One should be at the bottom one at the top. I understand space on the phone is a premium but a second port would make the phone so much more usable. Wired headphones, flash drives, camera modules, speaker modules, keyboards, even connection to a TV, all could be used while charging. It’s a shame it’s not a thing, USB is extremely versatile port, but you only get one and it’s used for charging half of the time. (I am aware dongles exist)
Wired headphones… could be used while charging
Sure is a shame nobody ever came up with a way to do that before.
The person who decided a headphone jack is superfluous should be found, tarred, feathered, and left naked and alone deep in the alaskan wilderness covered in pigs blood for the wildlife to enjoy.
I believe Steve Jobs is already dead. And those who inherited his billions probably don’t mind all those extra AirPod sales, especially if people keep losing them.
Jobs died before the headphone jack was removed (iphone 7 in 2016, while Jobs died in 2011).
The villain we’re looking for is Jony Ive, Apple’s product designer until 2019. All other companies just copied Apple’s lead so if there is a responsible party, it’s him.
Yea fuck him too, bit ol’ Steve was quite a fan of the whole “remove every slightly extra option and then sell it back to the user” way of doing business.
“Courage” the cowardly port.
Steve Jobs died in 2011, the headphone jack disappeared from the iPhone 7 in 2016.
It wasn’t Steve Jobs who took it away. Steve Jobs probably would have taken it away, but he also probably would have insisted on developing a technically superior but proprietary wireless technology.
I honestly don’t think it made a noticeable difference in terms of selling AirPods, it simply reduced cost.
I only buy phones with 3.5mm jacks on principle, and yet I stilled jumped at the chance to get Pixel Buds cheaper when I got my 5a because of how convenient they are. The decision between wired and wireless is now nearly exclusively because you prefer either fidelity or convenience over the other. Not whether or not your phone supports them. Besides, if you’re picking fidelity you probably scrutinize much more on a phone than headphone jack or not.
I’m pretty sure the rise of BT headphones is solely due to Apple removing the headphone jack.
Yes, I know BT headphones have existed before, I was an audio/technology editor, so yes I know. Which is why I also know how tough it was to get some half-decent BT audio adapter or earphones 10 years ago, even tho BT 2.0 was in every phone for close to a decade already. Then within few weeks to months after the jack removal and introduction of AP, the market got flooded with them. Don’t tell me it’s a coincidence.
It may sound like a good thing to have so many choices, except you’re losing the original choice of whether you want it in the first place. Combined with another lovely trend Apple has kickstarted - non-removable batteries - it just means yet more ewaste.
And I’m sorry, but the whole idea of “true wireless” is fucking terrible. I use sporty BT earphones I can hang around my neck or just put in a pocket when I’m not using them. Fiddling with 3 separate small things every time I want to take earphones in and out is madness. Of course you’ll loss something eventually.
Then within few weeks to months after the jack removal and introduction of AP, the market got flooded with them. Don’t tell me it’s a coincidence.
You can crawl the way back machine though and find that this just isn’t really true in an appreciable way. Yes, after 2016 we start to see more and more wireless headphones but is that because of the iPhone or because Moore’s Law means standards increase, production gets cheaper and form factors get smaller?
It may sound like a good thing to have so many choices, except you’re losing the original choice of whether you want it in the first place.
I don’t disagree with you at all which is why I still make it a point to only buy phones exclusively with 3.5mm jacks still included.
And I’m sorry, but the whole idea of “true wireless” is fucking terrible.
That’s just, like, your opinion, man. That’s totally subjective and your taste. The ability for me to put earbuds in under earpro is masterful. That I can do work and keep my phone somewhere off to the side and out of harms way is beneficial to me. That I don’t have to worry about routing a cable through my clothes to prevent it getting grabbed by moving machinery and parts is a definite benefit.
And I’m sure absolutely none of that applies to you and that’s okay! It’s why I still advocate for 3.5mm jacks because my use, and your use, is totally different and deserve different accomodations.
standards increase, production gets cheaper and form factors get smaller?
Here we can be pretty sure, because Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP, allowing stereo sound, has been widely available since mid-00’s (I got my first phone with it in 2005), BT chips cost pennies even then and mono earphones of that size were old news too, so none of that was anything special. And it’s not like Apple were the ones to make it affordable anyway.
I’ll credit Apple for putting it together in a meaningful way, but of course they had to do it the asshole Apple way. Honestly, Apple designers should be charged with crimes against humanity for their popularisation of built-in batteries and other disposability features, and all the idiot designers who followed that example, with them. If not on principle, then for all the ewaste.
That’s just, like, your opinion, man.
Of course it is. But to be clear, I’m not against all wireless. So I’m not comparing ‘true wireless’ with classic cabled earphones, but with wireless earphones that have a cable connecting them and controls/battery somewhere between them. I wish designers would concentrate on improving this style rather than producing millions of buds people keep losing or discarding and then re-buying.
(Ed: I mean even TW can exist if people want, but the Apple effect makes everyone think that’s the only way to make earphones.)
I don’t disagree with you at all which is why I still make it a point to only buy phones exclusively with 3.5mm jacks still included.
👍
They should also be be required to use a dongle for every tool they use to survive with a limit of only 1 tool at a time
I hate how we’re stuck in a limbo between headphones jacks and usb-c. Like the change was bad to begin with, but if you’re going to switch to usb-c, then do it fully.
USB-C for everything honestly would have been good if they had. But we’re stuck in a limbo
Bring back the headphone port! Bring back the headphone port! Bring back the headphone port!
It never dissapeared - you just started buying devices without one
The selection is pretty slim.
Can’t be that important if people don’t actually choose with their wallets (Xperia 5 II owner btw)
Rn I’m hoping the 5 V will be announced soon, my 1 II’s battery is absolutely fucked lol.
headphone jacks are still available for mid ranged androids, even along with a charger. pretty much the only win we can get for purchasing a mid ranged androids.
Not being ridiculously overpriced is another advantage imo.
Sony says hi :)
Bring back the the headphone port!
I would rather have 2 usb c ports that way you can use it fir other stuff as well
I’d rather have another USB port actually. It’s just so much more versatile.
Occasionally, I’ll use my phone to play a show, with a USB to HDMI. I used to keep a wireless charger next to the TV for that use case.
Honestly, this. I’m not happy that they took away my headphone jack, but if they’d replaced it with a second USB port I would have been okay with it.
I used to think this but a dedicated mp3 player is superior to using a phone for audio anyway
What do you use for a dedicated mp3 player? These days all I see are dying (flash chips) used SanDisk Sansa players, cheap Amazon ones, and super audiophile level $400 ones…
Just a cheap SanDisk one. For me the main advantage is reliability; I sleep with headphones for white noise, and even discounting the possibility of the battery dying because you can’t play audio and charge at the same time, it is still basically impossible to set a smartphone up to be totally sure it will continue playing an audio file for 8 hours with no interruptions. Works great for playing music too though.
If all you play is local media then maybe. I like to stream music from my own server though and also listen to podcasts on the go.
I started using wireless headphones back when I had Sony Ericsson 530i dumb phone. Also phones back then didn’t have headphone ports either. Who the hell cares about it?
Owners and enjoyers of good headphones.
They’re all wireless for years.
I think you misunderstand what I mean by “good” headphones. You’re caught in the electronics hype cycle. Good headphones exist outside of that cycle. Also good wired headphones you never have to charge, the battery never dies. If you take care of them they never become ewaste.
One should be at the bottom one at the top. I understand space on the phone is a premium but a second port would make the phone so much more usable. Wired headphones, flash drives, camera modules, speaker modules, keyboards, even connection to a TV, all could be used while charging. It’s a shame it’s not a thing, USB is extremely versatile port, but you only get one and it’s used for charging half of the time. (I am aware dongles exist)
I think you’re just a very conservative person who’s totally out of loop.
I’m an incredibly liberal person who enjoys nice things.
Soon you’re gonna feel lucky that your phone has even ONE port.
Give it 5 years and Apple will have removed their lightning and/or USB port and gone wireless on everything.
Apple is going to be compelled to offer USB-C as a wired charging connection in Europe if it offers a wired charging option.
Which means bye bye charging port
Well, if they are forced to bring back removable batteries which may be seem the case in a few years (unless they befuddle the EU authorities), they might have to bring back X if they remove it as well…
I’m disappointed Moto Mods didn’t take off. They would’ve been a great way to provide a hermetically sealed phone with all the optional stuff you wanted slapped on the back. Beefier battery, better controls, all the ports you want, etc. Like, a phone with a weak internal battery but then a magnetically attached external one so you don’t even have to open open the back of the phone to hot-swap.
Apple itself or rumors have already shown they have thought about removing the port altogether.
The “if” is the kwy here. The rules said "if it has a port … it must be USB-C. They won’t have a port soon.
“Brave”
The worst part is AirDrop sucks. BT audio is still mediocre at best too.
I’m sure Apple is working on some new wireless standard called “magic connect” or some shit like that. It will be 13.8% better but make all previous devices obsolete and incompatible pushing people to trash their old stuff and buy some new overpriced, proprietary stuff.
Then when they introduce this new standard, their next presentation slide will pat themselves in the back because they are such a “green” company.
Is wireless charging even possible?
To give more details since somebody else gave you the short answer: Not only is it possible, most mid-to-high-end phones and all watches have that feature today. Google “Qi charging”, which is the modern global standard (although many devices are still on their own incompatible standards – Galaxy Watch, I’m looking in your direction).
Yeah, you set your phone on this pad, and it charges without being directly connected.
I’ve been wireless charging for a long time now. Does Apple not have wireless charging?
Wireless is the future 🔮
On the plus side it’ll make waterproofing way easier. And ports are often the first thing to break on phones in my experience. Honestly my biggest disappointment will be the loss of the SIM slot, since e-SIMs give me the creeps. I like that my relationship to the cellular provider is on a part I can pop out.
Yeah gadget makers were able to water proof Walkmans back in the 80s and these were devices with probably a dozen real physical buttons, a headphone jack and battery compartment, and hinged wide open to let a cassette tape inside. Waterproofing as well as durable buttons was something that was solved decades ago regardless of what Apple’s marketing bullshit has led people to believe.
Oh I agree but it’s obviously easier to waterproof a phone with ports. Besides that ports and buttons are the most common point-of-failure (I’m looking at my kid’s headphones on my desk where the power button was crushed in and my to-do list is to open it up and see if it’s repairable). Honestly my biggest complaint comparing the old Walkmen to modern phones isn’t the buttons and ports (I remember how miserable the buttons were on my 100-meter waterproof Casio watch back in the '80s) but rather the screws. I hate that glue has become a standard tool in electronics assembly. If I never have to do the gamble of the “hot enough to loosen the sealant but not to hot to damage it” dance with a heat-gun again it will be too soon.
Never stop from moving the heat gun. And getting a touchless laser thermometer can help to know what temp youre at.
This is what life is when all viable phones are made by two giant tech companies.
ASUS ROG Phones have them. Also with a headphone jack I think.
Weird headphones don’t use ucb-c, there is already a standard for headphones and it’s the 3.5mm audio jack.
That’s not the only standard though. There is also 6.3mm jack, XLR and many other open and proprietary connectors.
I want XLR my next phone! 😀
a) I have a USB-c headset at work
b) the 3.5mm headphone jack can’t be used to transfer data (at a good rate)
Not sure what exactly you mean by headset. But headphones and IEMs will use a 3.5mm or 1/4" jack. My sennheisers use it, my beyerdynamics use it, my audio Technicas use it. Even my KZ IEMs and moondrop IEMs use it. This is a universal standard for a reason.
And not sure what the data rate has to do with anything. It’s an audio connector, it’s not used to transfer data, it’s used to move the drivers in a set of headphones. As usb-c doesn’t output line level audio, any headset you have that uses it needs its own DAC and amp which is problematic for e-waste reasons.
Headset, as in headphones with a microphone. I use it for MS Teams meetings and a bit of music and it works fine.
The point OP was trying to make is that you can use USB-c for other things besides listening to music.
Since you seem to be an audiophile with a list of fancy headphones (don’t ask me, my Cardo combined with earplugs is fine for the level of listening I want to do) then wouldn’t an offboard DAC / amp that you could keep far longer than a phone, and isn’t restricted by size constraints going to be better than a built-in version?
Also, if you’re worried about e-waste maybe you shouldn’t buy so many headphones. My partner’s Sennheisers have lasted 20 years so far.
You can plug a USB hub into your phone. That’d give you more ports.
I’m fairly certain there are hubs out there with a pass-through for charging as wellHaving something built in is so much better than needing a dongle. There’s a reason why even Apple brought back ports like hdmi and sd card slot to their Mac book pro line to eliminate even the needing a dongle for some people.
Yeah I’m not saying it’s ideal, but it could be a solution to the specific problem that OP was running into
Am I the only one who uses magnetic cables?
I use them too! My phone usually fast charge at 30W, but with the magnetic cable it is capped at 5W (thanks God). I’ve seen drastic improvement in term of battery life because it charges slower and do not stress the battery as much as at 30W
Indeed. But it also makes the USB being very unwieldily to use for anything.
That’s what I use to connect external storage on my Chromecast w/ Google TV, kinda useful while traveling and the Internet sucks… Shame it only supports FAT32 for external drive tho…
i know, but it’s an extra thing to carry in my pocket
Dongle-life!!
We could even… Charge twice!
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BOOM!
Found the Fedora user!
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are you also aware that some phones do have 2 ports ?
just buy one of those
ROG phone
I agree. If we’re going to lose the headphone port in favour of connecting to a universal connection (either directly or via an adaptor) then it’s time we have two of them. As for positioning I gather that there are lots of handheld PC’s with the one on top and one on bottom configuration and that it’s generally accepted to be the best way (and my on top 3.5mm and on bottom USB-c seems to work pretty well) so I think you’re right but it would be nice to see manufacturers try out a few different configurations to see in practise what people prefer.
I think on a phone it would make sense for bottom and side, which is the top of a handheld PC. That way you could have the cord sticking out whatever direction was handy for you by turning your phone.
Asus ROG does this
We’ll to be clear, on handheld PC’s I’m talking about having them on opposite sides rather than at a right angle to each other. But I can definitely see the advantage to the right angle orientation. Personall I prefer to have them in line, yesterday for example I had my phone plugged in to power, with audio out connected via cable and wanted to be able to watch video in landscape orientation. With top and bottom connections it all paid smoothly in a line, had they been at a right-angle then one of them would have had to go straight up into the air out of the middle of the device.
I suspect that right angle is better for flexibility in how to connect a single cable at a time but in line is better for connecting multiple cables at once (really side-by-side is best for multiple at a time but you lose nearly all the flexibility for single cable connection.)
I think you’re crazy 🤣
Wireless USB never took off. Essentials company was promisimg with PH1, it had wireless USB port. only released two wireless USB compatible devices for it though.
Well modern USB is great because of decent throughput, high power delivery, multiple protocols over it, and good compatibility.
Of course removing all of those didn’t work out.
You know what? As long as the second port isn’t gimped in any way (can do video out + all the typical USB things), then I might forgive them for taking away the headphone jack.
I very much like this idea, would be nice to be able to use a phone in more of a mini-computer manner, whereas at the moment they’re somewhat hamstrung.
I’m always surprised phone docks aren’t a thing, my work laptop has a USB-c dock that is bristling with ports that are useful.
I can’t relate at all. My phone is a PHONE, with options of short-term entertainment. I have other devices for other “computery” activities. I personally almost never use even my single USB-C port, thanks to wireless charging and wireless headphones. Sounds like your phone is your main device.
For what current flagship phones cost they should absolutely be capable of general purpose computing.
Maybe come with a usb-c dock and screen as well for convergence.
Well, it depends what you imagine “general purpose computing” is. Android OS is primarily targeted at phones, with specific set of requirements, so I don’t think it can ever match desktop OSes, without major sacrifices from the both worlds.
The main reason why Android cannot work as a general computing OS are the many barriers and restrictions it has compared to traditional desktop operating systems.
Linux for example, which Android is based on, works fine* on the desktop but also on tablets or phones.*as in most modern apps scale properly and are usable on the desktop, tablet or phone. Support for the hardware, especially on phones and tablets, varies greatly.
Many countries not so well off like us in the West do not have the luxury to have a smartphone and a computer. So options with 2 USB ports would be interesting. The bastardisation of the smartphone is a disgrace.
What exactly is getting bastardized? Phones never had 2 USB ports. And there are still new phones with headphone jack (Zenphone 10 comes to my mind). Yes, many brands dropped it, but it’s not a conspiracy (or at lest doesn’t have to be), it’s just basic economics.
What I call bastardisation is the many steps stopping us from using our phone as general computing platforms. Our phones have no reason to be confined by software locks like locked bootloaders, root login, etc.
As for the lack of 2 USB ports, it pictures that phones where never thought as general purpose computers. Maybe two ports is not the way to go but the lack of an interface which can act as a display output and a USB connection like what we have now with Thunderbolt on the desktop is a shame. The inability to turn my phone, which is more powerful than my current laptop, into a normal computer unencumbered by software and hardware restrictions is a shame.
The path taken by Pinephones and their Linux ecosystems is a step in the right direction. It shows that smartphone companies can do better.
As you said, it’s basic economics, it’s more profitable for them if we buy a new phone every two years, so they lock us out of our properties with software and hardware restrictions because they can.
I have a desktop i use at least 50% of the time and a couple of laptops i barely use because i don’t like to carry them, so when i need to do something away from the PC I’ll do it with my phone if at all possible. Sounds like you don’t use your devices in different places often.
