In writing gadget news for a living you begin to pick up on
certain patterns. Apple leads. Microsoft follows. AT&T is slow in the head.
Eco-gadgets are expensive. Well, with the Crest E1107 Samsung hopes to buck the
trend offering up the solar-powered cellphone for under $60. In what is becoming
an expanding market, the Crest enters the realm of other such cellphones as
Samsung’s upcoming eco-option the Blue Earth and it’s already beat solar-phone competitors
LG and ZTE (both of which have publicly demonstrated their prototypes) to the
market by making its debut in India earlier this month. So what does $59 get
you in a solar cellphone?
Rather than being a completely stripped-down eco-gimmick,
the Crest actually sports some competitive features like FM radio, MP3
ringtones, a flashlight, and a nifty ‘fake call’ feature to get out of those
oh-so-awkward blind dates. The phone will also feature region specific
features, such as in Southeast Asia where it utilizes profile screening for
bikers to allow only incoming calls from selected contacts for a safer ride.
But these features all play second fiddle to the solar
charger embedded in the back of the phone. According to Samsung one hour of in
the sun can provide between 5 and 10 minutes of talk time. With numbers like
these if you want to get entirely off the grid you’d best not be a chatty-Kathy
but it’s hard to imagine a better phone for you outdoors-types as it provides
security and connectivity regardless of an outlet. Of course the phone isn’t
limited to just solar charging as it comes with ye olde power adapter.
Unfortunately for us Yanks and Canucks Samsung
has no immediate plans for a North American launch. The Crest E1107 is set to
launch in Europe, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Latin America later this
month, in addition to already being available in India.
