Go Green with the Micromax X259 Solar Phone

After coming up with phones with marathon battery lives, feature phones and other lifestyle products, Micromax has now brought a solar-powered mobile phone (yes, it’s not a smartphone) to the table. The Micromax X259 has a solar panel that enables users to charge its battery using solar energy. 

Powered by the sun!

Solar power hasn’t really made an appearance in the mobile phone industry, and this seems like an interesting ‘feature’ to have for those of us with electricity-related problems. The X259 comes with a solar panel that allows users to charge their phone by exposing it to sunlight. This handset may be a favourable solution to people in rural areas with unpredictable power cuts. We have seen a lot of solar products come and go and though the technology is very encouraging, it hasn’t reached a level where consumers would prefer it over existing ones due to a lot of reasons. For starters, you are dependent on the weather to charge your phone. Secondly, if most of your time is spent indoors, we’re unsure you’d like to keep the phone outdoors or near the window sill. However, this is an innovative product and we’ll have to give Micromax due credit.

Commenting on the solar phone, Rahul Sharma, Co – Founder, Micromax said, “We have been at the forefront of innovation. We have introduced many categories into this competitive industry, be it long battery life phones or dual SIM phones. With the introduction of this solar phone, our intent is to get rid of the mobile phone charger by including a solar panel on the device itself.”

The X259 comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. It’s a dual SIM dual standby phone that has a 1000 mAh battery under the hood. There’s a VGA camera at the back and connectivity options include GPRS and Bluetooth. There’s Mi-Zone and M-Store for other multimedia content. The Micromax X259 is available for Rs. 2,499. This model will be available at all leading retail outlets across India.

In related news, Micromax has been rated the 12th largest handset manufacturer in the world according to the Global Handset Vendor Market Share report from Strategy Analytics, which is definitely encouraging for the company.