“Make it different. Make it surprising. Make it memorable.” So says the mantra of XD Design studio, a group of nine clever designers whose goal is to help the brand “differentiate itself by being surprisingly smart.”  Although solar power is nothing new, the expansion of its utility and improvement of its effectiveness is always a fun — not to mention heartening — thing to watch.  And now, one of the most ubiquitous daily sources of energy drain we modern humans place on the earth is being eradicated through a smart little gadget courtesy of those surprisingly smart designers: a solar-powered phone charger.  Simplistic, minimalist and frankly rather beautiful in its design, the charger actually comes in a number of iterations; our favorites are the Port and the Window, shown here.  Both will charge your smartphone or mp3 player with a 1400-megaHertz rechargeable lithium battery and a little bit of help from the sun.  These smart portable solar phone chargers are something to see, and most definitely something to use, over and over and over again, with zero guilt over energy consumption and maybe even a slightly smug sense of superiority over the fact that your gadgetry is truly a thing of beauty, both aesthetically and philosophically too.

Photo credits: XD Design