Samsung unveils handset made of corn

Korean handset vendor Samsung introduced a cheap, eco-friendly, full featured mobile phone on Friday, made partly out of corn.

The Samsung Reclaim is made from 80 per cent recyclable materials, including a bio plastic outer casing made from corn. The device is free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates, and nearly free of brominated flame retardants (BFR).

The packaging is made from 70 per cent recycled materials, including a soy-based ink, and the paper user manual has been replaced by an online version. The charger claims to consume 12 times less power than the Energy Star standard and features a visible notification to alert the user to unplug the handset once it’s fully charged.

Available on the Sprint network in the US for $50 on a two year contract, the Reclaim weighs in with a slide out full QWERTY keyboard, GPS, two megapixel camera, and expandable memory to 32GB.