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Fairphone 6 review: cheaper, repairable and longer-lasting Android
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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I don't really see why it's such a dealbreaker for so many. Hardly any phones have 3.5mm, and for those that don't, you can just put a dongle on the end of your existing wired headphones.
A USB-C dongle requires you to first insert the dongle and then insert the headphones. Otherwise, the phone doesn't register them.
It is a dealbreaker for me because I hate having to worry about batteries everywhere. I had some in my helmet, and the thing kept interrupting my music because it had to tell me the batteries were low. The entire trip, every damn minute.
Fuck that shit, I already have a battery, it is right in my phone.
And I am not going to spend more than 20โฌ on headphones either when you can get wired literally for free.
USB C headphones are not a solution unless the device has at least two USB C ports but they can't be bothered to do that either. Bluetooth headphones have to be charged, are more expensive, and are more fragile so they are also not a solution.
See what they've done to you.... what they've done....to all of us.
Because it's ubiquitous, allows headphones without needing charged, and allows movement around the jack as opposed to the USB c port.
It's a great design and the best part is that if it's included it doesn't preclude anyone from using Bluetooth headphones if they so choose.
I understand why some people have use for the 3.5 mm jack, what I don't understand is why in the world you would ever let that be the one thing that stops you from choosing an otherwise great phone.
You are artificially limiting your choice to an extreme degree over a feature that only a microscopic minority of people care about, and one that you can easily get over by either using a dongle or usb-c headphones.
The only thing you can't do is charge the device while using said headphones (unless they have wireless charging but let's assume they don't), but even then phones charge so fast to 50% these days that I never found this to be an actual problem. Unless you're listening to music non-stop for like 10 hours straight, but that seems unlikely.
It just feels so absurd to me that people hammer on and on about how this is an insurmountable deal breaker. I happily use my wired IEMs with my Pixel phone every day and never once have I felt like I'm losing out on anything.
I do have a lot of headsets but no phone to use them with, but what bothers me most about Fairphone in particular is the hypocrisy.
They are all sustainable and "fair" and all that jazz, but just like all the corpos they removed the jack to sell their wireless buds...
To me, not buying a phone without a 3.5mm is the way I get my voice heard. I am voting with my wallet against taking away features.
I do not care that I am a minority, and that most people are happy to use Bluetooth.
I have very good headphones and I do not want to think about charging them and I do not want to fiddle with dongles that I have to pay for either.
No 3.5, no buy. Period.
I guess you do you. But it just sounds like you're yelling at clouds to me when you could just have gotten over this by now. I've been using wired headphones with my usb-c port for years with no problem (phone about to hit 4 years, same dongle I've had for like 6 years, daily listening).
I cannot imagine hampering my phone choices to this degree (basically excluding like 90% of phones) just for a statement that will make no difference since the majority of people don't even use wired headphones (so I'm a minority there since I do use wired, I've just learned that using a dongle is totally fine).
I doubt your lack of imagination is important enough to affect our decision making paradigms, but thanks anyway. I'm personally sick of being told that comprises like this are courageous, and that I should want something I know I do not.
No 3.5, no buy.
I don't really care if you buy a phone or not, I was just trying to understand how it makes logical sense to completely destroy your phone choices over something that has many easy solutions. If I made the headphone jack my hardline I could never buy a phone with anything I want.
To me it's like saying you're walking down a road, and there's a boulder blocking it, so instead of walking around the boulder you yell at the sky hoping some great power will remove it.
By all means speak with your wallet or what have you, it just really seems like most people have moved past this and learned to use the multiple existing solution, and it's also very unlikely phone manufacturers will bring back this port.
What you say is valid in theory, but in practice I have really not seen it pan out. In the end I still cannot fathom rejecting 90% of phone on the market, hampering everything I want from a phone, just to make an empty statement about a port almost nobody uses.
I've had my current phone for almost 4 years, I have wired headphones (so I'm already a minority), I have only had 1 dongle which I use everyday with it, and everything is completely fine and shows no signs of changing. The phone's battery is so much more likely to die before the usb port ever does.
It just seems like an issue that has been clearly solved and I see no reason to ruin all your phone choices over it.
Dude. The people rejecting 90% of the phone market aren't doing it to make a statement. They are the people using the damn port. Every single one of them.
They wouldn't be complaining if they didn't use it themselves.
Definitely not every single one of them since I use "the damn port" too. That's the point I'm making. This has not stopped me or anyone from using any phone.
The people who are complaining seem to be complaining not because they must have a 3.5 mm port, but because they don't accept any existing solutions (dongle/usb-c headphones) to use the usb-c port with their existing wired devices.
That's fine, of course, everyone is entitled to not like something, but it just seems very illogical to me to be such a hardliner on something that has so many alternatives, and instead choose to barely have any phone choices.
I won't comment further since it's clear most people here really hate this change and I can't grasp that since I use my wired headphones with my phone all day with no issue, I was just trying to understand the logic behind limiting yourself so much when you have alternatives.
I hope you have a good day.
fair point, but...just replace the USB port? it's repairable for a reason...
Saying "not only should you have to buy a peripheral, but you should plan to have to replace the port every once in a while, just so you can have basic functionality" is just clearly not an optimal solution. As someone who has seen how >80% of the dongles you buy just fail to function, constantly destroy the ports they're plugged into, and sometimes just physically self-destruct when you stare at them from the wrong angle like some collapsing wave-function, I think I'll keep arguing for the added flexibility, redundancy and ease of use without additional peripherals which a second port would provide, with virtually no downside.
but it's not basic functionality if it's only in 10% of devices on the market.
it seems like you're hung up on a particular feature of a device no longer existing and you have an inability to accept change. I can appreciate that.
personally, I hate vehicles with "infotainment" systems in them but they are installed in 75-80% of cars these days. nothing was better than the old mechanical radios with the big buttons that would "ca-chunk" the dial for you. the warm glow of the neon bulb inside dimly lighting the cab. don't even get me started on the entire removal of AM radios entirely.
if I were to let my preference for the radio stop me from buying newer vehicles I would be losing out on all of the important safety improvements made to cars over the last 40 years. things like air bags, seat belts, mathematically formulated crumple zones, auto-roll fuel pump sensors, etc. that's not even mentioning some of the comforts like power steering, AC/heating, EFI, rear window defrosting.
my point is, you have an option to continue using a headphone jack with an adapter, there are even options to repair any damage should any occur. I can't even look at my car radio like I want to replace it without a $4k dealer visit because it's integrated into the ignition system.
seems like a really silly hill to kill yourself on.
Just to clarify, the basic functionality of which I was speaking was "listen to music"
but the functionality is still there. it's not like it's been removed, access has just changed.
Bluetooth still can't use HiFi audio either.
Hardly any phones have 3.5mm NOW. Google started this shit, and I do not forgive. I do not forget.
However, there is simply no reason why the manufacturers SHOULDN'T put a second USB port down there, since it would allow for dongle-less use of wired headphones, listening while charging, open up many more niche uses for the hardware, AND it would provide a redundancy for what is, in most cases, the only method of charging and accessing the data on the device
*Apple started this shit, Google laughed at them. Initially, that is.
the essential phone did it first! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Phone#Connectors
Fair enough. I literally do not even mentally consider apple to be a smartphone producer, because the market for apple is "I want a brick that is a slightly smaller status symbol than the last $1000+ brick I paid you for", while android was a market with competition, open-source development, and hardware selection. When apple removed the headphone jack for a proprietary port, I saw it as just more of apple requiring you to pay $100 for another proprietary cord that would fall apart in 3 months. I remember when google decided to remove the headphone jack, and at that point, I knew that everyone else would follow. that is what I do not forgive. It also happened to occur around the point at which I first read cloud atlas and snow crash, and began to clearly perceive what was coming for our world, so that is one of the primary acts I remember as defining the enshittification of the world of personal computing, as the true death knell of backwards compatibility and flexibility, in favour of a smartphone just being a Propaganda Brickโข
I've been using a dongle with my phone for almost two years. Now, every time I charge it, I have to find a "sweet spot" where it actually works and be careful not to move the cable around or it'll stop charging.
Exactly this. All of those adapters from USB-c to 3.5 are ass no matter how many people try to say to just use them.
Give me a thicker, heavier phone if you have to, just give me the damn headphone jack.
Have you tried cleaning the plug? I find this happens a lot with debris etc.
With a fairphone you could replace it for 15 bucks
But with a good phone they wouldn't need to
Yeah, I think we're past that point now. I know the Clicks Communicator has a 3.5mm jack but I really don't see why. If anyone is thinking about fitting an extra port on their phone I'd sooner see a second USB-C jack.