Samsung to unveil solar-powered mobile

Electronics giant Samsung appears to have won the race to develop the world's first solar-powered mobile phone with the news it is to unveil its new Blue Earth mobile phone at next week's Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.

According to reports, the touch-screen phone will feature an integrated solar panel on the back of the handset capable of topping up the battery throughout the day.

Samsung failed to give technical specifications on how much energy the solar panels will generate, but the phone will come with a mains charger, which suggests that while the panel will extend time between recharges it will not replace conventional charging altogether.

The company said that the phone's body had been made from recycled plastic bottles and does not contain any Brominated Flame Retardants, Beryllium and Phthalate.

It will also feature a pedometer that allows users to calculate how much carbon they save by walking instead of driving and an adjustable energy conservation mode providing the user with the ability to save energy by reducing the screen brightness and cutting the amount of time the backlight is kept on for.

A number of solar powered charging units are already on the market, but manufacturers of handheld electronics have been racing to integrate solar panels into their units in a bid to provide products that ultimately will not need recharging.

UK-based solar cell manufacturer G24i is working on thin film cells that it predicts could provide enough power to ensure that a Blackberry could draw all the power it needs from ambient light, while Apple last year filed a patent to integrate solar cells behind the LCD panel of an iPod.