Apple leads the smartphone industry with their hardware choices. From the headphone jack to the notch, designs bleed across into Android whether we like it or not. The latest will be the removal of the charging brick from upcoming Samsung Galaxy S21 series devices.
According to Brazilian site Tecnoblog, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra have been approved by the South American nation’s equivalent of the FCC, ANATEL. According to ANATEL, none of the new Samsung devices are set to come with a charging brick in the retail packaging.
Considering just how many times Samsung has mocked Apple for removing the headphone jack, adding a notch, and even for the removal of a charging brick, this is yet another PR gaffe from the South Korean tech giant. Apple’s reasoning for the removal is to supposedly reduce the environmental impact, but it’s more likely used as a cost-cutting measure with the increased cost of 5G modems inside iPhone 12 series hardware.
We won’t know Samsung’s reasoning for the removal of the charging brick, but we’d wager it’s simply because the firm’s biggest rival is doing so already. As our colleagues over at 9to5Mac note, Brazil’s national consumer secretary has already considered forcing Apple to sell iPhones with chargers included. We’re not sure if this will apply to Samsung in Brazil, but we’d wager that globally, you’ll get much more compact packaging.
Of course, while this may on the surface seem damning, we still don’t know if Samsung will remove the charging brick on the upcoming S21 series. Rumors suggest that the device is set for an early January release, so we guess it’s just a waiting game at this stage.
