On the face of it the Flip Mino doesn’t look that different to the Flip Video Ultra (which got us worried straight away), but Flip has now included auto-editing features in its palm-sized camcorder to help you put together your own Spielberg thrillers.
We’d like to say that the addition of auto-editing helps to give the Flip Mino the beating heart of a fully-fledged grown-up ‘corder. But we can’t. We’d also like to say that the Mino has eradicated all the niggling flaws of its predecessor. But it hasn’t.
What the Mino has done is taken the simplistic one-button camcorder – the Video Ultra – and added a few of the things that were missing: you can now fast forward and rewind in the camera, with touch-sensitive buttons adding a bit of extra help (and style) to the mono-button. Naturally you still get the flippy-out USB stick that makes transferring videos to your PC – and thence YouTube – a cinch. It’s even got a rechargeable battery this time!
Unfortunately, your home videos can still only be captured at 640×480 resolution (don’t even think about uttering the letters H and D). And why, if you’re improving a camcorder, wouldn’t you give it more storage space? This still only has 2GB of internal memory, with not even a memory card slot for expansion. And where’s the autofocus? Huh?
The Flip Mino is a fun, easy-to-use camcorder, though. It’s just not a vast improvement on its predecessor. Shame.
