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MagyarThe Best Smartphones with 3.5-mm Headphone Jack
A requirement for audio enthusiasts and a very useful feature for most other users: the 3.5-mm headphone jack is a defining feature on smartphones. Especially if you recently purchased an expensive high-quality headset with 3.5-mm audio connector you are not going to be too thrilled if your new smartphone lacks the proper connection.
Unfortunately, many OEMs seem to view things quite a bit differently, and instead prefer to utilize the space inside the case for larger batteries or additional features. Instead of adding a dedicated 3.5-mm headphone jack they add audio output functionality to the already existing USB-C port in order to continue supporting analog audio equipment such as headsets or headphones. The fact that not all users will be excited to carry around yet another piece of equipment – one that can get lost quite easily and causes audio quality to suffer to boot – is lost on most OEMs.
Therefore, we decided to compile this list of our view on the best smartphones with dedicated 3.5-mm headphone jack. It features smartphones from both the sub $500 range, where you are much more likely to encounter a dedicated audio port, and much costlier devices where headphone jacks have become a rare and almost exclusive feature.
Note: the prices on which our recommendations and ratings are based are the best street price at the time the review in question was last edited. The prices listed in the table below as well as in the price compare sections underneath each individual device are the current street price and fluctuate almost daily.
With the February 2020 update we consolidated the two lists, one for affordable and one for expensive devices, into a single top 10 list.
The Best Smartphones with Headphone Jack
Pos. | Rating | Date | Image | Model | Height | Weight | Size | Resolution | OS | Best Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 87 % | 07/2019 |  | Samsung Galaxy S10 5G Samsung Exynos 9820 ARM Mali-G76 MP12 8 GB Memory, 256 GB UFS 2.1 | 7.9 mm | 198 g | 6.70" | 3040x1440 | Android 9.0 Pie | |
| 2 | 86 % | 07/2020 |  | Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Adreno 650 6 GB Memory, 128 GB | 8.9 mm | 219 g | 6.67" | 2400x1080 | Android 10 | |
| 3 | 86 % | 11/2020 neu! |  | Sony Xperia 5 II Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Adreno 650 8 GB Memory, 128 GB | 8 mm | 163 g | 6.10" | 2520x1080 | Android 10 | |
| 4 | 86 % | 05/2019 |  | Huawei P30 HiSilicon Kirin 980 ARM Mali-G76 MP10 6 GB Memory, 128 GB UFS 2.1 | 7.57 mm | 165 g | 6.10" | 2340x1080 | Android 9.0 Pie | |
| 5 | 86 % | 09/2020 |  | Motorola Edge Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Adreno 650 12 GB Memory, 256 GB | 9.6 mm | 203 g | 6.70" | 2340x1080 | Android 10 | |
| 6 | 85 % | 06/2020 |  | Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Adreno 650 12 GB Memory, 256 GB | 10.1 mm | 253 g | 7.10" | 3120x1440 | Android 10 | |
| 7 | 85 % | 09/2020 |  | Sony Xperia 1 II Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Adreno 650 8 GB Memory, 256 GB | 7.6 mm | 181.4 g | 6.50" | 3840x1644 | Android 10 | |
| 8 | 85 % | 07/2020 |  | LG Velvet Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G Qualcomm Adreno 620 6 GB Memory, 128 GB UFS 2.1 | 7.85 mm | 180 g | 6.80" | 2460x1080 | Android 10 | |
| 9 | 84 % | 10/2020 neu! |  | Nubia RedMagic 5S Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Adreno 650 8 GB Memory, 128 GB | 9.75 mm | 218 g | 6.65" | 2340x1080 | Android 10 | |
| 10 | 84 % | 08/2020 |  | Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G Qualcomm Adreno 620 6 GB Memory, 128 GB UFS 2.1 | 7.9 mm | 192 g | 6.57" | 2340x1080 | Android 10 |
1st – Samsung Galaxy S10 5G
The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G not only features a dedicated 5G modem but also the largest battery and, at 6.7-inches, the largest AMLOED display of Samsung’s current Galaxy S series. Otherwise, it is very similar to the other devices except for the cameras that received a minor update when compared to the S10 and now feature an additional 3D sensor both front and back. 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage space are adequate for its class. Unfortunately, the latter cannot be expanded via microSD. In addition, the S10 5G is only available with a single SIM slot.
If you want to be prepared for the future without leaving the 3.5-mm headphone jack behind can do no wrong with the Galaxy S10 5G.
If you can live with those last two issues you get the best S10-series smartphone with the longest battery life in return.
We suspect that the S10 generation will be Samsung’s final high-end smartphone series with a 3.5-mm headphone jack. The Note 10 already lacks this feature, and rumor has it that the S11 is not going to include one either.
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2nd – Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
The Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro is much more expensive than its predecessor, which turned out to be a great bargain. Nevertheless, you get a lot for less than 500 Euros: great performance decent battery life, a fast and bright OLED display, and a decent speaker.
The affordable Xiaomi smartphone comes with a 60 Hz display, which turned out to be its biggest limitation when compared to real flagship devices. Once you get used to the smooth scrolling and handling of a 90 Hz display it is hard to look back.
If you are looking for high-end performance and a 3.5-mm headphone jack the Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro is hard to ignore.
Another limitation is the Poco F2 Pro’s mediocre camera, which lacks a telephoto lens and features a somewhat poor ultra-wide angle camera.
Pricecompare
3rd - Sony Xperia 5 II
Sony’s smartphone division was struggling in the recent years. While the OEM is behind many of the great smartphone camera sensors we see today its own smartphones suffered from their overall mediocre nature. The Sony Xperia 5 II is the manufacturer’s attempt at a fresh and better start, but at almost $1,000 it is also priced very boldly.
Its unique feature is the professional-level camera application that is only available on Sony smartphones, and it does indeed help to capture great photos. In return, the default camera app is fairly slow, and Sony does not seem to be particularly interested in keeping its software up to date, as was shown by the outdated security patches on our review unit.
An expensive high-quality smartphone with special professional-level camera software.
We liked its thin case, its support for 5G connectivity, its unique design, and its good battery life. It also continues to feature a 3.5-mm headphone jack, which can almost be considered another unique feature.
Pricecompare
4th – Huawei P30
The Huawei P30 features a triple-lens camera made by Leica comprised of a main lens, a secondary ultra wide angle lens, and a tertiary telephoto lens. The latter offers 3x optical zoom capabilities and optical image stabilization. The main camera’s 40 MP Sensor uses pixel binning to improve low-light photo quality.
The Huawei P30 is worth its price and comes with only minor flaws.
In our review we particularly liked the device’s great photo quality and the multitude of settings and options. It also offered a high level of system performance, long battery life, and of course a 3.5-mm headphone jack.
Pricecompare
5th – Motorola Edge Plus
Motorola’s re-entry into the high-end world of smartphones left us undecided. On the one hand we liked the case design, and its communication technology is among the best currently available. At the end of the day you get a true high-end smartphone with 3.5-mm headphone jack.
The Edge Plus is Motorola’s first high-end smartphone in years. It is fast and offers long battery life but failed to score in all aspects we looked at.
On the other hand, it lacks numerous features we came to expect from expensive high-end smartphones these days. For example, it is not waterproof, it charges relatively slowly, and its speaker and sound quality in general was lacking. If, however, you fell in love with the design and are in the market for a fast smartphone with analog audio jack and decent battery life you might want to take a closer look at the Edge Plus.
Pricecompare
6th – Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro
Xiaomi’s Black Shark 3 Pro gaming smartphone continues to include a 3.5-mm headphone jack, just like the Black Shark 3. The device offers a lot for its money – fast Wi-Fi, a 90 Hz display, high performance thanks to the latest Qualcomm flagship processor, and fast storage. Various accessories are also available, from coolers to magnetic charging cables.
The Black Shark 3 is a fast gaming smartphone with shoulder buttons and interesting accessories.
Dedicated shoulder buttons allow for easier gaming, as do stereo speakers. The latter might not be great but at least they are usable. Cut corners include support for wireless charging, an IP certification, and USB 3.0. In addition, the display only gets sufficiently bright with ambient light sensor enabled.
Pricecompare
7th – Sony Xperia 1 II
If you’re looking for a slim and super-fast smartphone Sony is usually a decent go-to choice. High quality, a well-protected case, and its unique design were the first things we immediately noticed. In addition, this latest generation includes professional apps for photo and video editing. And last but not least it comes with a full-fledged 3.5-mm headphone jack for attaching analog microphones.
With its professional photo and video editing apps Sony’s Xperia 1 II is clearly aimed at professionals. Everybody else will probably find its MSRP too high.
On the flip side it suffers from short battery life, a very slow SD card reader, and a somewhat dim display with an admittedly extremely high resolution. Its high MSRP of $1,200 make this a hard sale at full price, unless of course you’re in it for the professional photo and video editing applications.
Pricecompare
8th – LG Velvet
The LG Velvet is supposed to be LG’s barnstorming return to the mid-range smartphone market, and the Koreans did very well indeed. The device may be assertively priced but offers a very sleek and elegant case as well as features, that are usually only found on more expensive smartphones, such as an IP68 certification, wireless charging, or stereo speakers. The icing on the cake is the Velvet’s ability to be installed in a dual-screen case, just like the LG G8X ThinQ.
The LG Velvet comes with a classy design and great features.
The main camera performed well in our test, however the remaining camera modules remained behind our expectations for a 600 Euro smartphone. The device supports 5G connectivity and features a Snapdragon 765G with plenty of oomph, albeit it is nowhere near the current top dogs. All things considered this smartphone is an interesting alternative for users looking for a classy and somewhat uncommon smartphone with 3.5-mm headphone jack.
Pricecompare
9th - Nubia Redmagic 5S
The Nubia Redmagic 5S is a not particularly well-known gaming smartphone that keeps its internals cool with the help of an active fan.
Its 144 Hz display will prove interesting to man hardcore gamers, after all professional PC gaming has been enjoying high-refresh displays for the longest time and the latest generation of consoles is supposed to catch up as well. Unfortunately, the Redmagic 5S is but an Android smartphone, and there are barely any apps in Google’s Play Store that support this extremely high refresh rate.
Thus, the display is more of a gamble as to what future smartphone gaming might bring, maybe if streaming games in high refresh rates becomes feasible.
The Nubia Redmagic 5S offers a lot of performance at a comparatively low price. However, you have to like its gaming aesthetics.
All things considered you get a comparatively affordable fast gaming smartphone with a decent selection of accessories and high build quality. And as expected it also features a 3.5-mm headphone jack.
Pricecompare
10th – Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
If you include Xiaomi’s Redmi and Poco brands the Chinese manufacturer tends to release a huge variety of devices year after year. To make matters worse and add an extra level of confusion many devices carry different names in Asia and the rest of the world. If you are looking for a powerful smartphone with 3.5-mm headphone jack and are on a budget, then maybe the Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G may be worth a closer look. It offers long battery life, fast Wi-Fi, a decent build quality, and a reasonably bright and fairly color-accurate OLED display.
The Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G is a great offer with plenty of mid-range performance.
The main camera came as a positive surprise in normal light. In low-light situations it made itself known as the mid-range shooter it really is. A 90 Hz display is also not available, and the number of supported LTE frequencies is fairly low.
Nevertheless, the smartphone remains a great offer in its price range.
Pricecompare
Verdict
High-end smartphones with 3.5-mm headphone jack may be a dying breed, but they are not quite dead yet. Affordable devices tend to be dominated by older flagship and high-end smartphones that dropped in price over time.
Even though current mid-range devices still tend to feature a dedicated 3.5-mm headphone jack and some OEMs such as LG even go above and beyond to ensure great analog audio quality we do expect the headphone jack to all but disappear in the next few years.
Test Results
| Samsung Galaxy S10 5G | Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro | Sony Xperia 5 II | Huawei P30 | Motorola Edge Plus | Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro | Sony Xperia 1 II | LG Velvet | Nubia RedMagic 5S | Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response Times | ||||||||||
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 4 (2, 2) | 10 (5, 5) | 8 (3, 5) | 4 (2, 2) | 8 (3, 5) | 10 (5, 5) | 6 (3, 3) | 9.2 (4.8, 4.4) | 2.8 (1.2, 1.6) | 10 (5, 5) |
| Response Time Black / White * | 4 (2, 2) | 8 (5, 3) | 8 (5, 3) | 3.2 (2, 1.2) | 6 (3, 3) | 8 (5, 3) | 9 (5, 4) | 3.2 (2, 1.2) | 2.4 (1.2, 1.2) | 8 (5, 3) |
| PWM Frequency | 240.4 (99) | 177.3 | 238.1 | 240.4 | 328.9 | 362 | 240.4 | 245.1 (99) | 581.4 (99) | 241.5 |
| Screen | ||||||||||
| Brightness middle | 735 | 799 | 558 | 561 | 549 | 570 | 557 | 586 | 589 | 584 |
| Brightness | 735 | 801 | 562 | 560 | 582 | 589 | 561 | 587 | 592 | 583 |
| Brightness Distribution | 94 | 97 | 98 | 95 | 90 | 90 | 94 | 97 | 90 | 97 |
| Black Level * | ||||||||||
| Colorchecker DeltaE2000 * | 3.9 | 1.46 | 3.01 | 1.5 | 3.16 | 4.65 | 2.86 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 1.17 |
| Colorchecker DeltaE2000 max. * | 10.9 | 2.92 | 6.86 | 2.5 | 6.58 | 7.61 | 7.29 | 6.3 | 7.2 | 2.95 |
| Greyscale DeltaE2000 * | 1.4 | 2.7 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 4.2 | 4.9 | 5 | 2.3 | 5.6 | 1.7 |
| Gamma | 2.09 105% | 2.237 98% | 2.196 100% | 2.2 100% | 2.301 96% | 2.205 100% | 2.171 101% | 2.01 109% | 2.31 95% | 2.231 99% |
| CCT | 6549 99% | 6003 108% | 6398 102% | 6512 100% | 7280 89% | 7500 87% | 6993 93% | 6827 95% | 6633 98% | 6341 103% |
| Heat | ||||||||||
| Maximum Upper Side * | 35.2 | 42.3 | 42.8 | 35.5 | 44.9 | 40.2 | 44.8 | 34.5 | 35.1 | 40.7 |
| Maximum Bottom * | 31.8 | 40.1 | 42.6 | 33.9 | 43.5 | 39.9 | 43.6 | 32.2 | 32.2 | 38.8 |
| Idle Upper Side * | 23.3 | 34.5 | 25.8 | 30 | 32.8 | 27.9 | 34.6 | 29 | 30.5 | 30.4 |
| Idle Bottom * | 22.4 | 32.3 | 26.1 | 29 | 31.9 | 28.8 | 34.7 | 27.5 | 27.5 | 29.5 |
| Battery Runtime | ||||||||||
| Reader / Idle | 2340 | 1954 | 1914 | 2216 | 1589 | 1295 | 1683 | |||
| H.264 | 1047 | 1466 | 1050 | 1243 | 972 | 781 | 1403 | |||
| WiFi v1.3 | 533 | 923 | 793 | 715 | 945 | 767 | 467 | 741 | 730 | 884 |
| Load | 327 | 286 | 208 | 289 | 247 | 195 | 448 | |||
| Power Consumption | ||||||||||
| Idle Minimum * | 0.66 | 2 | 1.3 | 0.69 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.66 | 1.16 | 1.5 |
| Idle Average * | 1.82 | 3.1 | 2 | 2.41 | 1.8 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 1.58 | 2.34 | 2.2 |
| Idle Maximum * | 1.83 | 4 | 2.1 | 2.51 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 2.9 | 1.6 | 2.39 | 2.9 |
| Load Average * | 6.11 | 6.4 | 6.8 | 3.86 | 5.8 | 7.4 | 7.2 | 3.3 | 4.57 | 4.4 |
| Load Maximum * | 9.81 | 11.6 | 11 | 6.96 | 10.9 | 12.3 | 10.6 | 5.46 | 8.84 | 7.2 |
* ... smaller is better
Benchmarks
| Geekbench 4.1 - 4.4 | |
| 64 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Samsung Galaxy S10 5G | |
| Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro | |
| Huawei P30 | |
| Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G | |
| 64 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Samsung Galaxy S10 5G | |
| Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro | |
| Huawei P30 | |
| Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro | |
| Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G | |
| GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 | |
| 1920x1080 T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 (sort by value) | |
| Samsung Galaxy S10 5G | |
| Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro | |
| Sony Xperia 5 II | |
| Huawei P30 | |
| Motorola Edge Plus | |
| Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro | |
| Sony Xperia 1 II | |
| LG Velvet | |
| Nubia RedMagic 5S | |
| Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G | |
| T-Rex HD Onscreen C24Z16 (sort by value) | |
| Samsung Galaxy S10 5G | |
| Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro | |
| Sony Xperia 5 II | |
| Huawei P30 | |
| Motorola Edge Plus | |
| Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro | |
| Sony Xperia 1 II | |
| LG Velvet | |
| Nubia RedMagic 5S | |
| Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G | |
| AnTuTu v7 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Samsung Galaxy S10 5G | |
| Huawei P30 | |
| AnTuTu v6 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Samsung Galaxy S10 5G | |
| Huawei P30 | |
* ... smaller is better