Going "Green" with cell phone
Samsung, in coalition with Sprint, one of the leading network operators in the USA with lots of “Green” initiatives to its credit, has announced its latest eco-friendly initiative, “Reclaim”. The Samsung Reclaim is supposed to be an environment friendly cell phone that will be sold in Sprint Nextel’s own network.
It is the first cell phone in the US to be constructed from eco-friendly, bio-plastic material. It is made up of 70 percent recyclable material. 40 percent of Reclaim’s outer casing is made of bio-plastic material extracted from corn. It is free from Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates and almost free from brominated flame retardants (BFR) – all of which are considered to be harmful to the ecosystem. Even the images and text printed on the box as well as the phone warranty information are printed with soy ink!
As for features, Reclaim can be related to Samsung’s ‘Exclaim’ model. Its application runs on BREW and JAVA and offers basic web browsing, e-mail and access to social networking sites Myspace and Facebook. However, it does not feature a Wi-Fi option. Other features include a 2.4 inch (320 x 240 pixels) LED screen (not a touch screen), a slide-out full QUERTY keyboard, Sprint navigation with search, 2 mega pixel camera with 3X digital zoom and camcorder, advanced stereo Bluetooth 2.0, a micro-SD card slot with a 512 MB card included and expandable memory storage up to 32 GB. Weighing just 3.5 ounces, the phone comes in two natural colors “Earth green and “Ocean blue”.
The charger for this cell phone is 12 times more power-efficient than the Energy Star standard for standby power consumption. It is Energy Star approved for concurring to the highest energy efficiency standards prescribed by the US environmental protection agency and the US department of energy. It also has a light that alerts you when the battery is fully charged.
Well, another amicable news is that this eco-friendly cell phone that is likely to hit the market in the mid of August 2009, is also friendly to the pocket, coming at a price tag of about $50.
