On paper, Creative's Vado might outclass and out-spec the wildly successful Flip Ultra camcorder it very liberally (like crazy, PETA liberal) takes its cues from, but what about in the real world? Laptop Mag tosses 'em together and finds that while the Vado outpaces the older Flip most respects—it's cheaper, slimmer, more attractive and has a better layout and bigger LCD—the Flip wins where it counts: video quality.

The Flip Ultra's clips were "clearer and more detailed across the board," while the Vado tended to overexpose and had problems capturing details. Overall winner: Flip, despite costing about $30 more. If the size issue is still pushing you toward the Vado, wait a couple weeks, since it looks like the Flip smaller and tartier pretty soon. [Laptop Mag]

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