Samsung's New Blue Earth Phone is Solar Powered and Made From Water Bottles : TreeHugger

samsung blue earth phone image
Photos Via Pocket Lint

Not a whole lot of detail about Samsung's new Blue Earth Phone except that it has some eco-features that finally get us excited about the future of greener cell phones.

We really hope this won't be a disappointing chunk of greenwash like Motorola's Renew. Hitting the UK in the second half of 2009, the Samsung Blue Earth phone is a touchscreen smart phone that can apparently generate the power it needs to make a call any time from the solar panel built into the back.

At first glance, we're pretty darn excited about this solar power feature. But, we aren't sure just what Samsung means by this and how powerful that solar panel must be to charge up an energy-intensive touchscreen phone for 24/7 use. Perhaps it's simply that it can get enough juice from the sun to make a call, but not run much else on the phone. Also, are people really going to leave their phone in the sun long enough and often enough to charge it? At any rate, it's an excellent addition to a cell phone so that needed back-up power can be gathered when it's bright out.

Most of the phone is constructed from PCM, a plastic extracted from recycled water bottles (more so than the Renew?) and both the handset and energy efficient charger ditch harmful substances such as Brominated Flame Retardants, Beryllium and Phthalate. Additionally, the phone comes in recycled packaging.

“Samsung’s ‘The Blue Earth Dream’ demonstrates our small but meaningful commitments for the future and our environment,” said Mr. JK Shin, Executive Vice President and Head of Mobile Communication Division of Samsung Electronics.

Special TreeHugger feature - it has a built-in pedometer that can calculate and tell you how many trees you are saving by walking instead of driving. Perhaps not quite as cool as the Ecorio app, but still neat.

And that's about all the specs we have on it. Disappointing, we know. More news will come out next week when it is debuted at Mobile World Congress, and we'll keep our ear to the ground for more relevant info about this part-real-part-really? phone.

Via Pocket Lint and i4u

More on Cell Phones:
CES 2009: Visiting the Motorola Renew Mobile Phone
New Solar-Powered Phone Unveiled
Nokia Wood Cellphone from Sustainably Harvested Wood? Not