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 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.
My phone doesn’t have a headphone jack but even before they started disappearing I rarely used them anyway, much prefer wireless
I’m of the probably unpopular opinion around here that the less cables and IO I need the better, will often transfer large files over lan on WiFi rather than plug in because often in the time I’ve found a cable, plugged in, set the right USB mode, found the file on my phone’s filesystem and transferred it the slightly longer wireless transfer would be done
Have a ThinkPad which has a ton of IO, but I think a couple thunderbolt/PD ports, a usb port and maybe an ethernet port if you do lots of fiddling with networking are plenty
Oh micro SD on the inside of phones too someone else made a point about that but that’s more an upgradability/maintainability thing imo
A lot of phones are still limited to USB 2.0 speeds anyway and wireless won't be all that much slower and could potentially be faster.
Not supporting microSD annoys me a lot too. Especially on some phones that still have a dual SIM slot but don't support microSD on one of them. It's not even space at that point.
I do totally agree with your wireless mentality, i do the same with my mouse, keyboard, xbox controller, etc.
However, when it comes to headphone audio, i will always prefer wired, mainly for the better audio quality.
But… i have tried various bluetooth headphones in the past, and while the audio quality is decent enough, but everything else falls apart:
Battery won’t even last 3 hours, and the battery meter on the phone is always wrong, (and i really don’t want to keep an eye on the battery of THE device that makes everyday life bearable).
The buds themselves are either uncomfortable or fall too easily.
I went farther than 3 meters? Too bad, connection lost!
This is entirely dependant on what kind of headphones you buy though, if you buy nice ones they work just as well as wired
My over-ear headphones last a day of constant use and have a hot swappable backup battery (they also have a receiver for my PC) and can go anywhere in my flat with them without it cutting out
Earbuds I’ve got last most of a day and have a charging case that lasts weeks, similar range to the over ear ones
Both of which are very good sound quality (though the over ear ones are better when using 2.4ghz rather than Bluetooth), the same or better better than wired ones I’ve had before of similar price
If you’re looking for good wireless buds try jabra elite 65t, those are the ones I’ve been using though they’re a few generations behind at this point
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.
Yes! I do still use the headphone jack. Bluetooth is trash and suffers from extreme latency and is not capable of the same quality of a wired connection.
I recently bought some bluetooth earphones (sony wf-c500) after many years of avoiding it. I was under the impression that things had improved but bluetooth is still as bad as I remember them. The audio latency on windows alone is unreal but another kettle of fish.
The real disgrace is that phone manufacturers removed the MicroSD card slot and then tried to justify it with weak excuses that didn’t add up. MicroSD/SD cards have also recently become much quicker but nobody was using a MicroSD card as primary storage anyway so it was irrelevant and a weak argument at best. The only reason why phone manufacturers did remove it was to charge you much more for the large storage capacity phones. I would also say the price increase for that given storage space was and is also vastly more expensive than it actually is. In other words it is a cash grab. Its also of no coincidence that many phone manufacturers also now sell their own shitty Bluetooth headphones.
We can also sight the absence of charging cables/cords and wall plugs/power bricks. Not to mention that people these days are more privacy focused and tech savvy and begrudgingly use android or apple phones as they know with each update their privacy is being further eroded away. Whilst also being undermined by manufacturers with such things as planned obsolescence and them deliberately making it difficult if not impossible to repair your own phone.
…and phone manufacturers wonder why nobody wants to buy a phone anymore. Dumbasses! The truth is there are many more number of reasons why phones are garbage these days.
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.
I have a headphone jack, but use bt headphones. having the wire hanging down while walking just seems super weird to me. i can only imagine having a jack on a handheld console because of the louder volume and much lower latency.
My fold 4 doesn’t have one, and it’s a huge pain in the ass, since literally every other device I have has one. Even my 2021 car has one.
On a plane? Forgot my dongle at home. In a friend’s car? It doesn’t work, all they have is 3.5mm and then a lightning cord. Can’t even use it at home with my noise cancelling or opened backed headphones.
It’s the most annoying part of this device. It came bundled with the bad Samsung bluetooth earbuds, which helpfully developed a click in one of the earbuds less than one year into ownership. They retail for about $300, laughably.
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.
I only buy phones with headphone jack. But the way things are going,these greedy manufacturers will sooner or later make it obsolete. Just like the new shitty trend of selling phone without charger in the box.
I bought a new smartphone a few months back and I didn’t realize it doesn’t have a headphone jack until recently. That was the first instance when I wanted to use it. But it turned out that BT was supported in that case too.
I absolutely see how removing jack is a problem for some people, but there is also a significant group which couldn’t care less. I haven’t used wired headphones in years.
I have once owned wireless earbuds. It was cool to have free head, but I was too lazy to keep recharging them like every week or so. They finally died. Or at least the case did. I have replaced the charging chip in it, but it only extended the lifespan by a few weeks. It’s now unable to charge both earbuds at once. Still, better than self-heating short-circuited case.
I just don’t like them overall. Battery, latency, audio cuts after a bit of silence (power saving), and at the end, more waste.
I still use Bluetooth audio, but differently. With my laptop. When working on laptop, I have my earphones connected to it. But it is more convenient to play music on my phone, so I connect my phone to laptop for audio as well. In fact, I feel like the sound card in my laptop sounds a bit better than my phone, and with laptop I can use aptX HD.
Nope. Just what comes integrated. I don’t have extra money for that stuff. I don’t even have a desktop, and I am not sure if there are any good USB sound cards.
I admit that i’m pretty much an audiophile 🎵, but you really don’t need expensive equipment in order to have good audio. (My sound card is OLD)
But what i really hate is Realtek (you know the company with the blue crab 🦀 that makes audio & network chips and drivers?)
Well, their networking part is alright, but they literally destroyed the PC Audio industry.
I still remember fondly that my old desktop PC and laptop from 2004 both came with dedicated C-Media sound chips (they were low end, but still miles better than integrated audio).
Nowadays, you might find devices that come with Dolby, Beats or other certification or audio software, but they are just a patch solution for what was basically a downgrade in product quality.
But what sucks even more is that integrated audio meant a performance loss whenever sound was involved (from watching Youtube to videogames).
Sorry for the long comment, but i needed to get it out xD
If you have any questions about audio quality or sound cards feel free to ask ✌️
Mine doesn’t have a headphone jack but Xiaomi did provide a Type C to Headphone jack adapter in the box. It would have been better to have it embedded in the phone itself. But now, what happens is I don’t use the phone while it’s charging. So good enough for me.
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