N701iECO, the "Kenafone" Mobile Phones / NTT DoCoMo Posted by zmcnulty on Dec 14, 2005 - 12:25 PM |
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Alright, I made the second part of the name up, but NTT DoCoMo has announced a new handset that uses kenaf fibre in its plastic. Kenaf is a species of Hibiscus. It's a common plant in southeast Asia. NTT DoCoMo has developed a mobile phone called the "N701iECO" that uses plastic raw materials which contain kenaf fibres. It has not been decided when the phone will be released, but it will be released some time in FY2005. The company held an announcement event on the 12th in Tokyo. Mr. Yoshihiro Yoshizawa (sp?), Section Manager of NTT Product Division's 3rd Product Planning Section, gave a presentation. The N701iECO is a FOMA handset that uses plant-based plastic raw materials in its body. The shape of it is the same as the "N701i" that features removable faceplates, but plant-based plastic materials are used on about 75% of the device's areas that are showing on the display body portion and the key body portion. Although these raw materials are based on a poly-lactic acid material originally from corn, these materials alone cannot protect the phone or its internal components from impacts when the phone is dropped, meaning the phone did not meet specifications necessary for a mobile phone. NEC's proprietary technology allowed the introduction of kenaf fibre into the materials, making them strong. Also, the resin composition of the plant-based plastic materials is at around 90% plant-based resins. NEC said (about the fact that 90% of the resins are plant-based) "it's reached a high level." Since kenaf has a high rate of growth, it has a higher amount of carbon dioxide absorption versus typical trees and shrubs. NEC explained that in manufacturing processes that include kenaf cultivation, the CO2 emissions were cut in half versus the current plastic manufacturing technique, using ABS resin. However, from a cost perspective, it is higher than using current materials; NEC said that the N701iECO will be "a few thousand yen more expensive" than the N701i, but that they were trying to get it to be the same cost. Functionally, the unit is the same as the N701i, but using "Style Plus" intended for the N701i may result in an inability to remove them due to varying materials. Therefore, they are not being supported by the company. However, included in the N701iECO package are Style Plus panels that feature plant patterns. The N701iECO also comes with idle screens, photo frames, and idle Flash animations that inspire environmental protection. The size is 102 x 48 x 23mm, and the weight is 115g. The idle time while still is about 430 hours, and while moving, 350 hours. The continuous talk time is about 130 minutes, and when using TV phone, 80 minutes. The main display measures 2.3 inches and has a resultion of 240 x 345 dots (QVGA+), and is a 65,536 color TFT LCD. The subdisplay is 0.9 inches and is a 120 x 30 dot monochrome STN. The camera is 1.25MB, and uses a Maicovicon camera. miniSD can be used as external memory, and the body color is pink x silver. Inspired by: http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/26947.html [1] Press Release: http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20051212a.html [2] FOMA, N701i, kenaf |
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This article is from TechJapan http://www.techjapan.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.techjapan.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1198 Links in this article [1] http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/26947.html [2] http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20051212a.html |