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
There’s a glaring detail you’re skipping. Its 2025 and everything has moved to USB DAC’s. They’re significantly higher quality ports than built in low grade bottom of the barrel headphone jack. Switch to a USB DAC and get the fairphone.
Thanks for this info! I wasn’t aware of this technology. However I still am not sure if I really understand it or what you mean, though I might. As far as I can understand, DACs are a converter from digital to analog sound. In the context of 3.5mm headphones and USB C, it would involve plugging the 3.5mm cable of the headphone into the converter, and plugging a cable on the other end of the converter into your USB C port such as on a smartphone. Is that correct?
While I appreciate this option and the advantages it provides, audio quality isn’t my priority (comfort, basic usability, functionality & suitability for my use-cases is), and as far as enabling me to use 3.5mm headphones with USB C ports, I already have more straightforward converters for that (DAC converters I looked at seemed chunky & would add weight, tho could be worthwhile for audio improvement), and while DACs might be better for this, I don’t think they would preclude the inherent trickiness and fraughtness (for me) of needing to use a converter, having those converters break/malfunction (though higher quality ones may last longer, but the connection seemed unstable in all the ones I tried, on multiple USB C phones over the years), and not being able to charge or have the phone plugged in while using headphones.
So I think sadly this doesn’t solve my problem. Thanks tho!