[karlgkk]

> I have no idea which phone or timeframe when I could see the rollout of Material 3 Expressive.

Not a problem with a pixel

> More than 10 years later, shopping for an Android phone with the latest OS is a nightmare

Not a problem with a pixel

> They will need to improve on their ecosystem commitments

Not a problem with a pixel

[bigstrat2003]

A headphone jack is unfortunately a problem with a pixel. Otherwise I would still own one. I had a Pixel 1, then a pixel 3a, then Google decided to get rid of a basic feature that every phone should have. So I stopped buying them.

[vvillena]

For everyday use, wireless headphones offer a superior experience simply due to the lack of a cable, and for the cases where an audio output is desired, it should be easy to connect the phone to an audio interface. Is any of this a problem in the Android ecosystem?

[ngangaga]

> For everyday use, wireless headphones offer a superior experience simply due to the lack of a cable

Surely this is offset by a) having to charge it and b) not being able to replace the battery when it dies

Not to mention a cable can be debugged easily; i don't even know which device my bluetooth headphones is connected to let alone why it's not working as expected.

[microtonal]

So? Get the 10 Euro/Dollar Apple USB-C to stereo connector? Works with other phones as well and supposedly has an acceptable DAC. If you really want to charge at the same time and wireless charging is not acceptable, there are also some companies that make small connectors with USB-C power in and stereo out.

The reason the jack is gone is that the vast majority of people use wireless buds or headphones. It's the smartphone equivalent of complaining that MacBooks do not have DVD drives anymore.

(I like the stereo jack, but I have accepted that I'm a small minority.)

[ngangaga]

Nah, I've broken like three of those things and I just resent having another thing to carry around. I've just given up on using wired headphones for the most part with my phone. I just don't know why they thought it was desired to remove in the first place; I've had other waterproof headphones with a jack.

But, I also don't generally expect apple to make consumer-friendly decisions. The headphone jack invokes about 1/100th the rage that using the app store does.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

Also no microSD slot. Decent internal storage, but the ability to expand, swap, and pull from a dead phone shouldn't be underestimated.

[microtonal]

Being able to pull it from a dead phone seems like a huge security issue? Shouldn't storage be encrypted using private material from a secure element? I understand that people here are tech-savvy enough to only store music, etc. on an SD card. But I think a lot of less technically-inclined users would set themselves up for losing private data.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

Depends on your threat model and priorities. Historically the biggest thing I wanted to pull off the SD card was encrypted backups, which were in fact encrypted enough that an attacker getting them wouldn't be a serious problem, but which were rather handy to have. (And yes, I can completely push those off-device, but an SD card is a handy middle ground of local, fast, easy, safe from the things I tend to be worried about (mostly, bricking the device), and big enough that dumping 10s of GB on there is fine.)

[AndrewDucker]

Same here. Would still have a Pixel, but I'm not giving up my choice of headphones.

[ranger_danger]

You don't have to, you can still use headphones with a USB-C adapter.

[ryandrake]

I can’t believe, after so many YEARS, that people are still so hurt about the damn headphone jack. Even given the existence of adapters, some just won’t let it go and are willing to die on such a ridiculous hill. It’s like still being upset about computers not coming with CDROM drives anymore.

[alpaca128]

If so many people are still complaining about it after all this time, perhaps it's not because they're luddites but because many still use it despite you thinking it's obsolete.

And no, it's not comparable with CD drives at all, those are obsolete and gone even from desktops where space is not really a concern. It's more like complaining about the Macbook Pro 2016 not having USB-A ports. And Apple actually put those back, and I don't need to explain why they are incentivized to not do the same for headphones.

[AndrewDucker]

Can I buy headphones without headphone jacks that cost $5, can be transferred between devices near instantly with no registration, and allow me to charge my phone at the same time?

If not, then that is why I'm not shifting off of them.

[O-stevns]

It's not my hill to die on but I will say use wireless in-ear monitors myself to avoid ever having to deal with adapters because... Adapters are terrible, often wonky in one way or another, incredibly inconvenient for anything but having them lie on a desk. It's also something you easily forget to carry around, or you lose or break because of shoddy build quality.

It's a bad alternative to something that wasn't a problem except it took up space and people still talk about it because there's still a need for something better

[wstrange]

It all went to shit when they removed the floppy drive.

[doright]

I've gone through like 3 of those for one of my other devices. They're way too easy to lose and sometimes they outright don't work. It's a product that should not have to exist in 2025.

I use my built-in headphone jack daily and would buy another phone if it went out.

[ranger_danger]

I understand your frustration but I think the reality is that the vast majority of people simply do not use wired headphones, so it doesn't make financial sense for them to keep it.

[alpaca128]

Then why do they keep it in Macbooks if it makes no sense? To repeat excuses in this thread, people could just use an external DAC if they like cables so much.

Comparisons with CD drives I see here are absurd, those drives actually take up a massive amount of space, are obsolete and used by almost no one anymore. Meanwhile headphone jacks are still very widely used. To the people saying "just use an adapter" I would suggest trying your own advice every day for a month, you'll see why it's not comparable.

And saying the vast majority of people don't use wired headphones when wired headphones are actively made inconvenient and incompatible is not a very convincing argument.

The removal was simply unnecessary, comes with no noticeable upside in return and is suspiciously convenient for those companies considering they also sell wireless headphones as the solution.

If so many people are still complaining about it, perhaps it's not because they're dumb but because there is still a real need for it.

[jsheard]

The problem with a Pixel is the hardware is always a step or two behind what other vendors are doing at the same price point, and they tend to be weirdly buggy for a first-party device. For example the bug where Pixel phones are randomly unable to call emergency services has been happening for years and keeps regressing again and again.

2021 https://www.vice.com/en/article/google-pixel-bug-prevented-u...

2022 https://old.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/y039zn/i_compi...

2023 https://www.androidauthority.com/psa-google-pixel-911-emerge...

2024 https://old.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/1ano09x/pixel_...

[chris_pie]

I've been using Pixel 8 for nearly a year now and I agree that it's surprisingly buggy. Also, the chip is excessively power-hungry, especially for the performance it offers. In addition: the modem is bad and very power-hungry as well. And the cherry on top for me was the subpar fingerprint scanner. Can't recommend.

[microtonal]

Agree with Pixel < 9. Pixel 9 has an ultrasonic fingerprint reader. The modem is also upgraded to an Exynos 5400, which is much better. Even Pixel fans were complaining about the modems in Pixels, but pretty much everyone is positive about the modem in the Pixel 9.

Beware though that the Pixel 9a still uses the old modem and an optical fingerprint reader.

Until the 9a prices drop it probably doesn't make sense to get a 9a anyway, since the 9 is barely more expensive on a discount.

[karlgkk]

Not a problem with an iphone

[mrcsharp]

The walled garden is a problem with an iPhone. The OS treating me like a toddler is another.