The Lumia 800 in particular looks like a pretty neato handset. So as I’m in the market for an upgrade at the moment, I thought I’d check it out a bit more. My upgrade choices (Samsung’s Google Nexus Prime, HTC’s Sensation XL and Apple’s iPhone 4s) all have some degree of question mark over their corporate ethics, so could do with some competition if I’m looking for a less unethical mobile (I realise I’ve no chance of an actively ethical one!).

What interested me was Nokia’s positive environmental record for handsets – coming out very high in a Greenpeace table some years back that Apple brought up the rear for. Unfortunately that may be where the ethical positives end.

It seems that the two new handsets have been allocated to two outsourced manufacturers, so Nokia’s pretty good labour standards policies don’t actually apply to the workers producing them, as they would in one of Nokia’s 9 directly owned factories. This is unsurprising really, as despite their in-house capacities, Nokia have been a big customer of evil outsourcing legends Foxconn for some time.

One report I’ve seen suggests the 710 and 800 have been allocated to Compal and Foxconn to produce, but it’s not entirely clear which manufacturer has which phone, with some sources listing Compal as having the 800 (codename Searay), but others suggesting mixed manufacture.

To be honest, I’ve also other concerns too away from the ethical. My current phone is Windows Mobile 6.1, and the upgrade path has been non-existant, as Microsoft moved within months onto 6.5 (not even a full version up) and dropped back compatibility, meaning no new apps or even a working app store for half their userbase. WinMo 7 looks nice, but with 8 on the horizon, I’d be extremely reluctant to trust a Windows Mobile phone again. At least with Android, you can risk flashing a phone to keep it a bit more current.

But my main concern is Foxconn. In other Foxconn news this week, Prince of darkness Terry Gou announced he’d be increasing Foxconn’s use of worker replacement robots from 10,000 units to a million over the next few years. The interweb has suggested cynically in many places this might be because the third law of robotics prevents them comitting suicide like Foxconn’s regular workers. Cynicism or no though, would you think the best place to make this announcement would be the annual workers’ dance party? It seems Terry “Mr Burns” Gou would.

Cue an email off to Nokia to see if they’ll say what Foxconn’s involvement with the 800 and 710 might be. Compal of course are not likely to appear on the Sunday Times great places to work list any time soon, but at least they’re not Foxconn. Otherwise the Nokia Lumia 800 is sadly most likely off my list as quickly as it came on.

I did inadvertently manage to get one useful bit of information out of them though. Samsung have for a long while been customers of sweatshop touchscreen outsourcer, Young Fast Optoelectronics (YFO), who provide them with LCD touchscreens. However, as I was asking specifically about the Galaxy S2 model, I found out that as Samsung have been the pioneers in AMOLED screen technology, they built the capacity to make the new type of screens in house, rather than use screen suppliers.

So this means if you’re looking at an AMOLED model (such as the current flagship Galaxy S2 or the forthcoming, and very tasty looking, Google Nexus Prime), the screen is a Samsung product. For their cheaper phones with LCD screens, I guess the screens are still coming from the unionbusting YFO.

Of course, I’m guessing the switch had more to do with making the most of Samsung’s own screen technologies, rather than any kind of reaction to their business ethics, so this is hardly a ringing endorsement, given that reading between the lines, they still use YFO for other models, and haven’t made any public comment I can find.

Second black mark against Samsung in recent times has been their lack of concern for the safety of their own workforce and the environment in parts of screen manufacture. Greenpeace have been on their case for some time, since most other electronics manufacturers started ditching the chemicals Brominated Flame Retardant (BFR) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC).

I asked Samsung specifically about this, but again no answer. However I recently stumbled on a new policy page on their site, which claims that they’re now BFR and PVC clear on all new model mobile phones since April 2010. So if your phone was launched after that date, it should hopefully be in the clear, meaning again that the Galaxy S2 and Nexus Prime are BFR and PVC free.

Presumably they didn’t want to crow about this though given their extreme tardiness in following the rest of the industry, and the between-the-lines admission that they may still be using the chemicals in 18 month old models that are still being manufactured (the original Galaxy S is still on sale – not sure if it qualifies).

So at the moment, Samsung seems to be sitting top of my ethical smartphone pile, ahead of heavy YFO customer HTC and Foxconn’s favourites Apple, but it’s a hollow recommendation, not really through any kind of positive action, and only true for the phones I’ve been looking at (Galaxy SII and Nexus Prime) rather than the manufacturer more widely.