A hot potato: After mocking Apple for removing the charging bricks from its iPhones, Samsung made the same move with its recently unveiled Galaxy S21 series—and the purge isn’t stopping there. The world’s number one smartphone company has confirmed that its future devices will also ship without chargers and earphones.
Rumors that Samsung would “do an Apple” and drop the chargers from its phones arrived months before the iPhone 12 and Galaxy S21 launched. Following the former’s announcement, a mocking Facebook post suggested that Samsung wouldn’t follow suit.
October brought more speculation that Samsung would drop the bundled charger and earphones from the S21, and the move looked more likely when it removed the anti-Apple Facebook post in December.
Surely enough, the Galaxy S21 line was revealed sans charger and earphones last week. During the presentation, the firm hinted that the same fate would fall on its future devices. Now, a Q&A post (via Phone Arena) by Patrick Chomet, EVP and Head of the Customer Experience Office at Samsung, has confirmed it.
“We believe that the gradual removal of charger plugs and earphones from our in-box device packaging can help address sustainable consumption issues and remove any pressure that consumers may feel towards continually receiving unnecessary charger accessories with new phones,” he wrote.
Samsung’s reasons for dropping the charger are the same as Apple’s, including that it’s better for the environment and most people already have compatible chargers from other devices. The company adds that it has been implementing USB-C type charging ports since 2017, so older chargers can still be compatible with the latest Galaxy phones, tablets, etc.
The good news is that Samsung is removing the accessories “gradually,” so don’t expect all its new devices to ship without them. But it appears almost certain that the Galaxy Note 21 will be another flagship without a charger or earphones.
