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
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 The Bluetooth codec on the set will get outdated.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.
The answer to this problem is better wireless headphones
Because what lithium ion battery last forever? They’re well degraded after a few years.
So stop using electronics? We’re talking about a phone with its own batteries. I understand your point but Fairphone can’t solve every sustainability and e-waste problem with a single device. Not buying this phone, assuming you buy a different, less sustainable phone, is a net negative.
The phone has a removable battery. Not one that you need to break the device apart and unsolder everything to get to it, like almost all headphones.
Again, this is an argument for better headphones.
They could create less e-waste by including a headphone jack and not removing it cause they wanna sell their own wireless headphones. Its a simple money move. And I don’t wanna support a company like that even if in theory their message is just.
It’s also in keeping with the entire industry. “I don’t want to use a USB-C dongle” isn’t a principled stance
So use a AAA or something like my old pair did. We just need better Bluetooth headphones.
So buy a DAC with mini jack adapter and call it a day then?
Oh joy something else i need in my pocket.
You created the need, not the manufacturer, not me, not your mamma YOU DID. And you can still get phones with a headphone jack your just pissy every phone doesn’t come with one.
Get the fuck over yourself.
The manufacturer absolutely created the need to have a dongle by removing the headphone jack. Give me one good reason and a good reason to remove it?
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.
This is a case though where your other sound systems you guys are also trying to plug into are outdated. Because your phone is not among your outdated productsl, doesn’t mean it’s a manufacturers’ fault. They are simply catering to the market.
Newer head units (stand alone audio sources) have Bluetooth and other connectivity features plus a jack anyways.
So because you’re using outdated shit it’s the phones fault? Let me ask you, so you think more devices in the future will have jacks or less? Answer: less. The sooner you change your equipment the less heartache you’ll have.
Bluetooth gets outdated. A headphone jack does not. Bluetooth is constantly updating its codec so are phones. I have wireless speakers from 5 years ago that refuse to work because the Bluetooth version is too old.
I use a Bluetooth dac or just Bluetooth headphones most of the time. But occasionally, I have issues with battery life or Bluetooth and just want to use a headphone jack (a technology that is simple in part because it has been around for over a century in various iterations), and not having one is incredibly frustrating from a usability standpoint. I’m not projecting my issue with "using outdated shit, " I’m stating that I actually tried to move on, and when I went back (temporarily at first) the increase in usability was frankly notable.
Yeah man and they said that with the horse and buggy as well which had been around for thousands of years, and DVD and laser disk, and mp3’s and jet flight.
Yeah, there’s still a niche if you’re wanting to “win” your argument. But you may as well shout at the wall.
Manufacturers don’t care about your niche use cases especially since arguably better alternatives have come about.
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.
Based on the responses people are too ignorant for that to ever happen.
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 too still have pixel 5a. Glad somebody gets that every “solution” has been vastly inferior to just a headphone jack
I use bluetooth headset when i’m at home to watch videos, but if i take a call, i plug in my wired headphones to get reliability and clarity. When i go out into the city I only have a pair of wired headphones in my man purse.
I’m multimodal and I like it!
Nothing is worse then being on a group chat and somebody is fighting their bluetooth with extra delays or scratchy audio… I dont want to be that guy
USB DACs are quite small now. I don’t mind having to plug mine into my phone to use wired headphones.
deleted by creator
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.
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.
Or the dongles you’ll lose. It’s the only reason I didn’t buy the Fairphone 4 and will never get the next one. I don’t understand how you can market sustainability and fixable stuff without the headphone jack.
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.
Then give me 2 usb c ports on the phone.i can compromise with that
There are headphones that use the USB port. Headphone jacks are kinda dead tech at this point.
Hard disagree, you might not use them, but they are critical in many settings.
Credit card reader, comfortable headsets, hooking up to other systems, audio without batteries, etc. There are a good number of people who still use headphones! (Including most people in South Asia…)
Credit card reader hooked into headphone jack is a dead tech too now that the rest of the world have moved on from mag stripe to chip and pin.
comfortable headsets, audio without batteries
These are both solved via USB headsets tho?
Downsides of usb-c headphones:
-
Bluetooth security risk surface, exposes your phone to more attacks.
-
Most/all phones have a single usb-c port. Charging and using headphones difficult
-
Usb-c port placement is awkwardly on bottom of phone while must headphone jacks are on top of the phone. Plugging in your headphones on the bottom of the phone with a dongle is awkward.
-
The entire process of using a usb-c dongle or using Bluetooth headphones makes the entire system more complicated. KISS (keep it simple). The more complexity there is that can go wrong, the worse the experience. If I’m taking a important conference call, I want my audio to just work.
-
Bluetooth audio is delayed compare to wired
-
Bluetooth Microphone standard is quite poor, the sound quality when talking on a group calls is bad compared to wired.
Not directly related: the whole point of removing the headphone jack was to sell airpods. First apple, then android, and even fair phone. Each time the jack is removed to push sales of the branded Bluetooth ear buds. It’s a user hostile move.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/apple-airpods-success
The excuse may be to save money, Space, water rating, but the reason is increased sales.
I personally still use a pixel 5A which had a headphone jack only because it’s the B tier phone for markets where people are less likely to also buy the airpods.
If you buy this phone, you’re exclusively buying it for sustainability, so you’re already accepting an inferior product.
There’s no reason to cling to headphone jacks as if those are somehow a worthwhile technology.
I just outlined my use case, very concisely I thought. It may not be your use case. But please don’t dismiss my use case because you don’t use it yourself. Its only polite.
-
For dead tech they sure do sell a shit ton of dongles
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?
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…
Because they promised and continue to deliver more on Fairphones 2&3
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).
The security updates I’m guessing are probably good enough. But possibly a bigger issue is this phone not being avalible in the US, supposing the Graphene Devs are there too (no clue where they are, just guessing).
I believe the reason they don’t is because:
- They have a small team. It is not worth it at this point to support more devices.
- The Pixel series is considerably more secure, and that is the area they specialize in.
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.
Will be interesting to see a comparison of the fp4 and the pf5!
I am looking forward to them eventually release a modular smartphone, like the framework. Since most component in a phone last way more than 5 years, yet the chipset is unlikely to be snappy after that amount of time.
A moment of silence for the best thing google ever killed.
Seems really awesome and promising however I’m not really trying to have an outdated computer (read: phone) at 600 euro. Not even available in north America right now.
I like what they’re trying to do, however 10 years is an eternity in the tech world and if this company doesn’t sell enough phones - likely enough of this phone, then whose to say this company will even be around in 10 years, much less have a dev team competent enough to take over support where Qualcomm left off?
This is one of those huge promises that manufacturers make, with little to no evidence of being able to back it up.
Lol, they were funded 10 years ago snd when fairephone one came out people were already saying what you’re saying.
There are customers for this kind of phones and the idea to not throw away perfectly working electronics.
But customers accepted to not be able to replace their batteries or being sold phone full of glue.
Outdated hardware isn’t really as important on a phone than it is as a PC. Unless you are gaming on your phone, phone hardware is plenty powerful enough these days for the grand majority of tasks.
The software updates are the biggest concern and they intend to do 10 years of updates. That is more than long enough for this device before it becomes obsolete.
I’m running a nearly 10 year old laptop and its fine too.
And it will only get better as technology starts to plateau. They will stay relevant for longer.
as technology starts to plateau
Not sure we’ll ever hit that point tbh.
Fair, but I meant more along the lines of what the everyday user will need. After a certain point, what more do you really need on a phone or standard PC? Sure, servers and supercomputers can always take more, but for the average consumer is it really that useful?
Yeah that I def agree with.
Its only 2028 for hardware security updates anyway, so don’t think about the 10 years. You could always run any old phone with lineageos on it and get “software updates” from lineage for the same experience.
Wait, people are scared of industrial components? They’re usually the most reliable
Iirc, a lot of them also have efficiency as a secondary priority, since whatever the chip is running will always be plugged in.
Secondary, yes, but the push to claim “muh production line is more green” has probably improved that too.
Embedded, low power stuff is quite common.
Then again I’m no expert, they could very well still be power hogs
Yeah, but it usually doesn’t downclock as aggressively, right? Or is that entirely dependent on the CPU scheduler?
Specs aren’t too bad, doesn’t sound like a bad mig range phone and I might actually consider this if it wasn’t that they don’t sell it here 😔
Anyone with an older model know if there’s been a way to add wireless (qi) charging?
There are such pads that plug in via the usb and can be hidden under a case, if you had no other option. I’ve used it for my android mp3 player.
