Sharp Corp's "Solar Phone SH002"

Solar Phone SH002 Being charged in the sun

Solar Powered Sharp Solar Phone SH002
"Solar Phone SH002" released by KDDI Corp as one of its summer 2009 models, has capabilities to charge it self by Solar cells embedded on the phone.Top cover of the flip phone is equipped with the solar cell(s) that charges the phone batteries.
Nikkei Electronics Teardown Squad, which usually breaks apart devices to analyze the products, managed to get their hands on a limited availability handset, which is pictured here.
Before tearing down the phone, they also tested the solar charging capabilities of the phone. During a very nice and sunny afternoon, the phone reached 1 minute talk time capability after being charged for 40 minutes. The phone had zero capacity of power when the charging began. The talk time increased to 30 minutes at 60 minute mark and full 5 minute talk time (?) was reached after charging for 85 minutes. This seem to indicate that solar charger to be used as residual or emergency charger rather than the principal charger.
Whatever the reason, even if we get all the phones with solar cells in them, we might still leave our charger transformers in power plugs seeping valuable energy away in minuscule amounts. But multiply that minuscule amount by millions of phones or billions of phones with power transformers plugged in all the time!
I usuall have all the chargers on an extender with a switch, and turn it off when I leave home, and only turn it on to charge my phones, cameras or computers. Even a little energy conserved will help our world.
Tech On, Article on Solar Phone SH002 Tear Down

Tags: Solar Phone SH002, Nikkei Electronics Teardown Squad, KDDI Corp, Sharp