Iphone 12 Box FranceSource: TheiCollection

What you need to know

  • Apple has removed the charger and headphones from its iPhone boxes.
  • Except in France, where the law requires the company to include its Lightning EarPods.
  • Unboxings have revealed that French customers will get the same iPhone 12 box, and EarPods will be included in a separate, larger box that also contains the phone.

Apple's iPhone 12 in France will come bundled with its Lightning EarPods inside a slightly larger box in order to comply with the law in the country.

Whilst Apple added plenty of new features to the iPhone 12, it also removed the charger and Lightning EarPods from its iPhone box to make the package substantially smaller, saving on shipping costs and emissions.

Except French law requires smartphone vendors to ship their smartphones with a hands-free device or headphones because of laws about electromagnetic radiation, particularly in relation to small children.

Because of this, Apple's iPhone 12 (and previous models) will still come with Lightning EarPods. New unboxing videos have confirmed however that Apple's iPhone 12 packaging remains unchanged, and that French customers will still get the thinner, sleek iPhone 12 box seen elsewhere. However, this will be contained inside a slightly larger box which features Apple's Lightning EarPods, as seen in TheiCollection's video (via iGeneration):

Apple outlined its decision to remove the charger and headphones from its iPhone boxes as an environmental commitment during its October iPhone 12 event. Apple says that the move will save 2 million metric tons of carbon a year, the equivalent of taking 450,000 cars off the road each year. For context, Apple's entire yearly carbon footprint is 25 million metric tons, making this a fairly substantial saving.