BLUE Earth is an interesting name for a phone. I figure it is named this way to emulate the world we live on - the big blue planet. So, what does Samsung’s Blue Earth bring to the mobile phone arena? You guessed it, it has Green features. And even though it is small, can you imagine thousands of these saving every little bit of our fossil fuels? Every little bit counts and the Blue Earth is doing its part.
The Blue Earth is the first solar panel equipped mobile phone and this is how it helps to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. In theory, if you live in sunny areas of the world you could probably get by with not having to charge directly from the wall adapter. Check out the real estate that the solar panel takes up on the rear of the phone. In fact, the solar panel component of the rear cover takes up about eighty percent of the rear cover. There are a couple notices within the product manual that states the charging time will vary depending on conditions. An indication of the charging ability is noted. It states, “…1 hour of sunlight at about 80,000 lux (approximately the amount of sunlight at noon on a sunny day) charging will provide 5-10 minutes of talk time.”
With many electronic battery operated products, you need to ensure it does not get too hot as the battery could cause a fire. This is important inside a vehicle especially in the sunny climes of Singapore. I can attest to the fact that the phone gets extremely hot during the noon day sun sitting on my dashboard. This heat is in part the absorption to the dark dashboard colour and the phone operation (it was left on).
When flipped over, you see how it passes the electricity generated to the phone via the two metal contacts. The solar panel is protected by what feels like a piece of glass so be careful not to drop your Blue Earth.
The phone exterior is finished in a pearlescent blue that changes slightly depending on the angle of the light reflecting off the surface. I like the finish and the colour. It reminded me of an old mobile phone I had 10 years ago but that’s another story.
The physical size of the Blue Earth is about the same size as the Samsung Jet. It is small enough to fit in a tight jean pocket and not be too obvious. Since it isn’t super thin you also won’t need to worry about it snapping in your pocket. It fits nicely into my medium sized hand and can be operated with a single hand. I was able to do this comfortably in my left hand and use my thumb to navigate and press the touchscreen. Take note - the touchscreen is a capacitive screen. This means you'll need to use your finger to activate it. A stylus device will not work. This is a good thing because it means the screen won’t react to accidental presses if it is in your pocket; however that doesn’t stop the buttons from being activated. Don’t worry, the Hold button will stop accidental button presses while it is in your purse or pocket.
There isn’t a lot of buttons. You’ll find the volume up/down rocker switch on the left hand side, Hold and camera shutter on the right. On the face, there is the green Dial/Call button, red End Call/Power and in between is the Back button. For connectivity, you’ll only find a micro USB port located at the top right hand side. The port is protected with a plastic snap-in cover. Strangely, there isn’t a 3.5mm headphone jack to be found. I guess that isn’t so much an issue these days with many Bluetooth wireless headsets available.
The phone is equipped with a 3-megapixel digital camera. What you won’t find is a LED or xenon flash so make sure there is adequate amount of light for a properly exposed picture. The camera functions are easy to understand thanks to nicely designed user interface icons. The two camera functions I have come to love with Samsung mobile phones are the Panorama and Macro shooting. Unfortunately, the Blue Earth does not feature a Macro focusing option.
Check out pictures I captured with the Blue Earth. The outdoor shots turned out pretty good with good contrast and colour reproduction. I included a mosaic shot made up of four photos and it would have turned out pretty good if there was a true macro mode and the resolution was a bit higher. At the current resolution, the mosaic shots are really only good enough for posting on the web. If you want prints I suggest taking single high resolution pics and then assembling them together on your computer.
The Blue Earth is the first step to creating more ecologically friendly gadgets and I really like that. You can learn to appreciate the eco-friendliness of the Blue Earth by using the built in Eco Walk application. It translates your steps into calories burned and you also get to see visually how many trees you’ve saved the planet.
You can contribute additional savings, though it isn’t tracked, by using the Eco profile. The profile uses ringtone settings that use less energy. There is also an Eco display mode that reduces the display brightness. You could do this by hand every time but Samsung cleverly put in a setting to easily switch it on or off.
This isn’t for the hard core Smartphone, multimedia user. Instead, if you are a conservationist and citizen concerned with saving the earth for generations to come, you can have a clear conscience with a Blue Earth purchase.
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Posted by JamCanSing
01-Apr-2010