I hate to say but the poll is biased because you asked two questions that are not the same.
I currently have a phone without a jack, so the first question is obviously no. But the second question, would I prefer it, is a yes.
So there’s a group of people who would prefer it, but it’s not a deal breaker for them in your data, but they answered a different question than the headline.
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.
The thing about USB C dongles is that some contain their own DAC and others don’t.
The former is already universal so what you’re asking for exists but these are generally more expensive and the quality may not be as good as a pass through adapter if your phone has its own built-in.
On a different point about streaming to multiple devices, my phone (Realme) has a feature to use both the jack and Bluetooth headphones simultaneously which is great for the sharing use case without a splitter.
Would be great if it also supported multiple Bluetooth audio simultaneously.
Batteries are fun when they’re the reason your $200 pair of headphones needs to be tossed out.
Dog chewed your headphones or left them on the plane/bus/taxi/bench/roof ? $200 is way more than $10 .
Tangled wires? That’s like saying “I hate arms because they can’t turn all the way around”. And if your cables are still getting tangled, ask a millennial to show you how to not tangle them when you jam them in your pocket.
The headphone jack would be less painful of a loss if phone manufacturers started adding a second USB-C port on top of the device. That way you wouldn’t have to choose between charging your phone, listening to your game without lag and in privacy, or carry a dongle to try doing both things at the same time.
I’m all for the second USB-C, I feel like this is more likely to possibly happen compared to getting the headphone jack back, plus it would just be useful to have in general
It would be a very strange design approach to add an “backup” port. I think there are alreay gaming phones that have it? But for the normal person this seems to be odd.
I would like that we can exchange those ports without removing the display… i had two phones that had broken usb c ports. A good thing we have wireless charging.
I have corded USB type headphones. It’s not a good replacement. The dac is in the connector which makes the portion that sticks out much larger; the port isn’t designed for even mild leverage to be applied to it regularly. Go cycling with your phone in your pocket or even just sit down multiple times with your phone in your pocket while the usbc headphones are plugged in. They will either work their way loose or they will start to break the phone’s port. I’m not even covering how the USB type c spec leaves a lot of room to be interpreted differently by companies, significantly increasing the probability of headphones working for only some phones.
I use a headphone jack when I’m looking for a particular listening experience, which I have amp / DAC / etc for. If I’m using my phone to listen, I’m both not worried about sound quality, and don’t want to be tethered to it by a cord.
I suppose if I were really arsed about it, I’d just get a USBC dongle. That said, I can see where that would be a hassle for people that prefer wired, and I think I’ve held only a couple of phones in my life that couldn’t have just accommodated a headphone jack instead of saving the 1.5 cents it probably costs to leave it out.
I’ll admit, my initial decision to just use wireless was more from seeing the writing on the wall; airpods sales would need to basically evaporate to get most of the manufacturers to course change at this point. Hell, the phone I’m currently using is the first I’ve had in years that even came with a charging brick in the box, so I’m assuming ditching the cable is next, followed by microtransactions to use various built in apps and services… like the phone dialer. Need to keep them margins infinitely expanding to appease shareholders.
I haven’t missed having a headphone Jack on my phone for at least 10 years. I’m perfectly happy with the performance of my AirPods and other Bluetooth headphones when I’m on the go.
Fidelity on the go isn’t a concern for me as long as it’s ‘good enough’. All the ambient issues makes high fidelity pointless imo when I’m anywhere but home, where I’ve got my real audio setup.
Yes. It’s my way of voting with my wallet. I already have a few nice headphones and I’m not replacing them just because phone manufacturers are cheap and lazy.
Besides, I hate batteries. They always die at the most inconvenient time. And USB-c just for audio is way overkill.
With the jack-to-lighning adapter that came with my iPhone I can easily use my wired headphones those 2 times of the year. The rest of the time, my phone is a tiny bit smaller that it otherwise would be.
I on the other hand don’t want to mess around with an adapter I will break or loose once a year for the 1-2 times a day I plug a 3.5mm headphone jack into my phone. As for size… am I really the only one who thinks phones are too skinny now? My current phone is “thick” compared to what most manufacturers are shooting for now and I don’t like holding it without the extra thickness from my cheap phone case. Like… it’s an unpleasantly un-ergonmic experience holding something too rigid and thin. It seems like everyone else thinks we’re nowhere near that point yet. Maybe I just have delicate sensitive hands…
Ports like a 3.5mm only really effect the minimum thickness though. The footprint of a phone is more about the size of the screen and battery. I’m not familiar with the relative thicknesses of different iPhones. Is that why you prefer the mini or is it the footprint? Is the mini a comfortable thickness to hold or too thick/thin?
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