DXG’s $180 Pocket Cam Shoots in 1080p

We weren’t surprised when we learned about the DXG-581V, a $180 pocket camcorder that shoots in 1080p: the company is known for breaking price barriers. In the past, our verdict has been, “you get what you pay for.”

In addition to shooting 1920 x 1080 video, it snaps 8-megapixel photos, and houses a voice recorder. Its SD card slot reads cards as large as 8GB (the Kodak Zi6 ($159.95) accommodates cards as large as 32GB).

It has a rotating, 2.4-inch screen, which is large for its class, and comes with ArcSoft TotalMedia Extreme editing software.

This time around, DXG’s strategy of targeting young, budget-oriented consumers with inexpensive (but often low-grade) products might be a little more appropriate given the category at hand; YouTube camcorders, after all, were designed to be portable and cheap, not the best quality.

Then again, we’ve seen pretty good quality from several pocket cams, not just the Zi6, but the Pure Digital Flip Mino HD ($142.79) ($199.99), too. And now that Sony has announced two sub-$200 pocket camcorders, we’ll be interested to see if the twenty-dollar difference is enough to lure customers away from the big guys.