Samsung will copy Apple by ditching chargers
Smartphones that come with bundled chargers may soon be more of a luxury than a given. With Apple now removing the necessary accessories from the iPhone 12 packaging and prompting users to buy a charger separately, it’s not hard to imagine other OEMs doing the same.
Though Samsung mocked the Cupertino company’s charger-less iPhones shortly after their announcement, the company managed to choke on their giggles. According to rumors from July, Samsung could also free its smartphones from in-box chargers from 2021. Could this start as soon as the Galaxy S30?
To make the room easier to read, we asked readers if they believed Samsung would follow suit and remove the charger in the mailbox from its future phones. Here’s what you told us:
Will Samsung drop the charger for future phones?
Results
Readers don’t have much confidence in Samsung’s commitment to the charger. Of the nearly 1,200 votes cast, 69.1% of readers believe the Korean company would be removing it from its future devices as well.
That feeling is not out of place. The company previously traced the headphone jack after mocking Apple’s decision to remove it from the iPhone 7. A number of Android OEMs have followed suit, and now, with a few exceptions, it has become an annoying standard in the smartphone world.
Samsung has also set a precedent urging users to buy additional chargers for their $ 1,000 smartphones. To activate the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s 45W charging capabilities, users had to spend an additional $ 50 on an aftermarket charger. Granted, a 25W brick came with the phone. However, will this be the case for the next round of flagships?
Interestingly, a sizable segment of the electorate would care no less. Almost 31% of the readers would be perfectly fine if Samsung no longer included a charger in the scope of delivery. It did so despite an earlier survey in which we lamented the then rumored plans to ban Apple chargers. More than 77% of the users of this survey said they would reject the Cupertino company if the charger was dropped.
Here’s what you told us:
- sachouba: It makes sense that Samsung mocked you [about the headphone jack] and then did the same a few years later. Just like MacBook Pros could have been made fun of a few years ago for only having USB-C ports in a couple of years, this is likely what most laptops will have. Apple’s move was just too early to be justified at all (apart from selling its own Beats / AirPods).
- Low Budget Technicians: The charging technology in Android phones changes far too often (read: every generation) to drop the chargers. Otherwise, they won’t be able to market the “world’s newest, fastest store” with every version of the phone.
- DC: Sure, it’s just one way to take extra money from customers by not lowering the price of the phone and then charging you extra for the charger. At Apple, you have to buy a ton of leads over the life of the phone because they always fail at either end or both ends of the lead.
That’s it for this poll. Thanks to everyone who contributed with votes and comments. If you have any further thoughts on Samsung or Apple’s moves, or the results of the survey itself, please feel free to post a comment below.
Next: What Android could learn from Apple’s iPhone 12
