The great baby monitor experiment, Day 20
by Heather
It’s a pretty sweet baby monitor. And if you really want to splurge on your monitoring device, I might say to go for it…
The great parts:
- sleek-looking and cute.
- very lightweight “parent unit” (AKA handset or receiver thingie) — in fact, I accidentally took it to work one day because it was in my purse.
- rechargeable battery included and recharging happens automatically when parent unit is in the base.
- eliminates background noise — our other monitor broadcasts the baby’s white noise machine, this one cuts that out by adjusting the threshold for sensitivity
- very clear audio — almost sounds like he’s in the room with us when he makes a sound
The stuff I’d like to see changed:
- the parent unit is so lightweight that it often “floats” above the charger and I really need to wiggle it to get it to settle in.
- the lullabies are fine, but we use a white noise machine and I would LOVE that feature in addition or instead of the remote songs. Then I wouldn’t have to travel with both devices for an overnight.
- it is too easy to hit the parent-speak button when adjusting other menu items. I don’t want my kid to hear, “Alec, how do you adjust the sensitivity threshold?” when he’s trying to sleep.
- for this price (about $199), can’t you get a video monitor? that would be fun as long as we’re splurging!
Stumble it!
November 7th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
I agree with the video monitor idea. The value there is that you can see if your kid is standing up, has a leg stuck through the crib, or has lost his binky. A really sexy audio-only monitor doesn’t seem to have a lot of added benefit over just that it’s more fun to own. But then, I’m the type of person who will just keep buying Hondas and still has not spent over $100 on jeans.
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Well, here we are in fabulous NYC. I guess it really is a problem out here on the Upper West Side to get interference with audio (and even video!) baby monitors. The fancy Philips promises none of that, and true to form, we haven’t had any.
Alec tested it further by taking it in the elevator (it cut out), walking across the street (it came back in), going into the Duane Reade across said street (it cut back out), and meandering around in front of the building.
Out in the Berkeley suburbs, I don’t pick up other babies’ signals and the greatest challenge is how far can I reasonably and safely get from my baby and still hear (via monitor) and respond quickly. We’d love to make it to the nearby cafe and can’t (with any of the monitors we’ve tried).