The camcorder's svelte black design looks elegant and feels comfortable. Some of the Everio X GZ-X900's specs look good: a 1/2.33-inch CMOS imaging chip, a top of 24 megabits per second, 9-megapixel still photos, the ability to record to standard SDHC memory cards, and a slow-motion setting that records at frame rates of up to 600 frames per second (at reduced image sizes).

Other specs lag behind what comparably priced competing models offer. You can shoot only full 1920-by-1080 high-definition video at 60 interlaced frames per second (JVC omits film-like 24p and Web-friendly 30p modes). You also get a limited 5X optical zoom lens, and the camcorder lacks jacks for headphones or external mics.

The Everio X GZ-X900 does have a few appealing design touches. You navigate the menus through a touch-sensitive slide bar that runs next to the left edge of the flip-out 2.8-inch LCD panel. Consequently, you don't have to touch the screen itself--which is handy, because it's the unit's only viewfinder.

The camcorder also includes a clever Upload feature for creating and transferring video clips to your YouTube account in just a couple of steps. Press the Upload button on the side of the Everio X GZ-X900 when the camcorder is connected to a PC, and the camcorder/PC combo automatically converts your clip and uploads it to your YouTube account. You need to engage the Upload feature before you start recording, however, and it stops recording after 10 minutes (matching YouTube's standard length limit)

In performance, the Everio X GZ-X900 proved to be a fair-weather camera. Images shot under bright light looked reasonably good, with sharp lines, pleasing colors, and good motion handling. In our six-camcorder test bed, it earned a bright-lighting video score of Fair. (The and the fared the best overall in our tests.)