It'll be an expensive lesson in particular for lower end brands that don't have margins like Apples to cushion them.
1. I only use high quality headphones that have a rubber membrane, as much because of the sound quality (insulating me from the outside world) and out of respect for my co-workers and fellow passengers (other headphones are super leaky). I haven't seen the major manufacturers making a blutooth version of their in-ear models.
2. Interoperability: I currently have one headphone I can forget in my pocket and it works on all my devices: desktop computer, home laptop, ipad, iphone. I don't want to have to carry multiple models and dongles.
3. I already have to deal with too many batteries, I don't want more batteries in my life, rather less.
4. The last time I tried blutooth audio (a few years ago) the quality was terrible and there was a significant delay (was a bose noise cancelling headset). Things may have improved but in any case I have never seen wireless technologies that aren't unstable in some ways
5. Blutooth headphones is not solving any problem for me. Why should I switch? Why should I have to deal with more hassle? What's the benefit to me? Feels like a user hostile move to sell more hardware, which annoys me and pushes me instinctively to resist it.
Previously a search for the right headphones was the intersection of few concerns:
* Price
* Sound quality
* Comfort
It was hard enough finding the right intersection of the 3 that fit me. Now I have to also balance the decision with:
* Battery life
* Ease of use (for HEADPHONES!)
* Rechargeability
* Connection quality
Headphones are such a simple idea. For some people the complexities of bluetooth headphones are worth the cost, but I don't want my cell phone to force me to accept that trade off.
I always suspected it was to push headphone tech further to a long term better experience - it has been a ripe target for the trend of eliminating the pains of wires. This trend has already dominated video games controllers, and is quite present with computers as well. Headphones are a logical target long overdue for improvement - the hassle of wires, and even a physical hazard in some edge cases (I have my own tale) should in an ideal situation be something eliminated.
I think the theory that it was done so Apple could sell more bluetooth headphones is not how the company thinks - headphone accessory sales are a drop in the bucket financially. I think the decision to remove the port was made beforehand, and the company then invested in creating more bluetooth headphones as a response to that decision, not to drive it.
Of course, I could be wrong, but the emotional conclusion that I’ve seen in multiple places doesn’t seem to have a compelling explanation as to why the headphone jack was removed. The company prioritizes UX in general and acts in response to the implications of the UX, not chase money and think of the UX second.
But the headphone jack didn't have a clearly superior successor, and from what I hear, still doesn't. The overall UX (and sound quality) of Bluetooth is worse, not better; it's tough to beat the utter simplicity of plugging in a headphone jack.
The only thing gained is no wires (and maybe some easier water-proofing, not sure). This is such a sideways move, it always struck me as a sign that Apple couldn't maintain Jobs's vision without him.
But my point is, it's not a clearly superior change that everyone agrees is the future.
Right now bluetooth is not an obvious improvement over wired headphones. You have lower audio quality and significant latency unless you spend a significant amount of money, time and have the right technical knowledge to even be able to choose a proper headphone.
These problems don't even exist for wired headphones. Even if you buy the crappiest wired headphone off alibaba you won't find headphones with 500ms latency like your average bluetooth headphone has.
Do you really think the average users know what an "aptX" is and that there are several versions of those of which only the "aptX low latency" version is worth using?
Then on top of that your bluetooth adapter needs to support that same version of aptX too.
Apple may compensate for the delay by delaying video too but for that's merely a hack. It just shows that bluetooth adds more problems that need to be worked around.
It's not an incremental improvement over wired heaphones, it's merely a tradeoff and for me the tradeoff is not worth it.
To make more money per handset sale by selling wireless headphones.
I'm very flexible about audio quality but still, the sound of even mid range BT headsets is really poor - I didn't ever realize until I had used a BT headset for a while, and then broke it (...) and used a cheap pair of earplugs for a while, and it was just so much better.
If I can find BT earplugs that can match the quality, has at least a couple of weeks worth of battery so I don't run out because I've forgotten to charge on a regular basis, and that are substantially more solid, I'd love to not have the hassle of a cable.
The "problem" is that I can pick up a pair of really cheap earplugs and know they'll work reliably and give me good enough quality and just work at any time. I can't the same for BT headsets.
With such investments, I'd expect to not keep losing the connection between the phone and the headphones - but I do. They drop out frequently on my way to work, where my trusty Shure SE315s never do.
Also, Google seem to have done something terrible to their bluetooth stack since the upgrade to Oreo. My phone frequently soft resets whilst hooked up to Bluetooth (either my headphones, or my car - doesn't matter which). Again, not a problem when using the headphone jack.
It's a weak defence, because multiple people had issues with bluetooth on the Pixel 2.
Not once in two months have I remembered it when I go out. I hate hate hate hate hate how much this phone cost and how vastly more inconvenient is compared to my last phone. I cannot wait for the return of the headphone jack on phones if true!
Edit: how long does it take to switch your Bluetooth headphones from a computer to a phone? If it is more than 1 second, it's a stupid waste of time as well. I'm not putting up with that decline in usability especially if am expected to spend money on it and throw into the landfill my perfectly good headphones. No thanks.
1. Keep the adapter on the headphones cord
2. Get headphones for USB-C (or whatever the Pixel uses)
3. Get Bluetooth headphones
I mean, I understand that you feel like you shouldn’t have to do those things, and you won’t buy one of these again, but it sounds like this is ruining your life. Why not just fix the problem?
2. I have perfectly good headphones and am not buying more. Period.
3. Why would I spend more money on this for a product I hate? No way am I buying new headphones that I will hate. Bad idea for my sanity.
I will fix the problem by never dealing with a crap phone like this. Next phone will definitely have a headphone jack.
https://www.taotronics.com/taotronics-tt-ba08-bluetooth-4.1-...
Also that page is a 404.
What are you going to plug it into if your phone has no headphone socket?
This thread is -specifically- about when you -can't- plug your existing headphones into your phone.
> I hate hate hate hate hate how much this phone cost and how vastly more inconvenient is compared to my last phone.
This, right here, says it all.
I mean, at home I've got Chromecast Audio or Bluetooth speakers. At work or my desk at home I don't listen from my phone. And on the go I really hate cables, I always fear that I'm going to damage the port when walking with the phone in a pocket and positioning the cable is awkward with a warm jacket in winter.
Is my use case really so atypical?
If you really care about sound quality you weren't using the headphone jack on a phone (and its not so great DAC) anyway.
Complaining about the sound quality of earbuds is only "silly" if the iphone DAC is so bad that one wouldn't tell the difference between a good and bad earphone, which is clearly not the case.
Vendor side 'content partnership' forces yes..
this is DRM and 'closing the analog hole' pure and simple..