Smartphones have a significant environmental impact, with 80% of their lifetime emissions occurring during the manufacturing phase. It is therefore important to develop 5G smartphones that offer an eco-conscious design at a fair price.
T-Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom teamed up to develop a 5G smartphone with a strict eco-design criteria. Their focus was on reducing emissions during manufacturing, while creating a device that is both durable and repairable. The T Phone 2 and T Phone 2 Pro meet these criteria, demonstrating that eco-design and a convincing price-performance ratio are not mutually exclusive. Both devices received excellent results in terms of Eco Rating, with a score of 88 out of 100 for the T Phone 2 and 84 for the T Phone 2 Pro.
The high Eco Rating reflects the significant reduction in CO2 emissions through intelligent resource management. The devices offer above-average recyclability and are minimally packaged in sustainable, plastic-free materials. The optimised use of semiconductors further reduces greenhouse gas emissions during production.
Sustainable usage is facilitated by the fact that the new T Phone devices receive monthly software and security updates from Deutsche Telekom, as well as Google System updates for three years. In the fourth and fifth years, software updates will be available on a quarterly basis.
The solution saves 22% of cradle-to-grave CO2e smartphone emissions within four years of usage, adding up to a saving of 10.85 tonnes of CO2e per 1,000 smartphones. The T Phone 2 is intended as a ‘lighthouse’ project to demonstrate to the industry that eco-design is possible at a fair price.
