Samsung's 1.5GB Hard Disk SPH-V5400

Samsung SPH-V5400Thanks to the guys at Wireless Imports, this week I have yet another exotic Samsung phone from the Korean market to show you. This time it is the SPH-V5400, the world's first mobile phone equipped with a hard disk drive. In the case of the SPH-V5400, the drive is a 1.5GB unit, which, as you'll see, adds quite a bit of bulk to the handset.

When put in a special mode, the SPH-V5400 will act as a USB disk drive when combined with the included USB cable. This makes it easy to move files back and forth between the phone and your PC, whether they are media files for the phone or just general files for your business use. But as I mentioned before, the hard disk adds a lot more than just functionality to the phone. The SPH-V5400 weighs in at a whopping 188.4g, making it heavier than just about every other clamshell phone on the market. It is also quite thick, as you'll see in the photo gallery. It is 33mm (1.30") in thickness, making it over twice as thick as Motorola's RAZR V3. It is exactly the same width as the RAZR, at 55mm (2.17"), and a bit shorter than the RAZR at 90mm (3.54").

Samsung Korea targets the device as a music phone. But rather than just playing music files, the SPH-V5400 also has a FM transmitter that you can use to hear the music over a nearby radio. The audio quality was decent, if not exactly stunning. But in a pinch, it'll do just nicely.

While the word "MP3" can be found all over the device, from MP3 buttons to menus to graphics, the device does not actually seem to play real MP3 files. Rather, it plays .KPM and .SPM files. Since no CD was included with the SPH-V5400 I was playing with, I can only assume that these formats are either readily available in Korea or that a conversion application was simply missing. If you are familiar with the formats, drop me a note and tell me what you know about them.

In addition to the music player, the SPH-V5400 also has a megapixel camera on board. The camera was not a particularly good one, though, often lacking in contrast and showing a lot of color noise. It does have a nice and easy to use interface, though. The UI is quite similar to the one found in Samsung's 5 megapixel SPH-S250, which should be no surprise. The camera can also shoot decent video at 320x240 resolution.

Other features of note include a beautiful 262k color display and a rather large 128x128 pixel OLED external sub-display. Under the external display you will find a few dedicated buttons for controlling the MP3 player, which is quite handy. There is also a TV output on the device, but I didn't have the chance to play around with that.

You'll find a few Samsung SPH-V5400 photo galleries, including sample photos taken by the SPH-V5400 itself, on the following pages.

 

Featured products from the MobileBurn store