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Samsung unveiled what could be the biggest threat yet to MP3 players by a mobile phone today at the CeBIT tradeshow in Germany. The Windows Mobile SGH-i300 smartphone is the follow up to the world's first 1.5 GB hard disk drive phone, the SPH-V540, which shipped only in South Korea last year.

The tri-band (900, 1800, 1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS handset doubles the earlier model's storage capacity to a record-breaking 3.0 GB. Samsung calls the SGH-i300 a music phone—up to 1,000 music files in the MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, and OGG formats—positioning the smartphone as competition to lower capacity hard drive MP3 players like Apple's iPod mini.

Why carry both a phone and an MP3 player when one device will do?

With the SGH-i300, you can download and listen to music not only from online music services and your personal collections, but also from over-the-air music services provided by wireless carriers. Although Samsung even asserts the smartphone's tiny stereo speakers provide 3D sound, no doubt headphones are preferable.

Other SGH-i300 features include a 1.3-megapixel camera for picture and video, a scroll-wheel for navigation, and the ability to attach the smartphone to a PC's USB port as a removable drive for file transfers. It has a 240 x 320 pixel (QVGA) resolution display that supports 262,144 colors.

A single TransFlash card provides removable memory and internal RAM. The smartphone measures 4.5 x 1.9 x 0.83 inches (11.3 x 4.8 x 2.1 centimeters) and weighs a mere 4.6 ounces (130 grams).

Samsung did not reveal when or where the SGH-i300 would ship. We'll keep you posted.