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Samsung Introduces Phone With Hard Drive

Posted by timothy on from the can-you-store-me-now dept.

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.

26 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Tetris by vurg · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  2. Uh-Oh by irokitt · · Score: 4, Funny

    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?

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  3. Most important feature.. by Jason1729 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

    1. Re:Most important feature.. by winkydink · · Score: 4, Interesting

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

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      "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

    2. Re:Most important feature.. by Jason1729 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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

    3. Re:Most important feature.. by Darth+McBride · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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...

    4. Re:Most important feature.. by khrtt · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

    5. Re:Most important feature.. by timeOday · · Score: 3, Insightful
      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.

  4. Oh good by ArchieBunker · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

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    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:Oh good by ctid · · Score: 4, Informative
      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.
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      Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
  5. But can it make a phone call? by erick99 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    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

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    http://www.busyweather.com/
  6. Why not Flash? by BlastM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Why not Flash? by TheUnFounded · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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!!"

  7. Pics by AresTheImpaler · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is a picture here

  8. yes, but the million dollar question is ... by Triumph+The+Insult+C · · Score: 5, Funny

    is it possible to make phone calls with this thing?

    --
    vodka, straight up, thank you!
  9. Bettery life will go to hell, why not flash? by cft_128 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

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    Underloved Movies and Pub Quiz: donotquestionme.org

  10. Just now with the mics? by akeyes · · Score: 5, Funny

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

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

  11. Pre-emptive strike against the luddites!! by SlashChick · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.)

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  12. Samsung has also included a built-in microphone by frovingslosh · · Score: 4, Funny

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

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    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  13. User interface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  14. Proof of progress. by Trifthen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Read: Rabbit Rue - Free serial nove
  15. Re:Still missing my most wanted feature? by boredMDer · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  16. Re:Now.. by generic-man · · Score: 3, Informative

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

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  17. Camera phone + hard drive = ? by TheOtherAgentM · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hooray for upskirt videos!

  18. Stop and think. by sploo22 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

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  19. 21st Century mobility by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

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