We asked, you told us: Stereo front-facing speakers or 3.5mm headphone jack?

This week’s poll was all about audio question and being forced to make a decision. If you could only have one, which would you choose: stereo front-facing speakers or a 3.5mm headphone jack?

There’s no problem if you want both. No problem at all. Except you’re not allowed. In this poll that’s all about audio, you have to choose. So it comes down to what you get the most out of. Do you choose the trusty old headphone jack that’s slowly being squeezed out by certain manufacturers or the front-facing speakers that can give you a decent sound for watching videos or playing games without even needing headphones? Or, have you moved across to Bluetooth and wireless headphones?

Front-facing speakers tend to create headaches for makers with their bezel-requirements, but it’s hard to argue with that quality of sound – if you use it.

We know that headphone jacks are supported by the likes of OnePlus, Samsung, and LG, but many other phone makers have ditched the 3.5mm port, opting to offer a dongle and use the available room for other features, or more battery. (Or, just do it to follow Apple?)

So which matters to you more? Here’s the results of what more than 65,000 you said across the YouTube poll, here on the website, along with Twitter, and Instagram:

It’s a great set of results to peruse, with a clear winner and a consistent result – more or less 60/40 in favor of the 3.5mm headphone jack, and that split held throughout each poll. Digging in closer, we saw Youtube vs the website poll as having the bigger difference. The website poll had a slim 56% to 44% split in favor of the headphone jack, while Youtube was the opposite and the headphone jack was firmly on top, with a dominant 64/36 split.

Click through the tabs up above to browse the votes.

Comments

The comments! We had some great reactions in the comments with a real divide between old faithful tech versus shiny new wireless tech that not everyone likes.

Here’s a sample of what we saw.

3.5mm headphone jack voters said:

• “‘Cause it is annoying not to able to use your headset while charging.”
• “It was present on all phones until Apple started the horrible trend of removing it, whereas stereo front speakers were much rarer so losing the jack is much more peculiar and jarring”
• “You don’t wanna be blaring weird music in a bus or any public place. Bluetooth is a pain, since if the Bluetooth device is faulty, it would have connection problems. You also need to charge them. All you gotta do is just plug simple headphones in the port. Let’s face it. We aren’t really gonna use those speakers a lot, unless you’re always partying.”
• “It’s not coz I’m stuck in 2010 or not willing to adapt to changes. It’s just that it’s an option that wouldn’t fail under many circumstances.”

Stereo front-facing speakers voters said:

• “If a phone doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack, one can use a small dongle. But without FF stereo speakers, the only option is an external speaker, which is less portable than a dongle.”
• “At least with a dongle you can still use your headphones. Once you lose those front-facing speakers, there’s no way to get them back.”
• “Its highly annoying trying to cup my hands every time I watch a youtube video.”
• “I find front-facing speakers to be much more an improvement to quality media consumption, while the headphone jack is more of a convenient addition these days.”
• “It’s 2018 everyone uses wireless earphones or headphones.”
• “Well I know this is cheating, but I have an S9+ which has both of those options and more.”

What do you make of the poll results and where do you stand? Is this a major issue for you when buying a new phone?