Sure, a cellphone made out of
80 percent recycled materials might be considered pretty environmentally friendly, but a cellphone with a built-in solar panel? Now
that's something with the potential to make Al Gore cry. Enter the Samsung E1107. It's solar panel-equipped back cover comes in at 1.2-mm thin, and is said to revive a dead battery after just 15 minutes in the sun. Besides the FM radio and flashlight features, the only other noteworthy addition is an "Eco" profile, that essentially just changes screen brightness and shuts the Bluetooth off. If you're interested, the cost of entry is a reasonable $59, but you'll probably have to find an importer, as we don't expect this tree hugger to land stateside any time soon.
[Thanks, Vadik]
posted Aug 11th 2009 11:32AM
This could potentially replace my Nokia as my emergency phone, especially at that price.
What a beautiful device. /s
Seems pretty handy as a back up phone, or one to toss in a backpack if your an outdoor type:P
wow they actually still make a phone that is just a phone...well almost just a phone..fm radio is nice i guess....but you mean it doesn't have navigation, blu-ray player, tv tuner, washer and dryer, microwave, refrigerator, stun-gun, gps locator/homing beacon, and option cupholder built-in? shocking
now if it had a slide out magnifying glass, bottle opener, knife, and toothpick it would be no contest
iPoop...I'm pretty sure germy understood that when he wrote his post. Think humor.
I say get rid of the radio and it's a great buy for an emergency phone when you're hiking. I like it.
Actually, on second thought... make it waterproof and THEN we have a winner! This would totally rock while on vacation or something.
Wouldn't a radio be useful in an emergency??
If you're talking about needing it for severe weather reports, then yeah, I guess it would come in handy. Other than that, if it's not 'push to talk' to say 911, then no.
Now if they could just integrate a touchscreen into that solar panel....
for what ?, that useless...
I hope they're successful with this. I'd like to see a solar panel incorporated into more phones.
This could be a great party phone, when you're gone for days without your charger.
No compass?
heres and idea..ditch the battery and put a supercapicitor in there or something
These solar devices seem great (I has a solar GPS unit before they began to become integrated) but putting it in the sun (particularly when it is black) will surely result in it getting very hot, something which will kill the battery in no time.
Hmmm... you do have a good point there... Do you think a lot of damage can happen in 15 minutes? Also, I'm thinking solar power is not this device's ONLY form or recharging. I'm thinking the panels are for use when you have no charger in sight.
It's 15 mins from completely empty phone to revive it.
An hour in sun will give 5-10 mins speak time
Yeah, I can't think they've thought this through - the battery will be dead after no time if you have to leave it sat in the sun... Unless the battery is somehow heat proofed? But then any heat insulation would end up acting in reverse so that when it charges the battery would get ultra hot...and then also that phone doesn't look big enough to have much insulation inside it...
This is great, what a perfect travel phone!
Too bad this is GSM 900/1800 only...so no worky in the US.
If that MOTO-FONE had better texting I would have gone for it in a heartbeat. But Christ, what awful texting.
Great, it wasn't bad enough that we had to be careful of damaging the front (screen) of a phone, now we need to protect the rear too.
Does it come with a ManBearPig detector?
How long will the battery last?
I think this is a great idea. Perfect phone for developing countries with patchy power. And a great phone to take on holiday for us Westerners. Maybe Moto could do a 'buy one give one' too!
Don't forget about Sharp's Solar Hybrid 936SH for Softbank. It's a solar panel phone that was announced before Moto's.
Link to the phone.
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/product/3G/936sh/
doesn't actually look to bad, but seems like it would be a whole lot more practical in something like a sat-phone where you're more likely to need alternative charging
There are a couple sat phones that have optional solar chargers, so yeah it's been done. This is good for those who don't need a sat phone, but still need to occasionally connect to a cell network when it's available.
Phone already available in Brazil (TIM). Prices: around U$ 92 (as a pre-paid) and free on a contract (60min/month or more).
btw the article says it needs 55 hours for a complete recharge in perfect conditions. go figure.
make it quad band, with a better (read: faster) solar recharge time, and waterproof and I'm sold. I have an iPhone, but I often do international backpacking and this would be perfect. Pop a sim in and use it anywhere as your emergency/SMS update phone. You wouldn't even need to bring the charger to save some weight in your travel pack. If it were quad band I would have purchased it right now.