Rick Astley. Kittens. That fat bloke. YouTube has a lot to answer for.

And now here comes the 'big in America' Flip Ultra video camera.

Sitting somewhere between a mobile phone camera and a full-blown camcorder, it appears to be aimed squarely at the YouTube crowd.

Basic features

On paper the Flip doesn't look too hot – 2GB non-expandable memory, runs on non-rechargeable AA batteries and records at a paltry 640x480 resolution.

But it's not designed to be top-of-the-range, instead going for casual, on the spot video recording. And that's precisely what it excels at.

My road test was a rock band in a dingy club. The conditions were perfectly rubbish – low light and loads of noise, but the results were surprisingly good. There was little blurring of the footage, and the sound was crisp and clear.

Simple controls

It's also easy to use – my fumbling drunken hands only had to flick a switch on the side and press the big red button to start recording, and press it once more to stop.

Playback is simply a question of pressing the play button.If you're used to the safe cracking-like rigmarole of switching modes, the Flip will be a revelation.

It's also got support for uploading directly to YouTube or MySpace, which is obviously the main draw for its target audience.

Its your-cat-could-use-it ease of operation outshines its technical shortcomings, but it's still going to have trouble standing up against its nearest rival, Creative's Vado.

Bulky camcorder

The Flip's extra chunkiness over the Vado makes it feel sturdier than the competition, but we'd want something smaller for a device we can just slip into our pocket on a night out.

The cheaper price of the rival device makes this bulkier version feel too far out of its depth.