Asklemmy

Why wouldn't you prefer a headphone jack in your phone? It is yet another option for headphones that worst case you don't use. The only reason it has been removed is because it saves companies a few cents on the cost to build the product.

Credit where it's due, Bluetooth headphones have come a long way. I like the ones I have now. That said, removing the jack and micro SD slots was extremely anti consumer and they should come back.

nope, actually never used it. i've had and will continue having Bluetooth headphones

The headphone jack would be less painful of a loss if phone manufacturers started adding a second USB-C port on top of the device. That way you wouldn't have to choose between charging your phone, listening to your game without lag and in privacy, or carry a dongle to try doing both things at the same time.

I hate that I now have to use wireless earbuds that I now have to worry about charging, or that go flat at the most inopertune times....

Having something plugged into the usb-c port all day sounds like a recipe for a broken port.

Drag your preferred option to the top wtf is this UX...

Why isn't there an option for "the lack of a headphone jack is a complete deal breaker and I refuse to even consider a phone that doesn't have one?"

This poll kind of sucks for data gathering. You ask two different questions but there's only one set of answers. Even the first question alone asks if we use and/or require, which should be separate.

To answer though: I use my headphone adapter whenever I travel but don't have a regular headphone jack. A jack is not absolutely required for me to purchase a phone but the adapter is.

I exclusively use wired earbuds because I fucking hate bluetooth as a technology

Opted not to vote because:

• biased leading questions
• strawpoll

Yes, because fuck having to charge and monitor another battery and the way they are trying to push higher price and disposable device.

Yes. It's my way of voting with my wallet. I already have a few nice headphones and I'm not replacing them just because phone manufacturers are cheap and lazy.

Besides, I hate batteries. They always die at the most inconvenient time. And USB-c just for audio is way overkill.

I like the simplicity of wired headphones

I found an ideal solution for this (in my opinion). A Bluetooth DAC. The specific one I have is the FiiO BTR5, but there are others.

For mine specifically, it has the standard 3.5mm output (TRS), as well as a TRRS balanced connection (I believe it's 2.5mm), and it can receive a signal from either Bluetooth or over USB from is USB C port.

The best feature of it is that I can charge it, while I'm using it. Which is something that most all-in-one Bluetooth headphones miss entirely. Even if they can be worn while plugged into a charger, many don't operate while they're being charged. All the true wireless (aka airpod style) by headphones, can't even be plugged into power directly, nor would it be possible to use them while they're charging in their case.

I can pick any headphones I want to use with it, provided they can operate from a 3.5mm connection (or something that can be adapted to 3.5) or by a balanced headphone connection.... Basically any ear-mounted sound generating devices that use a wire, can be used with a few exceptions.

I'm naturally very cautious, so I also have a charging dongle that has a 3.5mm audio jack on it as a backup. It can literally charge my phone and play sound at the same time... I'm tethered to my phone, which IMO, isn't ideal. With the BTR5, I can thread the wire through my shirt or something, and clip the unit to me or stuff it in a pocket and not worry about it. If I need my phone, I'm not fighting with how long (or short) my headphone cable is. The BTR also supports LDAC as well as aptX and related codecs, so it generally sounds excellent. It's a bit of a bear to get it set up, so I generally pull it out for long walk/work sessions away from my desk, or if I'm in a situation where I'm waiting for something to happen for a long time. I also have a handful of Bluetooth headphones, all of which have their (dis) advantages, and I flip between what I have as the need arises. I prefer the BTR5, but it's not always the best or most feasible given the situation.

IMO the BTR5 is better than just having a headphone plug on my phone, since the DAC and AMP in the device is known-good (many reviewers of audio stuff give it great ratings all around), and I can be untethered from my phone, so typing/scrolling/whatever is the same as normal; I'm not having to position my hand funny to avoid a bulky cable/adapter.

I had benchmarks that led me to the BTR5, and between it and the dongle, I have all my benchmarks covered.

It's a nice to have and frankly aside from maybe water resistance there's no good reason to remove it. The 3.5mm jack has worked since the dawn of portable music, doesn't require often fickle pairing, and of significant issue to me at least doesn't have the potential for some future DRM scheme when the media companies decide you have to use their special app to play something. It's much the same reason I resisted HDMI for as long as possible.

That said, I do use wireless and probabbly would routinely even if the current phone did have a jack, but I would very much like to have it there just for the option to plug a wire in and attach it wherever I feel like. Wouldn't be the first time an aux port or RCA adapter came in handy.

I do prefer to use a headphone jack when my phone is the source of music for my amplified sound system and large room speakers.

Yes! No.1 reason: microphone quality! I have to attend many calls every day and no Bluetooth headset (BT v.4 > 5.3, SPS, AAC, LDAC) has even come close to the simple quality of a ~25,-€ wired headset.

I usually use wireless headphones nowadays, but there are still plenty of instances where I'm happy to have the headphone jack. Random parties where someone needs to play music via the aux cable, going somewhere with only some small wired headphones in my pocket because I dont have space, etc. For me it's still quite important that my next phone has one.

I use a headphone jack when I'm looking for a particular listening experience, which I have amp / DAC / etc for. If I'm using my phone to listen, I'm both not worried about sound quality, and don't want to be tethered to it by a cord.

I suppose if I were really arsed about it, I'd just get a USBC dongle. That said, I can see where that would be a hassle for people that prefer wired, and I think I've held only a couple of phones in my life that couldn't have just accommodated a headphone jack instead of saving the 1.5 cents it probably costs to leave it out.

I'll admit, my initial decision to just use wireless was more from seeing the writing on the wall; airpods sales would need to basically evaporate to get most of the manufacturers to course change at this point. Hell, the phone I'm currently using is the first I've had in years that even came with a charging brick in the box, so I'm assuming ditching the cable is next, followed by microtransactions to use various built in apps and services... like the phone dialer. Need to keep them margins infinitely expanding to appease shareholders.

Man, fuck this straw poll website. VPN voting is not allowed? I’m not even on a VPN.

In answer to your question, OP: No, it’s not a requirement for me. I would much prefer if I had one, but it’s not that important for me, I don’t often listen to music from my phone, and when I do I’m in the car, so I just play it over Bluetooth.

Yes and removable battery aswell.

Choosing a new phone has been rather easy, since about once every 5 years someone makes one model that loosely fits the criteria.

I use the same wired earbuds on my desktop PC and on the go, so yes.

I feel like every comment I'm reading assumes there's only two options - either headphone jack + wired headphones, or no headphone jack + Bluetooth.

I just use a USB-C dongle with a headphone jack on it. It'd be nice to have it built-in, sure, but the dongle is only a few bucks, small, doesn't really add a lot of extra stuff to carry if I'm already carrying headphones.

It's not a deal-breaker for my if a phone doesn't have a headphone jack because if it doesn't I can easily add one.

Prefer headphone jack so I don't have to charge my headphones. Current phone doesn't have one and is sad.

My current phone (Pixel 6) doesn't have a headphone jack, and I hate it because of that. I bought an adapter and it didn't work, turns out most phones with a Qualcomm SoC have a DAC so a passive adapter is fine... But the pixel has a non-qualcomm SoC which doesn't have a DAC connected to the USB-C port so I had to get a dongle with a DAC. They suck, and cost more than the passive dongles, and half of them sound like garbage with terrible QC.

Also dongles are easy to lose or break, since they are fragile.

My next phone has to have a headphone jack.

I have excellent Bluetooth headphones that last multiple days on a single charge. You would think that makes the headphone jack just not important anymore. But I live in a neighborhood with a very satured frequency band which is so bad sometimes that the thing I'm listening to cuts out every few seconds.

Every time this happens I am so happy that I can just plug in a cable and I'm making sure this option will be available to me in future devices. Wireless is not always great.

I don't actively need a headphone jack on my phone but when I do need one I am annoyed that my phone does not have one.

My current phone does not have a jack and my previous one did. I would prefer to have it since there are times I don't need/want noise cancelling and bluetooth, but I have no choice but to run down my headphone batteries more.

I would probably prefer having a headphone jack. I am using wireless buds though. The problem with them is the price. While you can get decent wired earbuds for around $100 or even slightly less you have to pay at least $300 for decent wireless ones. Seriously I tried a few, but they all sounded like absolute garbage. It's probably a cheap DAC in all of them combined with even less available space due to batteries and other electronics.

Another downside is that you can only use them for like 5 hours at a time. It is fine most of the time, but on long train rides I hit the limitation a few times.

Overall I am happy with the wireless ones, they are convenient, but it is really expensive to replace them and you have fewer choices, so having wired headsets as an option would be great.

I never tried wireless Bluetooth interfaces though and I suspect they might be better than the inbuilt jack of phones which would make them obsolete in my opinion.

I strongly prefer there to be a port. I mostly use Bluetooth headsets, but sometimes your battery runs out, or you really want to use your super nice plug-in noise canceling headphones. It's better to have the option.

Yes, it goes well with my bluetooth/wired headphones, so even if the headphone's battery is low, I can still use it to listen to music.