Design

January 28, 2026, 3:50 AM EST. Tech hype surrounds the Nokia Magic Max 5G, a phone pitched with a 7,000 mAh battery, a 230-megapixel AI camera and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 at a low price. But climate experts warn that the environmental price tag of smartphone production dwarfs daily charging. A 2024 Wuppertal Institute paper found ICT accounts for about 8% of Germany's CO2 emissions, with roughly 80% of a phone's footprint arising in manufacturing. Life-cycle studies show mining metals and complex fabrication drive most harm before a store shelf. The Shift Project puts total energy across a phone's life well above what appears on a home bill. Proponents say longer device use reduces emissions; skeptics say bigger batteries raise material costs and affect repairability. As of Jan 2026, neither Nokia nor HMD Global lists the model, despite online hype.