this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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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.

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[–] FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 years ago

Every single day, maybe a few times a year I don't use it. Though because I have an iphone, my headphone jack is on an adapter. But still, I know for certain it's not something I can ever give up at this point, have tried the Bluetooth thing.

[–] noirnws@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

I use mine religiously. I live in Brazil. This is a poem.

[–] NOTIngo@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I have to admit, I also almost never use wired headphones nowadays. When the trend of removing the jack from phones picked up pace, I absolutely hated the idea of a lack of options. But I have to admit, the convenience of no wires, outclassed the nuisance of charging my bluetooth headphones once a week, eventually. Still out of principle, I don't buy headphones from the phone brand im currently using. There are too many good third party brands out there to consider first.

[–] freeman@lemmy.pub 4 points 2 years ago

I used it in my car on the daily until it was removed from the phone. Then i went, in quite frustrating fashion, through a series of cheap aux/jack bluetooth dongles to maintain handsfree and music in the car.

Finally the radio in my truck started going out. So i replaced it with a wireless carplay/android auto model. And it IS nice.

But there are still times i would prefer a wired set of headphones. I still use them on my laptop from time to time. But will use airpods as well. One of the issues i have with my airpods is that often 1 side will be signifigantly louder than the other.

[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I stopped buying devices that are aux only because the headphone jack was taken away from me. At first I was kinda upset. Down the road I realized if I was given the choice to go back, I wouldn’t use wired ever again. I lost too many earbuds and headphones because the wire got caught on a door or something similar. I don’t lose them as often anymore either. Once I get home I put them in the charger and pick them up in the morning, it’s a habit at this point. Overall net positive.

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[–] Jomn@jlai.lu 4 points 2 years ago

I don't use it much, but I do appreciate the one I have on my phone, since I don't always have my BT earbuds with me. Whereas I usually always have some cheap wired earbuds somewhere with me.

[–] 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.

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I use wired headphones easily 80% of the time I use any electronic device capable of sound, and >99% of the time I'm actually listening to that sound. I would sooner take a phone without speakers than without a dedicated 3.5mm jack. (I could be convinced with two USB-C ports though)

I don't need more weight on my ears, another thing that can die, either buds that can be lost or an all-in-one that can't survive my pocket, and I definitely don't need another drain on my phone's battery. I'm not against Bluetooth headphones in general (I do use an over-ear set occasionally), but they will never be my go-to.

A proper poll on use time/duty cycle would be interesting.

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[–] Red_October@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I do. While I don't end up using headphones terribly often, I still prefer wired ones when I do. I would lose bluetooth earbuds in a heartbeat, and it wouldn't be worth the expense to replace them.

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

I love rhythm games so when I play the mobile ones, maybe 2 times a week? Bluetooth is too slow and prone to disconnection to be reliable, I missed everything when I tried, and muse dash even alerts you on boot to not use bluetooth.

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

My phone doesn't have a headphone jack. Despite this, I used a pair of shitty wired IEMs every day when I walk my dog. I don't really think bluetooth is all that bad, it works for me most of the time, except on my oldass car which I bought one of those bluetooth to radio short throw transmitters that plugs in the ciggy lighter and it gets really staticky when it rains, but my car's speaker system wasn't doing wonders anyways so I don't think it matters that much.

No, I don't have a problem with bluetooth, but I still think it's probably worse for most every application I could think of, compared to an aux jack. The amount of time I save by having my phone automatically connect to my car compared to plugging in my phone is basically nothing. Takes about 3 seconds for my phone to connect, takes about 3 seconds for my phone to get plugged in. Same with regular headphones. About the only thing I can maybe think of is a wireless speaker, but I tend not to use those very often and you could probably do that over wifi in most applications. That, and the cost of bluetooth is just always gonna be higher than an aux jack, or a wire. Shut up about DACs, too, I don't care. A cost of like 4 bucks for a usb-c to aux cable is going to perform about the same as your pretentious 500 dollar usb-c to usb to usb powered DAC to aux port chain you have going on because of "noise". That's insane. It's insane to carry that shit around in your pocket all day.

Headphones, you're paying more for worse quality, basically every time, and this will hold true for every device. Plus there's always the fuggin batteries and the little stupid case, and I'm not paying more for a new pair of shittier headphones when in 3 years my bluetooth headphones can't hold a charge because the manufacturer didn't program anything for a trickle charge to preserve battery life.

I dunno, this makes me mad, phones not being 16:9 makes me mad, phones not fitting in my dainty little hands makes me mad.

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

I would if it had one.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 4 points 2 years ago

I use mine, both on my phone and tablet.

I have a bluetooth headphone, but the hassle of dealing with battery dying out, then having to reach for my pocket in a crowded bus to put it back on the pod/charger isn't worth it. I nearly lost one of the pieces because it fell off my ear. Also, the only other situation where it'd be good, which is having it in my ears while I do house chores without the phone in my pocket, suffers from "wall interference".

[–] protput@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Tbh. I love my Samsung buds. I don't understand people complaining about the hassle of wireless. It is the wires that are always a hassle imo. My earbuds just pop out the case and are ready.

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

I don't, but I've had about 5 years to replace all of my perfectly good cables with crappy bluetooth audio/dongles.

[–] vortexal@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 years ago

I always use mine, the audio delay that bluetooth headphones have make them almost useless for me. I'm also not a fan of the fact that they either make loud noises or have some form of a voice to tell you when it's either connected to a device or got a low battery.

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

I bought wireless headphones about 4 years ago and haven't used wired since. Even when playing through speakers, in my car, and all that I just use Bluetooth.

[–] kux@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago

When I was looking for a new phone I gave up and bought a usb c dac/amp from Fiio. Ended up buying a phone from Sony which does have a 3.5 port (and sd card too) but continue to use the dongle anyway as it sounds better. Use it 2-3 times a week

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/fiio-x-jade-audio-ka1-dac-amp.25817/reviews

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

I don’t. It’s nice not to have to have a wire wrapped around me, being able to walk freely around without worrying about it possibly getting snagged or needing to have my phone on me just to have headphones on. The shortcomings of Bluetooth have all been largely solved for every use case other than music production. Even for gaming I use a pair of headphones with a proprietary dongle that has no perceptible latency, and they last over a month.

[–] Squirrel@thelemmy.club 4 points 2 years ago

I use mine for listening to audiobooks on an external speaker. Bluetooth speakers often cut off the beginnings of sentences due to the brief silence between them.

[–] spare_muppets@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 years ago

I use wired headphones daily thru a USB c adapter

[–] Euphoma@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I keep losing my usb c to headphone jack, but I usually use it a couple times a week when its not lost. I have airpods, but I'm on android so I lost the charger for it, and nearly lost the airpods many times.

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[–] Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 years ago

I bought BT headphones to get rid of the cable when I'm outside. So now it's rare for me to use the headphone jack. Only when I use the cable headset for work or when I connect my phone to the stereo amp. So maybe once every other week.

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

I do a good 50% of my phonecalls on wired earbuds or wired headset. It's much more convenient than holding the phone, especially for long calls.

[–] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 3 points 2 years ago

Since I went bluetooth I have to charge constantly which is annoying. But at the same time while I was wired the cBle always got in the way in a way so the phone would fall on the street or some hard floor at least omce but sometimes twice a year and breal.

Since I'm on bluetooth I didn't break any screen in the last 5 years. I'M NOT GOING BACK TO WIRED, IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE.

[–] learningduck@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

Not at all. Bluetooth earbuds are too convenient for me. I could just leave my phone anywhere in the house playing podcasts while playing with my baby.

[–] IcyEcho@feddit.uk 3 points 2 years ago

I used to use mine almost every day with the same set of earbuds that I've had for probably close to a decade at this point. Since getting a phone without a jack, I listen to music significantly less now which is quite upsetting. I'm not the type to use the speaker on the phone since I've always seen that as rude, and the wireless earbuds that I have are just inconvenient to use at best and not the same quality compared to the wired ones (That's not to say that they're poor quality but I can absolutely tell the difference on my favourite songs).

I've been very tempted to just go back to my old phone once the contract on my current one has ended if modern phones are going to move away from 3.5mm jacks.

It has been an excellent universal standard for decades and the arguments about it being obsolete make no sense as it isn't being replaced by something superior, it's just being deleted entirely and a cumbersome workaround is being sold as a positive thing. The only real argument I can see for deleting the jack is that it saves the manufacturers a couple of pennies per unit.

[–] Xander_Meters@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 years ago

Every day as my headphones have a wire aswell as bluetooth. The latency is definitely there while the wire sounds fuller too. Im sure there difference would be mitigated with a more expensive pair of headphones but I also need to be battery concious with my 5 year old phone and bluetooth drains faster.

[–] andyMFK@reddthat.com 3 points 2 years ago

I use it every day

I use earphones to listen to music and take calls hads free quite often.

I recently got a new phone, a Fairphone 5, which doesn't have a headphone jack, and I'm already missing it.

Listening to music is fine, I just use a USB-C to jack adapter, but I've been told people can't hear me well when I'm doing the same to take a call.

The other day I was in the car with my brother for hours and wanted to put on some music. I couldn't connect to the car radio via Bluetooth because my brother already was and needed it to take calls and whatnot, so AUX cable here we go. Except apparently my phone does something weird like shutting down the USB port when not in use (reasonable) between songs, creating a noise like when you connect a jack to a powered on speaker, which was super annoying.

So, yes, I use the headphones jack and sorely miss it.

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

Bluetooth earbuds are everything younger me dreamed of when dealing with when taking a tangled wire mess out of my pocket.

[–] Ejh3k@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I had wired headphones for very specific times, and since my new phone doesn't have the jack I'm not fully sure how I'll deal in those situations.

[–] Toadvark@mander.xyz 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I use mine consistently, and the presence of one will be a dealbreaker when I choose my next phone. I use it with an AUX cable in my car, wired headphones I already own, and (most importantly) with a Square point of sale thingamajig at shows. Bluetooth options exist for the last thing of course, but they have their own disadvantages- and I'd rather be able to use both options than just one!

[–] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago
[–] arche7ype@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 years ago

I don't have one anymore. I did not want to get rid of it. The cons of a wire did not outweigh the BT pros for me. Now I know. Things don't sound as good. Don't sound bad but wired still has that edge.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

If I had one, I would. I walked my kid to school recently and grabbed some wired ear buds for the walk back. I had to spend the walk back listening to boring nature and shit.

There is really no reason to not have one. It does not significantly increase the cost of the phone. The space saving excuse does not really hold water. If the Zenfone can fit one, then all the other gargantuan phones should be able to.

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 3 points 2 years ago

I used to use it everyday on my old phone, new one doesn't have it and I hate using the dongle. My USB-C port is already wearing out from it

[–] 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.

[–] 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.

[–] 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.

[–] Send_me_nude_girls@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I won't buy a phone that doesn't have it. I hate to charge my wireless earbuds, also they break after a few years for no reason because the battery got old. So I have a physical aux headset, will last me 10 years easy and never needs charging.

BUT the other day someone suggested to just get an usb-c to aux adapter and I'll probably do that in future if the aux connector isn't present on the next phone.

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