I have to agree with Padre, there is still a need for the headphone jack on Android phones as if you are having to use an aux cable and charge the phone at the same time, my car’s radio has an aux in but the car’s bluetooth bypasses the radio and is terrible for playing audio other than calls. I also have the square and paypal card readers that use that 3.5 jack and use them when at trade shows, I just got back from working at one of the largest coin shows in Orlando where I had to use that little device plugged into a phone to take credit card payments. Then for someone like me who is unable to spend the big bucks for $100 dollar bluetooth earbuds, sometimes $30 is a bit too much for me to afford, the distance from my pocket to my ears often causes interference in the bluetooth signal making listening to music unbareable.
Edit: I also forgot to mention the headache that the dongles are as some phones have the DAC built into the USB C port and others don’t so a dongle that will work on one phone won’t always work on another brand.
The disappearance of the HJ has been a sore point with me. I can’t help but it all started with the RIAA. They felt recordings could be too easily made with its use. We all suffer as a result. Truth is Piracy is not slowed down a bit. As Leo has pointed out many times.
I haven’t had a headphone jack on my last 2 phones. I’ve been using a USB-C adapter and Bluetooth.
It has been 100% reliable so far.
I haven’t plugged a phone into the car for over 5 years, our last 3 cars had Bluetooth Audio and my wife’s old 2003 Micra was retrofitted with a 99€ Blaupunkt radio with BT, which worked very well.
I probably use Bluetooth for 99% of my audio these days, I just put the phone in my bag/pocket and forget about it, when I get in the car or go for a walk. The USB-C only hasn’t been a problem, given that the phone generally has a 2 day battery life and charges within an hour.
Edit: I’m not saying that some people don’t need a jack, just giving my experience.
I have to admit when Apple cut the HJ and others started following I was really miffed. Now, I don’t miss it. I plug my phone into my car for Apple Car Play which uses the main port anyway. When I want to listen to music I use the included wired EarPods or if I am traveling I have some Bluetooth noise cancelling Sony headphones (which by the way, are worth every penny if you travel a fair amount).
Between the iPhone 11 getting excellent battery life, and it being plugged into my car twice a day for Car Play, which my car also provides fast charging, I rarely have to charge my phone. So, charging and listening are not a problem.
I’ve never missed the headphone jack, I use the lightning EarPods that come with the iPhones, or my AirPods or AirPods Pro and in the cars I use BT and CarPlay
But Android phones don’t have the benefits of Apple phones where the lightning dongle/headphones will work from model to model. I have a Nuu Mobile G3 that doesn’t have a headphone jack but if I use the dongle that came with it on a Pixel or Essential PH-1 it won’t work because there is no standardization on how each phone manufacturer implements the USB-C port on the phone, so also going out and buying a dongle if we lose ours isn’t guaranteed to work. And as I mentioned in my original post those of us that can’t afford the high end BT headphones or a car with Android Auto/Carplay and like my case where the car’s bluetooth is not part of the radio the headphone jack is still the best option, or like Padre mentioned with using what car is available the aux cable might be the only option.
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the elimination of the analog hole is the secret reason why they’ve been pushing to kill off the analog headphone jack. Just wait for the day to come when your music won’t play on your Bluetooth headphones because they’re not properly secured for DRM.
Right now if my phone is in my pocket my music doen’t play over Bluetooth half the time as it is. It is worse than one of the portable CD players wihtout the anti-skip technology the way it cuts in and out. Bluetooth audio is not ready for the masses that can’t afford the big bucks.
I do have a set of Sony over-ear headphones that are relatively high end, but my sport BT headphones cost around 25€ and are fine for my purposes and I use them 90% of the time. Likewise, I’ve never had a car with Android Auto/Carplay, but my 2013 Citroen C3 had built-in Bluetooth Audio on its standard radio (with a 1 line LCD dot-matrix display), likewise the Nissan Qashqai and Pulsar we have both have Bluetooth Audio in their standard radios, which allows rudimentary control of the audio on the phone (skip 10 seconds forwards/backwards via the steering wheel, play, pause etc. on the head-unit), as well has hands-free telephone facilities, again with control over the steering wheel.
I believe the current models now have Android Auto/Carplay as standard, but my Qashqai is a 2014 model and my wife’s Pulsar is a 2016 model.
But a non-Android Auto/Carplay radio that supports Bluetooth audio (and hands free telephony) costs around 100€, here in Germany and is a standard DIN size that should fit in any “normal” car, replacing the old head-unit.
This is the best case yet I’ve seen for needing a headphone jack. I rarley have the need for one but until Square and PayPal offer USB-C devices, you’re stuck.
That is only if you pay for the reader. Some people don’t do enough business to justify the small cost for the reader and thus stick with the FREE one that uses the headphone jack.
They can’t do USB-C until the phone manufacturers standardize how the port is implemented for audio. Or at least I will guess that is how the paypal and square readers work is using an audio signal since microphone access is required when using their readers.
And again, when one has trouble scraping together $30 for cheap bluetooth headphones that may or may not work, I have gotten a couple of different types that when my phone is in my pocket the signal gets disrupted and makes listening to audio impossible, $100 for a car stereo with Bluetooth is even harder to do. Then if you listened to the episode that sparked this Father Robert mentioned he uses cars available in a car pool and thus wouldn’t be able to install a radio even if he bought one.
I can’t stand Bluetooth. When I got my Pixel 3XL, I tried the dongle that had both the USB-C port and the 3.5mm phone jack so I could use the AUX port on my car stereo. It’s a 2007 Altima and does not have BT. The audio when making calls was terrible. My iPhone 6 w/phone jack worked great. With the Pixel and the dongle, I had to turn the volume way up and people on the other end would hear themselves in the background.
I ended up buying an inexpensive BT device from Amazon to plug into the AUX port on the radio. So far it’s been pretty reliable with podcasts and phone calls but I’m waiting for the day the BT feature dies and I have try to pair the two about six times before it works again.
The BT call quality in my car is terrible too, but is absolutely fine on my BeatsX earphones. I would say it really depends on what profiles and codecs the Bluetooth device supports. I’ve had no problems with Bluetooth and prefer as I kept snagging my corded earphones.
