Samsung's entire lineup of Galaxy S21 phones will not include a power adapter in the box; Samsung reduces the price of its 25W adapter to $20, down from $35
and cost $200 less Igor Bonifacic / Engadget : The Galaxy S21 and S21+ are Samsung's new, more affordable flagships Tweets: Geoffrey A. Fowler / @geoffreyfowler : Goodbye charging brick and headphones. Samsung is following Apple in cutting accessories from the box of its #GalaxyS21. Yey for the environment. Boo for the sold-separately upsell. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung is following the template Apple set with the iPhone 12: Kuo's mid-2020 reporting flagged the plan to drop the in-box charger and sell a separate 20W brick, and by October the iPhone 12 lineup shipped without EarPods or power adapters. Now every Galaxy S21 model does the same, with Samsung cutting its 25W adapter from $35 to $20 to soften the blow.
The move extends a pattern that began with hardware subtraction inside the box itself — Samsung's own Note 10 dropped the headphone jack and physical buttons — and turns packaging into an explicit upsell channel, exactly the split Geoffrey Fowler captures: environmental framing on one side, sold-separately revenue on the other.
First-order effects
- Galaxy S21 buyers no longer get a charger in the box and must pay separately for Samsung's 25W adapter — now $20 instead of $35 — or source one elsewhere.
- Samsung's flagship launch cost per unit drops, since the S21 and S21+ are positioned as more affordable flagships and the removed accessories help fund that lower price.
Second-order effects
- Apple's precedent is now validated by its largest Android rival, making it politically harder for any major phone maker to restore bundled chargers — and easier for the next one to follow.
- Third-party accessory makers gain a larger addressable market of new-phone buyers shopping for adapters, competing directly against Samsung's own discounted 25W brick.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the phone-in-the-box shrinks permanently to handset plus cable, shifting accessory revenue from carriers' bundle economics to manufacturers' direct channels and third parties.
- Environmental claims around reduced packaging will face growing scrutiny as consumers recognize the same logistics also create a paid upsell — press coverage like Fowler's is already framing it that way.
The trend: Flagship phone makers are converging on Apple's de-bundled box — charger and earbuds sold separately — turning once-free accessories into a recurring margin line under an efficiency rationale.