When Apple announced that it was dropping charging blocks with the iPhone 12 at the end of last year, citing environmental reasons, the world rolled its eyes. It was the most Apple thing Apple could have possibly done. Samsung followed suit by ditching charging blocks for its S21 range. And now Nokia is the latest to admit that selling a charging block separately is great for its wallet… uh, the environment. Meant to say ‘the environment’. That’s totally the reason behind this.
HMD Nokia confirmed that one of its latest flagship, the X20, will not ship with a charger in the box. Once again, environmental concerns are being cited as the primary reason for this. Heading over to the product page for the Nokia X20, you’re told that you can “feel even better about your phone” because “There’s no plastic wall charger included, and with the 100% compostable case, we’ve reduced the ecological impact of Nokia X20.”
Nokia? More like No Kidding
The thinking behind the removal is that the company can reduce the size of the boxes the X20 ships in, so as to reduce the amount of waste generated in producing the packaging. Then, they’ll also be able to add more of the product into whatever vehicle is transporting the devices, saving on greenhouse gas emissions and, lastly, they’ll be producing less plastic in the process. Which is all true but another side effect is that Nokia will also make a bit more cash in the process. This is certainly not a coincidence.
While the Nokia X20 may not use any proprietary tech for its charging, it also supports 18W fast charging… which most charging blocks you already own don’t offer, unless you’ve got a more recent Samsung flagship lying around. So if you want to make use of Nokia’s fast charging tech, you’ll need to purchase a new block separately. If you can live without it, you should be fine with any old charger, as long as it supports USB-C.
We’re currently unsure on whether the Nokia X20 will be making its way to South Africa, or what it’ll cost, but we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop once we find out. When it gets here, it’s bound to be a little… smaller.
Source: XDA Developers