It uses Mini DVD's to record on and is able to finalize them so they can play on a DVD player directly if you don't want to finish them on the computer. It has a memory stick slot for taking photos.
You can probably do a lot of what it does on a cell phone but it has a massive zoom in cell phones don't and also am throwing in a zoom extenders lens and fittings. It has Optical zoom, Digital zoom then Lense zoom. If you times them all It's a really huge zoom in range. We used it at a baseball game and from the nose bleeds could zoom right in to the batters faces, then zoom out a bit to follow the base runs.
It comes with a carrying case, the battery and a charger. Throwing in a second battery. Still have the PC disk for editing and instruction manual. All very good condition.
It's not state of the art but has a huge zoom in range for such a little guy and if you have an AV student at home it might be a good practice camera/camcorder for them to learn on.