Greening electronics

Over the years, an oversupply of chargers and headphones has occurred as these two accessories are considered the default components of newly shipped smartphones. Meanwhile, a charger or headset can be used for devices of many different brands. In particular, the USB charging port of Android devices is more compatible.

Limit chargers, headphones

When launching the iPhone 12 series smartphones in October 2020, Apple surprised both iFan and the Android community by removing the charger and EarPods from the phone case. After that, Samsung launched the Galaxy S21 series which also did not have headphones and charger in the box.

Samsung improves smartphone batteries with new technology. Photo: DIGITAL TRENDS

The wired headset that came with the device is no longer popular because of its low quality, so most users often have to buy more “genuine” wireless headphones of music lovers. With a large number of iPhone and Galaxy devices on the market, the removal of headphones and chargers by manufacturers greatly reduces the amount of electronic waste, as well as the amount of materials to make them. Resources for production, especially energy, are also eliminated.

According to Apple, eliminating the charger and headphones will reduce the size of the iPhone case to only 50%, save paper and ink, and can save up to 70% of iPhones on a pallet (safe). At the same time, the selling price of smartphones will decrease, helping users save costs. In addition, users also have the option to use their existing headphones and chargers or buy them separately from their favorite brands.

Not only smartphones, in 2021, all packaging of Samsung TVs will use recycled materials. In 2022, Samsung will expand recyclable materials to include packaging inside the box, including foam, containers and plastic bags. The company also announced the global expansion of its eco-packaging program that won the CES 2020 Innovation Award and International Design Excellence at IDEA 2020. Samsung has adopted the packaging format. eco-friendly for Lifestyle high-end TVs.

With the eco-packaging program, users can recycle cardboard boxes into homes for pets, accessories and other useful interior items (with dot pattern matrix design, with crafting instructions included) ).

In 2022, Samsung will expand this packaging to home appliances such as vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, air purifiers, etc. From 2021, Samsung has committed to eliminating single-use plastic bags. from its packaging by 2025.

Using new technology to improve battery

Samsung and Apple have also come up with solutions to improve battery quality for smartphones, towards being environmentally friendly.

Samsung’s new technology will stack Gen 5 EV batteries as used in electric vehicles. Specifically, many small batteries stacked on top of each other to retain the same amount of charge as a larger battery pack. If the space inside the phone doesn’t change, stacked batteries will provide more capacity.

Compared with the standard winding method, the battery stacking method has more advantages, such as: higher energy density, lower internal resistance and large capacity. This helps the new generation batteries increase their energy density by more than 10%, according to Digital Trends. With this new technology, the 5,000 mAh battery will be replaced by a 5,500 mAh battery of the same size, reducing the space for the battery, making the phone thinner and lighter.

Besides battery capacity, charging speed is also important, so Apple has launched MagSafe wireless charging technology with iPhone 12. The back of iPhone 12 with MagSafe is equipped with magnets and magnetic components. other. When charging, users only need to attach the back of the phone to the wireless charger. The magnet placed in the middle of the iPhone 12 will ensure an optimally aligned position, increasing efficiency when charging.

In addition, the latest firmware update has just been released by Apple, making charging times faster, even on the go. For 7.5W charging on the go, users need to update the MagSafe battery pack to firmware version 2.7.

In the support document on the official website, Apple indicates that the fastest way to update the firmware is to use a MacBook or iPad. Once there, plug one end of the Lightning-to-USB cable into the Lightning connector on your iPhone’s battery pack, and the other end into your MacBook or iPad, and charging should be over in about 5 minutes. Users can check if the update is complete by going to Settings on iPhone, then General > About > MagSafe Battery Pack, the firmware version will show as 2.7.