mino HD flip review

so what do i find waiting at my door when i get home this afternoon but a wonderfully packaged (and very quickly shipped i might add) amazon box containing none other than my new camera (paid for with gift card as well). after playing around with it for a bit, here's the skinny.

thin, sleek, black . . . all the things i like in a woma . . . camera. at first glance it was everything i'd heard and hoped for, and the subsequent fiddling left very little to be desired. at 4" x 2" x .75" recording in 720p with 60 minutes of onboard storage, this is the smallest HD camera i've ever seen, if there is a smaller one out there i'd love to see it.



mino called the ball on this one, the camera itself is the definition of sleek and portable with only two side panel buttons (power on the left, and the USB release on the right), and very simple back panel navigation buttons similar to your favorite little apple mp3 player.



quite possibly the coolest feature of this camera (other than the fact i could probably think of several ways to get it across customs should it ever become illegal) is the flip-out usb connector. no cables to deal with, no software CD to load, and no charger to keep up with, this baby does it all. a simple USB plug in will charge the camera (full charge in about 3 hours), load the software (pc and mac compatible), and allow you to chop, edit, save, and upload your stored videos.



do keep in mind that the camera itself only stores 60 minutes of video internally, and has no memory card slot, as i'm sure space is tight in there. keeping to the simplicity, the only recording setting the camera has on board is a 2x zoom which actually isn't much, but is extraordinarily smooth.

the back panel (where the magic happens) houses a central red record button surrounded by 4 navigation buttons whose functionality includes zoom and scrolling through recorded videos. the only two other buttons are a top left play/pause button and a top right delete button, and oh yeah, they're all (except for the record button) lighted touch sensitive, which means a higher cool-rating, but minus points if you have to operate this little betty in gloves. the packaging is very reminiscent (again) of an ipod with a minimalist approach to cool.

accompanying the mino is a quite durable wrist strap, a microfiber bag/lens cleaner, and a audio/video adapter for direct TV viewing. all in all this pseudo spy camera which goes for $209 on amazon is the perfect camera for on-the-go video documentation like twitter, facebook, and home made webisodes. lacking only an expandable memory and a better zoom feature, unless you plan to be recording studio quality video, this pocket cam tops the list.



just a quick preview of the video quality from this tiny little gem.



quick and skinny:
pros: size 4" x 2" x .75"
flip-out USB connector
extremely simple
plug-and-play HD quality
cost: $209

cons: minimal video storage (60 minutes)
minimal camera settings
no headphone jack
minimal zoom
inability to take digital stills

final rec: buy it sucka!