Flip Slide HD review

Since the Slide HD is fundmentally just a remix of the Mino HD, we won't get too deep into the nitty-gritty here -- chances are you've seen enough Mino HD video floating around the web to know what you're getting into here. (If you haven't, there's some in our Mino HD premium hands-on.) What's really important with the Slide HD is the screen -- a three-inch resistive touchscreen that slides out and pops up at a 45-degree angle for easier viewing during playback. Flip says lots of customers never offload their videos, so the Slide HD is designed to function a both a camera and a portable theater.
Note: We hadn't figured out how to pause when we made this video. See below.
Unfortunately, optimizing the Slide HD for playback means that it's not nearly as optimized for recording video. The Slide is basically a really chunky Mino HD when in camera mode -- you get the same buttons and the same interface, just implemented via touchscreen. Unfortunately, there's simply no way the flimsy resistive touchscreen on the Slide can compete with the big red physical record button and capacitive menu buttons on the Mino; the Slide's interface isn't laggy, per se, but it's not as immediately and viscerally obvious what you're doing when you touch the screen as when you use a Mino's buttons, especially since anything less than a firm press doesn't register. Making matters worse, Cisco didn't optimize the recording UI for touch or make any other enhancements for it, leading to some stupendously bad user experiences. For example, you can't simply tap on "yes" to confirm deleting a video -- you have to tap the left arrow button twice and then tap the play button. What? Similarly, you can't turn the Slide on its side and record using the full area of the screen as a monitor -- you're stuck using the same tiny portion of the screen as the Mino. There's no tap-to-focus or tap-for-exposure, which would be amazing on a camera like this. Note to Cisco: simply adding a large touchscreen to a product isn't worth the size and weight penalty if you don't actually use it for anything good.
Okay, so the record mode isn't great -- what about playback? That's the whole point, right? Well, yes -- the three-inch screen is bright and has decent enough viewing angles for multiple people to watch together, but the interface is equally confusing and half-implemented. For starters, we have no idea why navigation is duplicated across two sets of controls: not only can you tap on the sides of the screen to scroll between videos, you can use the odd capacitive slider on the bottom half of the case. Why can't you just swipe across the screen? Tapping either the screen or the touchstrip launches a video, and that's pretty much all you can do: there's no rewind or fast forward, and to pause or change the volume you long press on the playing video -- a move so unintuitive on a device like this we actually had to look at the manual. We're sure the target audience for this thing is going to love doing that. Oh, and you can't edit or delete videos in any way in the playback mode, although you can mark a video as a favorite in the browser by tapping a tiny little star. Pretty awesome playback experience, right? We'd much rather use the free FlipShare apps available for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry to dump our Flip videos on our phones -- the screens and controls are much better, to put things lightly.

Finally, there's the issue of the Slide's $279 pricetag. We're sure that number will come down over time, but let's be blunt: you can buy a much, much better camera for this kind of money. We're talking better lenses, better sensors, better video, and more features all around. For example, the Samsung TL225 runs about $250, offers a three-inch touchscreen and a front-facing LCD for self-portraits, shoots 720p video, and has image stabilization, face detection, and every other feature you can think of. The Nikon S8000 is $260 from Amazon right now and offers 720p recording at up to ISO 3200, a 10x optical zoom lens, and a three-inch, 921,000-dot LCD that will absolutely crush the screen on the Slide. The Canon PowerShot SD980IS is about $250 and -- look, you get the idea. $250 is a point-and-shoot sweet spot, and there's no shortage of cameras at this level that outgun the Slide HD in every possible way. It's one thing to spend $150 on a Mino HD and get a perfectly-executed and beautifully-made pocket video camera, but it's another thing entirely to spend nearly $300 and get chunkier version of the same thing that's outmatched by every HD-capable point-and-shoot on the market. That's the wrong kind of surprise -- maybe next time Cisco should shock us with functionality instead of gimmicks.



























On the flip side, you can get better for cheaper. They lost the plot.
@Anphaser
I thought the whole point of flip cameras was portability??
@The Advanced Kind No the point is they can FLIP
Like a lightsaber, it gives light. A normal camera can't flip, and a normal sword can't light up either.
At least Nilay is not drunk!
@Anphaser
This should have been blended instead of the ipad. This flip really does not take advantage of the screen at all.
@Anphaser
Bad UI strikes again.
@Anphaser
how come this crap product gets so much coverage?
@Anphaser
Yeah -- as a Flip fan, this implementation makes no sense to me. I was concerned when Cisco bought PureDigital that they might make some mistakes. The whole concept behind the Flip has been a three-point philosophy: simple, simple, simple. This gets way too off-track.
@Kinpinex
The Flip Mino and Flip MinoHD are great products. Fast, pocketable, and simple to use. They get a lot of coverage because they were truly the first to market with a device in this form-factor that met MOST of the things people wanted. It's better than a phone camera, and not as cumbersome or complicated as a full-featured video cam. And the originals were dirt-cheap. I do think the current ownership needs to re-think the product direction as they expand the line, and make sure it doesn't give up the niche it filled so nicely.
@Anphaser This appears to be made for filming themselves or something and immediately wanting to watch it. Like with point and shoot digital camera. Reactions- http://bit.ly/flip-side-reactions
Pewpewpew!
@ustna Pow Pow Pow! ... wait a minute...
@ustna pew! pew! pew!
( °) (Starts up Death Star Laser) Do you dare Pew again?
@Lord Vader Pew...
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............ ,^ -___ ----------------------^ .+............................
............/--.^ .....^.---------------------- \ ............................
====={==l==o.....!------------------------Y............+.............
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...........|^ ~ "- - - - - - - - - - - " " ~ ^ | .....................
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................. "-......_____., '- """ ..................... ......
........+................................................+............................ ..........................PEW!...............................................
@Lord Vader
That is the most crappily made death star I have ever seen..
@SolidSnake. Blame Commander Abedinthehouse, I will have him punished for his crummy work
!
@SolidSnake That's a Death Star? I thought it was a really fat cat.
Pewpewpew!
Nothing like a 3" screen that you can only use .5" of when recording!
@GenericMessage
If I were in marketing for Cisco I'd say: "We did this to remind users that their recording a real life event, the image on the screen merely serves as comforting reminder than the flip is capturing this moment".
I'm not.
Give the users the rest of their freaking screen back cisco!!
That seems a bit pricey to me. You can definitely do better for yourself for that kinda loot.
pewpewpew! shhhhhhh......prkkkkk!
I didn't need to read anything other than "$279 pricetag" to know I'm not interested. Flip's products were supposed to be the cheap HD recorder version of netbooks, and now they're creeping up, instead of down, in price. For a little more cash (say, $300-$400 range) I believe you could get many more features in a higher quality device.
I'd rather save for a Lumix LX3, once I got to that kind of price range. Flash HD cameras shouldn't be more than $150, they're just too limited to warrant anything higher.
@DestrictoEnse Just out of curiosity, what app does your avatar lead to?
@Exbloder
It's "Destricto Ense" in plain text.
@Exbloder It's not a QR code, it's DataMatrix.
I'd still take this over anything KIN related.
@BergerFan
at least the kin has a neat time line thing, this just had crappy controls
Mino HD it is, then.
haha that thing is pointless.
WTF!? did anyone read the article or do you go right to saying pew pew pew or I hate the KIN
@yulebellow
what does this have to do with the Kin?
@Mr Oos
nothing, looks like they deleted the comment but some guy was like "i'd take this over anything KIN related"
@yulebellow No,, it's still here.
Loving this new Nokia phone!! Suprised they'd put this out so soon after the N900.
@willwillywilson
WHAT !!!
@willwillywilson LMFAO.
@willwillywilson
I love the power gl...I mean Slide HD... Its so bad.
Can anyone refresh me on why anyone bought a Flip in the first place? cuz its got an "easy" button?
the easy way sure doesn't embrace the engadget spirit
@project109x
I have a flip for just dicking around with. Take it to concerts, parties, and shoot some stuff. I'm a filmmaker, and like carrying a camera with me, but it's annoying to lug a camera bag with you everywhere. Flip sits in your pocket until you want to do something with it. Not an ideal camera, but it's actually really sweet. If it had white balance and audio in I'd probably even make some shorts on it.
Engadget sue them for the font and the rings coming off form a letter!
$279 is way too high. I got my new Kodak Playsport last weekend for $149. Pretty nice and water proof. Even does 1080, but it doesn't THAT great. It also need a $40 memory card to match the Flip.
Whats up with the touch screen controls? How is it better than a physical button if its exactly the same? I'll stick with the mino HD.
Ya, this appears to be made for filming themselves or something and immediately wanting to watch it. Like with point and shoot digital camera. But the problem is that good video is heavily edited because most video footage is boring and forgettable. It's not like going through a bunch of photos on a camera.
what is the point of this...what a piece of crap..
Product FAIL!
Flip Mino HD FTMFW. This is a load of bloatware mal thought out and just completely and utterly stupified.
after seeing this, maybe Cisco is not a good choice to buy Palm.