Hate to be that person but no headphone jack for a sustainable phone?
Environmentally friendly and fairly sourced, except for the consumable blue tooth earbuds we will sell you as a consumable to push our profits while creating e-waste.
I know it’s a crutch, but there’s always a USB-C to 3.5mm converter. There are some versions sold that still keep the charging port.
My phone came with usb-c earphones.
Is that not an acceptable compromise?
Works fine for me.
No, because I own earphones and cables and don’t want to create more waste if I can help it. Plus, I may want to connect the audio out to an existing stereo system, and plug it in to charge at the same time.
I appreciate that more cables equals more waste and inconvenience. But your situation is more than likely not an issue for the majority. The options are out there. The arguments from some in here that a usbc to Aux is easy to lose is subjective. I’ve never lost mine, and it’s been just fine whenever I’ve needed it.
If you want something to connect your phone to a stereo whilst retaining the ability to charge then there are adapters that have an auc outpit and usbc input that can work as well as systems, like one called wiim, that you connect to your wifi and aux into your stereo/speakers that can play music from most wifi enabled devices losslessly. Both of these options would be fairly futureproof as they would work with any new phone, stereo/speakers, or other device, regardless of which you upgrade.
I know that it’s another thing to add on and costs kore money, but frankly, being angry about the lack of aux outputs on phones isn’t going to change anything.
You can either complain and achieve nothing or adapt and make any phone you choose to buy work for you and your specific needs.
If the audio output on this phone is the only concern you have, then i think it’s a small price to pay to support the many aspects of this phone that prevent explotation of workers and sustainability of materials etc.
With no headphone jack thats gonna be a no for me dawg. How can they promote sustainability and then design a product that is going to be unusable in 5 years max. That’s just the reality of all wireless headphones. The battery will fail to hold charge and they will become useless. Not the truth for wired headphones. Goodwired headphones will last as long as you’re able to take care of them usually
Edit: if anyone could give me one good real reason to remove the headphone jack? It’s not about the alternatives it’s why remove it in the first place? And the space saving aspect of it has long been debunked.
I switched to using wireless headphones a good decade ago and I’ve never had a set die die to the battery going.
I’ve had plenty of wired headphones die bectthr cable became frayed or loose though.
I am still surprised at the lack of a headphone jack in the Fairphone, but I don’t agree that wireless devices are somehow more prone to becoming e-waste.
How are they not going to become e-waste? At some point the battery will die. And more people will just throw those out then they will recycle them. The Bluetooth codec on the set will get outdated. I have old wireless Bluetooth speakers that are completely “useless” now because of the battery and old Bluetooth codec which doesn’t work with modern phones. But damn if I still can’t plug into their headphones Jack and use them while they’re powered from the wall. If you look up the average lifespan of wireless earbuds you get answers anywhere from 1 to 5 years lol. I have a pair of headphones from the 90’s that work great. I have another pair older than me.
Just because regular headphones don’t have as much electronics in them doesn’t mean they don’t contribute to e-waste as well. That’s what I am driving at, cheap headphones will die quickly and most people don’t bother repairing them. The same will happen to cheap wireless headphones. However, good quality ones will last and an often misses benefit of wireless headphones is that there’s a lot less wear on them.
The comments about the battery eventually dying may well be correct, but honestly the batteries last plenty long. It’s not like they stop working, they just lose capacity over time. All I’m saying is that the battery “dying” is not the big contributor to e-waste that it’s purported to be.
The battery will fail to hold charge and they will become useless. Not the truth for wired headphones.
I don’t know how you use your headphones, but in my case I switched to wireless because every single pair of wired headphones I had would break. Usually the cable, earbuds because they were in my pocket, and the overhead ones I’d drive over with my office chair.
Switched to wireless a couple years ago, no issues since then.
It’s cuz you don’t put them in a protective case every time like you do with wireless earbuds. If you took the same care to wrap them up and properly protect them every single time before you put them away which takes like three more seconds than wireless earbuds they would last just as long.
It’s not the same care though. Wireless earbuds come with a box. For regular ones, I’d have to make a suitable box, and also carefully roll the cables every time.
Wired Earbuds or Headphones? Most wired earbuds are crap, so it makes sense to use Bluetooth. Wired Headphones should not break. I don’t want to argue with your experiences, but I have never seen headphones break. I used a pair for seven years, and only stopped using it wasn’t worth it to buy new pads (the headphones cost $20, pads $10).
I’ve had plenty of cables on wired headphones die, and if the headphones don’t have removable cables, that’s it for them (unless you can solder on new cables, but you could also argue that you can replace the battery of wireless headphones). I’ve had the cable of my Sennheisers break like 3 times so far and I’ve only had the headphones for a couple of years, luckily they can be replaced easily
I’ve gone through many pairs of headphones too, I’ve worked from home for years and had a long-distance relationship in a time before smartphones (and before cheap wireless headphones) so Skype+headphones was the solution. Both driving over them with an office chair and accidentally pulling them were real dangers and caused real damage.
Now I just don’t use them anymore, since I have meetings on a company laptop, and the relationship is much closer.
Just leave one of these on your headphones and you’ll never know the difference.
I don’t want to. And I don’t want to carry one around with me everywhere. I use several different types of wired headphones. Plus the convenience of being able to plug into basically any sound system is unmatched. Still plenty of cars that just use aux cords. Plenty of speaker systems that are easier to connect to with a headphone cord and sound better.
And my final point is there is no practical reason to remove it it is just as easy to waterproof and it does not take up that much space.
Yeah. I actually went from usb c only phone to one with a headphone jack again, and I’ve decided I’m not even considering devices without a headphone jack. The dongles suck from either a usability perspective or a software one, and they just add another point of failure rather than just using a very simple aux jack. I get why a lot of manufacturers stopped supporting them (it costs some money, and the dongle make them some), but it’s still very, very dumb.
I rather enjoy all the people telling you that your use case is invalid because of inferior compromised solutions available.
There are a bunch of people who express a strong preference for a feature, don’t invalidate peoples requirements.
Doesn’t matter if that feature is something you use personally or not.
What this does indicate is there is demand in the market for a GrapheneOS/CalyxOS phone with a headphone jack. This is why I’m running a Pixel 5a still!
I’m with you. Guess what sometimes I have a call and my Bluetooth buds are charging or not in the same room. Guess what I have connected to my computer? A headset. Guess what isn’t easily plugged into my phone! This headset! I’ve had dongles die on me too man.
I hate that all phones have removed them. Screw Apple for this trend. I wish Apple had the balls and removed them from the laptops too. Would have loved to see that backlash.
I refuse to buy a phone without a headphone jack but in my experience wired earbuds last about 9 months while my cheap JBL 110bt bluetooth buds are still going strong after more than 5 years of almost daily use. The battery still lasts about 7 hours.
2028 Baseband support … so 5 ish years of full support. Which is pretty good, why not just say that?
I had to scroll way too long (on fairphone.com’s FP5 page) to find the data sheet. It feels like they’re trying to distract from something. Maybe no easy LineageOS support - maybe shitty battery life. My FP1 is still in perfect working order, lasting 2 weeks in standby on the original battery, but obviously doesn’t support LTE or get SW updates - but the FP2 is dead within 24-48 hours on standby :/ And battery drains within 20 minutes watching youtube
Most manufacture dont seem to put datasheet in a very visible localtion on the website.
The major talking point right under the promotional video clearly states 5 year warrenty and software update until 2031, and explained that is 8 years of security update in the caption.
Also it is unlikely fairphone would want to sabotage lineageos or any custom OS support, they dont make money from software. Why would they want to spend the engineering hours to deny free community effort to attract more users?
I think we have a misunderstanding - I know a good portion of the Fairphone team personally, I am very convinced of their altruistic motivations and good work ethics - and they wouldn’t sabotage LineageOS. However, they have not been prioritizing FOSS chips, because the fair trade is the core design criterion. But I am a bit frustrated that they also didn’t prioritize maintainability for the FP1 (no more SW updates after < 5 years I think) and FP2 (spare parts were no longer available by the time my USB module started to fall apart). And unfortunately, they are also not focusing on having a proper Linux (postmarketOS) with a docking station on the Fairphones.
So I just meant they might be hiding the lack of support as of the release date for alternative OSes. The company and the people are decent :) And they have at least one who used to work in the postmarketOS community that they hired specifically for alternate OS support, if I am not mistaken.
That 8 years of security updates is very misleading, 8 years of android OS security updates. only 5 years of hardware security updates
(reference https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/fairphone-5-sets-a-new-standard-with-8-10-years-of-android-support/ 2028)
The FP2 battery dying quickly might be explained by Snapdragon’s non ideal SOCs around that time period, it was also a problem on the Galaxy S5 that I put up with firsthand.
The SOCs had the performance, but they ran hot and drank the battery as if there was an electricity drought.
I don’t think Android 9(?) is going to be particularly kind to that device either…
The SOCs had the performance, but they ran hot and drank the battery as if there was an electricity drought.
Indeed, this seems to be the issue - everytime I use the browser, I can feel the phone running hot as the battery drains. Anyways, my FP2 is beyond end of life, even the file transfer over USB stopped working recently, I can barely wiggle the charger cable to the point where it’s still charging.
I’d buy a new one, but sadly they keep getting bigger, and I hate huge phones that ruin my pant pockets, plus are uncomfortable to carry in them.
Man I’m super interested in this hardware, if GrapheneOS supported FP it would be a no brainer for me.
Graphene developers might support it, its their kind of crazy, as long as the hardware security updates keep getting released for long enough to make it worth while (2028 which yeah… why not).
So the specs seem pretty good. Some are equivalent to the Pixel 7, some a little less, some a bit better like the selfie camera. But the pixel is quite a bit cheaper, nearly $200 retail. I wonder if they’re considering making a cheaper version equivalent to the Pixel a series.
I think due to the custom designs involved in making it modular / repairable, combined with the niche appeal, it’s expected that these devices will be produced in low volumes and therefore will always cost more than the equivalent Pixel, due to missing out on economies of scale.
