[Vinnl]

Looks like durability is exactly the reason, though not necessarily of the headphones, but of the phone itself:

> A notable downside compared to previous Fairphones is that the Fairphone 4 no longer includes a 3.5mm headphone jack, a choice that feels at odds with the company’s otherwise customer-first approach. Fairphone tells me it made this decision in order to be able to offer an official IP rating for dust and water resistance, which was missing from the company’s previous phones. It’s only IP54, which means it’s protected from light splashes rather than full submersion, but that’s impressive in light of its removable rear cover and modular design.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/30/22700014/fairphone-4-rele...

[BenjiWiebe]

Interesting because my Samsung Galaxy S5 has a rating of IP67, and it has a 3.5mm jack.

[Vinnl]

I think that's why the quote ends with

> that’s impressive in light of its removable rear cover and modular design.

[meragrin_]

Fairphone says it had to nix the jack to get IP54. If another phone can include the jack and get a much better rating, it goes to show that Fairphone is not telling the whole story. The 3.5mm jack was nixed for reasons other than IP rating.

[Vinnl]

I feel like I'm just restating my parent comment, but Fairphone has the rating while being user-repairable. Not being glued shut is what makes it more challenging to get that rating, as I understand it.

(In the live stream they also mentioned that a headphone jack would make the phone bigger still. And also that they had a lot of back-and-forth on it - I don't know why you would attribute this to malice rather than a balancing of constraints.)

[meragrin_]

> I feel like I'm just restating my parent comment

Because you are not listening that it is only about the 3.5mm jack. If they can do a USB-C port, they can do a 3.5mm jack. A USB-C is quite a bit more difficult to deal with than a 3.5mm jack.

> but Fairphone has the rating while being user-repairable. Not being glued shut is what makes it more challenging to get that rating, as I understand it.

What does that have to do with dropping the 3.5mm jack? There are other holes which present the same problem as the 3.5mm jack.

> (In the live stream they also mentioned that a headphone jack would make the phone bigger still.

Making the phone bigger would give them space to add seals to keep stuff out. See, nothing to do with the IP rating.

> I don't know why you would attribute this to malice rather than a balancing of constraints.)

Attributing it to "reasons other than IP rating" is not attributing it to malice. It was pretty clear it was more about making it thinner like every other phone and not IP rating.

[Vinnl]

It was "not telling the whole story" that sounded like attributing it to malice, but if you meant that part of the reason was making the phone smaller than I agree.

I imagine (but know little to nothing about these ratings) that the more holes and crevices there are, the harder it is to be water and dust resistant. Modularity and the USB port add these, the jack might have pushed it over the limit, and when forced to choose between those three, the jack seems to me to be the sensible one to sacrifice. Still a shame, of course.

[ch4s3]

Can you easily disassemble the Samsung Galaxy S5?

[capitainenemo]

I have a Samsung XCover Pro - it has a removable back, physical buttons, an impressive replaceable battery, a headphone jack... and an IP68 rating.

It's probably not as repairable as the the fairphone, but clearly it's possible to be waterproof with a removable back/battery and a jack.

[ch4s3]

I'd imagine a little glue helps ;)

[nikau]

It was very easy to take apart as it just used same size Philips screws.

Replacing cracked glass was hard as you had to soften glue and required a uv curing glue to attach the replacement, but would assume the fairphone treats the digitizer screen and front glass as a single replacement assembly also.

[HelixEndeavor]

So a headphone jack is an ingress point, but the charging jack isn't?

[Godel_unicode]

It's not that they can't seal an ingress point so much as that every one they do adds cost and complexity.

[HelixEndeavor]

The phone is already wildly overpriced as is for its specs. By default your market is already restricted to niche enthusiasts. Sacrifices like this make zero sense once you're already at this stage.

"The most fair-trade and repairable phone you can't plug headphones into" isn't the nicest selling point.

[ClumsyPilot]

Had this problem woth headphones, but not earbuds.

I now only buy headphones with replaceable cables to avoid this problem