Google is the latest manufacturer to bid farewell to the in-box charging brick, saying it expects the Pixel 5A will be the last phone to include one. That means the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro won’t include one when they arrive this fall.
The company says that most people already have a USB-C charging brick, so there’s no longer a need to include one with its phones. Apple and Samsung made similar arguments when they announced they would no longer be offering an in-box charger. That may be true, but it’s likely that the cost savings of not including a charger played a big role in those decisions.
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There’s also an environmental argument for ditching the charger: fewer redundant chargers being shipped to customers theoretically reduces e-waste. That’s tough to prove, though, and potentially just means that the greenhouse gas emissions of producing and shipping accessory chargers will be spread around between more companies as people buy them from third-party manufacturers.
One thing seems certain, though: with these three major phone manufacturers committed to removing the charger, smaller companies will have an easier time following suit and doing the same. While phone shoppers may feel like it’s a case of paying the same price and getting less, this is likely a reality that we’ll all have to make peace with, so hold your wall chargers tight.
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