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Sony Ericsson Hazel and Elm: Make like a tree

Sony Ericsson has sprouted the Elm and Hazel, two GreenHeart eco-friendly handsets that put the war on climate change in your pocket

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm

Sony Ericsson has announced two arboreally themed planet-friendly green phones. The Elm and the Hazel are here to save the Earth.

They follow Sony Ericsson's GreenHeart policy, complete with streamlined packaging and a paperless CD manual. According to Sony Ericsson, the climate-conserving handsets and packing are partly made from recycled plastics. The new models get their juice from the EP300 GreenHeart low-power charger.

Sony Ericsson is also very proud of its none-more-green software tweaks to improve your carbon phoneprint, although exactly how they do so is rather nebulous. A widget manager reduces the time it takes to open apps, cutting down on power consumption, which makes whales smile, presumably. You can view social network updates on the home screen, again reducing power consumption and making polar bears cry with joy, or something. There's also the Walk Mate eco app, which works out how much walking you've done and how much carbon you have, as a result, cheated away from nasty cars.

The Elm is a candy bar with 5-megapixel camera and flash, along with video, video light and face recognition. It will sprout from the ground like a lush deciduous forest in early 2010.

Hazel

The Hazel, pictured above, is a slider phone with business bits including Exchange ActiveSync, to join up with your work email. It will sprout like a fresh bud in spring 2010.