Hasta La Gadget!

Flip’s new pocket-camcorder is the Slide HD. It takes the familiar simple-to-use video-camera and combines it with a big screen for playing back your masterpieces to a (small) audience. Where does the “slide” part come from? The body splits in the middle and slides open to prop the screen at a laptop-like angle for viewing. It’s pretty neat.

First, the camera. As you may have guessed from the name, it is a hi-def model, shooting 720p at 30fps in the the H.264 codec which is fast becoming the MP3 of video. 16GB of internal memory gives you four hours of shooting time, and you transfer to a Mac or PC for editing via the trademark flip-out USB plug. A lithium-ion rechargeable battery provides the juice, but only for two hours, so you needn’t worry about filling the camera in one go.

The screen measures three-inches, has 400 x 240 pixels and takes up most of the back of the unit when shooting. When flipped (or slid, we guess) up into playback position the “slide-strip” is revealed, a touch-sensitive bar for scrubbing through your clips. Sound comes through a pair of stereo speakers.

If you have shot some footage so amazing you must share it with more people than can crowd around the small screen, an HDMI-out will hook up to a TV. Should you choose to carry video specifically for watching, you can crunch the files down with included software and squeeze 12-hours worth onto the camera. If it wasn’t for the battery, this would be a great travel media-player.

The Slide HD is available now and costs $280.

Slide HD [Flip. Thanks, Jamie!]

See Also:

• Hands On With the New Flip Mino
• Flip, The Little Camcorder With Big Market Share
• Flip Mino Camcorder Shoots for High-Def