I’ve been using one of these USB headphone jacks… and I’d go back to the 3.5 mm audio jack in a heartbeat.

Why?

• The USB port collects a lot pocket lint (bigger port = more lint). This gets compressed/packed when you charge it (daily), or plug in the USB audio dongle. Eventually, it becomes harder to clean out - often needing tools.
• I switched to magnetic USB adaptors. This keeps the dust out, but the magnetic connectors are brittle and the pins are prone to bending/breaking. I often leave the headphone with the USB dongle + the magnetic connector in my pocket. Its an annoying large wad of crap, but now with the magnet in my pocket, it sticks to my keys, coins, etc (which probably bends more pins)

All in all, its just annoying… all because manufacturers ramrod Bluetooth down our throats, charge us more for Bluetooth headphones, force us to leave Bluetooth on 24/7 (so we can use our devices to relay everyone else’s tracking pucks/tags) and the manufacturers save $0.03 on each device by not having a headphone jack.

It’s just another example of forcing the customer into things they don’t want (just like A.I.).

I’m curious if they are able (or have any intentions) to access the gsm modem to send/receive phone calls.

Historically, on android, this was a vendor specific binary blob, which really limited what you could do with it “as a phone”.