Gadgets Blog

Taiwanese laptop manufacturer, ASUS’s N51V notebook computer has become the world’s first notebook to receive both Environmental Product Declaration and carbon footprint certificates.

Asus claims that it made it possible by reducing its operational carbon emissions in materials, manufacturing, using, transportation, and disposal. Moreover the ASUS N51V is an EPEAT Gold registered product for its innovative energy-saving technology that Asus calls Super Hybrid Engine which not only improves energy performance by 53.75% as compared to merely following the Energy Star standard, but also extends the battery life from 35% to 53%. The reuse, recycle and recovery rate of the N51V is at least 90%, and the recycled content in the packaging achieves at least 80%. Asus says that the laptop comes with an Air Ioniser that promotes a fresher environment for the user by helping to clean the air of allergens and germs.

The trim looking notebook is shiny black, sports a silver Asus logo in the middle and has a standard 15.6-inch, 1366×768 screen. It comes with all the features that you would expect from a medium sized laptop including three USB ports, VGA and HDMI outputs, Express Card 54, SD card reader, microphone and headphone jacks. The N51V is stacked with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, 2GB RAM, 802.11n, Bluetooth and gigabit Ethernet. A single button next to the power button is used to load Asus Express Gate the Splash-top based quick loading OS when you don’t need Windows in full blast.

All in all, Asus N51V is a pretty decent buy for the price and if environmental considerations figure high in your list of priorities while making a purchase, I think you will be a happy customer.

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics has launched Samsung Blue Earth, an eco-friendly mobile phone with full touch display and sophisticated multimedia appeal. It promises all the state of the art features while working hard to reduce the carbon footprint and saving the Earth. All this while sporting a good-looking face! Sounds like an ideal Miss World contestant, doesn’t it? The pretty, pebble shaped beauty is sure to make a green lover’s heart sing. It functions on very low power and is made of post consumer material extracted from water bottles, which helps lower fuel consumption and carbon emissions. It is devoid of harmful substances like Brominated Flame Retardants, Polyvinylchloride and Phthalate usually found in other gadgets. The Blue Earth has a fully functional solar panel on its back, which can be used to generate power for the phone to operate. It comes with a 5 star energy efficient charger to boot. A responsible “Eco mode” leaves you with the option of setting screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth to an energy-efficient mode with just a single, slick click. That’s not all! An “Eco Walk” function calculates the precise carbon dioxide reduction that you made happen by taking a walk instead of driving. It will even tell you how many trees you saved by walking. No kidding! If that’s not an incentive for your morning walk, I don’t know what is!

Now that they’ve managed to do all that, It is a given that it will come packaged to you in recycled paper and printed with soy ink.

Other features include:

• Display: 16M WQVGA TFT LCD (3.0”)Capacitive Touch Screen
• Camera: 3.2 Megapixel CMOS, Face Detection / Smile Shot / Photo EditorAudio: Audio Format Support (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA) /WMDRM, OMA DRM
• Find Music (Music Recognition) / Music Equalizer; Stereo FM Radio with RDS; Bluetooth Stereo Headset (A2DP)Video: Video Format Support (H.263, WMV, MPEG4)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth®v 2.1 / USB 2.0 HS / Wi-FiMemory: Internal Memory : 130MBExternal Memory : microSDHC™ (up to 16GB)Dimension: 108 x 53.6 x 14.2 mmWeight: 119 g
• Battery: 1080 mAh

This environmentally conscious device will be on sale in Europe this October. I can’t wait for it to hit the stores in United States. This definitely sounds like my kind of phone!