Good phone for MP3 player?

[nilikadam39]

Hey guys, considering my first ever OnePlus device. Switching from a Nexus 5, and torn between the Midnight Black and Soft Gold. Love the latter for its looks, though could pass on the white bezels.

Storage is important to me as I eventually might use the OP5 (when it's 2+ years old) as an MP3 player. I love having my music on a separate device. Currently using a Lumia 640.

Basically:

Are OP devices good as MP3 players? Audio via headphone jack quality is ____________?

If you answered No to the previous question, what is your opinion on gold vs. black?

Bonus question: Which OP5 do you have?

[lilshawn]

weird flex, but okay. you must be lost.

I would absolutely not recommend a phone for an mp3 player. typically the amps in them don't particularly drive properly. they are made for yacking with your friends over the phone. playing mp3 is an add on.

I do not have a oneplus, I choose to have "unbranded" phone and buy the google pixel mainly because of the lack of disgusting shovelware companies like oneplus and samsung put on their phones. The pixel also gets first round OS updates without having to go through the third party to have them insert their shovelware into.

if you are LEGIT looking for an ACTUAL mp3 player that is phone-ish? buy a Fiio M15. got bluetooth 5, HD DAC, and can take a 300ohm headphone load like the sennheiser hd800 like nothin'

not that that's what you are here for, but anyways.

[meyer980]

Gonna disagree with lilshawn on one thing: OnePlus phones having very little shovelware and the GUI is practically stock Android. And while they don't get updates immediately, the OnePlus 5T I have did get Android 10 just a couple months after it was released and is still receiving updates. My OnePlus 7T gets Android updates regularly. Both phones still run very well.

As an audio device though, he's right, they're only fine.

[lilshawn]

i'm almost a year deep into android 11 right now on my pixel 4xl. I started developer testing 11 right as covid hit us and everything shut down (so februaryish?) been a run i can tell you that.

also... i thought the onepluses run that chinese oxygenos which was a port of android 9 with china spyware...it could have changed by now if it's running 10... but i'm still not a fan of capturing intents being slotted into an os as part of the meat and potatos. i mean, if you install the "oneplus app" and it sends your metadata then fine...but not as an OS default. at least when google takes my info it usually for a reason...and the reason is to make the experience better. i'm not sure what oneplus needs to track on top of that.

[BadMouth]

I'd be reluctant to call myself an audiophile, but have been tinkering with building car and home speaker enclosures with sound quality as the goal for 20 years.  I've been happy with the audio on my LGv35.  It is the primary audio source for my dedicated listening setup (Morel speakers, active crossovers).

Anyways, the LG flagship models have a good built in DAC and the sound output over the headphone jack is good enough for me to use in my home setup.  The DAC is not used when using bluetooth. You'd be looking at a G7 or V40 at this point.

A quick google search turned up this review: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-audio-measurement-of-lg-g7-thinq-smartphone.4468/

[lilshawn]

I haven't had a chance to try bt5 yet, but I hope the lag is a lot better than previous versions. I can't stand it.

You want a good DAC hit up a Chord Mojo DAC. Damn, for the money... Turn it up and it'll LITERALLY blow up a set of ibuds without even flinching.