In the before times, in the long long ago.

I'm only willing to buy a phone that has the jack, it reduces the selection, but I'm not willing to compromise on that. And someone gifted me some airpods recently (pro 2). Tried them out and they were ok I guess, but they also had too many downsides, so they sit on a shelf now. It's not a good enough alternative for me.

There are USB-C headphones.

All the stories of people complaining about wire troubles as apologists for cell phone manufacturers read like scenes from an infomercial.

I'd gladly take a phone without a camera before I took one without a headphone jack.

I was so pissed when Apple took the 3.5mm jack because I knew the rest would follow, and they did.

OTOH, now that I've gone to the dark side, I listen to music more often and enjoy it more thoroughly because I'm not dealing with tangled cables or having them accidentally yanked out of my ears, and therefore I'm more likely to have my earbuds with me. (they are now always in a pocket in my backpack) I can even fairly comfortably go to sleep with them on, which I do often.

I understand the audiophile arguments, and I'm sure that even with Buds2 Pro, SSC, and some fairly painstaking attention to EQ/DSP settings I'm leaving something on the table. I don't care about whatever that something is. I haven't enjoyed music this much and this often since I was prepubescent.

I have nothing bad to say about anyone else's choices, but the rush to shit on bluetooth earbuds gets a little "I don't even own a TV" sometimes. (for folks old enough to remember that kinda snobby trope around Y2K or so)

I still only buy phones with a 3.5mm socket.

Planned obsolescence at play here 😢 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

The luxuries that come from anything with a battery are great, but everything running a lithium-ion battery has its days numbered, and that's really unfortunate for the consumer and absolutely stellar for the business.

While the major issue with wireless earbuds is that they could easily be lost, I'd prefer that over the old wired earphones which gets tangled up or yanked accidentally. If you also buy good quality wireless earphones, you would never lose sound on either left or right earpiece, unlike with the wired ones which often happens no matter the quality. But I still keep my wired earphones as a backups in case I lose my more precious wireless earphones or breaks.

We used to have transportation that didn't need gas because horse, and didn't need expensive roads because horse, and never needed an oil change becuase horse, and they cost less because horse.

Oh my god how I hated those headphones with cable. I destroyed at least 3 phones because of them. I would have them in and walk and would want to do something on the phone and suddenly I'd get caught on the cable while moving and the cable would jerk the phone out of my hand and it would land on the asphalt and the screen would break. And fixing the screen is so expensive, it's better to buy a new phone, or just live with a broken screen where you cut your fingers on.

Since I switched to Bluetooth headphones this literary never happened again. And every single one of the problems described here has a fairly good solution, at least with the Samsung ones I have:

• I need to charge them perhaps once every two weeks, so I really don't remember when they would have been without charge at a inconvenient time.

• I can find them by several means:

  • They're connected to the find my device samsung network, so even if they are not close they will be picked up by other Samsung devices. I forgot them at a hotel 500km away, searched for them and found them
  • I can play a sound
  • The Bluetooth can show me to which direction to go and how far away they are

• They never lost Bluetooth connection, I can even connect them to two devices at the same time

The only point would be the cost, they do cost a lot more. But compared to buying a new phone constantly because the cable hangs somewhere and jerks the phone out of your hand, even this is undeniably cheaper.

I really can't stand people that make this argument, I felt the same way at first, but then I actually started using Bluetooth headphones and they are frankly just better, in almost every way.

And if you really want wired headphones still, you can just buy an inline adapter for like £2.

Yeah but have you ever gotten the cord caught on something and had the earbuds ripped from your ears? Instant rage.