Samsung has announced the Samsung Blue Earth: the world's first solar powered touchscreen mobile phone.
The Blue Earth is manufactured from recycled plastic bottles and features an eco mode, which Samsung claims saves energy by reducing the power consumption of the device's screen and Bluetooth connection.
A full solar charge of around 10 to 14 hours will provide enough power for around four hours of talk time. The handset can still be charged normally using a conventional plug, with the solar panels used to top up the battery during use.
The energy cost of recharging mobile phones is very small, so I doubt that this will help much.
Every little helps though, and it could be very useful in remote areas that lack power for charging.
I very much doubt that solar charging would help much in UK conditions, they refer to a full charge taking up to 14 hours, in order to obtain 4 hours talk time.
I would assume that the 14 hours is of direct bright sunlight, therefore in UK winter conditions charging would take about two weeks, for 4 hours talk time, thats not even 15 minutes a day !
And remember that the phone wont charge at all when in a pocket, and wont charge significantly indoors (unless exposed to direct sunlight)
Of course outdoors in a tropical climate, one might achieve 5 or 6 hours charging a day, and perhaps an hours talk time, that could be useful, but for UK conditions it sounds a bit of a marketing gimick.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
Most of the battery use on my phone is when I'm on the internet, and much of it at night. I've never checked charging times, but I can go from an almost empty battery to fully charged in a pretty short time, while being on the net.
I think this solar powered cell phone is brilliant! Although the energy used by cell phone is so small but if many people will use solar powered cell phones, then I think we can all save energy significantly.
Francis wrote:I think this solar powered cell phone is brilliant! Although the energy used by cell phone is so small but if many people will use solar powered cell phones, then I think we can all save energy significantly.
I'd agree but for the fact that I currently keep my mobile in a deep, dark pocket.
JohnB wrote:My phone's solar charged. I plug it into a socket connected direct to my solar charge controller. It doesn't take 14 hours either.
This is also a brilliant idea. I think even if we don't have solar powered phone, we can still use a solar charge controller and charge our phone using it.
Same here, all our battery operated appliances have been solar charged for most of the year with only a couple of days in February because of the snow.
Charging a phone with solar energy is not a great move in terms of carbon footprint but I suppose it has an educational purpose as most people have a mobile phone nowadays. Mine is rarely on so don't bother!
