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There’s a reason Flip dominates the pocket camcorder market, and it’s not just that it pioneered the category. Flip camcorders are designed to be inexpensive and usable right out of the box: the now-signature design is foolproof, and there’s always internal memory so that you don’t have to go fishing in your drawer for a spare SD Card. Unfortunately, the SlideHD ($279), Flip’s pricey newest model, misses the mark. The first camcorder Cisco has announced since it bought the makers of Flip emphasizes playing back video on the device, but its bulky design and finicky resistive touchscreen aren’t worth the extra money.
There’s a reason Flip dominates the pocket camcorder market, and it’s not just that it pioneered the category. Flip camcorders are designed to be inexpensive and usable right out of the box: the now-signature design is foolproof, and there’s always internal memory so that you don’t have to go fishing in your drawer for a spare SD Card. Unfortunately, the SlideHD ($279), Flip’s pricey newest model, misses the mark. The first camcorder Cisco has announced since it bought the makers of Flip emphasizes playing back video on the device, but its bulky design and finicky resistive touchscreen aren’t worth the extra money.
Design
For the most part, Cisco hasn’t messed with the tried-and-true simple design: the SlideHD still has a clean, white plastic build with a large, peering lens on the front surrounded by thin metal accents. No Flip would be complete without the signature flip-out USB connector, power button, and tripod connector. This one, in particular, also has an HDMI port for watching your videos on an HDTV, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack—a rarity on pocket camcorders. The 3-inch screen, larger than the display on any other Flip, is flanked by thin speaker strips.Like other Flips, the SlideHD has no memory card slot: rather, it has 16GB of built-in memory, enough to store 12 hours of video, so that users can start shooting as soon as they take the SlideHD out of the box.
Sporting a relatively large touchscreen, the SlideHD was designed for sharing videos on the spot, but the slide-out screen adds serious bulk. Although it still feels light and is easy to cup in one hand, it looks as if someone stacked a Flip Mino on top of a Flip Ultra. At 4.1 × 2.2 × 1 inches and 6.1 ounces, the SlideHD is thicker and heavier than any other pocket camcorder on the market. While it’s too big to stuff in pants pockets, you can get away with stashing it in a (men’s) coat pocket or a bag.
One thing the SlideHD is missing are obvious volume controls. A volume rocker on one of the sides would do, or an on-screen volume control that’s visible only in playback mode. Although there is indeed a miniature volume slider when you play back videos with the screen closed, it disappears in full-screen mode, which is how Cisco wants you to replay videos anyway.
Touchscreen
Whether the heft of the SlideHD is a deal-breaker depends on how useful you think its touchscreen and hidden touch panel are. The touchscreen’s interface perfectly mimics that of older Flips: there’s a red record button in the middle, flanked by buttons for adjusting the 2X digital zoom, playing back and deleting clips, and rewinding or fast forwarding movies in playback mode. When you tap the red record button to either start or stop filming, it makes a satisfying beep so that you don’t have to wonder if your tap registered. If you’ll be shooting a quiet scene where these tones might be distracting, you can turn them off in the settings, which are accessed by tapping the end of the touch strip.Although the touchscreen is easy to navigate, we wish it were capacitive, like on the iPhone. Because of its resistive touch technology, this display isn’t always responsive; we found we had to apply a little extra pressure. Having handled many a touchscreen phone, we’ve come to expect displays that respond to even the lightest tap.
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