To be honest i'd prefer it to be there at all considering the current trend of removing it.
But to answer your question, jack on top, so when the phone is plugged in the wall you can stay on the other side since the headphone cable wont be bent
I still miss it so much. I'd take bottom or top, just to have that hole back. I have some amazing headphones, but they're like 20+ years old and now gathering dust.
I brought my favourite set of noise cancelling headphones with me after switching phones before I realized I had no devices to plug it into anymore.
I'm using the Pixel 5a. Solid phone, low price, unlocked so it can move networks, virtual SIM ready, 5G capable, and it has a headphone jack. Mine is a few years old and still cruising along just fine. I think they were under $500 at launch, so don't believe anybody's bullshit about headphone jacks drastically raising costs.
Pixel 5a was great, but the units that are a couple years old are having major issues with the charging circuitry / motherboard. My phone bricked overnight while charging. It seems widespread enough right now that they've completely run out of refurbished stock of 5as and 6as to send out for replacements. I waited 6 weeks for an RMA with absolutely no updates -- was about to just give up, buy a new phone, and take Google to small claims court. Finally got a replacement unit because the "social media team made an exception for me" after I tweeted them.
If you are of the pants with pockets wearing disposition, then whichever side of the phone faces down will inevitably end up filled with dust and lint. Having both ports on the same side makes this a trivial problem.
Water ingress isn’t the issue & there’s been waterproofed ports for decades. They wanted to make devices thinner—but what value is it when its too thin to support a jack & made of materials that now require a case?
Which is only likely to last one year anyways. After which, you can pay an exorbitant amount to replace the degrading glue. I'd just like my wired headphones back, the jack will last longer than a year at the very least.
People are going to try to make up reasons, all of them are an excuse to cover up the real reason which is copying apple and forcing people into Bluetooth to sell more expensive tech junk to people. The original and really only reason.
I prefer the USB port to be on the bottom, but very few phones (at least in the smartphone era) even tried to move the USB port. Headphone jacks were frequently on top. I like the USB port on the bottom in the center so it can sit on a stand with a cutout in the center (which are pretty common).
I prefer the headphone jack is on the bottom, next to the charging port. That way, I can put the ports down while my phone is in my pocket if i'm working, so nothing gets into the ports. Then, if I'm just keeping my phone in my pocket normally, with the ports up, my headphones can plug in without problems.
This is actually genius, because then, while you're at it, you could add different ports too, like RCA ports, a bit-perfect Toslink, etc. I desperately want this phone now! I don't care if it weighs a few extra kilograms, I NEED TOSLINK!
I just want the phone to rotate correctly whichever way I choose is up. I want to be able to read ebooks and charge my phone without holding it up. /End rant
Custom ROMs have the ability to support multi-directional rotate. Sure, you can download related apps from the PlayStore, but I don't like how shoddy that approach is.
Bottom. If I pull my phone out with the bottom facing up it's a very easy transition to hold it up and use it. At the top I've got to flip the phone around when I take it out, and that's an unforgivable sin of design. Only exaggerating a little
Bottom. Phones go in pockets top down so you don't have to readjust your grip. If it's on top, now whatever's plugged in is holding up the phone. The only real benefit for a top port is the ability to have stereo bottom speakers without space constraint worries.
I don't know what kind of shit you guys buy, but I have used one single pair of Bluetooth tws earbuds since pre-covid and never looked back to wired which, at least in my experience, are the ones more prone to breaking
Edit: and it's not like I got Apple airpods or anything, they are haylou gt1 that I paid like 25$ for in 2019 or 18
Edit2: and yes I do have a micro jack in my phone which I have not used once for the three years I have had this phone
It's kind of comical how many Bluetooth earbuds I've been through because they break and die so often. I was a very early adopter around 2017 or so and my first pair sucked (and broke). Next I got air pods which were great for sometime but broke too (case stopped charging). Got Samsung level U, they sounded decent but they had the lousiest, wet newspaper, build quality I've ever seen. Constantly cracking and separating at the seams. By the time I was done with them, there was probably more superglue than plastic.
I had some sound peats QY8 earbuds. They were uncomfortable and had poor design. The earbud protruded far from the body and was also very flimsy. Accidentally pressed them against a flat surface and the body basically disintegrated.
I also had a pair of Logitech artemis headphones, but those failed to connect after a year or so.
Oh, and ALL of them had poor battery life, later in their use. Within a year or 2 the battery life seems to be cut in half if not more.
Since then I have switched to Sennheiser hd600, DUNU TITAN S and Koss ksc75. Both of the former have replaceable cables and latter can easily be repaired if you can solder. Even then you can probably bring it to a shop and they can repair it quickly and cheaply.
I switched to wired IEMs exclusively & won’t be going back. The price-performance is totally there & they never need a damn data-collecting, third-party app for firmare updates or some garbage.
Unless you are buying a DSP cable, there aren’t microchips or batteries or firmware updates for analog earphones. Kinds with even slight quality to them have detachable, replaceable cables (current IEMs are fine on their second cable) & headsets usually have simple parts a basic soldering iron or similar can fix (my old ones I got repaired in 3 countries in tiny shops by folks that’d never seen them). You gonna repair your earbuds when they break? Last shop I went to, the first question asked if they were wireless & only after confirming they aren’t do they even bother trying to help. You think analog needs worry about a new version of Bluetooth or some security vulnerability in the firmwares communicating to your smarter phone (& also used to fingerprint your physical presence)? I can plug mine in to a port built in ’70s & get a analog signal out.
I couldn't possibly tell you how many sets of wired headphones I've had to throw out in my life because of frayed/broken cables. Those things are e-waste too.
You are buying shitty headphones if you cant detach or otherwise repair the cables. The cables are just copper & some casing which is hardly e-waste & the rest is a magnet housed in plastic/resin. There isn’t lithium production for a battery or other rare minerals for a microchip.
Phones need to align speaker to ear and microphone to mouth, so in that sense, there necessarily needs to be a top and bottom. I guess you can reframe the question as whether you like the jack on the microphone side or the speaker side.
I have been happily cordless for years but preferred the bottom as putting the phone top down in my pocket makes for one quick motion to view the phone and put it back without rotating it.
All phones I've had, had the jack on the bottom where it's in the way of me holding the phone or placing the phone on something. I always wondered why it's not just at the top.
BTW just got a new phone (Oneplus) and I'm glad to have found one that has a jack at all
The charger port is also on the bottom, and if you have the phone plugged in and also feeding audio through an audio cable, you'd presumably want the wires to go the same way.
Usually people put their phones into their pockets upside down, since it will be the right way up when you pull it back out without having to reorient it in your hand. In older, more innocent days when we all listened to music with wired headphones, the port would be facing out of your pocket, so you could keep it wired in without fumbling to flip the phone the other way around when you take it back out to use it.
I like having it on top for being able to set my phone up against something still, but if it’s in my pocket I want the top of my phone down so I take it out it’s right, which means the bottom Jack works better. So ideally I’d want both
Ever since I've gotten some decent noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones, I don't really care where the headphone jack is or even if there is one. It happened way too many times that the cable got snagged on something and yanked the buds out of my ears, and I'm well past the age where I had the cable under my shirt and the earbuds dangling in front of me all the time. Especially when running or otherwise exercising, I don't miss the cable one tiny bit.
bottom, so I can charge it and have headphones plugged in at the same time while it's in my pocket.
I had the last generation iPod nano, and none of the clip-on cases I could find would put it upside down like the way I preferred my phone so I cut it with an exacto knife to reverse it
Bottom. All phones I've ever had have the headphone jack at the bottom, right next to the charging port. So, why would I want it anywhere else than where I'm used to it being?
Honestly it doesn't really matter to me. Depending on whether it's on the top or bottom I'll just put my phone in my pocket to make it point upward when I use it. I tend to use Bluetooth anyway most of the time, so the headphone jack is mostly there as backup and for connecting other audio devices at parties etc.
I'd say bottom because I'd rather not have the cord coming towards me, rather than away, when I'm using the phone. Also it seems more ergonomic for me to put my phone in my pocket with the top pointed down rather than up.
My Xperia 10 III has it up top. Damaged more than one cable by just jamming it in my pocket upside-down then realising the cable's getting smushed up. Note to self: Get headphones with 90 degree cable connectors
Honestly, I don't care if all my phones going forward start having the port again, I'm sure it'll make a lot of people happy, but I'll still likely be using Bluetooth because it's just more convenient for me
Which was the point. That I feel like you missed. Or misinterpreted. Either way... Cool?
Lucky. I have collected a fair bit of audio gear that use very frequently. The dongles dislodge from the charging port too easily to be useful. I do use BT dac/amps but most of the time I'm in too much of a hurry to bother and I rely on the jack almost entirely.
It does bother me, yes. It’s an unused orifice that could get all kinds of crap in it. I don’t miss them on something that’s in and out of my bag, pocket, car etc.