Weekend Discussion: Have your opinions about the headphone jack and display notch changed?

[S.Yu]

I would still not buy a phone that either has a notch or lacks a 3.5 mm port.

I use the 3.5 mm port in all sorts of scenarios so I won't give that up. As for the notch it's just so pointless. Why would I even want a device that is almost all screen? The little bars of non-screen is actually useful if you want to hand a phone over to someone to display a video, for example, without them accidentally touching something and removing said video...

No, less screen, more phone for me. I especially want real buttons for Back/Home/Recent. Virtual ones I accentally push all the time when I don't want to and the disaster that is Googles "pill" I won't even discuss...

Oh, and sorry for coming off so bitter. But it really feels like these devices become less and less what I want for each year. I had a perfect device in 2011 (Nokia E7), which I kept to 2016 when it stopped working. Since then things have just declined...

I use my phone with a protective casing, so touch rejection is not a huge deal for me, especially not a good reason to add bezels (stereo speakers are, if the device itself is already huge and doesn't need a taller screen for sake of usability).

[xpclient]

Absolutely need headphone jack. But even more important than that is having an traditional design: no notch, no holes, cutouts and no popup cameras either. I don't mind slightly bigger bezels on top like Pixel 4.

Oh and I also need a notification led absolutely on IPS LCD. On OLEDs, only Samsung, LG and Nokia got the Always on Display right. Other Chinese crap manufacturers don't support third party app notifications in AOD making all those phones immediately a no-buy for me.

I just got the Lenovo K5 Pro, a cheap $130 phone with decent cameras for my low use case, a big bright notification LED, clean display free of notches, 4000 mAH battery with 18W fast charging, fast fingerprint and face unlock, unlock with Hey Google, clean ZUI.

It has a comfortable design which I can use with just one hand unlike those overly tall and narrow phones on which you can't even swipe any more with your thumb from the top edge and must use both hands.

Ergonomics and usability won over flashy gimmicks and style. Did I mention I cannot stand curved display edges, overly thin bezels which cause accidental touches and all useful things on the front eliminated in favor of the display? It's all stupid and has got to stop and reverse its trend.

My previous phone was an LG G Pro 2 (2014) running Android 4.4 KitKat and with a fantastic design that idiots at LG abandoned. Now Lenovo K5 Pro will serve me for next few years. I also made the epic mistake of buying Chinese Huawei Y9 crapphone. Huawei lied that it has a notification LED but in practice, the LED is invisible and too tiny to be seen as it is situated behind the earpiece grille. I quickly sold that crapphone for a loss before getting the Lenovo K5 Pro.

[Oak]

I absolutely will not buy any phone that doesn't have a jack.  The notch is just stupid, but not a deal breaker.  The jack IS a deal breaker.  I use it in my classic car, for business headset convo's, to connect to my sound system at work...  Also, I am not satisfied that bluetooth is safe from other people listening to my conversations remotely.  Never mind the fidelity and battery usage issues.  Which are real.