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.