A couple hours before I was on the edge of getting a Fairphone 5 but I read the specifications and didn’t see 3.5 mm audio jack anywhere. So I thought to myself…why? The community has been requesting this for a couple years ago now so why not. They’re already making money on the phone, they’re really pushing for people to get their wireless headphones? Just add the headphone jack, shouldn’t be too hard.
They said they’re treating their workers fairly, sourcing from ethical sources, renewable claims, repairability claims, and supporting foss projects (they donated a fp4 to CalyxOS to support development). All of these are amazing, so adding a little headphone jack shouldn’t be that hard in the grand scheme of all this.
*Add the headphone jack and I’ll be happy to support and get a fp5.
Essential for what? Bluetooth used to be shit, but I’ve had very few issues with recent devices.
Bluetooth means a wireless bud/headphone, which means batteries and extra hardware to support Bluetooth and DAC, and an extra cable and charging adapter, and maybe an extra case. When it could all be driven by a simple headphone jack instead.
Bluetooth still lags. To this day. Don’t ask me why or how, given it’s the year of our lord 2023, but I can tell there is lag in most bluetooth headsets even in video content, let alone games.
So yeah, I have a Sony Xperia 1 IV, which not only has the headphone jack but forward facing stereo speakers and no notch or camera punch-hole. To my knowledge it’s the very last flagship phone with that specific feature set.
I may be wrong but if I remember correctly the reason it lags is that until the recent forced earbuds explosion the bluetooth protocol was focused on low energy efficient transmission for personal smart devices, and audio transmission was just an “extra” feature
Yeah, but “recent” here is a bit of a stretch. Apple removed the headphone jack from their phones seven years ago. Lagless bluetooth audio is only just now tehcnically possible and still widely unsupported. it’s absurd, and I honestly think it justifies not just seeking a phone with an audio jack but also moving on from the bluetooth standard altogether.
It still degrades audio quality and that’s an area I refuse to compromise on.
The smartphone is not the expensive part of my mobile audio playback setup, I expect it to be compatible with the standard playback interface of wires.