TL;DW
LINDDUN card deck PDF for reference: https://downloads.linddun.org/linddun-go/default/v240118/go.pdf
Which of these smart phones lets me have a headphone jack… ’cause that is how I will choose. I can patch software & be wary about how I use the device, but I can’t just add I/O to the hardware. Until the Pixel brings back the jack, it is dead to me.
None basically. There’s a Sony phone has LineageOS (including +microg variant) support, but it’s not ideal either.
The Apple TypeC-to-3.5mm dongle is cheap and measures better than most phones in terms of audio quality.
If you use mostly the same pair of headphones, you can attach the dongle to them and use them just like before. But it’s annoying if you use many different headphones and have to either move the dongle from one set to another or buy multiple dongles.
I gave up on avoiding phones without a headphone jack.
Dongles create additional & unnecessary points of failure in your setup (sometimes additional stress on the USB jack too which is usually your only I/O port (which is also making you choose charging or power)). Personal devices that play media need this standard jack that has existed for decades—& I refuse to play ball with these OEMs hurting customers.
