this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
611 points (95.3% liked)

Technology

73758 readers
4387 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

On a recent post, there were a lot of comments, which said that they were missing the headphones on newer mobile devices.

How many actually use the headphone jack?

I ask, because I have one on my phone, since I really wanted one, but I rarely use it. Like Tops 1/Month.

(page 7) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] goldenlocks@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I use it in my car

[–] eneff@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 years ago

I use mine everyday.

[–] haganbmj@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Before I updated my car I used the headphone jack regularly for playing music there. Otherwise it was relegated to a couple situations a year like air travel.

Now that I've got a newer vehicle I just have all my music on USB there.

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Daily.

Driving to and from work it plugs into my car and at work it plugs into my headset.

[–] jaxxed@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago
[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

One every month or two, when I play audio in the old vehicle. It's nice to be able to charge at the same time.

[–] joelfromaus@aussie.zone 3 points 2 years ago

I stopped using wired headphones before I had a device without a headphone jack.

I found the cord infuriating, always seemed to get caught or tangled on things, always making sensitive skin contact (like just beneath my jawline) where I was forever readjusting it and sometimes the cords lifted the headphone out of my ear.

Conversely, I’ve had three pairs of wireless headphones. First pair didn’t like getting christened in the washing machine, second pair is still going strong and third pair are AirPod Pros I bought before a flight for the noise cancellation which are also going strong. Maybe I’ve outsmarted the whole of Apple’s engineering/marketing department but I’ve never felt like the sets I’ve had are underperforming on battery life and have no reason to buy sets to replace the working ones I have. The small conveniences, like not being tethered to my phone and freedom from cords, have absolutely made the change to wireless worth it to me.

The biggest and most obvious downside against wireless headphones is compatibility and price.

[–] ben_dover@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

another strong "yes" from me. my wired headset has much better speech quality than bluetooth ones. i didn't upgrade my phone since the new Pixels dropped the headphone jack, instead i fixed the screen and battery and keep it another couple of years

[–] Gigan@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I use it several times a week. I specifically bought a phone that still had a headphone jack. I'm over bluetooth earbuds. Too expensive, too easy to lose, too easy to fall out of my ears and break.

[–] BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 years ago

3 times a week for about 2 hours each.

[–] MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 3 points 2 years ago

I thought I'd use it when I got my phone but I've since found Bluetooth headphones that are actually convenient so I don't. Now this headphone form factor is dying so I might go back to wired once they stop working. I hope the jack still exists by then.

[–] Darcranium@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I use mine 2x per week and despise Bluetooth for many of the reasons described in this thread by others

[–] scoops@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Multiple times a day. I have a wired pair of nice pair of headphones at my desk at work. Using cable is the simplest way to switch between phone and computer. In the car 3.5mm, at the gym I have iems I like to use. The other times I find it valuable is plane travel with steam deck and phone easily swapping audio source for whatever I am I'm the mood for. On planes I use circum-aural with active noise canceling. At work I have on-ear. I have different headphones for different situations.

[–] benvars@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

Weekly, since i moved i don't really care how much noise i make, but i still use my wired headphones daily with my computer

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I use it every day, to store valuable pocket lint and bits of dirt.

[–] JGrffn@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I use mine whenever I want to use my M50Xs. I tried buds, twice. Galaxy buds and Sony XM4s, the XM4s fell into a pool and the galaxy buds were simply misplaced. The galaxy buds sounded like absolute trash while the XM4 were actually decent, but why would I prefer them over the M50X? Now I'm switching from my note 9 to the pixel 8 pro and I don't know what I'll be doing about the lack of headphone jack.

My girlfriend has it even worse, her car only has AUX, no Bluetooth. I got her a Pixel 8 for Christmas, so she'll lose the only way to put music in her car. I also don't know what I'll be doing about that.

Honest take? We've got neural chips on our phones, we got cameras rivaling pro-level cameras, but we keep losing some very essential and basic features for no fucking reason. The headphone jack should've never been removed. Hell, the IR blaster should've never been removed, I'd kill for a high end phone with such things. Radio is another one, it's never going away as a means of communication, but fuck me for thinking I should have an antenna for radio in a box full of antennas for everything else, right?

Hey maybe I'm wrong about radio and it's just unfeasible to provide good quality signal for all things in a 6 inch box. Maybe I'm wrong about the IR blaster somehow even though TVs, LED stripes, and garage doors still use IR. But it's ridiculous to force no headphone jack as a trend that everyone just follows, all for pricier and shittier Bluetooth buds.

We used to be able to fit all this shit into phones back then, there's 0 reason to exclude them over size constraints now. If the reason is "butt fastah phowns", my 5 year old note 9 still feels more than snappy enough. Maybe we should spend more time making our shit efficient in order to use less space for heat dissipation, as well as better battery life or less battery size for the same battery life. Seriously who needs the kind of computing power found on phones nowadays? Is it really worth it to sacrifice basic QOL functionality for more speed?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

Never.

You’ll never hear from the people who don’t miss it because it’s nothing for us to talk about, so it seems like everyone only wants them back when in reality the vast majority don’t care.

[–] Samueru@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I use my ksc75 daily with the headphone jack.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] papabobolious@feddit.nu 3 points 2 years ago

I want it mostly for aux in various cars. Also neat to plug into PC speakers and such.

I'd pass up on fingerprint scanner and nfc before the jack tbh.

[–] yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 years ago

I do, I like that I don't have to worry about charging

[–] pbk@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

The last time I used it is about 10 years ago. Don’t miss it. Always hated the cables dangling around and pulling the headphones out of the ears. Wireless is just way more comfortable.

[–] Xeroxchasechase@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

All the time

[–] Iseja@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Used to use it daily but dropped it a few too many times with a cable inserted and now it can only be used in the car in a very specific angle.

[–] nicetriangle@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

I don't have one anymore but even if I did I wouldn't use it. Much prefer wireless.

[–] ajrwill@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Used to back when I was in high school and it was more common, but bluetooth earbuds have gotten really good sound-wise that the hassle of wires/dac/adapter isn't worth it nowadays for me and basically everyone I know.

Wired headphones sound better usually but I think anyone claiming they're superior to bluetooth in every way is being disingenuous and hasn't tried modern buds.

[–] 01011@monero.town 3 points 2 years ago

My phones don't have one but I use a headphone jack on my tablet.

[–] murmelade@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Well I tried shoving the wire up my own ass but I prefer the songs on my phone.

[–] SpaceMan9000@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I use both practically daily.

[–] MdRuckus@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (7 children)

I haven’t used wired headphones in about 8 years. Bluetooth all the way.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] tjsauce@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I used to use it, before buying a USB C headphone amp cause my headphones lacked bass

[–] Nyanix@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago

I used to every day when I worked at a music shop and would play audio demos from it. The loss of the port made my job VERY difficult to do. Now that I work in a new field and have had to invest in some bluetooth earbuds, I don't find that I'd need the port very often, though the audiophile in me misses it sometimes, especially since bluetooth can be so unreliable sometimes. Don't miss the dangling cable, but the thing is, I can bluetooth earbud on a phone that has a 3.5mm jack too, the fact that they removed it from phones as a standard when it's such a cheap part to implement is baffling, especially when we're paying tons for phones. I can have 16gb RAM, and 8-cores, bud God forbid I want to be able to plug in a speaker and have my phone plugged into the charger at the same time, like a repurposed old phone for a home audio system or something.

[–] bluetardis@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

I do. Every day. Decent headphones that block a lot of outside noise but don’t need a battery.

Constantly thankful that I don’t have to find a Bluetooth setup.

Contentious part is that I listen to high quality (generally lossless) ripped music. Bluetooth and some adapters do weird things with compression and you can really hear it.

[–] Robboman93@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I use it everyday, I still like wired earphones a lot.

[–] mojo@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

I used to, but now don't really care. Earbuds are really nice, except Bluetooth pairing is complete ass and you need to worry about it being charged.

[–] thorbot@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I never do, because it doesn't have one

[–] Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Very very rarely. I have a cheap Bluetooth adapter in my car, and I don't regularly use headphones because everyone I care about is immediately annoyed when they see headphones over/in my ears.

[–] spikederailed@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I did everyday in my car for listening to music when I still had my Pixel4a. Sadly it started to die and I replaced it with a Pixel 8(sans headphone jack) and had to buy a Bluetooth -> aux adapter.

[–] silverdiamond@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

I've been using a phone without a headphone jack for 3 years now with galaxy buds, if i didn't accidentally break the included usbc headset id be using that instead (even on pc) but i did so now i use the headphone jack on my wireless xbox controller on pc (connected to my pc via usb because my motherboard's audio makes noises when the pc is basically doing anything and echoes my mic into my left ear on windows (not a toggle in software or anything but said problem goes away if i power cycle pc by psu and then boot into linux)) and on phone i get to deal with Bluetooth and if i did have a usbc headset again i wouldn't be able to use it and charge the phone in a practical way (wireless charging is an option but my phone discharges faster than it changes wired (when connected to pc), wireless charging is even slower)

[–] ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

As replied under another comment :

I'll be honest... I bought a Poco F4 because the value for money it offered was amazing. Plus, I could unlock the bootloader and shift to a custom ROM whenever I wanted (literally as soon as I could lol. Hate MiUI).

This phone doesn't have a headphone jack, but I was willing to make the jump since my general use of headphones is not as much as earphones. My ears get sweaty or scratchy after more than an hour straight of earphones, and around the same for headphones.

As a result, my overall usage is limited. So, when I got my TWS (paid ₹2000 for an okay pair, no dual device pairing, okayish build quality for the case and an okayish connection. Sound was good tho.)

My situation meant I didn't really use them as much, although they go for almost 4hrs straight. And if I put them in the case, they go for weeks without needing a charge (case has a built-in battery of 1200mAh). So, whenever I think I need the case to charge I just set it up overnight. The only sad part is it doesn't have dual device pairing. I use my laptop and phone together and I'd kill for this feature, but my budget is thin atm.

I know it's not everybody's case, but this is my case. And while I miss the jack, I don't notice the lack of it. Audio quality is good enough for me. The wires were honestly the worst part of my wired experience anyway.

[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I used to. Then I bought a new phone and forgot to check to see if it had one. It did not.

[–] DrPop@lemmy.one 3 points 2 years ago

Whenever I'm in the car I use it to plug my phone into the Aux port. I also like to play rhythm games on my phone and Bluetooth has too much of a delay.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›