- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
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SpiderPhone, perfect gadget for SpiderMan.
Reminds me of the “therapy spider AI,” in Questionable Content.
Dual headphone jacks. You “hear” that, Fairphone‽
No, they cannot hear you over their UnFair™ wireless earbuds and greenwashing.
I must have missed that. Could you explain what you mean?
Fairphone removed headphone jack from 5 model and introduced wireless earbuds simultaneously. It may be to make more money, but they firstly price the phone high enough, and secondly it only exists to buy in Europe. They are introducing it to USA. Removing sustainable features like 3.5 jack is a joke on their campaigning.
It was the 4 that removed the jack not 5—despite user complaints about wanting it to return on the next model. But yeah, big L dropping the jack.
My bad, I stopped caring about that company after 4 did that, and only kept up until 3+ model. Forgot if it was 4 or 5. Only thing I know since is their 8 year guarantee for security patches. But taking away a 100+ year standard audio port to sell wireless buds when your phone costs over double for budget midrange specs is bad.
I had an inkling of hope the 5 would bring it back after so many complaints. Instead they launched wireless earbud & doubled down on it. Dead to me too.
They have released wireless earbuds with replaceable batteries recently which is pretty cool.
…and just like that you have now another device whose battery needs to be replaced by a specific company.
By a specific company? You can and are supposed to do it yourself.
And the batteries? Bet you can source them from a company other than Fairphone, right?
I genuinely thought the wired vs wireless earphone debate was over, and wireless won by a landslide.
All the phones I have ever owned have audio jacks, but I use them rarely, and prefer the convenience of putting my phone down to walk around and do tasks, than having it strapped to my side like I’m a tourist on a bad audio guide.
I can’t be the only one who after holding out for so long, now relents that, yes, wireless headphones are convenient for a vast majority of use cases.
Wireless never won. Wireless have nearly zero repairability. Wireless earbud buyers are often too tech illiterate to repair and solder devices themselves, and they will refuse to acknowledge the longevity of wired devices as long as they can keep consuming new mainstream TWS buds every 2 years. Not to mention, crap latency and dogshit audio quality or astronomical prices.
I’ve been wearing the same Sony plugs for 6 years now. Latency and quality is fine over short distances, and over long distances (something wired can’t do…) the LC3 codec does a fantastic job keeping the signal and quality
I feel like you and I inhabit different universes
A tiny wireless DAC that allows to plug in dedicated 3.5/4.4/6.3 audio gear is going to provide far superior audio quality and latency than the readymade mainstream solution. It brings with it repairability, customisability and longevity as well.
Which Sony earbuds of yours are these, that have magically not needed a battery change in 6 years?
Here’s specs: https://liliputing.com/moondrop-miad-01-smartphone-with-hifi-audio-features-launches-globally-for-399/
Seems nice. I just wish it had removable battery, like phones used to, so I could carry a spare around, like I used to with Sony Ericsson W200i.
Also dedicated dual SIM + MicroSD instead of hybrid.Just got an idea, the Galaxy Flip has 2 batteries. Small one, and large one. What if there was a small one built-in, and a larger swappable one. You could then hot-swap the batteries like with some ThinkPads (those with internal + external battery).
Oh look, a “specialty” android device with actual decent specs. Someday something like the Linux phone or fair phone or any of the other “specialty” phones to catch my attention over the years will get it together and do the same lol
Fairphone has a removable battery pack, it’s pretty handy.
But no headphone jack.
Awesome another decent phone outside of the big 3 that yet again doesn’t support TMobile’s bands. Just my luck…
Every phone can have two batteries if you just get a battery pack.
A powerbank is another step in energy conversion and the cables are annoying.
Unfortunately making the battery removable will make the phone considerably thicker and probably easier to break which is not what most of the users want
The Galaxy S5 was the last of the mainline series to have a removable battery, and was thinner than the S9 which came out four years later. It also had a pretty good water resistance rating.
Any “downsides” to a replaceable battery are a myth.
I will say my Fairphone is a good bit thicker than my work Iphone but honestly it’s not a significant downside for me. The weight is a bigger deal but still not worth the trade-off for a phone I can be confident I can repair myself
Well also the internals and the battery itself is more loose so it’s less resistant to high G-forces
I’m assuming you must be referring to modern phones here right? I never needed a case on my phone until we started getting into S8 territory when phones became incredibly flimsy and fragile. My Note 4 was plastic and aluminum and survived tons of drops. Same with the LG V20 I replaced it with. New phones are required to have a bulky case added on, which defeats the purpose of making them thin and using glass construction. Also modern phones are way thicker than the older phones with replaceable batteries even without a case on them.
Eh, thicker than without is true when evaluating against itself.
Iirc, removeable batteries make phones harder to break. If you drop them, the back cover and battery come off, reducing the shock on the display.
Breaking a modern screen by dropping the phone on a flat surface is not that easy. What can break more often is the electrical circuit between the battery and the phone (causing it to force shutdown that can lead to potential software instabilities), the back cover and sometimes the display flat cable thing
This is a neat explanation of the purpose of the other jack, in case anyone was wondering.
Yes, but it’s basically placebo if your headphone cable is of a normal length
I wouldn’t say placebo. It’s definitely doing something. I would say it’s unnecessary in most environments, and probably definitely on a mobile phone. But to lift right out of the article:
You may be wondering if balanced audio is “higher quality” than unbalanced — the answer is no. Balanced cabling doesn’t provide a better quality of sound than unbalanced cables. Audio source and the quality of materials in the actual cable’s construction determine sound quality more than anything. However, balanced audio does a better job of eliminating noise, should it exist in your signal. In a case where extraneous noise is present, balanced audio will be clearer than unbalanced audio.
The practical reason people use balanced jacks is because they push more power which allows you to use headphones with lower sensitivity. I have a few pairs myself that would benefit from this, they have relatively low ohm ratings so the high impedance setting on my V60 doesn’t get triggered when I plug them in and they are very quiet.
Man, this is looking really appealing:
- Headphone jack!
- Great global and US network support
- “Honest” marketing of its cameras (lol!)
- Huge :(
Now the only thing that’s missing is if it’s reasonably easily rootable, so I’ll keep an eye on this phone.
2 headphone jacks is definitely a choice. I wonder if there’s at least one use case for it in 2024 though
It’s aimed strictly at audiophiles. The extra jack is a 4.4mm jack that’s more common in things like DACs.
An example:
https://nobleaudio.com/products/dac-amp-with-4-4mm-pentaconn-output
Pair a phone like this with a pair of Sennheiser’s and a bunch of FLAC files and you might have a really good time.
Oh so the jacks are different? Ok then. I thought the other sizes are dead or only used in niche $100k+ equipment
No I’ve got a $70 usb/bluetooth DAC w 3.5 and 2.5 jacks
but not 4.4mm which is apparently what the specialty jack on this phone is
Second sentence:
It has a 4.4mm headphone jack to go with the more conventional 3.5mm type.
4.4mm is for balanced audio output. This audience for this device is audiophiles.
Well idk anything about audiophile stuff. I know I can’t afford to even look at such tech lol
You’d be surprised. Plenty of great in ear monitors that are sub $100 and use balanced 4.4mm jacks.
What is an in ear monitor? Is it like a medical device?
It’s only a fancy name for speaker/headphones which make them sound more professionally, there’s a chance but no guarantee that they are tuned more neutral in sound
Well dang. I’m getting it. I’ll sacrifice a decent bit of CPU performance for a phone made with some principles and with the moon audio quality.
A bit of excessive, I know, but I would love a 6.35mm jack, too.
Tell me how you have audio tubes and $10K DAC/AMP at home without telling me you have all that.
Hahaha!! I wish! Actually, I have old equipment that only takes the 6.35mm TS (and a couple TRS) connectors, and I don’t like adaptors, as they almost always noticeably reduce audio quality.
Personally I only use smartphones with dual XLR output and optical SPDIF.
Hahaha!! And I thought I was being excessive haha!
Dual usbc when?
ROG phones have this and a headphone jack.
They also fail the jerry rig durability test. They are very bulky too.
Of course it doesn’t support band 71, which is the only 5G band I can get at home.
It is a very unpolished phone with crashing firmware. Some people on r/headphones reported crashing and forcefully needing to factory reset phone. One Hokage Tea Time reviewer even lost all of his SD card data with a bunch of FLACs on it.
It lacks Google services like Huawei, which is a privacy bonus if you are interested in it.
Kinda wild these weren’t really a thing. A lot of these DAP/DACs were already running Android & many folks don’t like carrying a second phone-sized device (my DAP is small on purpose for this… well & my previous phone didn’t haze microSD for extra storage). Was it something to do with complaince for the cell radios?
The big question mark to me would be if they open source those drivers & what not or make any required apps downloadable & sideloadable. I would make something like this my next device if I knew I could flash LineageOS for microG on it & not, you know, lose all the audio stuff that makes it special. A lot of these Chinese brands haven’t even done the bare minimum GPL v2 compliance of releasing their kernels so we would have to see on that front. The ability to control your software is just as important as repairing your hardware.
Yes. All I want from a phone is to be able to run a custom rom and have decent audio chips. I haven’t been able to justify having a dedicated dap because I hate carrying more than is necessary.
This is not so much as an edorsement or recommendation, but you might check out the DAPs by Shanling or Hidiz if you have coin to spare. They use Linux & don’t publish kernel mods, but they do have inexpensive, very small, lightweight options that may fit your needs. I have one & it has a place to have a dedicate device to not chew thru my phone’s battery as well as function as a high-quality USB DAC in scenarios where you don’t have a jack (like my old laptop) or the DAC is horrible (like in my dock for my laptop).
From moondrop?! I have some really cheap iems from them, they’re great
I love the phone despite the large size but can’t get GPS working in apps
That’s … a pretty significant issue.
I would never be able to go anywhere
That would be a bonus for me. I never use it.
Why, you drive a cab for a living so when you get directions you know exactly how to get there from memory?
No, I do not. It is possible to get around without GPS, has been for millennia. I don’t need it, don’t want it, if you do that’s fine.
