In 2020, during the fall announcement of the iPhone 12, Apple announced that the device will not come with a charger and headphones. To which the Korean giant Samsung ridiculed a competitor in its advertising campaign. The video showed a charger labeled "included with your Galaxy." To date, the Koreans have also revised the completeness of top-end smartphones and have removed the charger from the box with the Galaxy S21 for now.
It seems absurd that when buying a mobile device worth over 60,000 rubles, the user cannot charge it. Apple explained that removing the charger from the kit is environmentally friendly. Other manufacturers have followed suit.
Main arguments
The circulation of each series of successful smartphones is millions of devices. There have been no failed models in the iPhone lineup yet. This means there is no need to produce the same number of chargers. Accordingly, resources remain in reserve, factories do not smoke, disposal as they age is also not required.
When transporting finished products on a large scale, logistics is counted down to the smallest detail. There is no charger, which means the box with the smartphone will be smaller in volume and lighter in weight. It turns out that you can load more on the plane. Indeed, for the operational coverage of the needs of each country, it would be more logical to choose this type of transport. From here there are fewer flights, less fuel and less CO2 emissions.
The next argument is aimed at the end consumer. All Apple smartphones up to and including the iPhone X series are equipped with a 5W charger. For charging modern mobile gadgets with larger batteries, this is very little. But techies foresaw similar problems a few years ago, and began to implement the fast charging function in the device itself. For example, Apple specialists implemented this function back in 2017 in the iPhone 8 model and increased the power of the charger of the phone itself to 18 W, and the external charger went by 5 W. And now he decides to use which charger to use. Use an old one or buy a new powerful and expensive "charger".
In December 2020, this trend after Apple was picked up by the Chinese giant Xiaomi. They were followed by Samsung. The trend is likely to spread among other manufacturers of mobile technology. And perhaps over time it will move to the middle price segment of smartphones.
How to live with it
Due to the introduction of fast charging technology, old chargers cannot be used with new power cables. The fact is that manufacturers have left a charging cable for smartphones in the kit. But the standards of the connectors used have changed in favor of more energy efficient ones, and the new cable will not be able to connect to the old unit.
The usual USB-A connector has been replaced by the new standardized USB-C. The main advantages of the new interface for the average user are as follows:
1. The connector is fully balanced. You can connect it either side to the device. USB-A lacks this important ergonomic advantage.
2. The power transmitted via USB-C can be up to 100W. For USB-A, about 10 times less.
3. Apple listened to the public and borrowed USB-C for its chargers. The result is a Lightning cable on one side, USB-C on the other. So, in case of urgent need, you can use a third-party charging block, at your own peril and risk.
The result is such that by buying a phone for at least $ 800, you get a modern charging cable in the kit, which will not fit the old charger. You can save money and use the old charging kit, provided that the interfaces are compatible. Or you can fork out and buy a modern energy-intensive device. And only when buying the next gadget will a new tendency to take the charger from the kit give financial savings to the user.
