Three years after Apple, Oppo finally decides to DROP chargers from the box

Apple introduced the trend of dropping in-box chargers from 2020 and soon after, rival Samsung followed with the trend with the Galaxy S21 series. Xiaomi did the same in some markets and now Oppo is ready to join the list. After stuffing its packing boxes with some of the fastest charging adapters for smartphones, Oppo is now ready to drop them from the packaging boxes starting 2023. And it could start with the early 2023 Find X series flagships and maybe trickle down to the Reno series phones.

There is however, a big problem with Oppo dropping the charger from the box and that has to do with its ecosystem of VOOC chargers. Oppo says that its fast SuperVOOC chargers are not easy to find and hence, Oppo needs to ensure there are enough stocks available in the stores. Most of Oppo's phones can achieve their superfast charging speeds with these adapters only and the regular 18W chargers are unable to replicate those same speeds.

Oppo plans to drop chargers but there is an issue

In a launch event in Europe, Billy Zhang, Oppo's VP of overseas sales and services said, “We will take the charger out of the box in the next year for several products. We have a plan. 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.”

It remains to be seen how Oppo goes around pricing the SuperVOOC chargers, given that Samsung and Apple charge a hefty premium for their slower Power Delivery chargers. However, Oppo's chargers fill up the smartphone batteries pretty fast and some of them also support USB-PD formats, something that cannot be said for the Apple and Samsung chargers.

Most brands drop the chargers from boxes of premium high-end smartphones, since these customers can afford to spend extra on the chargers. In the budget segment, it is only Samsung that denies supplying the charger from its Galaxy F and Galaxy A series devices.

Did You Know?

Apple started the trend of dropping the in-box charger in 2020 with the iPhone 12 series launch. Apple quoted “environmental reasons” for making the move. Xiaomi followed the same move, albeit in a different way – it gave a choice to customers for buying the Xiaomi Mi 11 with or without the charger. Samsung dropped the charger from its Galaxy S21 series in 2021.