Comment by bpev
3 days ago
Please let this mean that they'll start bringing back the headphone jacks to phones. usb-c is too unstable, and I prefer not having to deal with charging more devices and with pairing shenanigans when switching devices.
3 days ago
Please let this mean that they'll start bringing back the headphone jacks to phones. usb-c is too unstable, and I prefer not having to deal with charging more devices and with pairing shenanigans when switching devices.
You can get phones with headphone jacks still. You have to shop carefully, because it eliminates a lot of options. My current phone is a moto g stylus 5g 2023... to get a headphone jack, snapdragon cpu, and reasonable cost, I had to also accept a stylus that I only use to fidget.
Probably need to start shopping again soon cause updates stop in June.
The moto g stylus 2025 is reasonable. It has some bloatware you have to go through and disable, and it is a bit bigger than I'd like. But it's about the best you can do in today's market.
At this point, I'm mostly just praying that the motorola + grapheneos collab will have a headphone jack. I probably won't purchase anything until I at least see what's cooking over there.
Right now, since I buy audio files anyways, I've mostly been relying on a tiny audio player that can also act as a Bluetooth receiver for my phone.
Wired headphones are the top reason I've bought Moto phones the last two times.
It'll never happen but I'd love to see a new analog audio connector designed with portable audio and extreme durability in mind make a debut. The old 1.44mm connector is nice for its ubiquitous nature, but its internal footprint is large and it's prone to contact issues over time (I'm sure most of us have had a device/headphone pair where the jack had to be rotated into a "sweet spot".
I'm not well versed in the world of port design, but what comes to mind is a little shallow magnetic nub with a couple of contacts on it. Easy to clean, impossible to break by accidental torquing, not deep enough to get stuff stuck in it.
The cool thing is that whatever the new design is, making adapters for 1.44mm to the new thing is dirt cheap since it's still just an analog connection.
What’s 1.44 mm connector in this context? Common sizes for headphones are 2.5, 3.5 and (lately) 4.4 mm
Since you mentioned 4.4mm, thought I would chime in and mention pentaconn (the trade name) which is a TRRRS connection (which does include a ground connection as well as L+/L-/R+/R-. I still do not understand the purpose of the ground connection in these plugs since there's nothing to ground on the other end.
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Don't forget the classic 6.35mm jack!
Totally agree, as an iPhone user it’s literally the only ‘innovation’ that would make me lust after a new device.
Please, it's the one thing I miss on my Pixel 10
> usb-c is too unstable
Would you share more? I've never had an issue with a USB-C cable. Helps to buy well constructed ones with legit specs.
I'm talking about this specific context, rather than in general. I find that for usb-c earphones and small dongles/dacs, they disconnect more when I'm walking around with phone in pocket. They also tend to wear down with use much faster than normal aux cables. Usually, they last a few months for me before I start having issues.
And when usb-c phones disconnect just a little, usually the phone will pause the music completely and disconnect, whereas the aux headphones will just keep playing. So if the connection isn't perfect, the usb-c cable becomes unlistenable because I can't walk 20 steps without it pausing.
edit: I've tried many cables and dongles, so if you don't have this problem, it might be just that I move around more? Biggest problem for me is commutes and walking around.
Same issue with the lightning to 3.5 dongle. Plus the phone sometimes takes like 10s to recognize it.
That problem might be considered a software problem, not a hardware or physical problem. The instant pausing of the music is the real problem. Software developers probably don't move around as much as you do, and I'd bet if they did, this problem would be fixed quickly with a simple timeout setting or something.
I gave up on USBC headphones because if your port becomes full of lint (say by being in your pocket all day), it doesn’t take much to disturb a USBC connection and cause it to go through the whole handshake all over again for a few seconds.
Compared to 3.5mm where the frustrations I remember were usually limited to sometimes getting a bit of a crackle or one of the audio channels dropping out and worst case scenario you just unplugged it and put it back in and it usually worked. With USBC you have to wait to see.