Harness the power of the sun to charge Kyocera’s latest smartphone

By Williams Pelegrin February 24, 2015

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This year’s Mobile World Conference is expected to be quite the spectacle, thanks to looming announcements of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9. It can be easy to forget there will be other players there, such as Kyocera, which is set to reveal a smartphone that can be charged using sunlight.

The handset, which will be revealed at MWC, is the result of Kyocera’s partnership with Sunpartner. Even though the handset will be a prototype based on the Kyocera Torque, it will utilize Sunpartner’s Wysips Crystal technology. This technology combines both photovoltaic and optical technologies to charge the phone. In other words, the prototype handset can be charged by using both natural and artificial light.

Wysips — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Wysips Crystal is placed right under the touchscreen, and at just 0.5mm thick, the modules used are extremely flexible, as well as invisible to the eye. This means that products that want to utilize this technology won’t be noticeably thicker than your average phone.

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There’s no word on exactly how quickly the modified Torque can be charged using light. Sunpartner hopes to put its technology into other devices sometime in the near future, so this might not be the last time you hear of this technology.

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Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

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