The Pros and Cons of Removing Chargers from Smartphone Boxes

Hi🤔, I don't know what the companies are thinking but. What I feel is it's not for environmental purposes. I do believe it's for more money , 💵 And less about your customer's. It's inconvenient for me my last one was three years ago the charger doesn't work on the new phone I had to go out and buy a $26 charger, for me that's an inconvenience because I live in the mountains and it's an hour and a half ride to the store where I have to purchase it at. It just means for the stores more income and more income for the company. I can see people that don't have a lot of money they get the phone and they realize there's no charger in it and they have no more money for the charger that's "rude" of the company

Maybe even downright cruel.

If the OEMs really wanted to reduce e-waste they would all settle on a few standards and have a binding agreement put forth. Personally, I don't need another charger or cable. I can literally charge any type of device, from micro USB and Apple Lightning up to the current USB-C, in any room of my house or any of our cars and at any given time.

I'm quite sure that most of PA's readers are in the same position since we are all aficionados.

Just a politically-correct socially-acceptable excuse, and way, to make more money by charging separately for charging accessories, cables, wall worts, wireless chargers, etc... phone prices did not decline, in fact they went way up, even with the added revenue from charging accessory sales. Where Apple goes, everyone else eventually follows, and ever more quickly in the latest iterations...

Yes, do we need chargers. Why? That is because many people are selling their old phones, and they will sell it with every accessory, and when you buy a new and expensive phone why to buy everything separately to throw even more money?

Exactly. I always sell my old phone because you can get more money that way. For all the people who sell their old phones, do you not include all the accessories? You cheat the buyer out of what was included in the box originally?

Phone manufacturers are quick to tout high speed charging, but fail to tell you it probably is an extra cost item, the cost being a charger that they do no longer supply with the phone. The same for wireless charging, which has always needed a wireless charger, never included with the phone.

I developed the habit of charging my phone at night when I go to bed. My old slow charger still tops it up by morning, unless I have a reason to get up extra early. The adaptive charging seems to use alarm time to decide when it needs to be full, so no real problem unless I can't sleep.

If and when I need to charge my phone during the day, speed becomes meaningful. Not yet meaningful enough to spend the money on a new charger.

Offer a complete package, phone, charger, cables, etc., for the first time buyer. Also offer, at a lesser price, just the phone.

No more than that

The rationale was to reduce overall waste, but I think the result has been the opposite. The separate charges ship in packaging, creating more paper and plastic waste in their own pieces. It has also spawned additional cheaper/crap quality chargers, whose manufacturing process produces yet additional waste. Moreover, speaking for myself, since I re-use all my existing chargers etc., when I eventually sell my old devices on eBay or Swappa, I like being able to offer a complete package for the buyer - unused cable and charger namely. All-in-all, it has produced more waste, increased costs to the end-user, and soured the experience. That means, it was never about the environment, as always, it was about the money. I like money, but separating all these pieces isn't very imaginative.