More solar-powered phones hit the market

Mobile phones companies are falling over themselves to get greener, and hot on the heels of Samsung's solar powered handset comes another model making use of daylight-powered technology: Chinese manufacturer ZTE has just released its Coral-200 Solar handset, billing itself as a saviour for emerging markets where electricity is scant, or not readily available.

Unlike the rather slick-looking Blue Earth, however, the Coral is a rather bog standard and decidedly old-fashioned looking candy bar design, with the solar panels on the rear. But again this is completely justified, as I can't imagine eco-friendly mobile owners wanting their phones to resemble and pack all the battery guzzling software and features that come hand in hand with a lot of the standard phones on offer these days (and if they do, they'll be waiting quite a while before that's even considered a possibility).

Related: Blue Earth: Samsung's fusion of solar power and touchscreen goodness

Much like Samsung's Blue Earth, particular specs are a bit hazy, but we can tell you there won't be that many specs to take in anyway, as its main principle is simply all about making calls, which given its target market is completely justified.

It's only February and we've already seen two solar powered handsets. What does this mean? This just prompts the question - are solar powered mobiles going to be a thing of the future? [via Shiny Shiny]

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