Motorola W233 Renew
Discontinued 6th January 2009
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.
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Motorola
W230 at a glance
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Available:
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Q1
2009
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Network:
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GSM 850 / 1900
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Data:
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GPRS
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Screen:
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128x128
pixels, 65k colours
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Camera:
|
No
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Size:
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Lightweight
monoblock 111 x 45 x
15mm / 83 grams
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Bluetooth:
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No
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Memory
card:
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microSD
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Infra-red:
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No
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Polyphonic:
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No
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Java:
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No
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Battery
life:
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9
hours talk / 18 days standby
|
|
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