Hacker News Reader

Comment by Gormo | Hacker News Reader

No standard audio jack?

That's a dealbreaker for me, especially for something touting modularity, repairability, and user control.

It's a ten dollar dongle that can stay attached to your audio cable out of the way when not using it and has no perceptible affect on sound quality, and there's even passthrough options for when you need to charge, so the whole no-audio-jack thing is a moot point nowadays. It's a solved problem for years now.

Using a dongle makes it impossible to charge the phone or connect it to any other device while using audio, which I do all the time. I also frequently interchange my wired earbuds between my phone and laptop, and don't want to be bothered with an extra loose dongle when I disconnect the earbuds.

Sorry, this isn't a solved problem at all, apart from the solution of only buying phones that have audio jacks.

> dongle makes it impossible to charge the phone or connect it to any other device while using audio

I feel like you missed the part where the parent comment said "[...] and there's even passthrough options for when you need to charge".

I have a passthrough dongle so I can charge my iPhone in the car and use an aux audio patch cable, and it's quite a large thing, certainly not unobtrusive but if you're charging maybe that doesn't really matter.

Something like https://www.belkin.com/p/3.5mm-audio-plus-usb-c-charge-adapt...

https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Magnetic-Adapter-Charger-Charg... is pretty compact.

But why would I bother with a dongle to compensate for a problem I can just avoid in the first place by not buying a phone without an audio jack?

I'm not saying they're related, but they also make and sell wireless headphones...

Even worse. Now your headphones cost 10-15x as much, consist of a collection of small standalone parts that are easy to lose, need to be recharged, and can't be easily interchanged between audio sources.

Don't forget "only lasts a couple years before they no longer hold a charge".

Exactly. Hard pass on a phone without a 3.5mm headphone jack.

People who say, “You can use a dongle” or “Just buy Bluetooth earphones” are missing the point. It’s never about what compromises we, as consumers, can make; it’s about users’ choices and preferences.

I’m fine with manufacturers wanting to make more money by selling dongles or Bluetooth earphones, but I’ll never accept them doing so by removing features to force us to buy them.

How many phones have a standard audio jack now?

I figured that had largely vanished for a while now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com