Samsung Introduces Phone With Hard Drive

swight1701 writes "It is being reported that Samsung has shown what it claims is the world's first mobile phone that incorporates a hard drive. The model, V5400, is integrated with a 1" hard drive with 1.5GB of capacity. Other features of the phone include - 2.2" LCD display, an MP3 player, electronic book reader, and Korean-English dictionary. Samsung has also included a built-in microphone to enhance the audio in the phone's camcorder feature. The included dual-speakers allow the user to listen to music with a 3D appeal." loid_void adds a link to this Reuters story, too.

Comments

Tetris

[vurg]

Look at my phone it has Tetris on it. Nope, that's the defragmenter.

Uh-Oh

[irokitt]

So what you're saying is that this cell phone has one more component with a marked propensity for failure than the competitor's does?

Re:Uh-Oh

[SlowMovingTarget]

You read my mind...

features:

5 megapixel camera with video capability

mp3/ogg/mpg... player

PIM features with voice recognition

Voice memos

e-mail / web browsing

TiVo functionality

blog hosting

wireless access point

BitStream client/peer

SETI client

holographic user inteface

2 sec. standby time

1.7 sec. talk time

Maybe they could put a kinetic drive in there, you know, like in those watches. I'd pay to see someone do calistenics while driving their car and talking on this sucker.

Re:Uh-Oh

[timts]

it's meaningless to put those vendor specific OS onto a cellphone.

a dell x30 might not be perfect, but it has bluetooth, wifi, SDIO, 624M processor for $267 today

any one still wants to buy a cellphone over $300?

Most important feature..

[Jason1729]

Can it survive being dropped?

I've dropped my Nokia 5100 series about 5 feet from ear level to concrete several times. Except for a few scuffs (mostly on the battery, it must be the heaviest part), it's survived perfectly.

I doubt a phone with a hard drive can survive that kind of abuse.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Re:Most important feature..

[csimicah]

One other solution to this would be to try really, really hard not to drop it. This actually kind of applies to *anything* with a hard drive in it.

Re:Most important feature..

[winkydink]

Or have have a built-in accelerometer that detects sudden changes, and pauses the drive, like recent Thinkpads.

Re:Most important feature..

[Jason1729]

It's a phone, it's meant to be thrown around. It's built to take that kind of abuse because the manufacturer understood how people use cell phones. I have no trouble with dropping my powerbook, but then quite often I leave the PB home because I know I'm going somewhere it might get banged around.

I've never dropped my PDA, but it spends a lot of time in my backback which gets thrown around. If it had a hard drive, it also wouldn't survive.

If I have to leave the cellphone home because I'm worried it might get damaged, then it's completely useless.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Re:Most important feature..

[Darth McBride]

Why would anyone use a 1.5GB hard drive when you can put an 1GB SD card in for $98? Surely the flash memory would do much better in drop tests and be more portable for use in REAL digital cameras and REAL MP3 players...

Re:Most important feature..

[khrtt]

Yes, they park the heads whenever the accelerometer shows freefall or what not. The drive is a regular drive; the accelerometer is built in to the computer. Look up any new ThinkPad (like the X31) on http://ibm.com. The more expensive models would have this.

Re:Most important feature..

[crazyaxemaniac]

The HDD is faster and able to be written more times?

Re:Most important feature..

[timeOday]

Personally, I would have thought an MP3 player with a hard drive was an equally bad idea. That's why I own an a solid state model. But whenever this topic is raised, iPod owners come out of the woodwork to tell about using them for exercise, dropping them, whatever, without damage. I can only conclude that hard drives (especially these little low-mass ones) aren't so fragile after all.

Also note that the phone's disk drive will be deactivated almost all the time - there's no reason to run it constantly, and it would kill the standby time. This reduces the risk even more.

Re:Most important feature..

[dave420]

These aren't normal hard disks, but proper portable models. That doesn't sound like a difference, but they're made to be able to stand being moved (quite violently) during use. I think you'd be surprised by how robust they actually are.

Is this a phone?

[elgatozorbas]

It also has a TV output. Makes me wonder what will be the evolution of the integration of stuff. A calendar/camers/notebook(let)/... may be handy, but won't there ever be a moment where integration should/will stop?
Z

Re:Is this a phone?

[Rei]

No.

Must... have.... larger.... featureset....

I look forward to the day when a simple handheld device can do pretty much anything. I'd like to see standardized incorporation of GPS into a net-capable portable phone. Talk about redefining mobile gaming... you could even have a virtual map of your city, and any friends not set to "invisible" would show up in their actual locations. It would be great! :)

Oh good

[ArchieBunker]

Music through speakers the size of a dime, thats gotta sound great. Whatever happened to doing one thing and doing it well?

Re:Oh good

[ctid]

Whatever happened to doing one thing and doing it well?

To understand this sort of thing, you have to accept that everyone in Europe (and I suspect the Far East) has a mobile and carries it everywhere . Actually, that's not true but it's very close, and the younger the person, the more likely they will be to have a phone (down to a point, of course). As far as electronic devices that you carry all the time are concerned, the mobile phone won. In the UK at least, you may well see people with PDAs, but everyone has a phone. Therefore, there is a market for phones which do more. Given that people will always carry their phone, there is the potential for the phone to assimilate the MP3 player, for example. Or the PDA. Or a radio. Or a walkie-talkie. I'm sure you get the general idea. Like it or not, manufacturers have finally found an electronic device that most people want to carry with them all the time.

Re:Oh good

[Jeff DeMaagd]

That depends. A lot of people seem to have taken to the earbud phones. Depending on the model, even a good share of headphone audiophiles use them. That doesn't mean they are for me though.

Gotta love the featureset!

[Rei]

I don't care about the mp3 player, but it's about time I had a phone with a Korean-English dictionary! Now I just need a translation of the Magna Carta to swahili and a random selection of quotes from "Moby Dick", and I'll be set.

But can it make a phone call?

[erick99]

The Samsung handset also features an FM radio, 64-voice polyphonic ringtone support, a 240 x 320 display and TV output - again, preparing the way for the day when mobiles incorporate Microsoft Portable Media Center-style functionality.

Most of the time I am just trying to maintain a clear enough signal to complete a call.

Cheers,

Erick

Why not Flash?

[BlastM]

Hard drives are fragile, especially for portable devices. A better solution would have been 1.5GB of solid state memory like an included Secure Digital card slot, or built in Compact Flash. Why was a hard drive chosen? I have a feeling this is all a gimmick to satisfy the new HDD craze that Apple has driven.

Re:Why not Flash?

[TheUnFounded]

I have a feeling this is all a gimmick to satisfy the new HDD craze that Apple has driven.

You know, I sincerely doubt that any greater than 2% of the population has a clue that the iPod uses a HDD. All anyone in the general population cares about is "hey, this thing can hold X days of music and still have room for X pictures!!"

Re:Cost

[Anonymous Coward]

But the costs of this technology are too prohibitive for anyone to buy one as a serious tool

You meant but instead of as, right? : p

Pics

[AresTheImpaler]

There is a picture here

yes, but the million dollar question is ...

[Triumph The Insult C]

is it possible to make phone calls with this thing?

Bettery life will go to hell, why not flash?

[cft_128]

Nothing like moving parts to send battery life down the toilet, not to mention reliability. I'm not an expert, but with 2GB of flash ram (0.5GB more than the HD) being about $150 street you would think an $800 dollar phone would use it.

Just now with the mics?

[akeyes]

"Samsung has also included a built-in microphone..."

That's odd, my cell phone has had a built in microphone for ages.

Pre-emptive strike against the luddites!!

[SlashChick]

Every time one of these phones is reviewed, there are many nay-sayers (who often get modded "Insightful") who say things like, "I just want a phone that can make calls without dropping the signal!"

Sure, we all want that... but keep in mind that the cell phone hardware manufacturers and the cell phone service providers are different companies. This is an article regarding Samsung cell phones. At least in the U.S., Samsung is not a cell phone provider. So if you want fewer dropped calls, call your provider and complain... but don't insist that hardware manufacturers focus on something they don't have control over (the cell phone networks.)

Re:Pre-emptive strike against the luddites!!

[entrigant]

And how did this post even make it to +2, Insightful? You you really think the hardware manufacturer has NO control over how well their phone can maintain a good signal? You see phones have this thing called an antenna.. perhaps you've heard of it? Different phones will always work better than others when it comes to reception.

Re:Pre-emptive strike against the luddites!!

[DigitalCrackPipe]

Hold on there. Just because most of the cell providers are substandard in the US doesn't mean that the hardware manufacturers aren't remiss in their duties as well. It seems that as time goes on and we get more features in phones, the call performance declines. The people who seem happiest with their phones have the simple phone-only models. All I'm asking is for focussing on the call quality circuitry before adding a bunch of gimmicks. The consumers flocking to the gimmicks aren't helping a lot in this matter. One further note - I've seen statistics that some manufacturers have a higher dropped call rate (Motorola) - so if you can trust the statistics the manufacturers CAN be blamed.

Samsung has also included a built-in microphone

[frovingslosh]

Wow! A telephone with a built-in microphone! What will they think of next?

Re:Samsung has also included a built-in microphone

[Justin205]

They'll probably add a speaker next.

Still missing my most wanted feature?

[Tired and Emotional]

So I still can't open it up, say "beam me up Scotty" and have anything interesting happen.

Re:Still missing my most wanted feature?

[boredMDer]

If you consider people in your vicinity mumbling 'fucking idiot' or 'crazy fuck' something interesting, then you may well be surprised.

While the additional HDD space is helpful...

[Sheetrock]

It would be nice if the phone itself had a bit more oomph. OK, so it can do a contact list or picture displays, but there's room for more:

• Windows remote terminal, with foldout keyboard/touchpad (or integrate in screen)
• Xvid movie playback -- this phone could fit a drive that could carry a movie in this format
• Pleasant aroma, such as pine needles, that gradually turns into burning tire or pig farm as hard drive fills
• FLAC playback (MP3/Ogg are nice but the difference is noticable)
• USB connectivity -- like thumbdrives

Just to name a few things.

Storage is great but it's about time they add features to the phone that can take full advantage of it.

User interface

[Anonymous Coward]

The trouble with a device that gets too rich in features is that the user interface tends to get ugly. It means that most people don't use three quarters of the features.

Given Moore's law, we can predict that this kind of thing will cost $100 in a couple of years. I think that the company that prospers will be the one that can make it work the way people want it to work. Otherwise, all they're doing is kludging a bunch of stuff just because they can.

Proof of progress.

[Trifthen]

You know... it's days like this when I can't help but stop and realize the sheer disparity between now and ten years ago. Then: I'd just bought a new 486 with a 120MB hard drive - now: you can get a phone with over 10x the storage capacity, and probably more processing power.

Sometimes it may not seem like it, but we really have come a long way.

Re:Proof of progress.

[geekoid]

"Sometimes it may not seem like it, but we really have come a long way."

no we havent, but our technology sure has.

Technology changes, people don't.

Still no Bluetooth Samsung

[z3021017]

I really really want to like Samsung phones. They have a really good combination of style and functionality yet all (but maybe a handful) of their handsets don't feature Bluetooth.

It seems they are the only cellphone manufacturer that doesn't want to support Bluetooth. If they had it in their handsets, I'm sure more phonegeeks would purchase them - I know I would, as I'd instantly hand over cash for something like the Samsung E715 with Bluetooth functionality.

Re:Uhhh, heaviest part? Go back to Gravity 101.

[mlyle]

Uh, hello Mr. Clueless.

Things like to have their center-of-gravity as close to earth as possible. Ever notice that things that are top-heavy are a lot easier to tip over than things that are bottom-heavy? If you drop something that's very top-heavy out of an airplane, it's going to at least initially flip over to be heavy-side-down.

In a short fall, rigid bodies will tend to rotate so the heavy side faces the ground. In a longer fall, aerodynamic forces become more dominant than distribution-of-mass issues.

Re:Now..

[generic-man]

It's on the flip lid, according to this photo on Engadget.

Camera phone + hard drive = ?

[TheOtherAgentM]

Hooray for upskirt videos!

Why hd?

[wirwzd]

What we really need is ubiquitous cheap high speed synchronous wireless internet access.

Then there is no need for a hd. Just stream the MP3/movie, etc from your home server to your car, office, headphones, friends house.

This allows for a more compact convergence device, with more of focus on interface and usability.

DRM (ducks) would also be *slightly* less annoying as portability of content would be increased.

Stop and think.

[sploo22]

Will this really do any good if your service provider says you can only use content that they provide? I'm not interested in buying 1.5GB of songs twice.

A cell with a microphone?

[kavau]

Samsung has also included a built-in microphone to enhance the audio in the phone's camcorder feature.

That's über-cool! I always wanted a cell with a built-in microphone. Now I can finally talk to the people I call!

21st Century mobility

[Doc Ruby]

A 1GB SD card is faster than a mechanical, for reading or writing. And in a phone, it will accumulate "burned out" bits (after 1M writes) slower than a HD accumulates bad inodes. And it's a lot tougher when you drop it, while drawing a lot less power, generating less heat, and using less space. Although the gyroscopic HD might have some advantages turning the phone into a force-feedback 3D mouse.

How do Ipods survive beeing dropped?

[erice]

It seems the same problem and it's hard to imagine that people don't drop their Ipods nearly as often as their cell phones.

I'm unemployed and, therefore, too poor to buy an Ipod. Else I would be able to answer the question from first hand experience. ( I drop everything )

But does it make phone calls?

[dnhughes]

But does it make phone calls?

a bunch of worn-out slashdot cliches:

[Sean Johnson]

but....Bill Gates said 640 kb would be enough for everybody!
yeah, but can you put linux on it? ...and it STILL won't be enough to run DOOM3!
Imagine a beewolf (spelling wrong on purpose) cluster of these!
I want to see Natalie Portman using one...patricularly when she's naked and petrified, while I'm pouring hot grits down my pants. ..and watch 'em get sued into oblivion by the RIAA when they find out how many MP3's you can put on one ...I'm not buying one until they support .ogg
blah, blah b;ah!