I've discussed this a few times before on the forum and my opinion has only strengthened over time. The movement away from bundling charging bricks, cheap earphones and the like is a good thing overall. I do have to say that it's not being done as effectively as it could be currently.
I remember when I received my S21 Ultra on pre order I received a huge box with 3 more boxes inside (pre order bonus included Buds Pro and a Smart tag) and concluded then it was a ridiculous scam and a waste of resources. I said that bundling countless products with the phone whilst removing the charger was hugely ironic if their goal was to be a greener company. All that still holds true. I also thought the S21 Ultra was a bit too beefy at the time.
They've managed to trim it down since which is good. I also thought the pre order promotion for the S23 lineup was the best one yet in terms how 'green' it was as it wasn't lumped with products this time, instead it offered a storage boost and a discount which meant I got the 512GB S23 Ultra for under £900.
But they still send the packaged phone in a box that's oversized, as do Amazon and other companies but Amazon has to deal with thousands of different products of varying sizes but Samsung does not, yeah they sell a lot of stuff but it's not comparable. I don't see why they can't just send the phone without a box, why does there need to be a box for the box? Just wrap it in some bubble wrap and send it to me that way. Next they need to get rid of the USB-C cable in my opinion, everyone should have one at this point if not 10 of them.
If everyone has a charger and a USB-C cable then phones can just be sold or recycled by themselves and that way there much less waste going on. I have an entire drawer stuffed full of redundant cables, chargers and other stuff that's accumulated over 15 years of purchases. I also have a second drawer of cables for cables and chargers I use more often. The problem is cross compatibility with companies using different charging standards to each other meaning some 45w chargers for example won't charge Samsung's 45w capable devices at the advertised speed therefore leading to the purchase of additional chargers by consumers wanting the best possible charging times.
When the decision was made to abandon inviting chargers in the box it was undoubtedly going to lead to a larger carbon footprint in the short term but long term it will certainly lead to less of a carbon footprint. More needs to be done in that respect.
Here's a size comparison of the S20, S21 and S23 boxes I just took that shows the progress they've made so far.
I remember when I received my S21 Ultra on pre order I received a huge box with 3 more boxes inside (pre order bonus included Buds Pro and a Smart tag) and concluded then it was a ridiculous scam and a waste of resources. I said that bundling countless products with the phone whilst removing the charger was hugely ironic if their goal was to be a greener company. All that still holds true. I also thought the S21 Ultra was a bit too beefy at the time.
They've managed to trim it down since which is good. I also thought the pre order promotion for the S23 lineup was the best one yet in terms how 'green' it was as it wasn't lumped with products this time, instead it offered a storage boost and a discount which meant I got the 512GB S23 Ultra for under £900.
But they still send the packaged phone in a box that's oversized, as do Amazon and other companies but Amazon has to deal with thousands of different products of varying sizes but Samsung does not, yeah they sell a lot of stuff but it's not comparable. I don't see why they can't just send the phone without a box, why does there need to be a box for the box? Just wrap it in some bubble wrap and send it to me that way. Next they need to get rid of the USB-C cable in my opinion, everyone should have one at this point if not 10 of them.
If everyone has a charger and a USB-C cable then phones can just be sold or recycled by themselves and that way there much less waste going on. I have an entire drawer stuffed full of redundant cables, chargers and other stuff that's accumulated over 15 years of purchases. I also have a second drawer of cables for cables and chargers I use more often. The problem is cross compatibility with companies using different charging standards to each other meaning some 45w chargers for example won't charge Samsung's 45w capable devices at the advertised speed therefore leading to the purchase of additional chargers by consumers wanting the best possible charging times.
When the decision was made to abandon inviting chargers in the box it was undoubtedly going to lead to a larger carbon footprint in the short term but long term it will certainly lead to less of a carbon footprint. More needs to be done in that respect.
Here's a size comparison of the S20, S21 and S23 boxes I just took that shows the progress they've made so far.
