Flip Video Mino

There was a time, long ago, when we didn’t have mobile phones and on-demand video cameras. There was no YouTube, not even the internet. Luckily, we don’t live in that age, so here we have a video camera that’s the size of a mobile, which uploads to YouTube.

On opening the outer packaging, you’re greeted to a nice matt-black box that flips open to reveal the rather slick Flip Video Mino within. It’s about the size of my SE K800i phone, and sports only a few actual hardware buttons.

The big-red button in the centre in intuitively for the start/stopping of recording, then there is a play/pause button, a delete button, as well as touch up/down/left/right areas.

Perhaps the screen is a little dinky, but that keeps the cost low (c.£120) and is more than enough for recording.

The device works superbly, with simple buttons presses to get it started and to stop it, as well as making the whole process easy camera-side, it works in the same way as a USB stick for getting the files onto the PC to make it easy that side as well. You simply drag-and-drop them off as you would any old file. Plugging it into a PC is easy as well; as it sports a USB attachment that flicks out at the flick of a switch to allow simple downloading (it also has embedded software, so nothing need be installed onto the computer).

This is all well and good, but it does flex a bit when it’s in free air when plugged in, which leads to doubts about long-term durability for that part.

You can also plug it into a TV using the RYW cables provided, and flicking it onto an AV channel will enable you to watch your creations.

On that note, the video is actually quite good. You obviously won’t be recording the next Oscar winner on it, but for a cheap videocam it actually performs better than you would expect. If you have the budget to have a couple of these to give to a few guests for a wedding/big-event then it would easily suffice to give you a flavour of what was going on, and with the ability to record over an hour of decent resolution footage, it’s perfect.

We forsee the market for these being teenagers recording themselves lip-syncing songs for YouTube, young adults for taking on booze-fest holidays, or even the older generation for recording family moments – the possibilities for a cheap-cam are only limited by the hard drive space you have for storing all those videos afterward.

A very good camera, with the only niggles being ones that you’d expect to find on something this competitively priced. An Xmas hit perhaps?