Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun: Mi 11 Won’t Come With Charger

While the Xiaomi Mi 11 release date was expected in February or March 2021, we could see it a lot earlier than we all thought, as its initial launch has been confirmed for TODAY! Though people will likely only be able to buy the phone in 2021. Yes! Xiaomi is all set to launch its next-generation flagship smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi 11 smartphone December 28. Ahead of the official launch, reports have detailed a number of key features that the phone is expected to come without a charger.

This news was confirmed by Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun in a post on Weibo. In the post (via FoneArena), Jun said that the decision had been made keeping in view the company’s environmental goals. He also said that the thickness of the box will be drastically reduced since there would be no charger in the box, which in turn would not only reduce the overall costing but also the material used and hence be good for the environment.

Apple’s decision not to include chargers with the iPhone 12 was met with some derision, and competitors like Samsung reminded customers in an ad that charging bricks were “included with your Galaxy.” That Galaxy ad has apparently been deleted, however, as rumors continue to build that Samsung won’t include a charger with its upcoming Galaxy S21 phones.

Interestingly, Xiaomi’s decision to remove the charger also comes months after the company mocked Apple for doing the same in case of its newly released iPhone 12 series. “Don’t worry, we didn’t leave anything out of the box with the #Mi10TPro,” Xiaomi had written in a post at the time. Now, it looks like Xiaomi is following Apple’s footsteps. Perhaps the takeaway here is that companies should keep the marketing team in the loop about future product decisions?

There is, in fact, a strong environmental case for not including superfluous chargers with new phones, especially if the chargers are identical to the dozens of others most people already have. But it seems like as phone makers continue raising the price tags on their new devices, they’re somehow finding ways to give customers less — no headphone jacks, no charging bricks— than they did in the past.

Is the next step to just do away with the box and hand over new phones to customers in bubble wrap, or maybe in paper bags? I guess we’ll just have to find out HA!HA!HA!