The smart designers of the dirt-cheap Flip camcorder just shrunk the easy-to-use shooter by 40%, calling the new creation the Flip Mino. If you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, Flip is pretty much the alternative to fancy and expensive HD camcorders, taking the market by storm with its ultra-cheap ($87.95) basic 30-minute model and slightly more full-featured Flip Ultra ($129) that records 60 minutes of standard-def video. Even cheaper than the cheapest conventional camcorders, it’s called Flip because to plug it into your computer you just flip up its USB plug, and it’s ready to transfer your footage to YouTube and beyond.

This Flip Mino, available tomorrow for $180, is still about the same length and width of its cheaper brandmates, but nearly half the thickness. Like the Ultra, it holds an hour of footage, but this one eschews those AA batteries for a lithium ion battery that charges up in three hours. The designers of the Flip camcorder are onto something. It’s tiny, just works, and instills passion in its users. Now if Flip could just venture into HD.

Flip, via Engadget