March 6, 2006 – Samsung announced a new camera phone today that has a whooping 8 GB of embedded hard drive. The Samsung SGH-i310 is the world’s first 8 GB Smartphone, according to today’s press release. The new model has vast amounts of internal memory, but only a 2-megapixel imaging sensor. With this combo, thousands of photographs can be stored in the camera phone.
The multimedia device combines a mobile phone with a digital camera, MP3 player, hard disk drive, camcorder, and document viewer. The Samsung SGH-i310’s digital camera has 2 megapixels and a flash that automatically fires. There is also a microSD card slot in case the 8 GB just isn’t enough internal memory. Of course, the memory must be shared between the camera and the other devices.
The Samsung SGH-i310 comes with Windows Mobile 5.0 software for Smartphones. This links the camera phone to the computer, so playlists of MP3s can be shared and downloaded. The phone’s design is built with listening to music in mind; it has dual speakers and a digital power amp.
The new Samsung camera phone also has a 2-inch color LCD screen with 65,000 pixels and a jack to connect with televisions. The SGH-i310 is less than 0.8 inches thick. It will be available in Europe later in 2006.
“With the combination of first-class technology and premium design, Samsung has led the industry by offering various features of mobile phones,” said Kitae Lee, president of Samsung Electronics’ Telecommunication Network Business, in today’s press release. “With great improvements in mobile storage, Samsung will continue to introduce a variety of useful functions for mobile.”
Samsung was the first manufacturer to introduce a hard disk drive in a camera phone. Now it has three such models on the market. The SPH-V5400 has 1.5 GB and the SCH-V7900 and SGH-i300 both have 3 GB.
