Pure Digital reveals revamped Flip Ultra camcorders
by Stevie Smith - Apr 30 2009, 15:00
The new Flip Ultra, fatter but cheaper than the little Mino. Image: Pure Digital.
Already well established as a frontrunner in the handheld camcorder market thanks to its popular line of diminutive Flip devices, Pure Digital has today unveiled the second-generation edition of its Ultra series.
Arriving in two format flavours, the UltraHD for high-definition performance and the UltraSD for standard definition, the new Ultra comes in a little larger and chunkier than its Flip Mino stablemate but still bears Pure Digital’s recognisable design.
Despite its slight sizing discrepancy in a consumer world increasingly built on ‘smaller is better’, the revamped Ultra is cheaper than the Mino line, with the HD and SD options priced at $199 USD and $149 USD respectively, whereas the HD and SD Minos cost $229 USD and $179 USD.
In terms of features and functions, the SD version of the second-generation camcorder doubles the original Ultra’s internal memory from 2GBs to 4GBs, while the HD model pushes that storage ceiling to 8GBs.
Compression technology has improved from MPEG-4 AVI to MPEG-4/H.264 (4Mbps for SD and 9Mbps for HD), and battery life has apparently been boosted from a single hour through to two thanks to the inclusion of a rechargeable cell pack as opposed to freestanding AA batteries – although AAs are still supported.
In a first for Pure Digital’s camcorder products, the new UltraHD also offers budding camera enthusiasts the benefit of HDMI output, so they can view their cinematic masterpieces on a connected HD television or compatible device.
Other contributing factors covering both iterations of the second-generation Ultra include a 2.0-inch LCD display screen, 2x digital zoom capabilities, a four-way directional pad for easy navigation, Web-friendly onboard software for content loading to sites such as YouTube, and – of course – the eponymous ‘flip out’ USB connection arm.
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