this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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They have literally an explanation for this on their website. You might disagree, but saying "it makes no sense"...makes no sense.
Also, they discontinued the earbuds and still no jack on FP5, so the idea that "they wanted to sell their own buds" doesn't seem to be likely.
It makes no sense to me, their whole deal is sustainability, by removing the headphone jack it forces me to buy Bluetooth headphones that all have batteries in them and are presumably not up to Fairphone standards of sustainability.
And saying we're just following market trends sounds like a shitty explanation to me. I have the 3, I'll use it for as long as it works but after that no Fairphone for me.
USB-C earbuds exist. No one is "forcing" you to do anything.
Which is still having to buy a second set of earbuds/headphones when there's no need for it. Or buy a separate dongle (a major pain in the ass over time).
This is not "sustainability" friendly design.
Headphone jacks also exist, so I won't be buying this phone.
Having tried to use USB-C earbuds... the experience is lacking. Once they are plugged in there is a 2-5s lag for when the headphones start working. 30% of the time they don't work, having to unplug and plug them in to try again. Some apps won't use them at all if the headphones are not plugged in before you start a call (google voice).
Even if you got them working, they stick out of the bottom of the phone, so propping up the phone on a desk for a video call is now super awkward.
It's a poor echo of the experience of physically wired RTTP headphones.
Never had those problems. Worked for me better than the AUX port actually, since no metal spring got damaged over time like in most of my previous phones.
The dongle works just like AUX earphones worked
I like my Pixel 7 Pro but its also my first phone without a headphone jack and I hate it. Bluetooth is such a shitty standard and the USB dongles suck ass too. Why the fuck did they have to get rid of something so simple and practical...
Again, you might disagree, you might know better, I don't know. But this is their motivation when it comes to longevity and hence sustainability. To me, it seems a reasonable idea: if the jack helps reducing the consumption of batteries in headphones but decreases the lifespan of the phones, it seems a bad tradeoff.
I'm surprised they discontinued their buds. Thank you for pointing that out.
They're still selling a 250 Euro Bluetooth headset with the phone as a option
https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds-xl