This year has seen the debut of so many eco-friendly cellphones that most of us don’t even bat an eyelash when we hear about a new one. The latest mobile from Samsung, however, may actually be the greenest of the bunch, and it’s one worth paying attention to.

The new cellphone is called the Samsung Reclaim and unlike some more basic green phones that have hit the market recently (like the Motorola Renew), the Reclaim falls in the smartphone category and features techie elements like a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 2 megapixel camera/camcorder. The big difference between the Reclaim and other smartphones available is that a little under half the materials for the phone are made from corn bio-plastics and about 80 percent of the total materials can be recycled. Arguably even better, though, is what’s not in the Samsung Reclaim: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates, brominated flame retardents (BFRs), and a user manual. The omissions keep toxic chemicals out of the phone, addressing one of the biggest issues that’s been facing the cellphone industry as it attempts to get greener. Skipping a bulky user manual that most consumers will browse once—if at all—in favor of a downloadable manual greatly reduces the paper impact. Even the charger on the Samsung Reclaim has been improved, using 12 times less power than the Energy Star recommendation and reminding you to unplug when the phone is fully charged.

While the Reclaim is the greenest cellphone Samsung has on the market now, that could change when the company finally makes the much-promoted Blue Earth available to consumers. The Blue Earth includes solar panels for some charging and an exterior made of recycled plastic water bottles (which is environmentally preferable over even the corn bio-plastic).

You can pick up a Samsung Reclaim in green or blue now for $49.99 (with a two-year contract) from Best Buy, Radio Shack or Sprint, the network that will offer service for the phone. If you do purchase a Reclaim, you’ll also be inadvertently giving back to the environment through a two dollar donation that Sprint is making to the Nature Conservancy for every phone sold.

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