Samsung or LG: which is the best solar phone?

Both Samsung and LG decided that 2009 was the year to get a bit greener and both brought solar phones to Mobile World Congress.

Unfortunately, neither was available to play with, both being safely locked away behind (possibly bullet proof) glass, but TechRadar managed to nab some shots anyway.

Pebble-y and cute

On first impressions, the Samsung Blue Earth looks the prettiest, given that it has the lovely curved touchscreen and more integrated solar panel.

It's made out of recycled plastic bottles, which is obviously lovely for the environment too, and comes with an eco walk function to tell you how many trees each step is saving you.

Phone + Solar = Solar Cell Phone

But LG has come at the environmental angle with a more blunt approach with the Solar Cell Phone... hey, it's a phone with a solar panel, so why call it anything else?

It also packs a 5MP camera as well, so it could almost be called a 'normal' phone... though would you really want a big photovoltaic panel on the back?

Both phones carry the solar cell to allow calling when you run out of battery, which we get. Except that it seems a bit unnecessary to pack such overt hardware into a handset for an instance that happens once every three months to most people. And even then it's usually at night...

Still, it's nice to see the manufacturers thinking about the environment, so now it's over to the consumer to vote on the technology with their wallets.