A couple hours before I was on the edge of getting a Fairphone 5 but I read the specifications and didn’t see 3.5 mm audio jack anywhere. So I thought to myself…why? The community has been requesting this for a couple years ago now so why not. They’re already making money on the phone, they’re really pushing for people to get their wireless headphones? Just add the headphone jack, shouldn’t be too hard.
They said they’re treating their workers fairly, sourcing from ethical sources, renewable claims, repairability claims, and supporting foss projects (they donated a fp4 to CalyxOS to support development). All of these are amazing, so adding a little headphone jack shouldn’t be that hard in the grand scheme of all this.
*Add the headphone jack and I’ll be happy to support and get a fp5.
It’s even wilder that they didn’t learn the lesson after fp4. Did people really just complain and then buy it anyway? How many phones can they sell that they can afford to piss off their customers like this? I just don’t understand how is the smartphone market so borked.
You overestimate the population needing a jack.
I don’t think FairPhone customers are exactly regular consumer population, and there was a strong backlash against removing the jack in fp4 (and introducing ewaste wireless buds). So either the people we buying the phones anyway, or the company has so many customers they don’t give a shit.
Sure enough Fairphone users are not the same consumers as Iphones or Samsung phones, surely a bit more “tech-conservative” in this regard. I was a bit annoyed at the removal of jack in newer phone models but since I switched to Bluetooth headphones I don’t think I’ll use wired anymore. Still a nice to have for many people, indeed.