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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@lemmy.world
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[–] 23 points 3 years ago (1 child)

I love Fairphone's mission, but no headphone jack equals no purchase from me.

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

    Does anyone know why they don’t have a headphone jack?

    The fact that even they don’t include one actually makes me respect the existing phone manufacturers a lot more. I always assumed that Apple did it to sell airpods, and then the others did it just to copy Apple or sell their own dongles/headphones.

    But if even an organization like this chose not to include one, then maybe not including it really does make the phone a lot smaller or cheaper or waterproof or whatever.

    That being said, I can’t believe cars don’t have aux ports anymore. Surely the cost and size isn’t significant on that scale.

    Disclaimer: both for cars and my phone, I’m generally happy with Bluetooth. But I want the option to use a headphone jack without needing to buy or remember a dongle. It’s insidious because the kinds of things that you would need a headphone jack for are uncommon enough that you won’t get into the habit of bringing a dongle for them (e.g. road trips, full day of phone interviews)

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    The CEO claimed it's because the USB C port can withstand more than the 3.5mm so it's more sustainable to use that. I honestly don't buy that argument because now you're putting all of that load from 2 ports into 1. Also, if they were truly Fairphone, I should be able to buy a replacement headphone jack if it does break.

    I think he eventually admitted it was a mistake, but it turned from a definite purchase to a zero for me.

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

    For me, this doesn't ring true. My USB 3 port got to the point where it couldn't hold a cable (not lint or dirt, the tiny little bit that holds the cable firmly got worn down). I have rarely had a headphone jack break. Maybe twice in my life, on old battered walkmans or mp3 players that suffered years of use.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    My USB 3 port got to the point where it couldn’t hold a cable (not lint or dirt, the tiny little bit that holds the cable firmly got worn down)

    This is the current state of my S21. I only used the usb-to-aux adapter a handful of times, as I ended up getting a BT headphone pair because of the hassle. I think whoever manufactured the USB-C jacks screwed people over.

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