There’s news today of a new smartphone in the low-to-mid range of the market. The LG Optimus Elite is an Android smartphone and is eco-friendly, making its release on the same date as Earth Day 2012 particularly relevant.

Hot on the heels of other eco-friendly smartphones such as the LG Rumor Reflex for Sprint and also the LG Viper 4G LTE, LG and Sprint have teamed up for another. Specs and features of the LG Optimus Elite are not too exciting to be honest but briefly we’ll tell you it has an 800MHz processor, 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, virtual QWERTY keyboard, five-megapixel camera, NFC support and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, rather than the latest 4.0 ICS operating system.

Purchase of the Optimus Elite includes the offer of downloading Box to receive 50GB free cloud storage (offer on LG devices through July 22) and also has mobile hotspot capability for up to five WiFi devices. If you’re wondering about this entry-level phone’s green credentials, which is the main reason why you’d have an interest in this phone, it uses sustainable materials (half made from recycled plastic) and is RoHS compliant, avoiding the use of particular materials such as PVC, mercury or halogen, according to Engadget. The Optimus Elite has UL Environment Platinum Certification.

The phone will be released on Earth Day 2012, that’s on April 22 so there are only a few more days to wait and it comes in silver or white. It will be exclusively available initially from Sprint online at wwwsprint.com and 1-800Sprint1 and then from Sprint retail and other channels from May 18. The price is $29.99 on the usual two-year contract with a $50 mail-in rebate via a reward card. At some point the LG Optimus Elite will also come in the silver option to Virgin Mobile USA.

We’d like to hear your thoughts on the LG Optimus Elite smartphone and its eco-friendly attributes. Is this the kind of phone you’re looking for and the low-end specs are not a problem? What do you think of the design of this handset?