Xiaomi had a good chuckle at Apple’s expense recently when the tech giant announced that for the first time it’d be releasing an iPhone without including a wall charger in the box as part of efforts to be kinder to the environment.
Seeing Apple’s decision as an opportunity to mock its rival while highlighting the arrival of its latest handset, Xiaomi posted a tweet soon after the iPhone 12’s launch in October 2020, saying, “Don’t worry, we didn’t leave anything out of the box with the Mi 10T Pro,” accompanied by an unboxing video that showed nothing but the wall charger.
The tweet (below) started to look a little ill-judged this weekend after The Verge spotted confirmation from Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun that the Chinese company’s new Mi 11 smartphone will also launch without a wall charger.
Don't worry, we didn't leave anything out of the box with the #Mi10TPro. pic.twitter.com/ToqIjfVEQX
— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) October 14, 2020
Like Apple, Jun, who made the announcement on popular Chinese social media platform Weibo, said that environmental concerns prompted the decision, though critics have of course been quick to point out that doing away with these extras reduces production costs and may nudge customers into buying Apple or Xiaomi chargers later on. In Apple’s case, the removal of the charger is more troublesome as the included Lightning-to-USB-C charging cable doesn’t fit with the wall charger that most iPhone owners already own from previous purchases.
Samsung also piled in on Apple when it released the iPhone 12, making fun of it in a Facebook post for failing to include a charger. But the Korean company recently removed the post mocking its U.S. rival, fueling rumors that Samsung has also decided to exclude the charger with the imminent launch of its Galaxy S21 series.
“Your Galaxy does give you what you are looking for,” Samsung wrote in the now-deleted post. “From the most basic as a charger, to the best camera, battery, performance, memory and even 120Hz screen on a smartphone.”
While the trend now appears to be toward ditching the wall charger for new phones, one country wasn’t at all happy with Apple’s new approach, insisting that the company include a charger with every iPhone 12 or else face a fine.