"Green" Cellphones: Samsung W510 and F268

Samsung announced two new cellphones - the W510 and the F268 - at the World IT Show in Seoul. Instead of touting performance specifications however, the company is concentrating on the reduced environmental damage of their cellphones.

The W510 (left) is said to be Samsung's first built with "bioplastic," eschewing synthetic materials for those extracted from corn. The phone is further said to have been built without heavy metals such as mercury or cadmium, and use a water-soluble coating. It will ship later this month to Korea.

The F268 is made predominantly out of traditional plastics, but neither it nor any of its accessories are made with PVC or brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Apple's use of these in the original iPhone was sharply criticized by groups such as Greenpeace. The F268 comes with a charging alarm, which will indicate when a phone is fully charged so that owners do not waste power. It will ship later this month to China.

[Electronista]