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Motorola W233 Renew.
Based closely on the Motorola W230, the Motorola W233 Renew is Motorola's attempt to produce
an environmentally friendly mobile phone.
How have they done this? Well, it seems that Motorola have taken some simple but effective
steps to reduce the environmental impact of the W233 Renew. For a start, the casing is
made from recycled plastic bottles and is itself 100% recyclable. Motorola have also
partnered with Carbonfund.org to carbon-offset the CO2 produced in the W233's manufacturing
process. The W233's packaging is also reduced compared to a standard Motorola handset with
a high proportion of recycled materials.
Recycled plastics are commonly available, and it is certainly a better option than the
bioplastics found in the Samsung E200 Eco and Nokia 3110 Evolve which use land that
could be used for food production. Carbon offsetting is widely regarded as being a good
thing, but on a contrary note the botanist Oliver Rackham reportedly says that carbon
offsetting is about as efficient as asking people to drink more water to keep rising
sea levels down.
This is a fairly basic phone with a 128 x 128 pixel CSTN display, no camera and no Bluetooth.
But it does come with an MP3 player and supports up to 2GB of memory. It is very lightweight
at just 83 grams and has up to 9 hours talktime and 18 days standby time. Motorola say that
the relatively long battery life means that you will have to charge it less, and this
will reduce power consumption.. and it is certainly true that mobile phone chargers
waste energy.
We happen to think that the Motorola W233 Renew is a good looking device, and combined
with its green credentials, it will at least be something to talk about when you are having
a drink with friends.
At the moment, Motorola have said that the W233 Renew will be available on T-Mobile in
the US and that the handset is limited to dual-band 850 / 1900 MHz operation only, which
means that it cannot be used in Europe. However, the W230 that it is based on comes in two
dual band configurations, so it is just possible that Motorola will release a version elsewhere
in the world too.
There's no word on pricing, but the W230 that this is based on retails for less than $80
SIM-free, so we would certainly expect the W233 to come in at less than $100. Motorola
say that the W233 Renew should be available during Q1 2009.