Sony Ericsson unveils greener mobiles

The C901 GreenHeart is designed to have low environmental impact

Sony Ericsson has announced environmentally friendly mobile handsets that are designed to use less energy, are constructed from recycled plastics, and ship with a reduced volume of packaging and documentation.

Announced today under the GreenHeart brand are two handsets, the C901 and the Naite, plus the MH300 headset and a special power-saving charger for the Naite.

Sony Ericsson president Hideki Komiyama said the company was already an industry leader in removing harmful substances from its products, and the phones represented the next step in its sustainability strategy.

The features introduced in these new products will be used across its broader product portfolio during the next two years, the company said.

Set to be available in the UK before the end of June, the C901 GreenHeart sports a casing made from minimum 50 per cent recycled plastic and saves paper by having a built-in electronic manual in place of a printed version. The screen backlight also has a light sensor to save energy by optimising its brightness.

All these measures add up to a reduction in carbon dioxide footprint of 15 per cent compared with Sony Ericsson's own C902 Cyber-Shot phone, the company said.

In specifications, the C901 is a 3G HSPA handset with quad-band voice support and a 5-megapixel camera with built-in xenon flash. It has an FM radio and Bluetooth, but no Wi-Fi. It has 120MB memory and a slot for Memory Stick Micro Flash storage cards.

Also included with the new phone is the MH300 GreenHeart headset, which is almost entirely made from recycled plastic and described by Sony Ericsson as one of the greenest headsets available.

Coming in the third quarter is the Naite handset, which includes many of the environmentally friendly features of the C901, but also ships with the EP300 GreenHeart charger. This charger complies with Energy Star level V efficiency specifications, according to Sony Ericsson, and consumes just a tenth the power of a standard charger in standby mode.

The phone itself has 3G and quad-band voice support, with an FM radio and Bluetooth plus 2-megapixel camera. It has 100MB memory and a slot for Micro SD Flash storage cards.

Prices for the handsets will depend on the carrier and tariff, Sony Ericsson said.