I'm not a fan of The Flip. It is one of the most overhyped, overpriced and underpowered gadgets out there. AND ... it's been discontinued by Cisco. No big loss.
Why I hate it:
1) Of all the palm type camcorders out there, Flips have the fewest features. Compare with models from Creative, Kodak, JVC, Sony, etc. Most are even cheaper. Essentially, you're paying for the status symbolism and he gorgeous box it comes in. I have a Flip and a Kodak which cost half as much and I use the Kodak about 90% of the time (even though I hate the MOV format used by Kodak).
Those who tout The Flip for its simplicity should realize that all these palmcorders are point-and-shoot. Just Turn on, press Record. But other models like my cheap and very old Kodak Zi6 ($49 refurbed) offer Still Photo, multiple modes to save space (i.e. VGA, 30fps, 60fps), multiple play speeds, etc.
2) It's the only model I know of that can't do still photos. Instead, you need to do a screen capture on your computer. Even $20 Chinese-made camcorders do still photos.
3) It's one of the very few models that doesn't use removable SD memory. That means that you need to be by a computer to free memory. Since you can't Pause while recording, you'll have a lot of junk footage wasting space. In other words, you'll easily fill up the 1 hr capacity of this Flip. With the popularity of smartphones and iPads, fewer and fewer people are dragging their laptops on vacation. Do you really want to dump 4gb of videos onto your iPad (if that's even possible) given that some models only have 8gb total? What to do then on a 7 day vacation??? Removable memory also allows me to quickly share my videos with friends. The lack of removable memory is one of the biggest problems of the Flip line.
4) The famous Flip arm is actually one of the worst features. First, it's fragile and not replaceable. Second, it takes up lots of space. Few people have enough desk space to have this jutting out a laptop. And you certainly can't suspend this out a desktop's USB port without breaking the Flip arm. In other words, you'll likely end up using a USB extension cord which defeats the whole purpose and novelty of the Flip arm. A MUCH better solution is the built-in USB cord on the Creative Vado. Or a simple old fashion USB port that uses an EASILY replaceable $2 USB cord. But then the Flip wouldn't be The Flip, right?
