LG Releasing Solar-Powered Cell Phone

When you think about solar power, you probably think about a big solar panel array on top of a house, or a solar farm out in the desert. Lately though, there has been flood of new solar-powered chargers for portable devices hitting the market. From iPods to laptops, it seems like now there’s a way to charge almost anything on the go. Now, LG is getting ready to release the POP, a cell phone with a solar panel built right into the battery cover.

To charge the phone using the solar panel, you have to leave it in direct sunlight somewhere, which probably won’t appeal to everyone. Also, it charges a little slow, taking around ten minutes to provide with phone with enough clean energy for a little over two minutes of talk time.

But that’s not really too bad. Besides all the green benefits associated with a solar powered phone, I can think of plenty of times in the past where I was away from a charger and needed to charge my phone, even if it was going to take a while.

Sure, it may not be the most practical solar application we’ve seen yet, but I still love the road that we’re heading down. Imagine, in the future we will be able to charge our cell phones anywhere, and without wires.

Well, as long as we’re outside, that is.

Photo credit: LG