Solar Cell Phone Is Earth Friendly, Dirt Cheap
By Evan Ackerman
You don’t generally expect much from a cell phone that costs less than sixty bucks, and with the Samsung E1107, you don’t get much. It’s got a 128 x 128 display, an FM radio, and a built-in flashlight. The reason that you’d buy it is the solar panel the takes up the entire back of the phone, promising up to 10 minutes of call time per hour in the sun. While not the most efficient way of charging your phone, it’s a million times better than an iPhone 3GS at out of power performance, and at least gives you an option for mobile charging.
The other reason to get this phone is that it’s good for the Earth: it helps reduce global warming. Not in the way you’re thinking, that would be too obvious. No, I’m talking about how having a solar panel out in the sun absorbs photons, preventing them from imparting their horrible energy into the ground and making everything just a little bit cooler. If everybody was using solar powered cell phones, not only would we be saving energy charging them, but charging them would actually cool the planet by some fraction of a degree that I’m just going to go ahead and call significant and important! Yay solar power!
So far, the E1107 is available pretty much everywhere except the US. Why must they taunt us so?
[ Newswire ] VIA [ Samsung Hub ]
Yeah, we’ve seen a similar question before, but this one’s looking specifically at NAS devices that won’t force you to liquidate half your assets to afford. We’ll let David take it from here, and once you’re done reading / responding, send in a question of your own to ask at engadget dawt com: