Alternatively, if your current phone doesn’t have a headphone jack, do you wish it did?
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.
More importantly it removes the expectation to include earbuds with the phone as well as allows them to sell you Bluetooth ones
Let's be honest though, included earbuds were pretty universally garbage and the world is probably better off without the ewaste.
That said, please bring back the headphone jack.
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.
My issue with BT isn’t quality it’s the cost and the battery. I do have a very nice pair that I enjoy on occasion but I have another set of wired headphones that I use sometimes 12 hours a day at work. BT headphones would quickly wind up in the garbage under those circumstances since batteries are wear items with limited charge cycles and once they go bad, they render the rest of the device useless.
I also don’t like having another device that needs charging or that’ll leave me ‘stranded’ because I wasn’t monitoring the charge close enough and it died.
I don’t think we should be forced to choose one or the other. Both have advantages and we should get a real choice as consumers. Currently I’m limited to low spec’ed phones if I want 3.5mm or high spec’ed with no 3.5mm (and no SD card and no replaceable battery). It’s a shitty choice all around.
Yes yes two thousand times yes, Why would I have to worry about charging one more device if a cable can deliver ten times the quality at the same price?
I can’t stand Bluetooth headphones, the delay is unbearable. It’s gotta be wired or 2.4ghz for me.
nope, actually never used it. i've had and will continue having Bluetooth headphones
I’d rather ditch the phone entirely than switch to one without a headphone jack. Too long to explain, but I have a thing against wireless, a thing against corporations making decisions for me, and a thing against phones in general.
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.
I don't get it. This poll is largely in favor of jacks. I love my Bluetooth buds so much more. No more with I have to deal with broken wires. No more do I have to deal with moving my hand and accidentally snagging the cord, forcing my phone to the floor. No more do I have to deal with the cord creating noise as it rubs against the zipper of my jacket…
When my headphones run out of battery, I switch to using the aux cord. The jack also allows me to play backing tracks through my guitar amp via the aux cord. I agree that wireless is superior for everyday use, but there are certain situations where I need the headphone jack.
Response is headphone jack is beyond just the use of the bluetooth buds. My work truck doesn't have a bluetooth adapter, a $2 cord takes care of the problem. My parents Subaru when I'm driving them around when they visit does have Bluetooth, but gets angry if you try to connect another phone, guess what? Same $2 cord in my truck allows me to connect in. When I'm working a 12 hour day, headset batteries don't last that long, nor does my phone really. But I can hook up my phone to a battery pack, then have it plug into a speaker by aux, by god it just works.
Bluetooth is fantastic if you go to the same place every day, and every piece of equipment is yours and connected in and auto connects. But those of us that travel it's nice to have a plugin that just works without playing the "Why is it not recognizing?" game.
Solved with a cigarette lighter powered Bluetooth adapter that's small enough to pack around. Or you can get aux ones too.
I used to do a ton of travelling too. I haven't used that jack on my phone in over 10 years.
Even at that, if you're plugging in a cord to your phone what's wrong with an adapter? Basically the same thing. Additionally I think you can get ones that allow you to use aux and charge at the same time
I have a jack. I do use it on occasion. But man some of you really, really hate Bluetooth.
It's not THAT bad. Maybe your phones just have a really shitty transmitter/receiver? Sure, it's not as good as it can get with a jack.
But I also don't want to have wires hanging while running or biking. Being able to change volume and songs without picking up my phone from pocket is also very convenient.
I still want a jack in my phone. But I really don't get the extreme hate on Bluetooth. It's not 2005 anymore. Bluetooth technology has progressed.
So I have a:
- Sony WH-1000XM5 (which I use in both wired and Bluetooth modes)
- Galaxy Fold 4
- MacBook Air M1
These are all fairly recent devices, with the Sony one being the most recent headphones in it's series, running the latest firmware too, which was released last month.
Now here are my issues:
- Fold 4: When I get a call on Google Meet or Duo and I turn on my headphones, the audio doesn't work. I have to disconnect the call, close the app, and reconnect for it to work.
- MacBook: Similar thing happens with Microsoft Teams. In this case though, my headphones is already paired with my MacBook and connected, so I fire up Teams (from scratch) and dial in to a meeting. You'd expect it to work fine right, but the audio doesn't work, even though Teams detects my headphones as the output device. I have to turn my headphones off and on during the call (or reboot my MacBook) for it to work properly.
I can reproduce these issues consistently. I'm not a 100% sure if it's an issue with my Sony headphones, but the point is, all these products that I've listed are fairly recent and fairly expensive, and I deserve a better user experience. Bluetooth has indeed come a long way, and at least for me, audio quality isn't really an issue, but the fact that these sort of connectivity issues are still occurring on recent, premium devices, is unacceptable.
Those all sound like software issues from Sony on their headset, rather than limitations of Bluetooth. I have a pair of BOSS that is connected to both my laptop and phone at the same time, and the switch between them is seemless.
Listen to music on phone. Pause, go to laptop. Put on a video on YouTube. And it instantly switches to my laptop for sound.
Be on a call on discord from my phone while I'm out. Get home, enter the call from laptop, and boom. Automatically switched from phone to laptop and I don't have to change a single setting.
Sorry you have a bad experience with SONY. But I can assure you. It's not a Bluetooth problem. It's a SONY problem.
Well, my point still stands. How is one supposed to know that this particular headset had these sort of issues? I did extensive research before buying mine, and no one reported any such issues. Admittedly, it was still fairly new when I purchased it so there may not have that many reviews, but Sony isn't some random brand and their audio gear is generally well received.
On the other hand, I could just pick up any cheapo TRRS headset and know that it'll work without a cinch. We're just not there yet with wireless headsets if we can't even rely on reputed brands to work consistently.
I don't think your point stands at all.
If you're asking how someone is supposed to know without knowing then the answer is you can't. Obviously.
You looked at biased reviews that had clearly not tested the product in the manner of which you wanted to use it. You made a bad purchase. I'm sorry. But that's not the fault of Bluetooth. That's the fault of Sony.
Are you going to claim that smartphones are hot garbage just because Nokia made a really shitty one? They were a reputable phone brand too. Until they weren't. Maybe you just learned that the hard way with Sony.
The thing is, it's not just me/Sony. There's been several reports of similar sort of issues for wireless headphones in general.
And in comparison, there's very little issues with wired, so my point still stands - wireless audio still has issues - I don't care if it's a fault with Bluetooth or an implementation bug on the headphones or the app or the OS, the point is, there are still issues that you may be unaware of when buying a wireless headphones, when there's next to none with wired.
You're quick to blame Sony, but if you can't trust a reputable Japanese brand who've been making audio equipment for over 70 years now, who can you trust? Afterall, reviews are "biased" and can't be trusted, so I guess it's down to pure luck then, right? And even if you get lucky and think you've made a good buy, there's no guarantee that something won't break with a future update. For instance, here's a thread where someone's mic stopped working after a Windows update - turns out that the fault was with the Intel Bluetooth drivers, and downgrading the drivers or the update fixes it. Who wants to put up with this sort of nonsense when you've got a meeting or an interview to attend to, and suddenly you find your headphones no longer work because of a fricking update?
This sort of unreliability is precisely why many people prefer sticking to the tried and trusted wired headphones.
Your argument is irrational. So because Ford makes terrible quality cars all cars are bad? I mean. If we can't trust the company that made the first industrially made car, then who can we trust? After all, there's so very little that can go wrong with a bicycle or ones own legs.
I talked about Sony because YOU said you had problem with them. Where you admit that you bought it very close after launch where not many reviews had come out.
You think wired headsets can't get fucked by faulty drivers? Have you ever had an issue with your audio drivers as a whole? I have. Doesn't matter if you use wired or wireless then.
I'm telling you point blank. There are good products where it works seemless between different devices. But you just won't have it cause you had a bad experience once with a poor purchase from your end.
If you wanna use wired by my guest. More products on the shelf for me. But your stance against Bluetooth as a whole is ridiculous. Shall we say wired headsets are garbage because what it the wire gets damaged? Man cable close to the the male connection always end up breaking! Terribly unreliable!
In all my life I've never had a problem with wired headset not working due to driver issues. Sure there were the occasional overall sound card issues, but those were dating back to the Windows 9x days. Also, theoretically and statistically speaking, a wireless setup has more parts and more complexities, so it's more likely to fail.
There are good products where it works seemless between different devices
Citation needed. And I repeat my previous question - how exactly is one supposed to discover these set of devices? What if you say use a particular model of Thinkpad and the device wasn't tested against it? I doubt there exists a database somewhere that has list of every wireless headset tested against every Bluetooth capable device. So ultimately it's up to the luck of draw, and that's not a very good user experience. Whereas with wired, I can he 100% sure a wired headset will work if a device has the matching aux jack.
Also, the wire getting damaged isn't really a problem, any decent wired headset would have a replaceable wire, so you can always swap it out with any standard TRS/TRRS cable and you're good to go. Whereas with wireless, the battery is almost guaranteed to degrade after a few years, and it can be really hard or even impossible to replace, depending on the model.
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. After my first Android phone I had only gotten Nexus phones. I had a Nexus 6p when the Pixel was announced, and it wasn't going to have a headphone jack. I tried multiple dongles with my Nexus 6p, and none of them both reliably worked with my headphones and fast charged my phone. My wife ordered a Pixel, I ordered a Note 9.
I've gone Note 9, then a One Plus Nord v10, and now an Asus ZenFone 9. Every time a manufacturer ditched the headphone jack (or made it only available at ludicrous price), I just switched manufacturers. I don't even use a headphone jack that often, but when I need it I want it to be there and just work.
Wireless are more convenient for most use cases. I like the compactness of wireless earbuds, no tangled wires, and the charging case. I can even use just one bud at a time.
However, wired headphones have some advantages in rare use cases that wireless can’t handle yet:
- connecting two headsets at once so 2 people han watch a movie on a plane. Bluetooth can stream sound to only one device at a time (at least on android). With Jack you can just use a splitter
- switching between devices easily. Just unplug and plug where you want it. With Bluetooth you have disconnect and reconnect.
- you can easily plug it into aux without any pairing process, just plug and play. With rental cars i noticed the device memory is often full and i have to remove a device before pairing. Not as seamless as audio jack for once off uses.
I don’t mind missing audio jack, but at least make usb c dongles interchangeable. Iirc you can’t use the same dongles on samsung and Pixel device. I ordered one that did not work.
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I use a Samsung galaxy note 9 which has a Jack because i want a Jack. I replaced the screen twice after it broke just not to buy a diff phone. Fyi note 10 comes without a Jack
I am once again telling you to use an adapter or external dac.
Not as someone who only uses bt headphones, but as someone who owns more sets of wired headphones than almost everyone itt.
Stop relying on a dac included as an afterthought. Stop relying on a port that was never designed for pocket use and routinely tears the end off your $300 senhausers.
