HMD is announcing a trio of new smartphones today — the Nokia G60 5G, C31, and X30 5G — and says the X30 5G is the “most eco-friendly smartphone” it’s ever produced. The three phones are focused on Europe and are distinct from the range of devices that HMD sells in the US.
As well as being sold outright, the Nokia X30 5G will be one of a handful of phones available via HMD’s new subscription service called “Circular,” where customers can subscribe to get a handset for a monthly fee and receive incentives to use a phone for as long as possible. Circular will initially be available in the UK and Germany, but HMD says it’s planning a global launch “in the coming months.”
HMD’s Eco-Friendly Claims
HMD justifies its eco-friendly claims about the Nokia X30 5G with the number of recycled materials used in the construction of the handset. It features a 100 percent recycled aluminum frame and a back panel that’s made from 65 percent recycled plastic, and ships in a box made from 70 percent recycled paper. The company also says it’ll support it with three years of OS upgrades and monthly security updates, and offers a three-year warranty as standard.
Attempting to produce a more eco-friendly smartphone is a laudable initiative, but HMD’s efforts trail behind those of sustainable smartphone specialists Fairphone. Although its most recent device, the Fairphone 4, doesn’t use recycled aluminum, its back cover is made from 100 percent recycled plastic, its solder is made from 100 percent recycled tin, and it uses fair trade gold and conflict-free tungsten. Fairphone aims to support the phone with five years of security and software updates rather than three and also designs its devices to be as easy to repair by the end user as possible, with removable batteries that can be simply swapped out when they degrade and other components that are removable with simple screws. None of these are featured on HMD’s Nokia X30 5G.
