hydroGENThe Fairphone 5 is less about what comes in the box and more about what you get over the years
TheFririshI might get flack for this but I despise them for their greenwashing. removing the headphone jack to sell their own headphones was mmmmmmh move at best.
pjhenry1216I despise people repeating comments. How is making the device cheaper, more sustainable, and more reliable greenwashing? I would love anybody who just loves complaining about the headphones jack to explain that. No one else has. I doubt anybody complaining really cares about the environment either. What phone do you currently have?
The usual argument is “FP5 bad because no headphone jack, I choose Nokia or Samsung”… I guess if you’re not even trying to have a fair ans sustainable supply chain, that’s totally fine.
Don’t have many options if i need the headphone jack
You have $5 options.
can’t get a phone for 5$
You can get a phone jack adapter for $5 moron.
shit solution, spend more money to fix a design fuckup
Great, then just keep your current phone. Problem solved.
Fair and sustainable supply chains shouldn’t mean I have to throw out perfectly good electronics at home, such as wired headphones, because this company wants to save a trivial amount of money. Keeping the headphone jack means a greater level of sustainability because I don’t have to replace other fully functional electronics to use with this phone.
Here we go again… Adapters exist, nobody is forcing you to literally throw away your headphones. If the small inconvenience of using an adapter is so overwhelming for you that you’ll throw the whole sustainability argument right out the window and go for a company that doesn’t give two shits about it, then go for it. But don’t claim that sustainability matters to you, because it obviously doesn’t.
LizYeah I bought a phone without a headphone jack. So I bought a little adapter and keep it in my case. Then my headphones started to fail and I got a pair that could do both Bluetooth and aux. Now I have headphones that can be used with a dead battery or can be used without a wire. Win-win.
Would I prefer a headphone jack? Yes. But the adapter lives on the end of the removable aux cable, so the functional difference is minimal. Especially since I also have wireless charging, so I can avoid the very minor “can’t charge and use AUX at the same time” problem.
I’m afraid your experience and opinion is just too nuanced for some people here. It really seems like you’re doubting our lord and saviour the headphone jack, so let the downvotes commence!
Here we go again… I know adapters exist. I have one. If I didn’t, my wired headphones and my wired aux port in my car would be unusable. If the large ecological footprint of an entire new product line that’s completely unnecessary being spun up to use a whole bunch of excess materials that didn’t need to be used to just keep the existing headphone jacks doesn’t bother you, maybe you’re the one throwing the whole sustainability argument out the window because you clearly don’t give two shits about it.
So you have an adapter and are fine using it - where’s the problem? In your last comment you said you’d have to throw away your headphones, which seems really disingenuous now.
You now have the choice of a) buying a sustainably sourced and fairly produced phone without a headphone jack or b) buying a phone of questionable sustainability and fairness with a headphone jack. The choice is really obvious if you ask me, considering the adapter is a sunk cost to the environment and you.
Do the adapters grow on trees? How does creating an entirely new and wholly unnecessary product line match up with any sort of sustainability standards? Seems pretty disingenuous to me. Try looking at the big picture and not just the actions of a single company in isolation.
Since you’re repeating yourself, I will do the same: You already own an adapter, so why are you complaining? Surely a sustainably and fairly sourced phone must be an obvious choice since you care so much about the environment, right?
Try looking at the big picture and not just the actions of a single company in isolation.
Good point, because it’s not FairPhone that started this whole debacle. They didn’t “[create] an entirely new and wholly unnecessary product line”, you’ve got Apple to thank for that.
I see this conversation is going nowhere fast. I’m gonna end it here, if you choose to be obtuse then I can’t help you.
Did they mention warranty for the headphones?
How is removing the jack making the device more sustainable or reliable?
It allowed them to increase the IP rating, allows for simplified manufacturing, and easier maintainability and repairability.
How is not including it considered greenwashing (I notice you didn't ask about that, so I assume you know the answer)?
Plenty of electronics have been able to get IP ratings while still having headphone jacks. It’s a trivial part to include as it is practically an ancient bit of tech and doesn’t introduce some kind of massive complexity to the device. Repair is a simple swap of the module. Nothing you’re saying has anything to do with supporting your claim of its removal leading to greater sustainability or reliability. Its materials are no different from the rest of the phone, meaning it’s just as sustainable as the rest of the parts, and it’s not a part that’s prone to failure, meaning it’s just as reliable as the rest.
For more cost. And again, their question was how does it affect reliability. I provided other reasons. This is like fucking whackamole. Folks just responding to the random comment that was responding to one specific thing and then pretending like it's the entire fucking argument. This whole thread is filled with idiots. Jacks have been left out of most flagship phones for a couple years now. This honestly smells like a fake grassroots attack on the Fairphone because they pay people fucking living wages instead of goddamn slave wages. The headphone jack was never a selling point of the phone. And it's not like you need to buy their headphones.
And headphone jacks are absolutely prone to failure. That's just objectively fucking false ignorant of electronics. It's an additional component. Maintainability and reliability inherently goes down if you add components. It's not magically a part of the fucking PCB. It's soldered on and then anytime a headphone plug is put in, it will put stress on the solder joints anytime it moves. Did you just fucking guess and hope you're right about "it's just as reliable"?
This thread is shit. I'm done here. Can I just block an entire post to stop seeing asinine replies from jackasses who probably don't even have a headphone jack on their current phone?
Lol, what a tantrum. I responded directly to the points you raised and this epic rant is your reply.
For more cost? Headphone jacks are not even remotely expensive. Yes, they’ve been left out of a number of other phones for several years now. I and many others complained about it then and we’re still complaining about it now. This isn’t a Fairphone specific complaint, but it does suck to see yet another company go this route. And I promise you, headphone jacks have no bearing on the shit pay practices of the entire smartphone industry.
I didn’t say headphone jacks don’t ever fail. Maybe reread what I wrote before you go on a rant. Look up failure rates of headphone jacks vs other components and you’ll see that they’re not more prone to failure than other components. And why would the headphone jack in a Fairphone be soldered on? To make it repairable, shouldn’t it be a separate module you can swap out if it does fail? By your own logic, they should take USB ports out of phones for the very same reasons they removed headphone jacks. And who knows, maybe that’s where the market will go. As for me, my next phone will be a Sony Xperia, since they still make high end phones with SD card slots, headphone jacks, and have bezels for the front facing camera so you don’t interrupt the screen. These are all features important to me, so that’s where my money will go when it comes time to replace my 4 year old phone.
Also, great use of ad hominems and “you’re all shills!” when you’re confronted with things you can’t refute. This thread isn’t shit, but your poor grasp of logic, name calling, and goalpost shifting sure is. And yes, you can mute an entire post. The exact process will depend on if you’re using the website or the specific app, but I’m sure if you go to the support community of whatever you’re using and ask them in the same charming way you’re speaking here, you’ll get the help you need to mute this whole post.
It’s honestly kinda hilarious that the person defending the anti-consumer chicken to remove features is accusing those upset about their removal of shilling.
The way i understand it, they ditch the jack so they can sell ppl their earbuds while claiming it’s about the environment. No idea if that’s true, but i don’t really care about this angle. Also, regarding the IP rating, you could add a rubber flap over it, pretty sure some CAT phones had that. Still, my biggest gripe is the jack situation, though a secondary sim slot and a smaller screen would be nice.
Personally, the best phone for me, that i know of, would be a Galaxy XCover 5 - small, durable, removable battery, jack, dedicated microsd slot and dualsim. Shame it doesn’t support any variant of degoogled android.
TonyOstrichI don’t agree with the OP that removing the jack is a mortal sin. However having worked in related induatries, I don’t think removing it really saves much if any money and it is entirely possible to make a phone or any other electronic device water resistant even with a headphone jack. Hell you can get wired ear buds that can be submerged in water.
I know it wasn’t mentioned specifically, but even fairly cheap watches will be water proof to like 30 meters and still have a user replacable battery.
I just wish companies would be honest about it.
If I’m gonna focus on the headphone jack then I could simply say that it’s already a cheap and reliable part that provides better quality sound that Bluetooth most of the time. Wired headphones are also way cheaper to buy and in my experience easier to fix. the Bluetooth earphones when their battery starts dying down or gets damaged will be thrown away and create more waste.
Wether this company IMHO is greenwashing OR the competition on the mobile segment is just too great and I want to believe the latter.
I think that the phone is also way too expensive, yes the phone is repairable but the components are still quite expensive to replace (although very easy to do so).
Fairphone has made too many faux pas with this one.
As for my phone, I am not a reference in that matter I upgraded to a zenfone 10 that I intend to keep for 4 years (until no more security updates). the phone cannot get it’s bootloader unlocked but I’m not going to dive into that at this point. A small phone with a decent headphone jack with latest specs and big amount of storage.
I am in Asia and I had a degoogled phone but it’s extremely hard and inconvenient most of the time (even with microg). so anyway just to say I won’t be tinkering with the phone just using open source apps as much as possible.