Comments on: Samsung's Blue Earth solar phone is ultra-green

It's not just the integrated solar panels. The phone is made of recycled plastic, features a pedometer, and even software that reaffirms just how much you're helping the planet by using it.

[softwarepro]

GSM OR CDMA WOULD LOVE TO KNOW

[forever4now]

Cool! This should become an upgrade option for all mobile phones.

In addition to the outdoorsy types (campers, hunters, etc.), I can see it being useful for:
1. people in developing countries that may not always have easy access to an electric outlet.
2. travelers who forgot their chargers.

[donjonson]

why wuold it explode in Al Gores pocket? He is one of the biggest amoung the environmental dogma crowd.

[donjonson]

sorry that should read...
why would it explode in Al Gores pocket? He is one of the biggest hypocrites among the environmental dogma priesthood.

[Voice_Of_Logic]

I am really tired of this "green" crap. Is GE going to say that they invented solar panels while Al Gore says he invented global warming? Please.

[Mikeatle]

Wow. Somebody needs a nap.

[forever4now]

What exactly do you define as "green" crap?

Even if global warming were not a problem, do you think it is still OK to keep polluting the air, not recycling trash, etc....forever? I don't want to deal with your pollution & trash any more than I expect you to deal with my pollution & trash.

"Green" products help to raise people's awareness about their environment and the effect they have on it. That can only be a good thing.

[DarkHawke]

@forever4now: I can't speak for Voice_Of_Logic, but I would call feel-good but ineffectual ideas like this '"green" crap.' Into that same category, I'd also lump global warming and anyone who, when faced with someone that disagrees even in the slightest with the "green" agenda, goes into full-on hyperbole mode, accusing the "denier" of condoning heedless pollution and destruction of the environment. There is a balance to all things; currently the "green" movement is at the far edge of fanaticism. "Awareness" IS a good thing. The destruction of our economy for the sake of fallacious claims backed by zero credible evidence, I hope you will agree, is not.

[another_cissp]

I wonder whether the solar panels are really functional solar panels or if they are just a marketing gimmick. I don?t see that little solar panel powering a color touch screen phone for any useable amount of time or charging a lithium polymer battery without baking the phone in the sun for 2 weeks.

[broginator]

This. If they could make solar panels this efficient, couldn't they pretty much power anything?

[mikedrud]

I have a solar-powered Texas Instruments calculator that is 22 years old and works and looks like I bought it yesterday. You don't need to bake anything in the sun... ambient light is enough to power small items. I can't believe people are so naive about this technology that they think it is new.

The reason businesses haven't pursued solar power further is expense and the fact that products last a million years (no turnover), just like my old (new-like) calculator.

[Notoapplefanbois]

Anyone thought that since the panel is on the back your hand is in the way and somethings telling me you ain't leaving it outside for a few hours or charging it in the night

[PhaseDMA]

This might work in the summer on the beach. I'm not sure about any other time though.

[srleeplus3377]

Actually as a beta tester of Blue Earth, as they call in S. Korea, solar charging does not seem to be a gimmick, it actually fully charges itself indoor within 5 hours. If you could charge outdoors, I bet it will be much more faster due to gamma and little bit of microwave radiation. So overall, it is a green phone but the important things is that it is SEXY.

[kcotham]

Beta and Gamma radiation has nothing to do with it. IF those bands were present in "sunlight" at any strength, life would be impossible on this planet. Solar cells are only sensitive to certain frequency ranges of light. Or more accurately, they are most efficient in those ranges. Direct sunlight is much more intense than indirect, so you are correct there.

[srleeplus3377]

yep, sorry... anyway it will charge well indoors

[lordmorgul]

They should have had this solar panel on the FRONT of the flipphone so it would be visible while talking. The big screen on the front just further 'ungreenifies' the phone... anyone really concerned about the power they are consuming shouldn't need that big panel active all the time.

[kcotham]

Uh, think about that. If you are using the phone, it is pressed up against your face. The back is actually more exposed. Now, unless your father was a glazier, I don't think this would work too well. And besides, you have more real estate on the back for panels.

I agree that it needs an ultra low power consumption screen.

[Sabroson]

I need a solar panel for my iPhone :-(

[kcotham]

Although they aren't built in, third parties do make small solar chargers that will charge an iPhone or iPod. One I saw recently was made by Solio, but there are others, Google it.

[Flashdrivezero]

Solar is good but when is my mobile phone sitting in the sun ?
When will they put in some useful features - Like remote control for TV - garage door opener - heart rate monitor and such. My mobile has dozens of gimmicks I don't use. What about a pedometer ? A personal tracker that could be programmed between two phones.
Even an egg timer would be more use than some of the stuff on my Nokia !

[srleeplus3377]

actually there is a pedometer

[kcotham]

It'll charge sitting on your desk, on your kitchen table, anywhere there is light of any amount. Read my post below. I think the day of the Swiss Amy Knife approach has peaked. Most people I know only want a simple, reliable phone that gets great reception and the battery doesn't conk out after a few hours. Read into this something like this phone crossed with that new Motorola for emerging markets. The "smart" features on my phone, I hardly ever use them. People are looking to cut back expenses nowadays. This means simpler phone plans, taking data plans out, texting plans get trimmed, etc. For a lot of people, not just the "green" minded or emerging markets would gladly have a simple, reliable, environmentally sound alternative. Take a hint manufacturers! It isn't just in some little country in Africa that people want things like this. See how people in the so called "first world" clamoured after the $100 laptop idea?!

[mikedrud]

kcotham is right. Solar power doesn't mean let something bake in the sun. Ambient light is the result of the sun, so you could let it sit in your living room and get power that way. My Texas Instruments calculator is solar and is now 22 years old. It's like brand new. I have never had to let it sit in the sun. It just charges while I use it indoors. Very simple with smaller electronic devices. Seriously.

[studentIDnumber]

Your solar calculator works without being in the sun...I would assume this is along the same lines.
My schedule is so hectic in the last few months I am always forgetting to bring my charger or even if I have it I forget to plug it in. This would be very handy. It would charge while I am talking on it or forget it on the counter.

[kcotham]

What someone needs to do is to make an ultra low power, simple, maybe with a greyscale screen, phone that uses today's best battery chemistry along with ultra high output solar cells. If done right, you could have the thing NEVER need to be plugged in. And since phone companies are standardising (finally!) on micro USB as a charging/data interface, you don't even need to include a charger. Just include a cable. Heck you probably don't even need to do that. Just about everyone I know has a USB/microUSB cable somewhere. Talking about green. You'd have a phone that is ultra efficient with power, needing to be recharged only by light. And on the occasion it does need to be plugged in, the infrastructure is already out there with cables and chargers.

If someone doesn't do this, I AM!

[morpheus591]

hello!! it does not matter if this is marketing propaganda. if samsung wants to be green. then it has to get smart first. computers sit on desks all day long, use DC and are almost always close to a window, why not start there. 2nd if you want to go green then make all cellphones green! how?. make a solar charger that sits on your car's dashboard, anyway your car sits under the sun 8/7/ almost 365 days a year, you can use that electricity at night to recharge your phone. even with a solar phone your battery will die after 1 hour of use, and duh, no one is gonna say, hey call me in 5 hours so my phone charges and we can keep talking for another lousy hour (if conditions allow it, otherwise good luck!). oh and laptops sit by the window very often. dont they have 15" to 19" of area that can be used for solar cells? hmm 2 hours of charge and 2 hours of use, sounds pretty good until your electrical components start MELTING UNDER THE SUN. electronic devices cant have solar cells on their own. we need solar cells that charge batteries that later charge devices!.
AND YES I NEED SOME SLEEP!
hope someone at samsung reads this, cuz their gadgets are pretty good but they need solutions that anyone would use, not just the greenish guys, cuz solar cells don't come cheap, much less on a cell phone.

[mikedrud]

Again, you don't need to put a relatively small solar item in the sun for it to charge. Ambient light (indoors, yes) works for most items. You could let you phone sit in a well-lit room and it would charge (not as fast as in direct sunlight, sure, but probably good enough). My Texas Instruments calculator is 22 years old, is solar, and "activates" when there is enough light in the room to make it run. This is not as new as people think. Companies are just seeing the profit potential here, and I'm glad they do.

[marktaff]

I hope nobody is falling for mikedrud's nonsense. You cannot use a calculator as any kind on meaningful comparison to a cell phone. Consider a battery-powered TI BA II Plus circa 1996. It has a 220mAh 3VDC CR2032 battery, and draws 60x10^(-6)A (60 micro-amps). Doing the math (0.00018 watts), that calculator will operate at full bore, fingers furiously flying across the keypad, 24-7 for 152 days straight before the battery dies. That 1996 calculator of mine is still on its first battery, mind you. ;-)

Does that at all sound comparable to a cell phone that has anywhere from a 900mAh to a 2100 mAh battery (4-10 times as much charge), but will only last for a few hours of hard use before dying? Of course not.

Consider a bright summer day in Oregon. Ground level insolation will be about 0.38 watts per square inch, best case. Suppose the solar cell was rather good, at about 19% efficiency, and the phone is held perfectly normal to the angle of incidence, with zero reflectivity, etc. Then each square inch of cell would generate about 0.072 watts. If the cell is 2"x4", then it will produce about a half a watt. That is enough to power the antenna, if you aren't that far from a tower. Course, there wouldn't be any power to dial, or to power the display, or heck, to even modulate your voice.

Kudos to the Samsung engineers for working to improve their products. Let's not belittle their accomplishments by trivializing them, and comparing a mobile device with a calculator is just that.