SanDisk's 8GB SDHC Card Stores Mega Mobile Library

You have to see SanDisk's tiny 8GB SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) card to marvel at how such a tiny finger-nail-sized storage card can hold so much.

The card is designed for compatible cell phones so they can compete on storage capacity with Apple's popular iPhone. As cameras and MP3 players improve on new phone models, we're taking more photos with and transferring more songs to our cell phones. This storage card will make it possible to save it all.

The most remarkable thing about the SDHC card is its size; SanDisk says the card can hold up to 2,000 MP3 songs, 19,200 JPEG photos, and 40 MPEG 4 videos. Such mega storage in a mini card is meant to allow full-featured phones to do all they are made to do: take photos and videos, store song libraries.

But this fresh-out-of-the-gate tiny tech will cost you: $140. It comes with a USB dock/reader that allows fast transmission of files between PCs and phones. But it's not compatible with all mobile phones just yet. For example, the only Palm smartphone that this SDHC card works with is the new Centro.

SanDisk sent me the Nokia N95 to see the SDHC 8GB card in action. As Ben Patterson notes in his review of slider phone, it is a feature-rich phone with an above-par camera, seamless operating system, and a solid music player. Sinces it does it all better than most, you'd probably want to record every image, still and moving, taken with it, making an 8GB storage card a must. But at $750, even with SanDisk's extra storage capacity, the N95 is a hard sell over the $400 8GB iPhone.

Other phones capatible with the tiny SDHC card include the Sprint Touch, the Motorola RIZR V6TV phone, and several RIM BlackBerry Models: the Curve (8300), Pearl (8100), 8800, and 8830. For a full list of compatible cell phones, check out this SanDisk list (PDF).

Related: Hands-on Review: Nokia N95 Slider