this post was submitted on 05 May 2024
196 points (97.6% liked)

Android

17688 readers
40 users here now

The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!

Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.

πŸ”—Universal Link: [email protected]


πŸ’‘Content Philosophy:

Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.


Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: [email protected]

For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: [email protected]

πŸ’¬Matrix Chat

πŸ’¬Telegram channels / chats

πŸ“°Our communities below


Rules

  1. Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.

  2. No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to [email protected].

  3. Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to [email protected].

  4. No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.

  5. No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.

  6. No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.

  7. No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.

  8. No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.

  9. No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!

  10. No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.

Quick Links

Our Communities

Lemmy App List

Chat and More


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 91 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I don't know much about Moondrop's line of phones, but I do love that Apple removed the headphone jack, Samsung naturally copied them, and Moondrop comes along and says "you know what? We'll add two headphone jacks".

Respect.

(I absolutely still use the 3.5mm jack)

[–] [email protected] 37 points 6 months ago (5 children)

I still don't quite get why some people are defending manufacturers which remove the headphone jack on their phones...

3.5mm jacks don't cost much materially. Removing it doesn't bring any benefit at all, and you are forced to buy a bluetooth headphone or a Type-C-to-3.5mm dongle on top of that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (7 children)

I don't think it's about the cost of the 3.5mm jack itself, it's about the space it takes up. "Thinner and lighter" as a goal means removing chunky things they don't think are necessary. Also waterproofing maybe?

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't defend manufacturers that do this or anything, but personally I hate cords and want to go wireless for everything. Of course a headphone jack doesn't prevent me from doing that, but given the choice of two identical phones except for a 3.5mm jack, I'm choosing the one without.

Why have a hole that I'm never going to use that can trap dust, allow water in, take up a tiny bit of space and make the phone look less appealing (to me)?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't see how the jack can make a phone less appealing? 99% of the time you'll be looking at the screen, you're not going to see the headphone jack.

Though, perhaps it's because of lifestyle differences between countries (I am not American), I simply cannot imagine not using the 3.5mm jack ever. I am still using AUX on my car radio.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I guess I just find a closed chassis more sleek or futuristic? I fully admit this is pretty dumb and it's definitely not a significant factor in my phone purchasing decisions.

Fwiw I'm not American either. But like I said, I hate cords of any kind. I'd probably buy a phone without a USB port if not for the fact I occasionally need to charge at other people's houses :p

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

I hate having cords too. For me at least no matter what pair of wireless headphones I buy, they never last as long as I need them to and when they die I am never around a place to leave them to charge.

Another thing is that my phone always tries to figure out what bluetooth device it thinks I want to pair with and it is wrong 90% of the time.

It also thinks that if I've been away from a bluetooth device for awhile that when I come back I want to switch from my headphones to that device and it is wrong 100% of the time.

Cords are irritating and I can't tell you how many times the cord has caught on something walking by and ripped the headphones out of my ears, but it still way less annoying than bluetooth.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (2 children)

3.5mm jacks don’t cost much materially

They take up quite a lot of space (for a phone) that could otherwise be used for a larger battery. I'll happily take a few hundred mAh of battery life over a headphone jack. I find bluetooth headphones much more comfortable to use anyway. But I understand that some people prefer wired headphones.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

But that space usually isn't. No company would make a battery with a tiny little protrusion where the headphone jack once was. That'd cost a lot more, and make it a lot more fragile.

They'd be more likely to leave it empty, or fit something else in that space, like a third speaker.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

By removing the headphone jack and saving space, everything can be laid out in a way that creates more room for a larger battery, many manufacturers do this.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Do you have examples of this?

I only know the iPhone 7 certainly had enough room for the headphone jack https://youtu.be/utfbE3_uAMA?si=xcbQ3Lne9SaQfOX0

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Just look at the inside any modern smartphone, it's full of battery and other stuff, basically no empty space. The iPhone 7 was the first generation without a headphone jack, it still used the old case design though. Look at the iPhone X which was completely redesigned, it's just marginally larger than the iPhone 6/6s/7/8 (they all use the same case design) but has a much larger battery. They went from 7.45Wh (1960mAh) on the iPhone 7

to 10.35Wh (2716mAh) on the iPhone X.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I feel like the bottom phone there looks more empty than the top, it looks like there is still some room at the top and bottom there.

But anyhow, they've removed the headphone jacks from iPads as well and those certainly have some room left

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

No. Most of the iPad lineup uses LCD displays which are relatively thick. The headphone jack only fits in old iPads, because of the large bezels. On newer iPads, the headphone jack would need to go under the display, making the entire device much thicker. With OLED, you don't have this problem, but Apple either uses LCD or Mini-LED for iPads.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Space seems overblown when Samsung ultras fit in an entire spen that takes up way more space, and most phones do not have a stylus that can be stored internally. So I don't buy the excuse of space. Always has seemed like more a company excuse to sell accessories.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

I still don’t quite get why some people are defending manufacturers which remove the headphone jack on their phones…

Not defending, just utterly couldn't care either way. 🀷

[–] [email protected] -4 points 6 months ago (3 children)

If you don't like it, don't buy it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

I am trying to. My current phone has a headphone jack. But I fear that the possibility of getting a high-end phone with a headphone jack is diminishing.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Cool, just make alternatives actually available in a country, and also get them onto mobile carrier whitelists. Easy.

(Looking at Asus)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

It's getting harder and harder as there arent any options for phones that has 3.5mm headphone jacks.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

It also made it so much easier to choose a new device. Requirements: headphone jack and a removable battery. Results: 1

Even Fairphone made themselves irrelevant to me by dropping the headphone jack. What an absolutely stupid decision to make especially for a device like that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm using USB-C to 3.5" adapters, they cost next to nothing and allow me to use a much wider pool of phones. Some even come with a USB-C passthrough so you can charge it or connect other stuff simultaneously.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'd rather not use a dongle

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

pretty soon the port wears out too then if you fart next to the dongle the connection stops

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

I believe in voting with your wallet. Giving money to companies that practice anti-consumer behaviour sends them the signal that you're okay with what they're doing. I'm not okay with it so I'm sticking to my principles.

I never bought a device with non-removable battery either and now thanks to EU it seems that I don't ever need to either.

I also bought an older model MacBook because it had a better keyboard aswell as HDMI port and SD-card reader. Now the newest models have them again because enough people like me refused to buy the inferior models.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Are you aware of the Galaxy Xcover Series of phones? They often offer both.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yeah. XCover 6Pro is the only device that met my requirements and is the one I went with.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Oh that's what they did with the Active series, thank goodness I thought they'd stopped doing them.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

No not really. The active series were S line phones repackaged into a more rugged shell. With the same high end cameras and specs. The Xcover line always were mid to low end devices.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Looks interesting, but I'm biased against anything that has Mediatek inside, so it's gonna be a no from me.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

As someone out of the loop: Why?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Mediatek devices generally have really bad custom ROM support. Historically their chipsets had a reputation for being less efficient, too.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago

Add to that its not even the current android version on it. This company does not sound like they will give you updates so a bad availability of custom ROMs is really limiting.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (11 children)

I've always wondered why no one thought of redesigning the jack. Have it just be form-fitted outside contacts, with magnetic adhesion to hold the plug in place. There isn't any real reason it has to be a socket.

The reason is of course the masses just use Bluetooth, or deal with the dongle, because they absolutely must have an iPhone.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Have it just be form-fitted outside contacts, with magnetic adhesion to hold the plug in place.

I actually really like this idea. If we're breaking backwards compatibility anyways, let's do something useful with it. This form factor was invented in the 1950s. I'm sure we can do something better now.

We need to move away from everything having a battery anyways. Wireless headphones were a mistake. Now people are walking around with 4-6 batteries on them at all times. Phone, laptop, earbuds, earbud case, battery backup, smart watch. Batteries aren't great for the environment, not to mention they typically condemn something to being tech waste in a few short years. We need to significantly rethink this model.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Apple tried to replace it with Lightning connector. They even were selling EarPods with a Lightning connector. Obviously it was a total disaster.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Like Apple's magsafe? Not unreasonable, but you'd still need an adapter. I think the biggest issue would be having magnets small enough for the rim of the phone, but still strong enough to keep secure while moving around, but also won't interfere with other magnetic components like the speakers or compass.

That takes time and effort (i.e. money). Or they could just omit all that stuff and tell people to use the Bluetooth radio they're going to put in the phone anyway.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

The jack connector has a really long history, back to the telegraph. The simplicity, the dependability, the interoperability, the lack of it falling out, or needing magnets, or who knows means it will be very tough to replace. And it has evolved too, it used to be a ball end, they have switched sizes, added channels

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

My ol' sony discman actually has a flat printed pcb connector for earphones.

Issue is that redesigns get proprietary real fast

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί