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Nokia: the Sun Can't Charge Your Phone

Posted by Soulskill on from the well-what-am-i-going-to-do-with-this-93M-mile-cord dept.

itwbennett writes "Nokia's research into solar-powered cell phones ended with a (barely audible) thud. Under the best of conditions researchers were able 'to harvest enough energy to keep the phone on standby mode but with a very restricted amount of talk time,' Nokia wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. Not surprisingly, the prototype phone, which had a solar panel on the back cover, performed better in Kenya than in other testing locations, like southern Sweden and the Arctic Circle."

2 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why did they think this would work? by digsbo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No need. Have you used a Nokia low-end phone lately? They can go two weeks without a charge. Seriously. I just lent a friend a 2320 for use while in the USA and it lasted a full 15 days. And yes, they made calls on it! Amazing.

  2. Re:Why did they think this would work? by khallow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Mechanical energy -motion and/or sound waves- seems a more likely source of power for a phone.

    They don't have the power density of a solar cell and the mechanical energy approach would add considerable mass.

    Looks to me like they'll just have to figure out how to make a much lower power cellphone. That process will be limited by the need of the phone to produce sound that one can hear.