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I was briefly considering buying an iphone for the first time ever, since I wanted a good camera phone. Scratched that idea when I learned that it didn't have a

I was briefly considering buying an iphone for the first time ever, since I wanted a good camera phone. Scratched that idea when I learned that it didn't have an audio jack.

kharms 6y ago
There is a little 3.5mm-to-lightning dongle that came with at least the iPhone 7. Not sure if it comes with the current model, but FYI. https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-to-35...
- mcaswell 6y ago
  It came with my 11 pro! Although I did immediately lose it...
  - foobarian 6y ago
    And you can't charge the phone while it's plugged in.
    - switch007 6y ago
      iPhones have had wireless charging for a while though. Not as convenient of course.
      - arvinsim 6y ago
        For me, it’s more of a problem with my iPad Pro. It’s not even about charging. It’s about having to buy a USB-C hub just to plug in my headphones and midi controller to my iPad Pro.
    - sharatvir 6y ago
      It’s possible if you use a wireless charger
    - jorvi 6y ago
      You can if you order a Chinese splitter. All it does is split your lightning into two ports: the charging pins and all the other pins. Because the sound is sent digitally from your lighting port to the splitter, then digitally again to the lightning-to-3.5mm dongle you have no quality loss from a subpar splitter chip. Edit: to be clear, this shouldn’t be needed, but alas, we cannot steer Apple.
  - bosswipe 6y ago
    Losing it is my biggest reason for needing the audio jack. I not only lose dongles I also lost my expensive Airpods even with the Find My app. I also lose my wired earbuds but at least they're cheap. I know many people that don't have as big a problem with losing things, maybe it's a personality thing.
    - bigiain 6y ago
      A friend of mine semi-permanently attached his dongle to his headphones by heatshrinking over the joined headphone jack/socket (after having lost several already). Seems to be a neat/workable solution. (I've never had my dongle come accidentally detached from my headphones. Maybe the tolerances in my headphone jack and my dongle socket all serendipitously turned out "just right"...)
- artimaeis 6y ago
  They don’t come in the box anymore, but are fairly affordable at $9. Also, they’re quite effective devices: https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qu...
  - centimeter 6y ago
    Impressive! Didn’t know Ken did audio reviews too.
    - bigiain 6y ago
      I have heard hardcore audio nerds say "he doesn't"... Specifically in regard to that blog post. But these are mostly the same people who pay $bignum per meter for crap like silver plated oxygen free 3mm^2 speaker cable, so I don't really place much weight in their opinions...
  - sf_rob 6y ago
    They aren't durable in my experience though. Although most apple cords have issues with the connection "neck" (not sure of the actual nomenclature).
    - spdustin 6y ago
      Is "strain relief" the nomenclature you're looking for?
      - userbinator 6y ago
        More like the lack thereof... Apple seems to really go for form-over-function on those, and it's been like that for a long time.
  - ngcc_hk 6y ago
    Cannot charge and you need a dongle.
- 2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
  Don’t know why the parent was down voted for starting a fact. I think the better solution if you can afford it is a Bluetooth receiver (Fiio make a nice one) for your old headphones. If you are getting new earphones get some of the cheap Chinese BT earbuds. They are really cheap these days and work quite well for the money. I got a quite nice pair for ~$35AUD from amazon. Surprisingly good.
wutbrodo 6y ago
The Pixel cameras are supposedly incredible. My understanding is that there are usually one or two Android phones per-generation that are considered either slightly better or slightly worse than the iPhone's camera.
- humanlion87 6y ago
  I have one. And I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the photos considering it has only one camera. Given the blur effects in Portrait mode are hit-and-miss once in a while (the algo blurs human hair pretty frequently). But I think it's pretty good for my use case, which is to capture memories that I can revisit.
- PascLeRasc 6y ago
  I thought the Pixel 1's camera was incredible. I still have the photos saved from using it for a few weeks and I don't think any iPhone I've had since has been as good.
skocznymroczny 6y ago
I use a Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite. Has a very nice camera and audio jack. The only drawback I can think of is 6.3" size, I'd prefer something below 6" if possible.
freeqaz 6y ago
I ended up making this jump. What I've found works best for me: - In the car I have a Bluetooth audio adapter for the aux in my older car. Works great. - In my backpack I have a pocket where I always leave a headphone adapter. I always put it back if I use it. - Bluetooth to Aux adapter with a small battery. Costs like $20 on Amazon and also lives in my backpack. Has saved my ass many times. Beyond that, I just own more Bluetooth headphones and I keep a few space headphone adapters attached to headphones I use occasionally. It sucks to spend $50 on adapters and another $40 on Bluetooth adapters. But it is very usable now and I don't ever "miss" my headphone jack now that I have the proper infrastructure setup.
- FeepingCreature 6y ago
  I mean, I have a phone with an audio jack, and I plug my headphones into the audio jack and I am happy. How would you sell "no audio jack" to me? What's my gain here?
  - tazjin 6y ago
    You, uh, get to work on your habit-forming because you now have more devices to charge? I mean, practically, once they've managed to kill audio jacks we'll probably transition to HDCP-like DRM for audio so that you need Approved(tm) headphones to listen to your favourite pop music. Once we get there that will be the feature for you ...
  - bigiain 6y ago
    I don't think there's any "gain", but there's possibly not as much downside as you're thinking. I just leave my adaptor plugged into my headphones all the time, so it's really no different plugging the lighting connector in compared to plugging a 3.5mm audio connector. More hassle if you have multiple sets of headphones I suppose (and I do, but only one cabled set that I use regularly, and a bluetooth set as well). There's still a minor downside, I can't charge my phone with my (wired) headphones plugged in - but I can get almost 2 days without charging my phone (an XR) so that's never bothered me at all. For me, the camera on the iPhone XR is _totally_ worth the "downside" of Apple's "no audio jack" decision. That's a very personal thing (I want great low light camera performance for band/gig photos) and it's not something I'd ever tell somebody else is an important purchase decision for them. Same for you, there's no way I'd try to "sell no audio jack" to you. But I might advise that whatever _other_ feature a specific phone has for your personal use cases might possibly override the downsides of no headphone jack.

I was briefly considering buying an iphone for the first time ever, since I wanted a good camera phone. Scratched that idea when I learned that it didn't have an audio jack.

kharms 6y ago

There is a little 3.5mm-to-lightning dongle that came with at least the iPhone 7. Not sure if it comes with the current model, but FYI. https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-to-35...

mcaswell 6y ago
It came with my 11 pro! Although I did immediately lose it...
- foobarian 6y ago
  And you can't charge the phone while it's plugged in.
  - switch007 6y ago
    iPhones have had wireless charging for a while though. Not as convenient of course.
    - arvinsim 6y ago
      For me, it’s more of a problem with my iPad Pro. It’s not even about charging. It’s about having to buy a USB-C hub just to plug in my headphones and midi controller to my iPad Pro.
  - sharatvir 6y ago
    It’s possible if you use a wireless charger
  - jorvi 6y ago
    You can if you order a Chinese splitter. All it does is split your lightning into two ports: the charging pins and all the other pins. Because the sound is sent digitally from your lighting port to the splitter, then digitally again to the lightning-to-3.5mm dongle you have no quality loss from a subpar splitter chip. Edit: to be clear, this shouldn’t be needed, but alas, we cannot steer Apple.
- bosswipe 6y ago
  Losing it is my biggest reason for needing the audio jack. I not only lose dongles I also lost my expensive Airpods even with the Find My app. I also lose my wired earbuds but at least they're cheap. I know many people that don't have as big a problem with losing things, maybe it's a personality thing.
  - bigiain 6y ago
    A friend of mine semi-permanently attached his dongle to his headphones by heatshrinking over the joined headphone jack/socket (after having lost several already). Seems to be a neat/workable solution. (I've never had my dongle come accidentally detached from my headphones. Maybe the tolerances in my headphone jack and my dongle socket all serendipitously turned out "just right"...)
artimaeis 6y ago
They don’t come in the box anymore, but are fairly affordable at $9. Also, they’re quite effective devices: https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qu...
- centimeter 6y ago
  Impressive! Didn’t know Ken did audio reviews too.
  - bigiain 6y ago
    I have heard hardcore audio nerds say "he doesn't"... Specifically in regard to that blog post. But these are mostly the same people who pay $bignum per meter for crap like silver plated oxygen free 3mm^2 speaker cable, so I don't really place much weight in their opinions...
- sf_rob 6y ago
  They aren't durable in my experience though. Although most apple cords have issues with the connection "neck" (not sure of the actual nomenclature).
  - spdustin 6y ago
    Is "strain relief" the nomenclature you're looking for?
    - userbinator 6y ago
      More like the lack thereof... Apple seems to really go for form-over-function on those, and it's been like that for a long time.
- ngcc_hk 6y ago
  Cannot charge and you need a dongle.
2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
Don’t know why the parent was down voted for starting a fact. I think the better solution if you can afford it is a Bluetooth receiver (Fiio make a nice one) for your old headphones. If you are getting new earphones get some of the cheap Chinese BT earbuds. They are really cheap these days and work quite well for the money. I got a quite nice pair for ~$35AUD from amazon. Surprisingly good.

wutbrodo 6y ago

The Pixel cameras are supposedly incredible. My understanding is that there are usually one or two Android phones per-generation that are considered either slightly better or slightly worse than the iPhone's camera.

humanlion87 6y ago
I have one. And I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the photos considering it has only one camera. Given the blur effects in Portrait mode are hit-and-miss once in a while (the algo blurs human hair pretty frequently). But I think it's pretty good for my use case, which is to capture memories that I can revisit.
PascLeRasc 6y ago
I thought the Pixel 1's camera was incredible. I still have the photos saved from using it for a few weeks and I don't think any iPhone I've had since has been as good.

skocznymroczny 6y ago

I use a Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite. Has a very nice camera and audio jack. The only drawback I can think of is 6.3" size, I'd prefer something below 6" if possible.

freeqaz 6y ago

I ended up making this jump. What I've found works best for me: - In the car I have a Bluetooth audio adapter for the aux in my older car. Works great. - In my backpack I have a pocket where I always leave a headphone adapter. I always put it back if I use it. - Bluetooth to Aux adapter with a small battery. Costs like $20 on Amazon and also lives in my backpack. Has saved my ass many times. Beyond that, I just own more Bluetooth headphones and I keep a few space headphone adapters attached to headphones I use occasionally. It sucks to spend $50 on adapters and another $40 on Bluetooth adapters. But it is very usable now and I don't ever "miss" my headphone jack now that I have the proper infrastructure setup.

FeepingCreature 6y ago
I mean, I have a phone with an audio jack, and I plug my headphones into the audio jack and I am happy. How would you sell "no audio jack" to me? What's my gain here?
- tazjin 6y ago
  You, uh, get to work on your habit-forming because you now have more devices to charge? I mean, practically, once they've managed to kill audio jacks we'll probably transition to HDCP-like DRM for audio so that you need Approved(tm) headphones to listen to your favourite pop music. Once we get there that will be the feature for you ...
- bigiain 6y ago
  I don't think there's any "gain", but there's possibly not as much downside as you're thinking. I just leave my adaptor plugged into my headphones all the time, so it's really no different plugging the lighting connector in compared to plugging a 3.5mm audio connector. More hassle if you have multiple sets of headphones I suppose (and I do, but only one cabled set that I use regularly, and a bluetooth set as well). There's still a minor downside, I can't charge my phone with my (wired) headphones plugged in - but I can get almost 2 days without charging my phone (an XR) so that's never bothered me at all. For me, the camera on the iPhone XR is _totally_ worth the "downside" of Apple's "no audio jack" decision. That's a very personal thing (I want great low light camera performance for band/gig photos) and it's not something I'd ever tell somebody else is an important purchase decision for them. Same for you, there's no way I'd try to "sell no audio jack" to you. But I might advise that whatever _other_ feature a specific phone has for your personal use cases might possibly override the downsides of no headphone jack.