OK so after the UMPC debacle no one was expecting small laptops, such as the the Asus eee to do well, but fly off the shelves they did. Would the same be true for Creative's little camcorder.

The device offers the user the ability to take video footage and upload it straight to YouTube or Photobucket, cutting out the boring transcoding and other tedious stuff. So it says.

The device uses 2GB of flash memory to record video in MPEG-4 AVI format. It has a variety of quality settings, ranging from 60 minutes of HQ capacity or two hours of SP quality. To be honest the HQ quality isn't that great so HQ is about the lower limit we were happy using (even then is is a paltry 640x480 resolution). Viewing of what you are recording or playing back is via a small 2-inch LCD screen which has a an anti-glare display, so can be used in strong sunlight.

The unit comes in silver and pink (for the ladies) and is around the same size as a Motorola RAZR phone (minus the phone capabilities). There is also a threaded mount to attach a tripod. The casing, while pretty to look at can stain easily.

After your footage is taken, plugging the device into a Windows PC fires up software on the device. The Vado Central software helps you copy files from the unit to the PC and will also allow quick navigation to YouTube orPhotobucket . We must says that while the software is easy to use, most people can use Windows Explorer pretty easily enough now to drag and drop stuff by themselves. Mac users are pretty much left to their own devices to drag the files off the device (and you would also need anxvid decoder to play stuff on QuickTime).

Also, another gripe was the apparent lack of editing software. Most people who use camcorders are adept at using such software. We couldn't find any with Vado Central and we thought that this should be included on any camera in the market.

Another thing is for the money, you only get the device itself. New batteries, a protective case and other accessories, such as a AV cable will cost extra, which makes the Vado a little of a bargain than first thought. Really, most camera-phones can do as good a job as this can.

Overall, while it does what it says, it is what it doesn't do that makes it hard for us to recommend this. We'd much rather wait for theCreative's second attempt before rushing out and buying a Vado.

Rating: 5/10

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