Review 2008 has been the year of the small, cheap gadget. Sadly, the standard bearers of the new breed of pocket video cams, the Flip Ultra and Creative's Vado, maybe be small but they're also overpriced.

Such are the similarities between these two devices it's almost beyond belief that they were developed in isolation, a bit like A Bug's Life and Antz.

Both devices record video at 640 x 480 and 30f/s, and output content as MPEG-4 .AVI files. Both have 2GB of storage holding an hour's worth of content at the top quality setting. Both have 3.5mm TV outputs, a standard camera mount screw, a built-in USB connector and near as darn it identical controls: a central button to stop/start recording, a surrounding navigation pad to zoom digitally - x2 on both devices - and move forward/back, and two separate buttons to play and delete files. Heck, both even have the lanyard eye and the on/off switches are in the same place!

There's not much difference in their sizes, either. The Vado is 101 x 54mm, the Flip 105 x 55mm. Due to its removable batteries, the 24mm-thick Flip is decidedly more chunky than the 15mm Vado and heavier too: a battery less 97g to the Vado's 84g all up.

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The only major exterior distinction is the two cameras' screens. The Vado's is 2in corner to corner, while the Flip's is 1.5in. In all other fields, though, the Flip's screen takes the honours, being brighter, more colourful and more use than a fart in a thunderstorm in direct sunlight where the Vado's screen really is hopeless.

With either device, shooting really couldn't be more straightforward: nothing more, in fact, than ensuring the lens is pointing away from you and the record button is pressed.

Something both companies have got wrong is the USB plug. The Flip's has a solid arm making it inconvenient to plug it into some computers without fouling power and Ethernet cables. The flexible rubber arm on the Vado overcomes this but the grab tab sticks out at the bottom making standing the camera upright impossible.

Both manufacturers are equally optimistic about battery life. The supplied Duracell AAs in the Flip packed in after one hour and fifty minutes of use rather than the quoted two hours thirty minutes, while a full charge of the Vado only got us one hour thirty five, not two hours.

The Flip would seem to have the advantage here, not only for the longer run time but becuase it's generally easier to find fresh AAs when you're out and about. However, the capacity of both cameras means you'll run out of storage space before you run out of power. Neither camera has a memory card slot, so you're stuck with the built in capacity.

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The Flip produces sharper images, with better colour and definition, and is far less prone to random freezing and blocking while panning. The lower the level of ambient light, the bigger the gulf between the two devices' performance. The the Flip the clear choice if you plan on videoing more intimate indoor moments.

Vado Video Sample

The Flip makes a far better fist of recording sound too. Whether it has a better microphone, better firmware or both, the Flip's sound was decidedly superior. Sound recorded on the Flip is not only clearer and sharper than it was on the Vado, it proved far less prone to distortion caused either by high volumes or background interferences like wind, dogs, small children, Americans, etc.

Flip Video Sample

When it comes to recording live music performances, something we imagine both these devices will be used for, the superior focus and balance of the Flip's microphone really comes into its own.

All of which leaves the two cameras stacking up poorly when compared to camcorders and even still cameras' video facilities. But then neither are really out to replace those devices. Both are aimed squarely at the YouTube generation, where footage is a likely to have come from a phone as from proper photography kit.

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Both devices come with a small software suite loaded into their memory. Vado Central is a straightforward viewing package that also uploads to YouTube and Photobucket once the Vado's hooked up to a PC. The Flip Video Upload Assistant takes things a stage further by adding an support for AOL, MySpaceTV and Amazon's video reviews service, and an e-mail option to send videos via flip.com.

The Flip software package also includes what appears to be a cut down Muvee-based suite which lets you make basic edits and add music to your footage.

While the Vado software package is Windows only, the Flip also comes with Mac code. Both players show up as mass-storage devices, so it's easy enough to get content off them and onto Linux boxes.

The Vado is the cheaper of the two, coming in at £80, while the Flip can be found for around the £95 mark, though that includes an RCA TV-out. We reckon that's too much by a factor of two. If the Flip or the Vado could be picked up for around £50, you could make a far stronger case for them.

Flip will also happily sell you a matching tripod for around £15, an “action mount” for attaching it to the handlebars of your bike, tortoise, etc. for the same price, and a waterproof housing for use underwater or in the bath. That'll set you back £25.

The nagging question we have is why not just spend the money on a decent camera? When we were testing the Flip and Vado, we also shot some 640 x 480 30f/s footage using a FujiPix S5700 7.1Mp camera, a device that can also be picked up for just shy of the £100 mark if you look hard enough. And if you buy something like the S5700, you also end with an extremely fine stills camera.

Verdict

Before shelling out for either device we'd suggest you ask yourself what you'll be using it for. Amateur pr0n and ill-conceived YouTube rants aside, it's just a little hard to see an obvious use given there's no price, portability or functionality advantage over a regular digicam. Be absolutely sure that the extra bulk and slightly higher cost of a decent stills camera with video and sound capability is not a better use of your hard earned.

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