Samsung's first solar-powered full touch phone 'Blue Earth'

BARCELONA, Spain (AVING Special Report on 'MWC 2009') -- Samsung Electronics unveiled 'Blue Earth', the first full-touchscreen cell phone to run on solar power. With a 'flat and well rounded shiny pebble' design, the Blue Earth adopts a solar panel on the rear of the device that allows the Blue Earth user to make a call anytime, from anywhere.

The green aspects of this decidedly blue phone include its 5 star energy efficient charger, the use of recycled PCM plastic(from beverage bottles) for the phone's body, and packaging that is made completely from recycled paper. The phone also sports a new eco-friendly UI that allows the user to quickly enter 'eco-mode' to adjust Bluetooth and screen brightness and backlight duration to limit power requirements.

And in what could well be one of the cutest new features on the market, the Blue Earth also sports a pedometer that will not only show how much the user saves the planet in terms of CO2 emissions by walking instead of driving, but it will even translate that figure into the number of trees saved.

So far Samsung has not released any pricing or market availability information for the Blue Earth, but we do expect to give the phone the full hands-on treatment at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona.