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Fairphone 4—the repairable, sustainable smartphone—is coming to the US (arstechnica.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/technology@slrpnk.net
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Not much to add. Saw it in another technology forum and thought it also belonged here for the solarpunks

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[–] 25 points 3 years ago (4 children)

Only thing keeping me from being interested in this phone is the lack of 3.5 mm headphone jack.

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  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    After my last phone upgrade where I chose a phone with a headphone jack, I found that I just did not use it that often. But when I did use it, it was absolutely critical. Being stuck with on a flight with bluetooth headphones without charge is awful, but aint no problem when you got a headphone jack (and the wire to connect your dead headphones). I could see myself getting a phone without it, but there would have to be a really good reason for it, and so far there has not been one.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I just can't stand the inconsistency of Bluetooth. The quality is worse. Every single mic on a Bluetooth headphones sounds worse than just a cable mic. Only reason to remove it is for company profits. Plus my set of wired headphones will work for years maybe decades the same can't be said about Bluetooth headphones.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Have you used any lately? I have several types of Bluetooth headphones and they’re chugging along great, sounding good and connected well all day. Maybe the tech and connections have gotten better.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago*

    Yes there are still problems. I own a pair and they work fine a lot. But when they bug out its annoying af. And trust me they do not sound as good as a wired headset. They sound "good enough" not great. Bluetooth is a protocol that was never intended for what we are using it for. To the point that apple designed a specific chip to work with their airpods because Bluetooth is straight up lacking.

    Also i get this question every time i make a comment about headphones. Great if they work for you. They have have problems and your personal experience doesn't negate that.

    Also there is not a single Bluetooth headset out there that will ever last longer than wired headphones. Cause batteries degrade and these batteries arent replaceable.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I was super interested in this phone, but that omission has made me lose all interest. What the fuck.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    They removed it as soon as they launched their bluetooth headphones... Curious how these coincidences work... That's why I really don't trust these "consumer first" brands anymore, they always eventually collapse into the same strategies that increase profits in detriment of user satisfaction.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I focus on products rather than brands. The fairphone and teracube are about the only options for the things I'm interested in. They both have flaws. I believe that of the two, the fairphone is the less critically flawed.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    No headphone jack is a critical flaw for me. Can't beat something compatabile with like 50+ years of headphones and sound systems and something that will always have better fidelity and less technical issues.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    The teracube doesn't play nice with android auto because of its slow slow processor. I do love the headphone jack, though. I definitely hear you. However, I'd rather have a phone with a long-term warranty that I can fix than an otherwise perfect phone with a headphone jack that's dead after a year and a half because I'm clumsy, and I dropped it. There's basically two phones for that, and I use android auto and other performance bottle necking apps more often than I use wired headphones.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    There is literally no reason for fairphone to not include a headphone jack. Beside lining their own pockets. It is easily user serviceable and replaceable. And I'd even argue the the demo this phone is targeted at i.e. ppl who even give enough of a shit to service their own phone would be excited to have a headphone jack. I mean they used to but fairphone removed it when they introduced their Bluetooth headphones. Something that is easily way less "green" or user serviceable than a nice pair of wired headphones.

    Everything about them not having a headphone jack leaves a bad taste in my mouth especially in perspective with this companies "misson"

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    I definitely agree all the way down. Like I said though, the teracube can be borderline unusable though with its poor CPU. The ideal would be an upgraded teracube

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    No idea what a teracube is 😅

    I just daily a pixel 5A

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    Teracube is another right to repair consumer electronics brand. They have the computational specifications of a Walmart phone you only expect to use until the phone you got to replace the phone you dropped down two flights of stairs ships. Just super basic. You can use them for texts, calls, podcasts, and social networks, but don't expect much else from them. Mine takes about 45 seconds to get GPS apps working

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Yeah so just get a moto g or some shit then. Lol Whats the point of repairing something that can't run basic apps well or efficiently.

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  • [–] -1 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Happy Fairphone4 user here - I have one of those USB-C to headphone jack converters, which works reasonably well. However, since I got some bluetooth headphones I never had the urge to go back to wired headphones.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    'i like this truck but I need 4 wheel drive'

    "I only have 2 wheel drive and I've never got stuck!"

    That's cool for you mate, they probably know what they need.

    I won't die on the headphone jack hill but I will with microSD.

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