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With the potential of losing your power for days on end, this device offers a reasonable alterative for staying connected.  Although it is very early in development, it has the potential of providing you with the ability to stay connected in an emergency.

Engadget Mobile reported today that Hi-Tech Wealth’s solar powered S116 has finally hit official retail status. Expensive ($510) and at this time just a dual band GSM set at 900 / 1800MHz, one can only hope that future handsets they release will be more friendly to the bands used in the US and Canada.

So what is really cool?  It really does charge by the light of a candle …. read on

HiTech Wealth telecommunications has just begun selling the S116 and the specs are pretty impressive. However, the $510 pricetag will have you wondering why you don’t just get an iPhone. A 1.3 mpx camera, and an MP3 player are fairly standard additions to cell phones these days, but the solar panels do make this guy stand out.

The panels trickle-charge the battery in any amount of light, including indoors (or even by candlelight), and the battery life is 2.5 times longer than it would be without the panels. An hour of direct sunlight will give users 40 extra minutes of talk time.

While this first model is pretty exciting, HiTech Wealth will be releasing six more solar phones within the year and has promised 30 solar models before 2009.

Hitech wealth!