Hello! I have been trying to find a more modern phone with a headphone jack that functions on Verizon in the US. I’m still rocking the Samsung Note 8 and while it’s been a good phone, it’s REALLY showing its age lately and I’m trying to upgrade.
I really like having cheap, easy headphones that don’t need a charge and that means I need a headphone jack. But every single phone with decent specs I’ve found either doesn’t have a headphone jack or doesn’t work with Verizon.
I was hoping you could point me in the right direction?
Also, I’m sorry if this is “low quality content”, I didn’t see any explicit rules against asking for recommendations, so I thought I’d ask.
The Sony Xperia series have the jack and does work with Verizon. But you need to buy it unlocked from a store like Best buy or Amazon. Since Verizon doesn’t sell it in their stores.
Sony Xperia works fine on Verizon and is even whitelisted for VoLTE.
Gosh dangit you’re right. I checked into Xperia and apparently the singular model I checked doesn’t work on Verizon but many others do. Thank you so much.
The 10 series is not, so the cheapest is the 5 around $1000
I can confirm that the Sony Xperia 1 has a headphone jack and works on Verizon (I’m currently typing this comment on mine).
I did have to go into the store to get it activated unfortunately, as my SIM card from my Galaxy didn’t work.
Headphone jack for life.
Ebay lg v60.
Best phone, cheap, headphone and Microsd, and if you’re lucky you can get one with 2 screens.
My daily driver is a foldz3, but honestly I don’t see it as an upgrade from my old v60, it was the perfect phone.
I don’t think you will find one easily, but you can get a small usb-c to 1/8" headphone audio jack (TRRS or TRS) pretty easily. Otherwise maybe check out the jelly phone… not sure if its out but its tiny and newer but has a headphone jack.
Do you know if that type of dongle is built into any phone cases? I tried searching for a phone case solution and couldn’t find any either.
My primary concern with the dongle is that I’ll have it plugged in and my dog jumps up and yanks my cord and damages the charging port on my phone.
It seems so strange to me that there aren’t a lot of people like me who really like the headphone jack. I assumed solutions would come out after they started to phase them out of phones, but it seems like that’s not happening…
They wouldn’t need a dongle for phone cases, they could easily make room for a headphone jack, but they don’t as a concious decision for a few reasons:
- “people don’t want or use them” as “the market” has “spoken”. In other words, phone manufacturers removed it, the public didn’t revolt, people bought more wireless headphones and other manufacturers followed suit.
- less lint in your phone I guess. A few more extra phone features, or capacity or battery life. USB-C truly is the future. Why add a feature that most people won’t use instead of features they will use?
I mean there are many MANY reasons why we would want to keep the jack:
- we could actually use the FM receiver that phones are capable of and use the headphone jack as an antenna, as was the case when smart phones started hitting the market.
- batteries die and the wireless headphones have batteries. Really kinda silly to have two products that can do what you need with one wire but they no longer can because there are no magic pixies to send over the air from one to the other.
Its maybe a couple years old now but i use an unlocked Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro with Verizon. It has a headphone jack, removable battery, and an SD card expansion slot as well as two SIM slots. Its a durable work phone but for me it works great as a personal phone and doesn’t need a case. Performance is about midrange
Edit: there is an XCover6 pro that is an even more modern version of my phone with all the same features and available as a Verizon phone
Galaxy Note 9 is like $200 on eBay. That phone rocks and has a headphone jack, too. I’d get the Korean model so you can root it and install a custom ROM so you can have an up to date system
My primary concern with the dongle is that I’ll have it plugged in and my dog jumps up and yanks my cord and damages the charging port on my phone.
Do you have experience with these? Do you know if my fear is unfounded?
Don’t get a dongle. They are a pain. Here are some reasons why:
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You cannot charge your phone and listen use the dongle at the same time (Biggest grievance)
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When you need it, you can never find the damn thing because it’s easy to replace.
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If you use public transport or travel, you’ll probably lose it at some point.
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If the dog gets hold of it, you’ll need to buy another one, plus he might choke if he tries to swallow it.
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There aren’t cheap
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If you use several headphones and also maybe have a 3.5mm input in your car, you’ll need a separate dongle for each headphone/car. Trust me, you don’t want to be moving the damn dongle between them.
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You’ll wear out your phones usb port faster
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It’s a compromised experience. Why subject yourself to that when you can get a phone that has a jack?
I’d even switch mobile networks if it means I get a phone with a jack. That’s how important it is to me.
Get a Sony Xperia 5 because I think it will work. Another phone with a jack is Asus ZenFone 10 but check with Asus/Verizon if it works.
You cannot charge your phone and listen use the dongle at the same time (Biggest grievance)
Took me 5 seconds to find:
“usb c jack adapter charging” was the Amazon search term and it’s literally the first result.
Dongles are actually not a compromise, but an upgrade in case you dont get a noname shitty one. You wont get a good builtin DAC for your 3.5mm port unless you buy a pretty expensive phone. Even then the quality is just “good enough” and not increasing linearly with the price.
A dongle does not need to be expensive for casual listening, and is by far the cheapest option for audiophiles as well. Alternatively you can use a bluetooth dac amp. Even more alternatively, you can buy a TWS adapter (forexample Fiio utws series) and an actually good IEM. You can buy both for the money you spare by not spending extra on some Sony and you will have a better audio experience.
I suggest buying Volla/Gigaset (has jack btw) and Fairphone since they are far more serviceable than any other devices. Fairphone will just send you a spare USB-C if you want.
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