Verizon Wireless announced on Tuesday that it will soon offer the Samsung Illusion for $79.99 with a new two-year contract. The Illusion runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and is powered by a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor. It is equipped with a 3-megapixel camera, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, a 2GB microSD card and support for sharing its 3G connection as a mobile hotspot. The rear casing and battery cover of the phone are made from 70% post-consumer material and 35% of the front-face is made from recycled materials, too. In addition, Verizon Wireless said 60% of the phone’s box is made from recycled paper. The Illusion will be available from Verizon Wireless’s website on November 23rd and it’ll land in Verizon Wireless stores in January of next year. The full press release follows after the break.

SIMPLICITY MEETS STYLE WITH THE SAMSUNG ILLUSION^™ FROM VERIZON WIRELESS

Equipped with Stylish Form Factor, the Samsung Illusion is Made from Post Consumer Material and Has Attained UL Platinum Rating 

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced the Samsung Illusion^™ will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com beginning Nov. 23 for $79.99 with a new two-year customer agreement. The Illusion will be available for free with a new two-year customer agreement between Thursday, Nov. 24 and Monday, Nov. 28 as a online promotion.

The sophisticated Samsung Illusion smartphone features a sleek form factor and is powered by the nation’s most reliable 3G wireless network.  The Illusion boasts a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird Application Processor, 3.0-megapixel camera, HTML Web browser, music player and integrated contacts, calendar and social networking applications, as well as access to more than 300,000 apps available to download from Android Market^™.

Key features:

• Android 2.3^™, Gingerbread– support for Google Mobile^™ Services including Gmail^™, YouTube^™, Google Talk^™, Google Search^™ and Google Maps^™

·         SWYPE^™ Technology – input text faster and in a more intuitive way with one continuous finger motion across the screen keyboard

·         Unique curved-glass display

·         Corporate email support for Microsoft Office Exchange^® so customers can synchronize corporate email, contacts and calendars from their office email

·         Full suite of messaging options, including text, picture and video messaging

• Mobile Hotspot capability – share 3G connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices

·         6-axis accelerometer with compass

·         Bluetooth^® 3.0 technology – support for headset, hands-free, stereo, phonebook access and object push for vCard and vCalendar

·         Wi-Fi Connectivity 802.11 a/b/g/n

• microSD^™ card slot with support for up to 32 GB (2 GB pre-installed)

Additional features – Designed with the environment in mind:

·         UL Platinum Rating (Underwriters Laboratories) – the Samsung Illusion scored 84 out of 119 points to receive the “Platinum” UL rating

·         Rear casing and battery cover are made from 70 percent post-consumer material and 35 percent of the front casing is post-consumer material

·         Packaging made from bleach-free paper (post-consumer waste) and printed with vegetable ink

·         Box material uses 60 percent recycled paper (post-consumer waste)

·         High-efficiency charger with full-charge alarm

Availability:

• The Samsung Illusion will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com on Nov. 23, and will be available in Verizon Communications Stores in January 2012.
• Customers that purchase a Samsung Illusion smartphone will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan beginning at $39.99 for monthly access and a smartphone data package starting at $30 monthly access for 2 GB of data.

Not content with Motorola’s Brazilian division handsets, Moto has just recently announced the MOTOCUBO A45, an eco-friendly full-QWERTY featurephone. It’s nowhere near as sustainable as Motorola’s previous green offering or even Samsung’s or Sony Ericsson’s, but 25% of the materials used in MOTOCUBO are made out of recycled plastic bottles which has to count for something. Why? Because a 2 megapixel camera, QVGA disaply and EDGE connectivity sure doesn’t. Look for the MOTOCUBO A45 to hit Brazil in September for 549 Brazilian reals or $293 USD.

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Earlier this week, Sony Ericsson announced their not-designed-for-production GreenHeart concept phone that focuses on making a phone environmentally sustainable throughout its life cycle. The GreenHeart phone will feature bio-plastic housings, recycled plastic keypads, a zero charger with 3.5mW standby power, HTML based e-manuals instead of traditional printed ones, and environmentally conscious packaging. Sony Ericsson is taking this concept to industry partners and customers to help develop and design the features of this environmentally-friendly phone. The folks over at Mobile Cowboys got a sneak peek at the first prototype design and snagged a few pictures. Yeah, it is not as sexy as the XPERIA X1 but its not too shabby either; at least not for a concept phone made out of biodegradable and recycled materials. If this concept does become a reality, will this mean we can throw our old phones into the compost pile and have their remnants show up on our dinner plate come next harvest? Probably not, but the idea of a biodegradable phone is still very cool and very green.

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