I don’t know much about Moondrop’s line of phones, but I do love that Apple removed the headphone jack, Samsung naturally copied them, and Moondrop comes along and says “you know what? We’ll add two headphone jacks”.
Respect.
(I absolutely still use the 3.5mm jack)
I still don’t quite get why some people are defending manufacturers which remove the headphone jack on their phones…
3.5mm jacks don’t cost much materially. Removing it doesn’t bring any benefit at all, and you are forced to buy a bluetooth headphone or a Type-C-to-3.5mm dongle on top of that.
I don’t think it’s about the cost of the 3.5mm jack itself, it’s about the space it takes up. “Thinner and lighter” as a goal means removing chunky things they don’t think are necessary. Also waterproofing maybe?
I am not so sure about the waterproofability of headphone jacks, but does it benefit to make phones even “thinner and lighter”?
I don’t defend manufacturers that do this or anything, but personally I hate cords and want to go wireless for everything. Of course a headphone jack doesn’t prevent me from doing that, but given the choice of two identical phones except for a 3.5mm jack, I’m choosing the one without.
Why have a hole that I’m never going to use that can trap dust, allow water in, take up a tiny bit of space and make the phone look less appealing (to me)?
I don’t see how the jack can make a phone less appealing? 99% of the time you’ll be looking at the screen, you’re not going to see the headphone jack.
Though, perhaps it’s because of lifestyle differences between countries (I am not American), I simply cannot imagine not using the 3.5mm jack ever. I am still using AUX on my car radio.
3.5mm jacks don’t cost much materially
They take up quite a lot of space (for a phone) that could otherwise be used for a larger battery. I’ll happily take a few hundred mAh of battery life over a headphone jack. I find bluetooth headphones much more comfortable to use anyway. But I understand that some people prefer wired headphones.
But that space usually isn’t. No company would make a battery with a tiny little protrusion where the headphone jack once was. That’d cost a lot more, and make it a lot more fragile.
They’d be more likely to leave it empty, or fit something else in that space, like a third speaker.
It also made it so much easier to choose a new device. Requirements: headphone jack and a removable battery. Results: 1
Even Fairphone made themselves irrelevant to me by dropping the headphone jack. What an absolutely stupid decision to make especially for a device like that.
I’m using USB-C to 3.5" adapters, they cost next to nothing and allow me to use a much wider pool of phones. Some even come with a USB-C passthrough so you can charge it or connect other stuff simultaneously.
I believe in voting with your wallet. Giving money to companies that practice anti-consumer behaviour sends them the signal that you’re okay with what they’re doing. I’m not okay with it so I’m sticking to my principles.
I never bought a device with non-removable battery either and now thanks to EU it seems that I don’t ever need to either.
I also bought an older model MacBook because it had a better keyboard aswell as HDMI port and SD-card reader. Now the newest models have them again because enough people like me refused to buy the inferior models.
Are you aware of the Galaxy Xcover Series of phones? They often offer both.
Oh that’s what they did with the Active series, thank goodness I thought they’d stopped doing them.
Looks interesting, but I’m biased against anything that has Mediatek inside, so it’s gonna be a no from me.
Mediatek devices generally have really bad custom ROM support. Historically their chipsets had a reputation for being less efficient, too.
I’ve always wondered why no one thought of redesigning the jack. Have it just be form-fitted outside contacts, with magnetic adhesion to hold the plug in place. There isn’t any real reason it has to be a socket.
The reason is of course the masses just use Bluetooth, or deal with the dongle, because they absolutely must have an iPhone.
Have it just be form-fitted outside contacts, with magnetic adhesion to hold the plug in place.
I actually really like this idea. If we’re breaking backwards compatibility anyways, let’s do something useful with it. This form factor was invented in the 1950s. I’m sure we can do something better now.
We need to move away from everything having a battery anyways. Wireless headphones were a mistake. Now people are walking around with 4-6 batteries on them at all times. Phone, laptop, earbuds, earbud case, battery backup, smart watch. Batteries aren’t great for the environment, not to mention they typically condemn something to being tech waste in a few short years. We need to significantly rethink this model.
Like Apple’s magsafe? Not unreasonable, but you’d still need an adapter. I think the biggest issue would be having magnets small enough for the rim of the phone, but still strong enough to keep secure while moving around, but also won’t interfere with other magnetic components like the speakers or compass.
That takes time and effort (i.e. money). Or they could just omit all that stuff and tell people to use the Bluetooth radio they’re going to put in the phone anyway.
The jack connector has a really long history, back to the telegraph. The simplicity, the dependability, the interoperability, the lack of it falling out, or needing magnets, or who knows means it will be very tough to replace. And it has evolved too, it used to be a ball end, they have switched sizes, added channels
Actually the DAC in the Apple Dongle (even with how hideous it looks) is quite good (for the price) compared to the DACs powering the minijack ports on mobile phones. Let alone other external DACs.
If you’d care at all about audio quality you’d at least know that right? Instead of trying to shit on a product you don’t even own, maybe learn something about audio?
Edit: the comment quality here has rapidly decreased to Reddit hive mind unga bunga “I hate everything I don’t own and have no experience or knowledge about”-levels.
Most mobile phone mini jacks have horrible DACs running them.
Edit 2: Damn fake noob audiophiles walking around here lol. Show me 1 article where the Apple Dongle performs under its price. Losers.
Edit 3: Ah Android sub, of course it’s gonna be full of hate. I thought this had something to do with audio or tech. My bad, you Google chumps.
I have the Apple dongle. Can’t comment on the audio quality, though. The audio output is way too silent.
