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I feel like I'll be stuck never being able to buy a new phone. Everyone is removing basic features like headphone jacks and sd card slots.
by CosmicShadow 4y ago
I feel like I'll be stuck never being able to buy a new phone. Everyone is removing basic features like headphone jacks and sd card slots.
- metadat 4y agoAnd tragically, the eventuality is you'll be forced to get a new device supporting 5g/6g/Ng in order to retain telco network compatibility. Why do the dominant manufacturers (Apple, Samsung) insist we not have a headphone jack and expandable storage? It's starting to feel rather stupid and like a huge ripoff. Wireless headsets are expensive, and after a year or two the batteries wear out and the entire thing is junk. What a ridiculously high tax on customer wallets over time, not to mention the e-waste. USB-C buds have been 100% crap on my experience. If you have recommendations in this department, please do share.
- NoPicklez 4y agoIt the unfortunate edge case where you aren't even close to the majority that find those things useful enough to keep them.
- CosmicShadow 4y agoThere is no shortage of people who have spent lots of money on good quality headphones that want to use them though, but that doesn't matter to companies like Google or Samsung or Apple because they don't make or sell those products, instead they want to sell you easy to lose, overpriced, sub-par quality, "they look cool and just work**" buds and the best way to do that is to just kill any other choice. Want big headphones or noise cancelling? Not our problem! They also finally realized that you can buy a 512GB sd card for like $100 bucks so no one was paying an extra $350 to get 128gb more space, so again, just eliminate the option because they literally can and no one can stop them. It's fucking bullshit.
- wilsonnb3 4y agoPeople who spend big money on headphones were probably using external DACs anyways, which you can still do just fine. Not to mention that the 9 dollar lightning or usb c adapters that Apple and google sell sound as good or better than the DACs they were including in their phones.
- NoPicklez 4y agoI think it's less than you think in terms of the overall customer base. Most people are happy with the Bose noise cancelling headphones, or AirPods, or Sennheiser earbuds/headphones. Just look at the highest selling headphones. I don't think they "finally realised" Apple has always had internal storage. Samsung Android devices have been on both sides of the coin and have backflipped before. The problem with SD cards, IMO from having worked at a Telco, is that the OS and SD card for the devices doesn't integrate seamlessly for the average end user. What people want is to be able to add an SD card to their device and have a uplift in storage across the entire device. I can't count the amount of times a customer would come in asking why their devices storage didn't increase when they added an SD card, not knowing that they needed to configure the device to take advantage of it or copy their photos across too it. I'm sure times might have changed but that's how it was 5 years ago. The average and I would say the majority, don't want to deal with buying more storage, they just want the right amount of storage from the get go and smartphone companies know this. I would prefer to buy a 128GB phone than a 32GB phone and have to add an additional 128GB SD card anyway. Also, if you have 512GB of storage filled on a mobile device, surely you have that backed up no? So why not just stream it from the cloud.
- aembleton 4y ago> So why not just stream it from the cloud. Because I don't always have a signal and it consumes more battery.
- CosmicShadow 4y agoI have expensive Bose noise cancelling headphones and they are wired and I don't want to rebuy for a new phone. BT and wireless is usually nothing but trouble and crap quality in my experience, so I never would intend to buy wireless if I can help it. I can understand a Telco pressuring phone makers to do things to reduce their support burden (which is probably also reducing their own support burdens) because of the dumb way SD cards interact with the phone OS, but it's an annoying situation where the people who know what they are doing and have valid use cases are held hostage at the mercy of those who do not. All I hear from people is that they run out of space on their phone, especially on Android which creeps worse than windows did for sucking up space. If you know how much SD cards cost, then it's very hard to think, hmm yeah, I'd rather spend $300 for an extra 128gb then get 500gb or 1tb for like $100 and I can remove it and add files to it 1000x faster on my computer. If a feature has always been there and provided value, then removing it to save $0.05 in design costs seems ridiculous unless there are ulterior motives like, we need to sell more expensive phones and/or get these nubs off of our call lines (if you can even get phone support with phone manufacturers). I know that obviously they don't give a shit about people who know what they are doing, because it's a minuscule part of their market share. It's all about the bundling and upsells. Fuck the entire headphone market if we can get another $100 by selling our buds. Fuck the entire storage market if we can get another $250 with our internal only upgrades. Fuck the consumer, they'll just buy a new phone in 2 years and lose our buds and buy new ones, we can only win here because no one can stop our oligopoly where everyone just copies each other to have "modern", "best-in-class" design choices and features. Teens don't know what good features or quality are, they'll just get their parents to buy them new stuff over and over forever and the parents don't fall for the constant upgrade trap as hard and stick with their S9's with headphone jacks that you just plug in and they work.
- dumpsterlid 4y agoThey want to get rid of the headphone jack because it is a brilliant bit of open hardware design. You can plug a device with a headphone jack into near limitless devices and that is a problem for profit when you can force people onto bluetooth and break compatibility when it is convenient.
- babyshake 4y agoDoes it also take up a lot of precious space relative to it's function for the average user mostly using Bluetooth now?
- nathcd 4y agoIs the average user mostly using Bluetooth now? Genuinely curious if there's any empirical data. And regardless of the numbers, I also wonder at what rate people are actively switching to Bluetooth because they want to vs. because that's what their preferred phone line is forcing them into.
- Gigachad 4y agoEvery time I do an on the street observation, I see that wireless headphones are pretty much universal. It would be 100 wireless to one wired user. Sure, some of that may be because the jacks are removed, but the average person has chosen to use wireless instead of the $9 adapter or picking a phone with a jack. The average user does not care at all. HN has a tendency to attribute everything to some global conspiracy from the elite’s to make you use technology their way. It’s inconceivable that most people just don’t care about flac quality audio or having to charge their AirPods once a week.
- hhh 4y agoThen why is USB so prevalent in (almost) every device?
- MisterSandman 4y agoUSB devices can still be controlled by the OS. iPad has USB C but you can't use everything on it, some external SSDs don't work, displays don't work etc. You can still control it. 3.5mm has one purpose, but you have no control over what is using that audio device. Less control = Less $$$ to be made. NOBODY bought Apple earphones after-market before AirPods were a thing, and even though the iPad has a USB C, most people are buying apple peripherals due to locks.
- eunos 4y agoheadphone jack reduces water proof/resistance ability or so I heard.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoThere are waterproof jacks. If this was a real issue then they should also remove USB and side buttons and force everyone to use wireless charging.
- musicale 4y agoPretty sure Apple is on it already.
- bowsamic 4y agoNo they cancelled their wireless charger
- fallenhitokiri 4y agoThey cancelled one version they couldn’t get to work as they imagined it should have been working. MagSafe is available and working https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MHXH3AM/A/magsafe-charger https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MHXH3AM/A/magsafe-charger
- eunos 4y agoWhen air charging is optimized/perfected charging port will be the next to go
- bayindirh 4y agoApple and Samsung had waterproof headphone and charging jacks before.
- II2II 4y agoIt probably does. Then again, I accidentally tossed my phone in the laundry a few years back and it somehow managed to survive. While it is no longer in daily use, I still keep that decade old device around as a backup and it has outlived several phones since then. Something tells me that the vast majority of phones fail for reasons other than water seeping in through the headphone jack.
- jen729w 4y agoI do find it interesting that here, on the techiest, nerdiest forum there is, people are lamenting the loss of a physically large jack. Did you think it would be around for all of time? If in 5/10/50/∞ years, phones never get smaller than 3.5mm thick, how does this community respond? It's classic 'where's my jetpack?', right? I'd like to think that we all want phones that don't exist other than as a chip in our arm, or as a component of a ring, or as a wafer on our sleeve, or as our glasses, or [whatever other techno nonsense you fancy]. Those of you who want the jack are saying that this is it. For all of time. Three-point-five-mils is as thin as any of our devices can be. It's weird! :-)
- zootboy 4y agoI don't want my phone to be thinner. If having a 3.5 mm jack means that I will have headphones that just work without fuss / charging / bluetooth codec ass, and it prevents phone designers from making my phone wafer thin, then I consider that a win-win. And obviously, I wouldn't be advocating for a 3.5 mm jack in an implantable device. That would be silly. There can be multiple classes of devices, each with different features. For the class of phones that are rectangular objects that live in my pocket, I want a 3.5 mm jack.
- numpad0 4y agoI don’t know, but considering that iPhone gained thickness and iPad earned bendgate when they lost the jack, we still have plenty of time until the diameter of the jack is going to be a major concern.
- JansjoFromIkea 4y agoTbh I’d take a few mm shorter or narrower; phones seem to be much bigger now than they were when they had a headphone jack. That companies have responded to increasing narrowness by making foldable phones suggests there really isn’t much demand or even usefulness in a razor thin phone.
- blix 4y ago> I'd like to think that we all want phones that don't exist Definitely, I begrudge every single moment I am forced to use my phone and intentionally don't bring it with me as often as possible. > ... other than as a chip in our arm ... Oh. Count me out.
- bayindirh 4y agoActually, while I was a wireless headphone skeptic, I don't feel I'm missing 3.5" audio jack much. There are two reasons for this. First of all, Apple's own adapter is a brilliant DAC. It's output is really nice, and when I need wired audio, I can get very good sound with it and a couple of nice monitors (RHA MA750i) or high-ish end buds (Sennheiser MM70i). However, wired headphones are not limitless in life either. My MM70i set is almost unusable because the jack has worn down from so much use, and one channel is not making contact on 8/10 systems I plug it in. Secondarily, entry level wireless headphones came a very very long way in terms of sound quality and battery life (both per charge and total lifetime terms). I have two wireless headsets. A Philips SHB 3075 (Made by Gibson Electronics IIRC) and a Sony WH-CH510. Both are entry level systems. Philips should be lasting 8 hours or so per charge, but it lasts at least twice long. I use it every day at office and plug while leaving, and it never told me I need to charge it. Sony is a completely different beast. I could only use half of its charge if I really try to. They forgot to tell that it needs to use the charge in the battery. In terms of sound quality, both are excellent for their price points. Philips is not the most detailed, but it's very nicely balanced and non fatiguing. Sony really hits above its price point. It's enjoyable even in focused listening if the source material is mastered with some minimal effort. I say time to time, but as a person who played in orchestras and an owner of an old school component Hi-Fi system, modern wireless headsets are miracles in sound quality terms. Apparently matching the amplifier and the driver at the design time has a really big effect than we have thought. Bang Olufsen was right to add ICEPower amplifiers to their speakers and sell them as tuned units. It changes a lot. I also want to add that Apple's sound dosimeter is a very nice technology which presumably works by getting some metadata from the headphone to calculate noise levels for protecting the hearing, which is extremely underrated.
- hollandheese 4y ago>However, wired headphones are not limitless in life either. My MM70i set is almost unusable because the jack has worn down from so much use, and one channel is not making contact on 8/10 systems I plug it in. That's why you buy wired headphones with replaceable cables.
- 4y ago
- usrn 4y agoThe Pinephone has all the basic features including changing the window manager.
- missedthecue 4y agoIt's a neat project, but that's a pretty low-end device.
- usrn 4y agoLow end for Android. It runs PMOS very well though. Not only are Linux apps faster but you can run overlapping window managers and do other things while you're waiting for things to load/download/etc.
- KennyBlanken 4y agoOoo, yes, all those linux smartphone apps that let me get driving directions, check my bank account balance, and flirt with cute people and arrange dates with them.
- usrn 4y agoHeh, I do all those things on Linux. The only thing really missing is turn by turn navigation.
- wilsonnb3 4y agoSaying it runs PMOS well is pretty generous. It is usable but not a very pleasant experience compared to even the cheapest android devices.
- enos_feedler 4y agoCome on. It isn’t removed it’s just not built into the unit. You can appreciate why, right? The engineering problem for building a phone is literally physically packing technology into the form factor. A headphone jack does not pass this test.
- gtvwill 4y agoYou are joking right? They've managed to fit it in for >10yrs what changed now? Lol I won't buy a phone w/ out a headphone jack. Non cabled audio sucks for latency and quality, dongles aren't an acceptable answer either...
- esperent 4y agoSay rather "the headphone jack no longer passes the test". There's all kinds of things they could add to phones - bigger battery, headphone jack, sd card slot, heart rate sensor, infrared remote, and loads more, and then all the hundreds of components they do include. They have to pack it all into this tiny tiny amount of space and they have to make decisions about what to include. That used to include headphone jack, now it doesn't. You're upset about that, while I'd really love if phones included heart rate sensors. But we're both in a minority it seems. It's important to remember that when you see lots of people on the internet complain about something, that doesn't mean that the majority care. The majority don't care even a tiny bit so they don't speak about it at all. Only the minority who do care speak up. And if the majority of headphone jacks go unused maybe it's not reasonable for the remaining few who care to demand they stay - they are another potential point of failure and ingress in a phone, after all.
- zcmack 4y agocan't help you with the sd card slot but if you don't mind carrying a wired headset, a usb-c > 3.5mm adapter can't be the dongle that breaks the camel's back..?
- samplatt 4y agoI've spent between $5 and AU$60 on usbc-3.5mm dongles, and every single one has had issues. Can't use it for walking around because the slightest jog to it will cause a connection issue, which will cause the music to stop, so you have to manually make it start playing again.
- snvzz 4y agoThe decent ones have fancy names like "portable dac+amp combo".
- honkdaddy 4y agoPeople gave Apple a _lot_ of flak when they originally killed the audio port, but the $10 dongle they sold lasted me at least 3 years and I don't really remember any connection issues. Now I'm the sucker they'd always envisioned, owning a Airpod Pros and a Bluetooth Bose headset. At this point though, whether it's Stockholm Syndrome or not, I still do generally prefer the wireless life.
- SECProto 4y ago> if you don't mind carrying a wired headset, a usb-c > 3.5mm adapter can't be the dongle that breaks the camel's back..? I never carry a dongle or a wired headset. I use an aux wire in my car, and a pair of over-ear wired headphones at my desk. When I travel to visit family, I can plug my phone into their old stereo receiver (which works as great now as it did 30 years ago). When a friend wants to play music in my car, they can plug into the aux wire I have. A usb-c dongle is one more thing I won't have with me and I'll be stuck using the speaker in the phone, and it will be garbage. So I will once again hunt for a phone that has an aux port.
- wilsonnb3 4y ago
- lozenge 4y agoThe cheaper phones and models for the Asian market still have the headphone jacks.
- 0cVlTeIATBs 4y agoThe Sony Xperia series is a vote-with-your-wallet candidate for those of us who like card slots, 3.5mm jacks, water resistance, notification lights, and notch-free screens.
- philistine 4y agoThe wallets have spoken for years; phones without headphone jacks sell exceedingly well despite this missing feature. Jane Shmoe doesn't care; she uses a dongle, or gets Bluetooth headphones from the Chinese knockoff bin at the pharmacy.
- ARandomerDude 4y agoHer minivan also connects to it when she walks up, instead of having to fish wires out of her already overloaded purse.
- philistine 4y agoDon't judge her life choices, she's got to get her 1.6 kids to the Soccer practice!
- jimmyswimmy 4y agoMan, I wish they still had the compact line. I had an XZ1 compact and it was amazing. I still use it for playing music (via the headphone jack) and it is just wonderful every time I pick it up - so small and light compared to this humongous pixel 6 I replaced it with. I keep thinking of going back to a flip phone. Man I miss that little phone. Wish there were something non-Apple to replace it with.
- summm 4y agoIf they wouldn't stop publishing security uogrades exactly 3 years after each phone's first market introduction in Japan, I would have bought one... Oh, and they cripple the camera permanently when you root the phone.
- fineIllregister 4y agoI was surprised to discover my new OnePlus N200 5G has a headphone jack. That will keep you on the networks for at least another couple of generations.
- 77pt77 4y agoOnly cheap phones have those and large batteries, but you can forget NFC and wireless charging.
- dylan604 4y agoWho wants a phone that's >3.5mm thick to accommodate that space anyways?
- brnt 4y agoYet phones are larger than ever. Am I the only one that finds carrying about a bathroom tile all day ridiculous?