Can’t speak for everyone but here are the reasons I prefer an actual jack:

• 3.5mm headphones are extremely universal and can be used for any audio device. USB-C and Bluetooth headphones cannot

• Bluetooth is extremely inconsistent when paired with multiple devices and often gets disconnected because of competing devices

• I can’t charge my phone and listen to USB c headphones at the same time

• Manufacturers claim the removal of the jack was to improve the water resistance. I have never dropped my phone in water and would be willing to risk it.

• I already have too many wireless things to charge

• I have a small stockpile of broken wireless headphones. Meanwhile my 10 year old wired headphones are collecting dust

• I have never lost something more often than that tiny ass USB to 3.5mm dongle adapter

• I distrust large corporations with incentive to get consumers to buy more stuff from them

…to plug headphones in. How is this a genuine question?

People still use their phones to listen to music and wireless earphones are almost universally garbage, require charging, and produce insane amounts of e-waste. Wired headphones don’t have these issues

For headphones.

Cars with wired input. More reliable than Bluetooth and not annoying when it connects when you don’t want to.

USB-C dongles are notoriously prone to breaking and also are another bunch of silicon and plastic that contributes to e-waste pollution.

though truth be told, most phone 3.5mm outputs suck donkey balls because of massive output impedance and signal to noise ratio on sensitive headphones (of which most portable audio devices are) and companies should be ashamed of putting these hunks of shit in their phones.

To have a convenient cheap set of earbuds that keep working, never need any charging nor can be lost.

You can find those everywhere for like 5€, if you don’t get them for free with certain devices.

I still have a couple laying around that have never been used.

I don’t get battery operated devices for things that don’t stray further than 1 meter from the device they are connected to.

Media playback is always 3 seconds delayed through Bluetooth for me, it’s annoying. Plus I like the wired headset I’ve used for 7 years.

Because they’re stuck in a time warp and still use wired headphones.

Meanwhile I’ve bought a few and they are all trash.

I can’t charge my phone while using them. They cut in and out. I hate them.

Although I agree with you that the headphone jack should be brought back, I dont think it’s fair to say they’re forcing you into their ecosystem.

Apple making apple watches only work with iPhones is forcing you into their ecosystem, but with this phone you can use any Bluetooth headphones.

Well… they do offer a usbC to jack in their online store (but you can buy from whoever you want).

But I guess usbC to usbC would work which would make sense if you’re using your charging cable which is (more or less likely to be) an usbc to usbc cable.

I might be wrong tho, but we have usbC earbuds and headphones (or was it apple’s lightning wired earbuds? I’m not sure)

But nontheless I think minijack would make for a more versitile device and I was a little dissapointed when I learned that Fairphone 4 does not have jack. Well FP5 does not have it either but I don’t care, I can get jack to C adapter cable from my friend if I ever need it

Well, if they actually ensure fair wages for as many people in production as possible, that’s just what a phone of this caliber should cost.

Idk, the word price premium sounds more like an arbitrary and baseless increase to me, which this (hopefully) isn’t.

There’s a lot more that needs to happen, obviously. Because 700 bucks is a lot of money for many people either way, fair or not.

Edit:
OLED. I’m sold. Well, whenever my current phone dies, but then I’m sold.

It is not that Fairphones are expensive.

It is that every other phone is made by slave labour, which makes them inexpensive.

Frankly speaking specs wise seems kinda competitive to me. I certainly would have bought it if i hadnt bought my phone literaly 3 weeks ago. And frankly speaking if they hadnt annouced that headphone jack is not coming back i would have waited for relase instead of buying rog phone on a promo.

I don’t mind big screens but they are hard to use with one hand and in the pocket they are too big.

I didn’t realise it until later on in its life, but the Pixel 5 was the perfect phone size for me. I hear the Pixel 8 is going to be smaller but the rumor is it has a 6.1" display.

Unfortunately I don’t have the time to give a writeup. Its mostly the lack of timely security updates. Or really most updates to the OS. They lag months behind and are of poor quality.

I switched to DivestOS to mitigate this but the installation procedure carries the risk of bricking your phone, in a way other phones don’t.

The most telling example of the poor quality of software security I think is that the OS is signed with publicly available test keys. This means that anyone with access to your phone could install any OS they want and you would not know it.

This is maybe not a high risk scenario for most, unless you give your phone to some dodgy repair shop, but its telling of how little thought went into it I think. Because, signing your OS with the android test keys should really not happen in a production with good QC.