Samsung's Two New Lightweights

Summertime, and it's all about lightweight gear that you can toss in a suitcase, cart around the amusement park, or take to the beach without wrenching your back. Samsung is showcasing two new lightweights worthy of attention. One is a colorful, impishly tiny MP3 player; the other is a state of the art HD camcorder.

The small, ultra-skinny YP-U3 MP3 is one of those "too cute" music players. It comes in five wild colors (including black), and it's not much bigger than a lipstick. In addition to the audio player, it has an FM radio, a voice recorder, and surround sound. It records a variety of formats and Samsung claims the battery gets 15 hours per charge.

The U3 comes in different configurations from 1GB to 4GB of storage (hefty considering the size of the unit). It also has a tiny one-inch OLED display (which is one inch more display than the comparable iPod nano or iPod shuffle have). It holds about four lines of music track information. Best part is that it works right out the box with a mini-USB connection so you can plug it right into your PC and transfer music. No software or cables required. Plus, it's got an adorable, color coordinated set of headphones Reasonably priced, the top of the line 4GB one is only $150.

One of the lightest, smallest HD camcorders on the market, the SC-HMX10, comes from Samsung, too. It captures video at 720p and stores it to either an 8GB internal flash drive or expandable memory via a SD/MMC slot. It'll store about 90 minutes of video. The SC-HMX10 looks a bit like a silver and black soda can, but it's amazingly light and comfortable to hold. It's got with a 2.7-inch preview LCD that swings open, and can swivel for low angle shooting. (No more down on your knees to get the toddler shot.)

Extra special niceties include Samsung's signature touch-screen preview with simple controls for on/off and zoom built right in. You can even do simple cut and pastes right in the camcorder. It's got HDMI capability, which means you can connect it to any HDTV and watch your home movies in high definition. A 10X digital zoom lets you get up close, too. Relative to others on the market, Samsung's SC-HMX10 is fairly inexpensive at $799.

These two lightweights for the summer could also turn out to be great back to school choices for the fall.