New Flip Mino Camcorder is Smaller than Ever

June 4, 2008 – Pure Digital released the latest in its line-up of ultra-small, ultra-affordable camcorders today with the Flip Video Mino. The new camcorder is about 40% smaller than the Flip Ultra, which managed to capture an impressive market share and critical acclaim. The Mino retails for $179, and offers 2GB of capacity for up to 60 minutes of recording. View Photo Gallery.

The Flip Video Mino measures 3.94" x 1.97" x 0.63" (100 x 50 x 16 mm) and weighs just 3.3 oz (93.5g). Shrinking the camcorder has forced some concessions, however. While the camcorder keeps the popular flip-up USB arm to connect to a computer, the power is now generated from a non-removable internal battery (à la iPod). The larger Flip Ultra uses two AA batteries. The new battery is reported to give up to 4 hours of shooting time. Recharging can be done through both a power adapter and USB connection.

The Mino features the same 1.5-inch LCD with a 528 x 132 resolution. The zoom remains a paltry 2x digital, though it doesn’t seem likely that Pure Digital will throw in a load of extra features any time soon. According to an interview with the New York Times, chief executive Jonathan Kaplan said, “We resist ‘feature creep,’ like no other company in the world.”

What hasn’t changed, apparently, is the incredible ease of use that made the Flip and Flip Ultra such a hit with a portion of the public that had all but given up on camcorders. The Flip Video Mino includes built-in software. When the camcorder is plugged into a computer’s USB drive, the software automatically loads to aids the user in uploading their clips to YouTube, AOL, and now MySpace.

The interface has also been upgraded. The two previous generations featured a very simple push button system on the back of the camcorder. The new Mino has touch sensitive buttons, which for the first time will allow users to pause, fast-forward, and rewind their clips. The internal mic has also been improved, and is now omni-directional.

According to the specs, the video quality might see some improvement. The Flip Video Mino uses the same sensor as previous generations, a 1/4-inch VGA CMOS sensor shooting at 30 progressive frames per second. However, the video compression is now using the “Pure Digital Video Engine 2.5.” Video is outputted in MPEG-4 AVI.

The Flip Video Mino is available in black or white and retails for $179.