Pick one: Stereo front-facing speakers or 3.5mm headphone jack? (Poll of the Week)

Last week’s poll summary: Out of almost 3,300 total votes, 56.8 percent of our readers said they would not pay for Google services if Google adopted a subscription model. 19.8 percent said they’d pay $5 or less for access to Google’s services each month, 13 percent said they’d pay between $5 and $10 per month, and only 5 percent said they’d pay between $10 and $20. The YouTube crowd was a little more adamant about not wanting to pay. 86 percent of YouTube voters said they wouldn’t pay anything for Google services, while only 10 percent said they’d pay less than $5 per month.

Nowadays, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a smartphone that has a headphone jack. Aside from OnePlus, Samsung, and LG, most other phone makers have ditched the 3.5mm port. Not everyone is happy with the decision to remove the port (including myself), and 70 percent of Android Authority readers agree. Removing the headphone jack might be one of the least consumer-friendly trends in the smartphone world in recent years.

OEMs aren’t just out to seize control of your wired audio — many companies tend to neglect simple things like speaker placement, too. The Samsung Galaxy S8 was one of the world’s most popular phones in 2017, and its bottom-firing speaker seemed like more of an afterthought than anything. That’s why we praise phones like the Galaxy S9 and Pixel 2 when they include front-firing speakers.

For this week’s poll, we’re going to make you choose one or the other. You can have a smartphone with a headphone jack, but it’ll also have tinny, bottom-firing speakers. Or, you could have a smartphone with stereo front-facing speakers, but you’ll be living the #donglelife. Which would you rather have?

Cast your vote in the poll below, and speak up in the comments if there’s anything you’d like to add.