HambliDesign

When I first saw shots of the new Puma phone, I was a little skeptical. It looked decent enough, but the whole solar charging thing made it seem a little gimmicky. After seeing the following video from Mobile World Congress, however, it’s beginning to look more like a smartphone I’d actually use.

The Puma phone’s screen isn’t the biggest at just 2.8 inches with a 240 x 320 resolution, but the video shows that it’s quite vivid and pretty responsive. It comes with all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from a modern smartphone: 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, GPS, compass and it even has a pedometer. With all the slick UI tricks and the clean looking interface, maybe the nicest thing about this phone is the solar charger in back. Sure, I admitted it’s a bit of a gimmick, but it beats having a dead phone by the time my lunch starts to make me sleepy.

With most cool new phones, the Puma phone will be hitting European carriers first in early April. Puma says the phone will be subsidized by carriers, but right now the price is somewhere around €400 and no word on when it comes to the U.S.