By In an interview with ZTE Sales Director Wu Sa, Register Hardware confirmed that the company will launch an Android Phone by the second quarter of 2010 – so we’re looking at 9-12 months. Too far away to care about? What if I told you the ZTE Android Phone might be solar powered…
The above phone is the ZTE Coral 200 Solar whichthe company claims is the world’s first low-cost solar-powered mobile phone that will go on sale in June or July for a rumored price of about $40. Every hour that the phone’s solar panels (on rear) soak up the sun, you’ll net an additional 15 minutes of talk time. It also charges traditioally of course.
A year is a long ways away though. We’ll almost definitely see a ZTE Android Phone by then but (smartly) the company doesn’t want to commit to a solar powered version just yet:
However, Wu Sa explained that before ZTE goes ahead with the production of an Android-based light-powered handset, the company must look carefully at how the Google OS and solar panel would impact the handset’s eco-qualities, features and capabilities.
Either way we’ll be eagerly anticipating the ZTE device and we’re happy another model is in the queue.
That’s the iea I had for G1 casing: get a solar panel on the back and charge it whenever you can.
Seriously, Android phones need lots of juice and solar power is the option to go.
I’d love to charge my mobile with thermonuclear power of our Sun.
As the CEO of a company that makes solar powered products (for environmental monitoring), I’d love to say that solar is the answer. The sad reality for a phone is that the area-available on a handset and the light to which it is nominally exposed is so minimal (and the cost of the panel so high) that you will net *very* little energy this way. Who wants to leave their phone outside (most commercial windows are tinted to significantly reduce IR transmission) for six hours in exchange for half a charge? The better, faster, cheaper way is to use grid-tied solar or solar power plants outright to charge a traditional chemical cell (battery) in the phone.