Xiaomi Follows Apple's Lead, Won't Include Charger With Mi 11 Phone

When Apple revealed that it wouldn't include a charging brick with its iPhone 12, many consumers assumed that would be the start of an industry-wide trend — and all signs point toward that being correct. There's a good reason to believe that Samsung won't include a charger with its upcoming flagship, and we now know that Xiaomi plans to ditch the charging brick, too.

The saga is a simple one: Apple decided that a charger brick wouldn't be included with its iPhone 12, arguing that consumers already own wall chargers and that many people won't need another one. This didn't go over well with many consumers, as you'd expect, but the change has arrived and, much like the loss of the headphone jack, is likely to stay.

Samsung was quick to publish an advertisement poking fun at Apple by pointing out that it includes a charger with Galaxy devices; Xiaomi, too, joined in on the fun. But now it seems that Samsung plans to follow Apple's lead and Xiaomi has confirmed that it, too, will leave out the charging brick with its upcoming Mi 11 handset.

As first spied by The Verge, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced the change on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. The company says it won't include the charger out of environmental concern, the idea being that many consumers already have one (or multiple) charging bricks at home, and including one with the phone will only contribute to e-waste.

Of course, the environmental justification makes sense — many people do, indeed, have these chargers at home, though critics have argued that most charging bricks are USB-A and won't work with the cables included in the box — meaning you'll have to pay for a USB-C charging brick yourself on top of the phone's own hefty price tag.