"The Elm is powered by a lowly 1000 mAh battery, which seems to be synonymous with lower tier models these days"

The W995, which at £350 retail was almost certainly not a low tier model not so long ago, and which has more features than the Elm, has a 930 mAh battery and lasts me several days even when using it for music and web. These phones are not nearly as power consuming as a souped up 1GHZ touch-screen superphone, so its ok to have a smaller battery..

"just to hammer home the point that it's a very green handset and it has the world's power resources in mind at all times."

The W995 and C510 (and others, I'm sure) also tell you to unplug the charger when you're done,so its not just some token Elm tree-hugging.

"Proprietary charging port meaning no 3.5 audio socket"

The W995 manages to have both a proprietary Fastport connection and a 3.5mm audio jack socket. The two are not mutually exclusive as you seem to suggest.

Yes, that's very green isn't it - having to use proprietary battery chargers. Bollocks.