Samsung Announces 8GB Phone

Samsung has announced plans to launch its SGH-i310, a 8GB Windows Mobile-based cell phone, in the second half of 2006.

Samsung’s fourth model to incorporate a hard-disk drive, the SGH-i310 is a candy-bar form factor handset which looks similar to the i300 HDD phone launched by Samsung last year. Like the i300, the i310 also includes a music player, dual speakers, an amplifier and a Bluetooth stereo link. The music player supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV and Ogg music file formats.

With dimensions of 112 x 48 x 20 mm and weighing around 120 gms, the SGH-i310 features a 2 megapixels digital camera, Bluetooth printing and video output connector. The phone is compatible with GSM, GPRS and EDGE technologies, and runs the Windows Mobile 5.0 for smartphone operating systems.

Samsung’s 1.5GB HDD phone, SPH-V5400 launched in September 2004 was the first-ever to have an embedded hard-disk drive. The SPH-V7900 and SGH-i300, each incorporating a 3GB hard-disk drive soon followed suit.

The latest phone will reportedly be unveiled later this week at the Cebit Show beginning Thursday at Hanover, and is expected to hit European markets in the second half of 2006. The pricing has not yet been announced.