I have many relatives overseas.  Not that many compared to most Filipinos, but I have enough.  My sister who lives in Ohio came to visit a couple of weeks ago.  And she bought everyone a Creative Vado.

It looks like an iPod Mini, and its pink.  I thought that it was a camera at first, but it only takes videos.  The thing about it is, it takes great videos.  It has an internal 2 GB of memory that is more than enough for your daily video shooting.  The LCD display is 2 inches and has very good anti glare, perfect for the beach.  Bad thing about it is when you transfer it to your PC, it looks a bit grainy since the format is 640 x 240 on an MPEG 4 AVI at 30 frames per second.  For me, that is a bit low if you want high quality videos.




It does have a very clever USB connector that is well hidden under the unit.  And that doubles as your charge since the only way you can charge the damn thing is through your USB.  There is a AV out but it does not come with an AV cable.  My brother bought a cheap AV cable and it does not work.

The Verdict:

It is a useful piece of gadget you can add on your geek bag.  It is very light, too light that you think it is only a case.  It is not too big and not too small either.  The videos look great on the Vado but when you will be disappointed when you transfer it to your PC.  It has a direct online sharing on YouTube and Photobucket.  But I would rather keep it on my hard drive since the video quality is too grainy.  It is not yet released in Manila but I saw its competitor, the Flip, priced at P 6, 000.  Too expensive for just a camcorder.