You read right, come CES 2008, Samsung is unveiling a 1.3-inch HDD, a 1TB 3.5" RAID Edition HDD and a new 320 GB 2.5" HDD. More curious than I am to see a 1.3" HDD, I wonder what the capacity will be.

For those of you wondering what a 1.3-inch HDD might look like, crack open a hard-disk-based iPod and look at that HDD, then imagine it smaller, noticeably smaller. Sure, it’s just a half inch, but a half inch off the diameter of the platter is a good place to lose some size.

And, with Samsung constantly pushing the data density barrier, it wouldn’t surprise me to see iPods the size of the newest nanos sporting 80 and 160GB HDDs in the not so distant future. A 1.3 inch HDD would also be a major move towards smaller, thinner, lighter laptops without having to resort to the high prices of SSD drives. Well, if Samsung is dropping this tech at CES, you can expect to see it widespread by the middle of next year, likely.