Nokia has long been touting its ambitions of an eco-friendly future and has now taken a small-but-significant step by making available its N79 Eco.
The eco-tagged handset, pictured left, differs to the regular Nokia N79 in one key aspect - it ships with no bundled charger and consequently utilises smaller packaging. The result, of course, is less packaging, less waste and lower costs. All it's asking, says the mobile giant, "is that you keep hold of your old Nokia charger, and use it again".
Although likely to attract its fair share of cynics, it doesn't seem an entirely bad idea. Personally, having recycled older handsets, I have numerous chargers lying around from the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung. Furthermore, for each N79 Eco handset sold, Nokia will donate £4 to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Despite its eco-friendly promise, the no-charger N79 Eco has, we feel, one failing - its price-tag of £319, exactly the same amount as the standard charger-including N79. Persuading consumers to go green with no extra savings could prove to be difficult.
Nokia's no-charger trial is thus far limited to the N79, and the manufacturer has announced no additional charger-free Eco handsets. To get a taste of consumer reaction, Nokia is also conducting a survey in regards to its N79 Eco package. Users can participate in the survey by clicking here and we found the second question to be particularly amusing, it asks; "Is there a particular item missing from this Nokia N79 sales package?"
Official product page: shop.nokia.co.uk
