to use it I cannot find it. I find myself literally standing in the cold with my ears freezing off and headphones in with no music. Because I left the house without the 1mm thick nearly invisible adapter. Not once in two months have I remembered it when I go out. I hate hate hate hate hate how much this phone cost and how vastly more inconvenient is compared to my last phone. I cannot wait for the return of the headphone jack on phones if true! Edit: how long does it take to switch your Bluetooth headphones from a computer to a phone? If it is more than 1 second, it's a stupid waste of time as well. I'm not putting up with that decline in usability especially if am expected to spend money on it and throw into the landfill my perfectly good headphones. No thanks.

umanwizard 9y ago
The person you’re replying to mentioned Bluetooth.
- cryptoz 9y ago
  The battery will die. No thanks. They don't plug in to / work with anything else I own easily. No thanks. I already had headphones and am not buying more. Bluetooth pairing takes me on average 15 minutes and usually fails. I would have to be pairing like 5-10 times a day and that sounds like a literal nightmare.
mscrivo 9y ago
Why not just keep it connected to your headphones/earbuds wire all the time? Clunky, I admit, but at least you won't lose it.
- cryptoz 9y ago
  How do they plug into anything else then? The computers I have don't take that port. My friends phones don't take it. My other devices don't take it. I can't leave it in without buying another pair of headphones for all my other devices.
ryanwaggoner 9y ago
I’m curious why you can’t: 1. Keep the adapter on the headphones cord 2. Get headphones for USB-C (or whatever the Pixel uses) 3. Get Bluetooth headphones I mean, I understand that you feel like you shouldn’t have to do those things, and you won’t buy one of these again, but it sounds like this is ruining your life. Why not just fix the problem?
- cryptoz 9y ago
  1. How do I use the headphones in a different product then? 2. I have perfectly good headphones and am not buying more. Period. 3. Why would I spend more money on this for a product I hate? No way am I buying new headphones that I will hate. Bad idea for my sanity. I will fix the problem by never dealing with a crap phone like this. Next phone will definitely have a headphone jack.
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    #4 Get a Bluetooth dongle like the TaoTronics TT-BA08 https://www.taotronics.com/taotronics-tt-ba08-bluetooth-4.1-transmitter-receiver-aptX-music-adapter-b.html?__adhoc_split_id__=90389002-eff2-a79f-f261-3172d621acaa https://www.taotronics.com/taotronics-tt-ba08-bluetooth-4.1-...
    - cryptoz 9y ago
      That sounds awful. I am not buying some something else that I don't want to own just to fix a problem that shouldn't be a problem in the first place. Also that page is a 404.
      - zimpenfish 9y ago
        Page is working fine for me. Ho hum. And no, it's not awful, it's a pragmatic solution to not having to buy new headphones and not having to use a dongle - both of which were complained about :)
        9y ago
zeveb 9y ago
I really hope that someone from a phone manufacturer reads this: it's a textbook example of what you don't want your users to experience. > I hate hate hate hate hate how much this phone cost and how vastly more inconvenient is compared to my last phone. This, right here, says it all.

letmein 9y ago

not having to worry about BT charged headphones

coldtea 9y ago
And having to worry about cables.

hayanno 9y ago

The real question is why would you remove it ? To make the phone slimer ? I don't mind having a bigger phone if it's for better battery life and the presence of an headphone jack. How do I connect my phone to my computer ? Should I have two headphone : one for my computer who doesn't have BT and one for my smartphone ? This is total non-sense and I'm still looking for someone who give me a rational answer other than company selling more BT headphone at higher price than headphone jack.

Bahamut 9y ago
Disclaimer: I work for Apple, but for less than a year and not for a consumer product. I always suspected it was to push headphone tech further to a long term better experience - it has been a ripe target for the trend of eliminating the pains of wires. This trend has already dominated video games controllers, and is quite present with computers as well. Headphones are a logical target long overdue for improvement - the hassle of wires, and even a physical hazard in some edge cases (I have my own tale) should in an ideal situation be something eliminated. I think the theory that it was done so Apple could sell more bluetooth headphones is not how the company thinks - headphone accessory sales are a drop in the bucket financially. I think the decision to remove the port was made beforehand, and the company then invested in creating more bluetooth headphones as a response to that decision, not to drive it. Of course, I could be wrong, but the emotional conclusion that I’ve seen in multiple places doesn’t seem to have a compelling explanation as to why the headphone jack was removed. The company prioritizes UX in general and acts in response to the implications of the UX, not chase money and think of the UX second.
- KingMob 9y ago
  In the past, when Apple removed certain hardware (floppies, CD drives) early, there was a clearly superior successor ready, and they were just ahead of the curve. But the headphone jack didn't have a clearly superior successor, and from what I hear, still doesn't. The overall UX (and sound quality) of Bluetooth is worse, not better; it's tough to beat the utter simplicity of plugging in a headphone jack. The only thing gained is no wires (and maybe some easier water-proofing, not sure). This is such a sideways move, it always struck me as a sign that Apple couldn't maintain Jobs's vision without him.

ck425 9y ago

When you invest in top quality headphones (£200+) then buying a new equally good wireless set will set you back £300+. It also means charging two different things, which is a pain.

vidarh 9y ago

One more thing to keep charged, and sound quality is wildly varying, and I keep breaking earplugs and have broken BT headsets in the past more than once. I'm very flexible about audio quality but still, the sound of even mid range BT headsets is really poor - I didn't ever realize until I had used a BT headset for a while, and then broke it (...) and used a cheap pair of earplugs for a while, and it was just so much better. If I can find BT earplugs that can match the quality, has at least a couple of weeks worth of battery so I don't run out because I've forgotten to charge on a regular basis, and that are substantially more solid, I'd love to not have the hassle of a cable. The "problem" is that I can pick up a pair of really cheap earplugs and know they'll work reliably and give me good enough quality and just work at any time. I can't the same for BT headsets.

cm2187 9y ago

My own reasons (and why I stopped buying new iphone models): 1. I only use high quality headphones that have a rubber membrane, as much because of the sound quality (insulating me from the outside world) and out of respect for my co-workers and fellow passengers (other headphones are super leaky). I haven't seen the major manufacturers making a blutooth version of their in-ear models. 2. Interoperability: I currently have one headphone I can forget in my pocket and it works on all my devices: desktop computer, home laptop, ipad, iphone. I don't want to have to carry multiple models and dongles. 3. I already have to deal with too many batteries, I don't want more batteries in my life, rather less. 4. The last time I tried blutooth audio (a few years ago) the quality was terrible and there was a significant delay (was a bose noise cancelling headset). Things may have improved but in any case I have never seen wireless technologies that aren't unstable in some ways 5. Blutooth headphones is not solving any problem for me. Why should I switch? Why should I have to deal with more hassle? What's the benefit to me? Feels like a user hostile move to sell more hardware, which annoys me and pushes me instinctively to resist it.

coryfklein 9y ago
Bluetooth headphones make headphones complicated. Where previously it's literally a wire with speakers on the end, now your headphones now need to run software and they have a battery. Previously a search for the right headphones was the intersection of few concerns: * Price * Sound quality * Comfort It was hard enough finding the right intersection of the 3 that fit me. Now I have to also balance the decision with: * Battery life * Ease of use (for HEADPHONES!) * Rechargeability * Connection quality Headphones are such a simple idea. For some people the complexities of bluetooth headphones are worth the cost, but I don't want my cell phone to force me to accept that trade off.

sapphire_tomb 9y ago

I've got a Pixel XL 1st Gen currently, which cost me about £800. I've also got a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort II over ear bluetooth headphones which cost me £300. With such investments, I'd expect to not keep losing the connection between the phone and the headphones - but I do. They drop out frequently on my way to work, where my trusty Shure SE315s never do. Also, Google seem to have done something terrible to their bluetooth stack since the upgrade to Oreo. My phone frequently soft resets whilst hooked up to Bluetooth (either my headphones, or my car - doesn't matter which). Again, not a problem when using the headphone jack.

verbify 9y ago
To be fair, the Pixel 1st Gen has a headphone jack. And the Pixel 2 has bluetooth 5.0 (compared to bluetooth 4.2 for the Pixel 1st Gen), which has significantly better range, reliability, speed, message capacity and data throughput. Google only dropped the jack for devices with bluetooth 5.0. It's a weak defence, because multiple people had issues with bluetooth on the Pixel 2.

untog 9y ago

Really the calculation is quite simple: is the headphone cord a problem for you? If it isn't there is literally no reason to have to deal with the charging, pairing and quality issues that come along with bluetooth headsets.

rimliu 9y ago
I was not aware how freeing it was not to have cord connected to your phone till I got Beats X.
- untog 9y ago
  I'm surprised how many people feel this way. I have some bluetooth headphones and really don't care either way - the need to charge the battery and deal with pairing issues is a far bigger problem to me than a headphone cord.