[deep_concern]

The only reason to remove the headphone jack is to sell more dongles and wireless headphones. That's it.

Consumers are not asking for it for the aesthetics. It doesn't make the phone much thinner. It doesn't make the phone easier to manufacture.

[stephengillie]

After finding cheap Bluetooth headsets on Amazon last about as long as a pair of earbuds, and have no cord, I don't see a problem.

I'm very rough on physical devices, and will go through 4-6 pair of earbuds a year. Because these do not physically connect to the device, they take an order of magnitude less wear, and thus last longer.

[mavrc]

Ok, fine.

The oldest pair of headphones that I own that work is older than my usage of the Internet. The oldest pair of headphones I own that I still use regularly I bought for college - and that was a long time ago.

Assuming that everyone treats their equipment as though it's disposable is frustrating to me. Some of us use our gear for a very long time, and in the case of something as mundane as a 3.5" jack, expect to be able to.

[J5892]

I take great care of my headphones, because they're such an important part of my life. I use them 90% of every day.

I have never had a pair of headphones last for more than 2 years. Almost every time it's because the cable gets worn out from rubbing against the inside of my pocket.

[bvy]

A lot of people have nicer headphones with removable cables though.

[J5892]

Yeah, I had a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones like that.

The left speaker stopped working after 6 months of every day normal use.

[monocasa]

The Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile doesn't have a standard for loseless audio, which means that you end up crappilly re-encoding the audio to send it to the headphones. The reference codec (SBC) is particularly crappy. Shipping MP3 or AAC over Bluetooth is not mandatory and may or may not work depending on the sender and receiver.

[sf_rob]

I've never had a pair of Bluetooth headsets that haven't had connection issues with my Pixel. This is especially true of the cheap Sony pair I tried, but also true of the nicer Macaws and Here Ones. Even my car's head unit has a new bug with Oreo where it connects/"plays" but is muted until I reconnect.

[joshuamorton]

Interesting. I've never had bluetooth issues with pixel. My current headphones (Bose QC35, but not the fancy assistant ones) work amazingly, and even my older headphones (ancient LG Tones) worked great. My only complaints with my 5X were occasional stutter, and that was gone with Pixel.

[criddell]

There might be something wrong with your Pixel. I use a fairly inexpensive set of Jabra headphones connected via Bluetooth to an old iPhone 5C that I use as an iPod and it has worked flawlessly for many years now.

[limeblack]

I have the same problem of "going through earbuds." I'm not an engineer but I believe it has has to do with feedback when unplugging and plugging in the headphones. I have both a Nexus and an iPhone and have noticed that the new lightning headphones last longer then the same Apple branded earbuds.

[theseatoms]

What about water-proofing? That's the best reason I've heard.

[deep_concern]

The LG V30 and Galaxy S8 have a headphone jack AND have IP68 waterproofing, versus the Pixel 2's (and iPhone 7/8) IP67.

[theseatoms]

Ah, very nice. Too bad a nice piece of open hardware is going proprietary.

[criddell]

As I understand it, they aren't waterproof when you have headphones plugged in. This is important to know if you like to listen to music or podcasts when you swim.

[mattnewton]

What about it? Samsung solved it.