While we were still unhappy that Samsung isn’t shipping chargers with its flagship phones, the company has now decided that it will extend the treatment to the mid-range phones as well.
The company has started removing the charging bricks from the A-series phones in the US and this might soon become a norm across all the devices sold by the company.
The company released a couple of A-series phones in the United States - the Galaxy A03 and the Galaxy A13 5G recently. Both the devices are now listed on Samsung’s online store in the US and the box contents of these phones do not have a charging brick.
And if you thought that it’s a mistake, the listing clearly spells out the decision advising users to use only the official charger and cable to charge the phone. The warning on the site says “Wall charger sold separately; Use only Samsung-approved chargers and cables. To avoid injury or damage to your device, do not use incompatible, worn or damaged batteries, chargers or cables. Supports up to 15W Fast Charging.”
Further going by the rumours, Samsung is expected to replicate this with its M-series phones as well. A known tipster, Yogesh Brar has hinted that going forward both M and A lineups from Samsung will be shipped without the chargers in the box.
While there is no clarity from Samsung if the decision is limited to the United States or will be replicated to other markets, however, there is a strong probability that the phones in this lineup across markets will experience similar treatment. Samsung is slated to launch the Galaxy F23 in India today, it will be interesting to see if this lineup is planning something similar for the F series as well.
Not so environment-friendly decision
Though the idea of removing the charger from the retail box was mooted by Apple, Samsung quickly followed suit after initially mocking its archrival. Back then both the companies called this decision a step towards environment-friendly packaging. It was said that most users have a charging brick already with them and not everyone needs a new charger every time.
Even though there was little merit in the above claims made by the company, since people do not change flagship phones so often, it didn’t make a huge difference. Purchasing a charger separately is not only an extra cost but is in no way friendly to the environment as the charger needs to be packed separately that consumes energy and needs more plastic packaging materials.
However, what Samsung is now doing will directly impact the users at the budget end of the spectrum who are often price-conscious and purchasing a charger separately will be considered as an additional cost.
As of now, only Apple and Samsung have ditched the charger from the retail box and other brands have been watching them carefully. Xiaomi has been sitting on the edge and even tried replicating this by removing the charger from the Mi 11 Ultra’s retail packaging. Though the company shipped the charger along with the phone. Back then, the decision made little sense, hopefully, Xiaomi and other smartphone makers do not draw inspiration from Samsung’s latest move.
