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Cellphones Hardware

Your Next Phone Might Come Without a USB Cable (androidauthority.com) 52

Posted by BeauHD from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.
Android Authority notes the start of a new trend we're seeing in some new smartphones: devices shipping without USB cables. It follows the earlier industry shift away from bundled charging bricks, which Apple started back in 2020 with the launch of the iPhone 12. While manufacturers cite environmental benefits, "the main driver behind these decisions for companies like Apple and Sony is, of course, profit," writes Android Authority's Taylor Kerns. From the report: Now, it looks like we may be in for a similar shift with bundled USB cables. As shared on the Linus Tech Tips subreddit, user Brick_Fish's recently purchased Sony Xperia 10 VII came without a charger or a charging cable. In a photo included with the post, you can see iconography on the back of the phone's box that spells out these omissions. Sony's not really a major player in the smartphone space these days, but this seems like the type of trend we should expect to see gain traction over the next couple of years. [...]

Apple actually beat Sony to the punch here, in a way. The company's latest earbuds, the AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3, both ditched bundled USB cables, as well. Still, Sony's the first manufacturer I've heard of to omit charging cables with its smartphones.

Your Next Phone Might Come Without a USB Cable More | Reply

Your Next Phone Might Come Without a USB Cable

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  • Fine by me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Tuesday October 07, 2025 @09:33PM (#65711066)
    I probably have 200+ USB cables and another one is a nuisance and not a feature.

    • I also bought nice charging bricks. I don't need any more.

      • Yes, the summary is framing this as some type of "greed".

        "...the main driver behind these decisions for companies like Apple and Sony is, of course, profit,"

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by taustin ( 171655 )

          I'm sure it is greed. But it's the right kind of greed: "Let's not spend money including something that nobody wants anyway." The PR benefits of eco-posturing are just a side benefit.

          • One of the biggest advantages is that it drives support for standards:

            If you sell a phone wihtout a USB cable. or supply USB cables without knowing which brand it will be used with,

            You bloody well better comply with standards!

            • Rather than another USB C cable, I'd rather phone companies bundle a small USB C to C power only adapter. Small and bright red so I can take it with me when traveling. I would love to know that the adapter prevents any data transfer so I can confidently charge my phone at any hotel, airport, bar, plane, restaurant, bus, mall, or meeting room without worrying about inadvertent data loss.

              Yeah, I'd trade another unneeded, always-too-short cable for a data blocker.

              • Why red?

                • Easy to see, obvious when it is inline with the charging cord, harder to lose in a bag of accessories, signifies it is stopping something. I guess I was just thinking of something that would stand out against the constant black, white, and pastel cables I seem to collect.

                  • Re: (Score:3)

                    by Malc ( 1751 )

                    You can get such things off Amazon as either data blocking adapters or as whole data blocking cables. And yes, in red (either the plugs or the cable too).

                • Because it's infuriating digging through a drawer that has multiple USB cables to try to remember which are power only, thus safe to use in public USB chargers.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              The ones that come with devices are often crap anyway. For example the USB cables supplied with Pixel phones, at least up to a few years ago when I last bought one, are USB 2.0 data rate only. If you plug a USB 3 cable in you get much faster transfers, like 10x faster.

              I have a load of crap cables and a few good ones I use. Not all the good ones are super fast, some are just very flexible or the right length.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

                Yeah, that's the big point. The supplied stuff is crap.

                Brazil forced Apple to bundle a charger with the iPhone. All Apple did was bundle the slow charger they used to ship with it. I think Apple was forced to keep those "in stock" solely for that reason even though no one really used it anymore.

                LIkewise, USB-C cables have similar issues - without an e-marker chip, it's only a 3A cable. You need an e-marker for 5A (5A is the maximum you can draw anyways - the higher power cables use higher voltages). So if t

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by allo ( 1728082 )

          If they have an incentive that's good. The other incentive would be to compete over "we still include a cable" selling cables people don't need because they have the cable of their three previous phones.

      • I also bought nice charging bricks. I don't need any more.

        Some time ago I realized I had a power strip at my desk that had half the outlets occupied by USB-A power bricks and a shortage of outlets to plug in 120VAC devices. I found a style of power strip that had 4 USB-A power outlets and 6 120 VAC outlets. After that I had power bricks out my ears.

        I gave a handful of USB power bricks to Mom, and also a handful of 1 meter long USB-A to Lightning cables for her iPad and iPhone. Now she's not swapping power cables and power bricks to charge up her little portable

      • Which is all well and good, but when I bought a new phone in 2020 they changed from USB to USB-C and didn't include a charging brick. All of my old Apple bricks were now useless for my Apple phone, and they didn't give me one that would work. I didn't want to have to buy a new one, but had no choice.

        The problem was changing the cable at the same time they stopped including bricks. That was a dick move. This is also a dick move, those cables do wear out. Also, they've changed to USB-C on both ends no

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      Oh yeah, I have plenty of leftover USB-A to Micro USB or USB-A to Lightning cables from my old devices.

      What I'm short on is new USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C cables. Basically all of my new devices use those, and the cheap ones that came with my devices are already wearing out.

      • I find plenty A to C and C to C cables at the supermarkets these days. They also have started showing up with things which take rechargeable batteries and just assume you have someplace to plug in a type C, which these days is fairly reasonable. For most phones it's perfectly safe to use a $4 cable, they are only drawing a few tens of watts anyway.

    • Yeah, no kidding. I have a ton of USB-C cables.

      In fact, I recently took delivery of 22 USB-C cables of various length, ranging from 1.5' to 10', all rated for 240W.

      That's in addition to the plethora of USB-C cables I already had.

      I don't need new devices to come with their own cables. I have a metric shit ton of them already.

      On that note, I had a shit ton of charging blocks too, of various capabilities. I don't need any more of those either.

    • I probably have 200+ USB cables and another one is a nuisance and not a feature.

      I'd love to see a real comparison against all those cables and [latest_model], since the counter-argument from Greed will be to insist you need Cable-NG in order to really gain every benefit they're selling about "fast" charging.

      Is the latest $49.99 gold-plated oxygen-starved platinum-lined (with cats) cable really necessary, or is all our other outdated dogshit just fine?

  • The last thing I need is another USB cable that's too short to do anything useful with, and too flimsy to carry real amounts of either data or power.

  • It is both (Score:4, Insightful)

    by roskakori ( 447739 ) on Tuesday October 07, 2025 @09:52PM (#65711102)

    It does have environmental benefits because there is no point in amassing 20+ USB cables over time, and companies increase their profits.

    If course, it would have been nice if they'd removed the cables and made the products cheaper.

    • Come on man, they're never going to drop prices unless it results in more profits.

      Any 'green' savings is completely coincidental and heavily marketed for conscientious consumers to make them feel like they're doing some good while they buy more shit they probably don't need.

      • How would you actually know if removing a USB dropped the price? The packaging probably cost more than the cable.

      • What "savings"? Despite the $20 you get charged for a USB cable retail, you have to know they cost literally 20 to make.

        • What "savings"? Despite the $20 you get charged for a USB cable retail, you have to know they cost literally 20 to make.

          It is quite astonishing to see that this is still a thing. It appears that Best Buy figured out how to get prices to something reasonable, for the most part. There can still be a "have it right now" premium but it's not near what it used to be. I was in one of the stores for my then cell phone service provider to pay my bill or something and thought while I was there I'd pick up a spare charging cable. When I was informed they wanted $20 for it I informed the CSR that there is a Best Buy across the park

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luthair ( 847766 )
      Especially for Apple since their goal is probably to sell you their Qi charging system.
    • Mostly the second (for profit). They don't care about the environment.
    • It sounds like you buy a lot of phones. I don't. When I do, I really need the cable and charging brick (no longer included, thanks jerks).

      How about people who are worried about electronic waste stop wasting so !#$^#$ many phones!

  • I have long-since switch to magnetic quick-connect cables and a little magnetic dongle on each device. This way regardless of the type of end my device needs (there are still a surprising number of micro and mini USB devices around) they all take the same cable. I haven't used a "provided" cable in years.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ocker3 ( 1232550 )
      Don't they violate the technical USB standard though? Meaning if there's a problem, the warranty likely won't hold?

      • The way to answer the question is to check if they exhibit an official USB logo on the box. I checked a few images on the internet, I could not see a logo, but that's not conclusive evidence.

    • I use these on everything as well, unless I'm updating all the music folders on my phone. They also act as dust/moisture covers for the jack.

  • I can bring my own apps. I don't need some low-rated garbage that I either can't install or is just sitting around trying to get updates all the time in an attempt to re-activate itself.

  • This is progress. The USB-C cable and charger is no longer new tech, and cheap versions that work well enough are readily available. Devices should start advertising the recommended wattage and let stores stock chargers sorted by that.

  • apple got an fine in Brazil for not selling iPhones with a charger so will they get even more if they cut the cable as well?

  • To bad the USB-C spec is an mess for cables and changers

  • Those cents add up to millions. Plus I mean, why should phone manufacturers care about their users, none of them does.

    The practical problem, of course, will now be where subscribers will get the exact type of USB cable from, they'll need for the phone... but one can sell it to them at overinflated prices, even more profits.

    Of course there's always a risk that people get their phone, and then don't bother using it, because they can't find a proper cable, effectively lowering the revenue for the company... bu

  • I used to think about this as a problem, saw some phones (mostly Samsung) that refuse to charge or transfer data with random cables I had around home. But I found some cheap cables on Temu that do the job well.

  • USB-C (Score:3)

    by ledow ( 319597 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2025 @03:20AM (#65711358) Homepage

    No different to "batteries not included".

    If the world has standardised on chargers - finally! - after so long, then maybe we should just embrace that.

    It was always Apple dragging their feet, and now all the Apple users have USB-C too (thanks, Europe!), there's no bad thing in everyone used a bunch of standardised chargers and having to build devices compliant with a wide range of chargers that everyone already has.

  • ... that by and large there is absolutely no lack of USB cables.

    I don't use the ones that ship anyway. I have long thick ones with fabric isolation and little LED lights on the plugs that tell me if they are live or not.

  • All my charging options are USB-A, bought when micro-USB was going to be the long-term standard, or what desktops have loads to spare of. The bundled C to C cables are useless to me.
  • I have a box of USB C cable with the little wrapper still around them. If I am upgrading phones I already have cables in place to use. Can say I would missing not getting one. Now for the few people moving from a very old micro USB phone to a USB C phone, It would be a pain but you can get cables at the local dollar store so its not hard to find.

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