Is the fairphone really worth it?
The new fairphone 5 came out, it looks cool but the price is really, really high… If it’s a phone that can really last 10 years it could be good, but is that true? Is it worth it? I could get the one with /e/os from Murena because i want a degoogled phone with a bootloader locked, but is it usable on a daily basis?
No.
No headphone jack, no buy. It’s not about whether a headphone jack is really useful or not, it’s just the principle of it - there’s no good reason to remove it (especially for the asking price?, and more importantly, it goes against what the Fairphone stands for, IMO. I can understand it if it was some other profit-driven company making a shrewd business decision, but for Fairphone to do it, seems very unfair to me.
majority of people have switched to wireless audio
Citation needed. Also, just because people have “switched” to wireless doesn’t mean that they don’t have a pair of old wired headphones still lying around somewhere. Also, I suspect a significant portion of Fairphone users are the kind who’d still hold on to wired headphones.
when you’re trying to make a planet-conscious product?
The first rule in making a planet-conscious product is the RRR - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. If people already have wired headphones, then the most eco-friendly solution would be to enable users to continue to use them, and not force them to buy new products. And as a manufacturer, there’s practically no shortage of 3.5mm jacks around (plenty of old devices where the parts can be recycled from), and there’s almost no complexity involved in wiring up or making circiuriry for something that’s been a standard for several decades.
Citation needed.
I don't have a source ready with me to back up my statement. But at least here in India, almost everyone I see in public transportation use wireless earbuds. Usually I look like the odd one out for wearing wired earphones.
If people already have wired headphones, then the most eco-friendly solution would be to enable users to continue to use them, and not force them to buy even more new products.
You absolutely don't need to go out and buy a new headphones if your phone doesn't have an audio jack. Just buy a dongle. Yes, I'm aware that this is worse for the planet than just including an audio jack in the phone. But if you buy a dongle once, you don't have to worry about your future phones not having a headphone jack. So in the long run, this move is better for the planet.
How is buying a dongle you shouldn’t need better for the planet than a phone manufacturer providing a headphone jack??
Did you even read my reply fully?
Go into a recording studio and see how many wireless headphones they use
Recording studios also don't use a smartphone to do their work.
Even if we do assume that the majority of the world still uses wired earphones, it still makes sense to remove the audio jack for reasons I have explained already.
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