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Sprint’s Eco-Friendly LG Optimus Elite Set To Debut on Earth Day
Both Sprint and LG have announced that their third 2012 device that will be unveiled is the eco-friendly LG Optimus Elite. The smartphone is set to make its debut very fittingly on a day that celebrates eco-friendliness, Earth Day which is on 22 April which will follow a reportedly bigger launch on May 18. For all you nature enthusiasts who have been looking forward to this device, you will be glad to know that it will only cost $29.99 on a 2-year contract with a $50 mail-in rebate. With a price tag of $30, one cannot expect a device to share the same specifications as the other top-end devices such as the iPhone 4S or the Samsung Galaxy S2 but what this device is all about is the materials that went into creating it.
Just like the LG Viper, the Optimus Elite is ULE Platinum certified and its casing is made up of 50% recycled plastics which are free from materials as PVC, phthalates, halogens and mercury. The smartphone will ship with an efficient charger which only consumes 0.03 watts of power while charging. For the technical specs of the device, it will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, it will feature a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, 800MHz processor, a 5MP rear-facing snapper with a flash and mobile hotspot capability. Are you looking forward to this phone because of its price point or because you are a self-admitted tree-hugger, let us know with a comment below.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?