Title. What is the most ethical smartphone to buy instead of Fairphone that DOES have a 3.5mm headphone jack? By ethical I mean ticking as many boxes as possible: fair trade, environmentally sustainable (ideally using recycled materials), vegan (no animal products), etc etc. I also might get it second hand, but I still want the phone itself to be from an ethical company. Thanks
No hate friend. The USB-C version of headphones is just a better hardware design. The 3.5mm connector mixed with modern headphone wire is just a bad mix. Those two have polar opposite soldering constraints. I didn't want to switch either. I have taken apart and repaired both.
Also after taking apart several old phones, the 3.5mm jack is a major moisture ingress point.
Agreed. Having seen enough teardowns, I think the 3.5 TRS connector has too many problems integrated into a smartphone to be worth it given the modern USB-C dongle replacements. In-line TRS jack on a USB-C cable is way better and it'll sound better too. It's €10 from Fairphone.
What do you use for headphones? Most of the headphones I have still use the 3.5mm connector.
These work well most are the same thing: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=skull+candy+usb-c&ia=images&iax=images
Just be aware that most of the audio behavior is configured in VLC. The gain settings, and equalizer are coming from here. You may need to enable developer mode to access several settings.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look for a brand I like better but is similar. Also I really like headphones with replaceable cables.
Perhaps there is a headphone that comes with a 3.5mm and USB c dual plug thing a ma jig