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Fairphone 6 review: cheaper, repairable and longer-lasting Android (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
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[โ€“] 10 points 8 months ago (8 children)
  1. using a cumbersome dongle introduces a single point of failure for a port which is required to stay us able for your phone to function
  2. using a dongle introduces a single point of failure for your ability to listen to things, so you'd better hope you only have one pair of headphones, or that you never misplace tiny wires.
  3. using a dongle is an additional cost to purchasing the phone
  4. it's a matter of principle, as it is a symptom of the continuing enshittification of all modern life.
  5. using wireless headphones depletes two batteries at once.
  6. Sure, don't like a 3.5mm jack, despite the backwards compatibility with older headphones? Fine, but there is no good reason I can think of for there not to just be a second USB port down there. Additional data ports are good, and allow the device to be used for even more flexible, niche purposes, beyond being a redundancy against a single point of failure.
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  • [โ€“] 1 point 8 months ago (4 children)

    fair point, but...just replace the USB port? it's repairable for a reason...

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 8 months ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [โ€“] -1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [โ€“] -2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

    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.

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 8 months ago*

    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.

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