Samsung unveils 8GB hard drive phone

Samsung has taken the wraps off a mobile phone that boasts the biggest hard drive seen on such a device to date.

The 'candy bar' device, the SGH-i310, will pack in 8GB of storage and run Windows Mobile 5.0. Samsung is hoping the device, which can hold more songs than an iPod nano, will take off with music fans. As well as its large hard drive, the device will let users sync playlists from their PC or store documents, photos and other information in the phone's internal memory.

The i310 is the fourth of Samsung's hard drive phones - the device was preceded by one model packing 1.5GB of storage and two offering 3GB. For those needing more storage than the i310's hard drive can offer, the phone's memory can be expanded using micro SD external memory.

The phone also packs Bluetooth, a two megapixel camera and USB 2.0. The i310 will officially get its debut at the CeBIT trade show this week and is expected to go on sale in European markets in the second half of this year.

While phone manufacturers have made no secret of their ambitions to steal a little of the iPod's portable music market share, recent research has cast doubt on consumers' attitudes to using their mobiles as music players.

According to a study by RBC Capital Markets, 70 per cent of consumers have no interest in playing music on their mobiles.