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?
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.
I 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.