Hands-on review: Creative Vado HD

It appears that the pocket-cam wars have reached a new level. Following hot on the heels of the Flip Mino HD (review here), Creative has released the heir to the Vado throne, the Creative Vado HD.

Here's a quick rundown of the product:  1280 x 720p recording resolution, three different recording quality settings, 8GBs of internal memory for up to 8 hours of video footage, analog and HDMI video outputs (with included mini-HDMI to HDMI cable), 2x digital zoom, a gel-silicon protector, and a 2-inch antiglare screen.

The Vado HD isn't as becoming of a device as its rival, considering that it is wider and does not have the same glossy finish, but Creative makes up for this with a slew of features that are missing from the Mino HD. You get twice the storage (4GB vs 8GB), quality selection levels (VGA, HD, and HD+ which offer 8, 4, and 2 hours of recording), true HD output via HDMI at 720p, and a significantly larger screen (1.5-inches vs 2-inches). 

With its feature set, it's obvious that Creative has all guns blazing on the Vado HD. As for performance, both the Vado HD and the Flip Mino HD have their pros and cons. When outdoors in direct sunlight, the Mino HD captured sharper and clearer images, but some of the coloration felt slightly bland and undersaturated, while the Vado HD's picture was muddier and colors were blown out a bit. The Mino HD did have the upperhand outdoors, but indoors and in lower light situations, the Vado HD maintained better color reproduction and less pixel-ization than the Mino.

If it were simply just up to overall recording quality, I would have to give it to the Mino HD with the Vado HD in second, but in reality, it's not that simple. Since these mini-cameras aren't going to be recording any artistic masterpieces anytime soon, the Vado HD's larger screen, larger storage space, quality selector, 720p out, and other niceties makes the Vado a better choice in my opinion. And it's also $20 cheaper than its competitor at $199.

For more information, head over to Creative.com.