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Almost pulled the trigger on a Skyline, but then read about the bootloader not being unlockable, and hmd “promising” to make it unlockable at a later time. That’s bullshit right there - if you offer only 2 years of software support you better make the bootloader unlockable, otherwise it’s e-waste.
I recall ASUS doing something similar with the Zenfone 10 and then never following through.
Me crying on my Zenfone 10 right now. Shame because it’s a brilliant phone.
I suspect bad faith any time a company doesn’t do it the Pixel way (dev settings and fastboot unlock).
Nothing is built to last. Not in the customer class of products in the capitalist world. Basically, if you can buy it retail, it’s made to sell. Not to last. Planned obsolescence included at no extra cost.
This is the main reason they got rid of the headphone jack. Some headphones lasted forever.
Now you have Bluetooth earbuds with tiny batteries that goes in a case with another small battery. Batteries that small will last 5 years tops. On top of that sound quality hasn’t improved and latency got worse.
This is true, but for whatever reason people always overlook the fact that you can still use your wired headphones with a USB-C adapter on most modern smartphones (I believe Samsung devices need one with a DAC). And that, depending on the quality of the phone’s DAC, the wired headphones may actually sound better through a USB-C DAC than they do through the headphone jack. You can even charge your phone and listen through wired headphones at the same time using the USB-C port. Wired headphones are only incompatible with modern smartphones if you choose for that to be the case - there are plenty of ways to solve this problem without clinging to an older phone (though there is nothing wrong with that solution either).
for whatever reason people always overlook the fact that you can still use your wired headphones with a USB-C adapter
Literally no one has overlooked that. We rejected that for the same reason we rejected Apple’s USBC-only laptops; we’re not interested in the dongle life.
Don’t need a dongle life, necessarily. I have a decent pair of cans with removable cable, so I just got a cable that terminates in a lightning connector. And through magnetic wireless charging I can even charge while listening to music.
Sure, that’s not optimal, not the solution for everyone and no reason for phone manufacturers to not include headphone jacks but it does work and without dongles at that.
Oh good, so you went out and bought a completely new set of headphones that are already obsolete because the connector no longer exists? Well that sounds way better!
As I already said, the cable is removable. If I want to use them with a usb-c device, I can exchange the cable for one with a usb-c plug and if I want to use them with a standard headphone jack, I can get one with that. It’s a bog standard pair of cans with removable cable. I can even get cables with in line microphones or short cables or extra long cables or with entirely different connectors. It’s just a 5€ cable. Also, when I bought the cable, the connector wasn’t yet obsolete. Lightning has been around for quite a while.
And sure, it’s not as good as just having a headphone jack, but as I don’t have one on my phone, that’s the next best thing, if I want a wired connection.
That sounds even worse than a dongle…
Yes that is true but speaking on clinging on to an older phone, a headphone jack had a superior physical hold. My phone got saved a few times because my phone was connected to my wired headphones.
These dongles that came with phones were also usually very thin. It also sticks out and made of plastic. It just adds another weak point. They somehow added a weak point to a great piece of technology… On top of that phones no longer comes with the dongles.
Also dongles aren’t sexy. It looks like a hack to make something work. Phone companies made headphones unsexy while making wireless earbuds really sexy.
Some people said that a headphone jack made dustproofing and waterproofing more difficult. Maybe but it had be done before. They also said it brings down the price of the phone to get rid of them. Weird considering the Google A series and Samsung mid range phones had it but their flagship phones didn’t.
You made a lot of great points. Thank you for those.
I actually have bluetooth earbuds either came bundled, or I was gifted them. They have come a long way. Easier to connect. Better latency and better sound quality compared to the older version of bluetooth.
I like them, I am not a complete hater but I really am annoyed that this stuff will just turn to ewaste while my headphones have lasted me decades.
I’m just an old head yelling at the clouds.
These dongles that came with phones were also usually very thin. It also sticks out and made of plastic.
I agree that many of the ones that used to come bundled with phones (they don’t even do that now) weren’t great, though you can buy some pretty good third party ones now with sturdy ends and better quality, flexible cabling in-between. They don’t have to be expensive either - I bought mine (CX-Pro CX31993) for AU$10 and it is durable and sounds good.
But yeah, I share your frustrations overall. It was an unnecessary removal of a useful feature to increase profits on already expensive devices. It’s the same with the removal of the SD card slot to sell internal/cloud storage, though thankfully that has remained on many of the less expensive phones. I am definitely not trying to defend the manufacturers here, only point out that there are solutions for those like myself who want to continue using their wired headphones with newer phones.
I am definitely not trying to defend the manufacturers here, only point out that there are solutions for those like myself who want to continue using their wired headphones with newer phones.
Understood.
I agree with you with the SD card too. That one probably annoys me more. It made everything so much more difficult. Transferring files, backups, swapping out music, seeing pictures from a camera or drone… Made the device less like a computer in everyway.
Yeah if I could only get one of them back I’d pick the SD card too.
The only reason I ever wired my headphones to my phone was rhythm games and now with USB-C this adds latency making the whole thing pointless.
Nothing is built to last? No. One little Company still holds out against this concept.
Btw, their 5th phone has an industrial Snapdragon so they can deliver software updates for a couple years longer.
I’ve been using the FP3 since it came out, and no complaints yet. However, they recently discontinued a lot of the spare parts. Which goes directly against the concept of having a long lasting repairable phone.
I like the fairphone idea, I really do, and I realize that maintaining the fairphone ecosystem is expensive… But! 550€ on sale for a 128GB storage and 6GB RAM phone? GTFO. Update promises are great, but a small company promising 7 years? I hope that the fairphone company survives that long, and even longer, but I wouldn’t be basing my phone purchase on that promise.
For my usage I can get comparable phones for the same cost per day, but with less of an initial investment, and without the risk of time.
This phone looks like a bad bargain because all the other ones use what amounts to slavery for their production. I would say this is the actual approximation of a fair market price and all the other manufacturers are cheating.
You don’t buy a Fairphone because of specs, you do because you care about workers conditions and the environment. Also, FPs support third party OSes that provide updates for years
Also while they’re repairable and they have that going for them, Google also promises 7 years of updates, so they’re not even unique on that selling point.
their phones don’t have specs that work today, letalone 5 years from now.
I mean I’ve been using an FP5 for the best of a year now and it’s fine? performance wise I have no complaints but I don’t game on my phone or use most social media apps which all look very bloated now days.
I think this applies to recent products, we have quite a few 10+ yo devices which still function as they did when new. PCs, half-smart 1080p TVs, first and second gen iPads (one iPad 2 has %98 battery life after 500 cycles) etc.
HMD also doesn’t provide any mechanism for unlocking the bootloader
This is the part that’s inexcusable.
Honestly, Pixels are probably the best bet for a long living phone. They’re popular enough to have parts available for years to come, and seven years of software updates is pretty much unmatched by anyone but Apple.
And Samsung
The issue isn’t the software has limited support, the issue is the software doesn’t get open sourced when support ends.
There’s some good point’s here, even the articles author seems to have doubt’s as to the validity of such devices where updates are concerned.
Putting all those aside for a moment, to me the silver lining is the ability to easily swap out a failing battery or charging port, especially if your a ham-fisted user who regularly rams the connection in. I’ve had no end of these fail over the years and more often than not, simply disposed of the device.
The other thing I miss from back in the day was the ability to disconnect the battery when a device gets frozen, it’s not resolving the underling issue but a great way to get things up and running again.
This is not really directly comparable to those older designs (or the Fairphone). It’s more of a middle-ground - you still need to undo multiple screws and use a prying tool to gain access to the battery, so it’s not something you can do anywhere or in a handful of seconds like you could with older models. You don’t get particularly great dust or water proofing for these inconveniences either (reminder that the Galaxy S5, which is over 10 years older than these phones, had an IP67 rating with a back cover and battery that could be removed in seconds with your hands).
