Bad news: More phones are shipping without a charger now

We’ve seen a trend for Android OEMs to drop the in-box charger from their high-end phones ever since Apple did it several years ago. Xiaomi previously flirted with this decision, but it’s now dropped the bundled charger with its latest flagship Android phone.

We can confirm that our Xiaomi 14T Pro doesn’t ship with a phone charger in the box, only coming with a USB-C cable and a protective case.

A Xiaomi representative confirmed the news in a statement to Android Authority:

There’s no charger bundled this time, as it’s a European version, it will not include the charger (sic).

Europe’s Common Charger Directive encourages the sale of devices in the EU without a bundled charger in order to reduce e-waste. So Xiaomi is likely following this guidance. OnePlus cited this directive earlier this year when it emerged that the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite didn’t ship with a charger in the region. But the OnePlus phone also dropped the charger in other markets, such as Malaysia.

A growing trend to drop the bundled charger

This move nevertheless means that you’ll need to buy a separate 120W charger for the Xiaomi 14T Pro or rely on a USB-PD charger. Xiaomi devices used to have iffy support for the USB-PD standard, but that’s improved in recent years. So you should be able to get fast speeds (65W+) with PD chargers. That’s more than can be said for most OnePlus phones, which still fall back to sub-30W charging speeds via USB-PD.

Xiaomi’s move also comes after the company dropped the bundled charger from the Mi 11 in China back in 2021, although recent flagships in the region offer an in-box adapter once again. The company also launched the Redmi Note 11 SE in India in 2022 without an in-box adapter, but subsequent Redmi Note phones in the market still offer a bundled charger. Nevertheless, the 14T Pro marks the first time that Xiaomi has dropped the in-box charger from a globally released flagship phone.

We’ve asked Xiaomi whether all 14T Pro models will skip the bundled charger or if this only applies to European variants. We’ll update the article as soon as the company gives us an answer. Either way, the company would be joining Apple, Google, OnePlus, and Samsung in ditching the bundled charger from their high-end phones in some capacity.