It’s almost the middle of 2018 and we’ve been living with phones without headphone jacks for nearly two years now. And it still sucks as much as ever. But while Apple may have brought the idea to the mainstream, living with an Android phone without a headphone jack is even worse than dealing with it on an iPhone.
While Apple’s decision to remove the headphone jack remains user hostile and stupid, there are accessories available to help the situation. Beyond the basic adapter Apple includes in the box, there are third-party headphones with Lightning connectors and various splitters that let you plug in headphones and a charging cable at the same time. This Belkin model has poor customer reviews, but I own it and it’s worked great in my experience.
Over in the Android world, it’s a completely different story. Android phones without headphone jacks rely on their USB Type-C ports to output audio, which in theory should mean a plethora of cheap adapters and splitters would be available.
Reality is far different from theory, though. Not only is there a complete dearth of USB-C headphones worth buying, there’s not a single adapter that lets you plug in standard 3.5mm headphones and a charging cable at the same time. Just this week, Android Police reported that Google quietly pulled the listing for the one adapter it had in its online store without ever selling it. The product is also unavailable on the manufacturer’s website. According to Android Police, a few units did ship from Amazon, but the reviews were so bad that the product was quickly pulled.
There are a bunch of cheap adapters on Amazon with terrible ratings or weird qualifiers like not working with Google Pixel phones or HTC devices. I ordered one about a month ago from China, which finally arrived this week and it has loud, crackly static that comes over the 3.5mm jack, rendering it completely useless. Sony is the only phone maker I’ve found with the right adapter listed on its website, but I’ve been unable to find that for sale anywhere. There is just nothing like the Belkin model for iPhones that I linked above for phones with USB-C.
This situation makes using an Android phone without a headphone jack a huge pain in the ass in a car; you either have to use Bluetooth to wirelessly connect, which brings its own basket of pain (especially if you share a car with another person), or hope that your battery has enough juice to last wherever you need to go while providing music and navigation on your journey. Forget about running Android Auto on your phone and piping music through your sound system, because your battery will never make it.
The solution to this problem is laughably easy: phone makers have to either put headphone jacks on their phones or make sure that the adapters made for dealing with the situation are actually available for their devices, by either making them themselves or partnering with another company to do it.
Anything less is not just user hostile and stupid, it’s insulting.
Comments
I travel and don’t feel like giving up my wired NC headphones. Hence, I’ll continue to buy phones with a dedicated jack for as long as they are out there. If that means I have to step down from flagship devices to make it happen, so be it. I may be one of the few, but I’ll vote with my money.
By fugaziiv on 05.18.18 2:26pm
I’ve lived in a Bluetooth world with my phones long before Apple dropped the jack so I’ve always been good & it’s only gotten better actually. Better headphones, better Bluetooth standards, better & more reliable connectivity. I haven’t desired or needed a standard jack on my smartphone in years.
By Black Dude on 05.18.18 2:32pm
I’m glad a jackless style works for you. Let me know how that goes on your next 14hr international flight.
By fugaziiv on 05.18.18 2:39pm
I definitely get your point and that there are a lot of reasons people like wired headphones. On this specific use case what I do is when the AirPods 4 hours are up I take that as a cue to get up and use the bathroom (and hopefully avoid blood clots). The 5 minutes that takes get the AirPods another 4 hours of charge.
By jonathanleewilson on 05.18.18 2:45pm
I’m not gonna lie, that’s a good plan! I would be on board except for two details: Airpods aren’t NC, and don’t work with the Switch (which has really become my true long distance travel companion as of late).
Still though, that’s good.
By fugaziiv on 05.18.18 2:48pm
I read you can use BT transmitter to connect wireless headphones to your Switch.
By Mumblefluff on 05.18.18 3:15pm
Noise cancelling.
By fugaziiv on 05.18.18 3:16pm
my noise cancelling bluetooth headphones come with a cable to plug in to devices w/o bluetooth. That helps. Though I really only plug it into my desktop at night.
The Switch is kind of an odd thing to bring into a discussion about phones getting away from jacks. With how not following specifications made it to where third party peripherals were unintentionally bricking Switches over USB-C, I probably wouldn’t want them to adopt Bluetooth (or attempt to) for fear of false positives on "bad" Bluetooth equipment.
By whlr on 05.18.18 3:52pm
I agree. I only brought up it due to my travel comment. I find myself traveling with it more and more and its really a headphone jack only hunk of tech.
By fugaziiv on 05.18.18 3:56pm
I guess my personal anecdote: I still drive a 2007 Civic. It has aux, but no Bluetooth. So I took the lightning-to-headphone-jack adapter and plugged it into the cable I essentially keep permanently in the car. I’d be screwed if I lost the thing now (I’m not a huge fan of radio and especially radio here).
It’s not the worst thing to lose, granted, but it would’ve been better to keep. I can’t remember if they wanted to conserve the space inside for other uses or if it was to improve on waterproofing, no idea.
By whlr on 05.18.18 4:26pm
There are very affordable Bluetooth receivers. I use one for my Switch when traveling.
But in response to "fugaziiv" about that 14 hour flight. I went to South Africa a year ago. Smart battery case on my iPhone & my AirPods. I slept about 6 of those 16 hours and wasn’t always listening to something the entire flight (I do enjoy talking to my girlfriend). My phone & my AirPods lasted me until I reached my hotel. I always keep a portable battery & a second pair of Bluetooth headphones on me tho anyway. Regardless I would’ve been fine. It’s so cool you got all those Rec’s tho!!
By Black Dude on 05.18.18 5:01pm
You’re right, and if I lost the adapter, I may go that route. Hopefully it isn’t like the old CD-to-cassette method where it was over radio frequency and very lossy. I suspect it is just aux/bluetooth though.
By whlr on 05.18.18 5:42pm
I was like you using the aux in my car until I upgraded my phone and had to buy the Bluetooth receiver… It’s just as clear but somehow louder than my old wired jack from my phone. Bought two of the receivers on Amazon for $12 each for both my cars. I also had to buy a pair of Bluetooth headphones.
Really thought I would miss some aspect of the headphone jack but it’s honestly been so seamless that I sometimes feel like I was a caveman waiting too long to get Bluetooth headphones.
By BadKev33 on 05.19.18 1:53am
May bite the bullet then. I’ve considered one of the battery based ones so that I could then plug it into pc. I had a Bluetooth USB thing for pc, less than spectacular results (it would disconnect itself frequently, requiring unplug/plug).
Main concern was remembering the ones that decided to leverage radio frequencies and how subpar they were, sounds like that isn’t the case here which is great.
By whlr on 05.19.18 4:57pm
I think it would just be easier to buy a new adapter for $9.
You are aware that you can buy them and you are not stuck with the one in the box?
By Ve Ke on 05.19.18 3:00am
Would have to replace the headphone cable as well though. The Bluetooth adapters seem to be in the $12-27 range so not terribly priced. I just avoided it due to figuring they were probably subpar on sound.
By whlr on 05.19.18 10:02pm
Same here. I fly to the Philippines quarterly (20-22 air hours to get there) and have never had an issue with my headphones dying. Don’t buy cheapo bluetooth headphones and they have great battery life.
By Tdhawk88 on 05.18.18 5:43pm
That’s the power of the first post!
By fugaziiv on 05.19.18 11:00am
It’s $9 for a new one.
By Ve Ke on 05.19.18 3:01am
Remember the cassette adapters with a jack hanging out of the door? I recently saw a Bluetooth equivalent.
There are also several Bluetooth Rx dongles with a jack on the end, or countless aftermarket head units with Bluetooth, prices starting at the cost of a type c to jack adapter.
By Skalamanga on 05.19.18 5:50am
Can head units be used anymore? Every vehicle I see, and even my 12 year old one, has a molded dash with everything built into it.
It is sad though, because I do see some head units that’d be great.
By whlr on 05.22.18 12:25pm
The Switch actually isn’t that weird for then to bring up. Old headphones were universal because everything had a jack. Forcing Bluetooth or USB-C for certain devices has fragmented an ecosystem that was once whole.
If Apple had just left the jack in, you could use the same headphones with an iPhone and a Switch no problem.
By eepMoody on 05.19.18 7:36am
Games consoles are important due to latency – it’s either specialist wireless headphones or wired. I use the headphone port on my ps4 all the time. More personally, I use video cameras sometimes, and even if they did have bluetooth, pairing has only been solved within manufacturer’s own ecosystem, nobody has made it easy to switch ad-hoc with third party devices.
By escalinci on 05.20.18 8:43am
The only reason why those accessories were bricking the Switch was because they were being used to force the device into "console" mode without being in a dock. This causes it to run at higher clock rates and generate more heat, and without the dock to ensure all the vents are clear, it would overheat and things got ugly.
Nintendo has been clear about the delicate thermal margins for the Switch when in console mode, and that’s why they intentionally obstructed the USB-C port if it’s not actually in your hands. I don’t blame them for people going out of their way to defeat this despite their warnings. The same thing would happen if you put duct tape over your Xbox or PS4’s vents.
By WhiteNiteLite on 05.20.18 10:24am
Sony MDR1000 v2 have 20+ hour battery life and noise cancelling.
By theratchetnclank on 05.18.18 4:46pm