OPPO’s VP of Overseas Sales and Services, Billy Zhang, announced during the European launch of the OPPO Reno8 series that the firm wants to “take the charger out of the box in the next year for several products“
This isn’t the first time a smartphone vendor has removed integrated chargers, with Apple first doing so with the iPhone 12 and Samsung following suit with the Galaxy S21.
The trend of removing the charging adapter is considered to be a way for phone companies to reduce e-waste and their carbon footprint. According to Zhang, consumers can continue to use the same charger while upgrading to a new smartphone.
Although nothing is written in stone for the time being, Zhang has stated that the business intends to remove the chargers from some of its products, and that some may still include a charger in the box.
“It’s not that easy for consumers to get access to [SuperVOOC chargers], so we have to keep it in the box. However, as we are expanding our business operations, we are looking to taking chargers out of the box and put them in the store so that our users are able to buy the chargers and continue using them even when they upgrade their devices,”
— Bill Zhang, OPPO Vice President of Overseas Sales and Services
It’s also unclear whether this would affect OnePlus as well, given that OPPO is its parent company, and whether the change will be limited to specific locations.