Now the tinycam derby heats up even more, with Sony jumping in with its $900 HDR-TG1, a palm-size HDTV camcorder it’s calling the world’s smallest. Besides its 1080i HDTV showing up on that 2.7-inch viewscreen and recording on the included 4GB flash memory card, it can also snap 4-megapixel stills.

This 10-ounce marvel is looking good, but Sony better back that up with solid performance because it’s at least $400 more expensive than the similar PowerShot TX1 from Canon. It’ll be competing against commendable examples such as the Sanyo Xacti line and the new Vivatar DVR565D, too. So far, so good, but we won’t know for sure until this Sony ‘corder is released next month.