Ok, I have a type "A" personailty and I reserched the heck out of several monitors. I have been shopping around for the "perfect" monitor for months buying and returning until I have found what I want. (My son is 6 months old) I have tried several brands/types of video monitors such as Sony, Summer Infant monitors, and a Costco brand that can be used via the internet and Iphone/Ipad2. This Motorola monitor is the BEST that I have found. Money was not an issue for me as I wanted a video/audio monitor that just worked well. I do recommend spending a little more and buying the 3.5 inch monitor.Ok, what to say that has not been covered in other positive posts.....The resolution at night is awesome as I can see my baby breathing. (VERY important) I can see everything in great detail. The camera views best when mounted on the wall close to the crib-this way it can scan straight down and straight up viewing the entire crib and room. I originally placed it on a "wall shelf" but when I scanned down I could see a bit of the shelf instead of the entire crib. Also important when you have a child that rolls all over the crib as they sleep! You need to see every inch of the crib. (On the back of the camera is a tiny hole to hang on a nail or screw.) I hung mine on my wall just above a shelf and to blend it in I placed stuffed animals on either side-very nice looking and discreet. I painted the white cord to match the wall to blend it in. When scanning from the monitor it makes absolutely no noise and doesn't wake the baby. The sound is great!
I am a light sleeper and wake at his every roll and whimper at night. I used to get NO sleep. With this monitor I can put the volume up loud to hear every little move or put the volume down low to only wake when he cries loudly. The monitor has a light indicator on top to inform you of the "loudness" of the baby's cry. Also, I live in a two story home with wireless everything (my house is Grand Central with all the wireless technology.) and this monitor does great with cell phone, wireless router, and computer reception. There is no interference at all. The battery on the monitor, when fully charged, lasts 8 to 10 hours but I recommend it plugged in to the power cord at night. There is no delay. What you see is what is happening, allowing you to get to your baby fast!
The only thing I would add is a clip to the monitor to be able to strap it to you and the time. Sometimes I like to know what time it is for feeding purposes. Awsome monitor and well worth the money as now I finally get some sleep and peace of mind at night!!!
Update****02/16/13
I have now owned this monitor for year or so, and have recently encountered more problems.
The night vision on one of the cameras has. I can barely see my son anymore, and if he didn't have dark hair, I am not sure I would even know where he was in the crib.
The battery life of the parent unit is also dying. It used to hold a charge for about 5 hours, and now the charge lasts maybe 1 hour.
When I wrote this review a few weeks ago, a second monitor was not available anywhere. Although they are not available on Amazon yet (as of 9/1/2011), they are available online at other major baby stores where you "buy" stuff for babies (hint hint). I just ordered one today, which now makes this the perfect monitor.
PROS
LCD Unit
First of all, the LCD screen is huge. It is 3.5" diagonally. For reference, and iPhone is also 3.5". The aspect ratio is a bit more square than an iPhone, but you get the idea. The unit is very thin, its about as thick as a typical men's wallet. It is lightweight, has a nice kick stand that seems very sturdy and nice, grippy rubber feet on the bottom that are very unobtrusive but work great. There is an antenna across the top back that can flip up if you need it to get better reception, but we have never needed it, even when two floors away. There are 4 buttons on each side of the screen, 4 directional that control camera, volume, menu navigation, a menu button, an "ok" button, a video on/off button and a microphone button. They are well placed, it is not a huge problem to have to hit the menu to get to volume, we had to do the same on the Summer Bestview and it is the first menu option (i.e. hit the menu button and it is already in the volume option, so just hit up/down from there).
As you can tell from the pictures, the unit has pretty good industrial design too, which seems to be the trend in baby monitors now. Battery life is decent, it works enough to have a daytime nap and then use it again in the evening without charging in between. Your not going to get more than 3-4 hours out of it if you use the LCD a lot though. There is a series of LEDs across the top that indicate how much noise your kids are making, and there is a very accurate temperature display (based on reviews, sounds like Samsung temp is off by 10 degrees, but this unit matches the thermostat outside the room so I'm assuming spot on).
Camera
The ability to scan and pan is great, very quiet and no likely to disrupt your kid. There is a small green LED on the front of the camera, but you can't see the infrared lights in the dark (unlike our Summer Bestview which looks like 10 little LEDs in the dark). The zoom is not great, kind of hard to get to on the menu and it is only a digital zoom that crops the center of the picture and doubles it. It is small and can be placed pretty much anywhere. The picture that it sends to the handheld unit is great (as far as baby monitors go). It isn't going to win a technical Oscar, but it is very clear. The huge LCD screen helps. In daylight it is incredibly crisp and vibrant. I haven't noticed any interference with WiFi, but haven't really tested either. It operates at 2.4GHz and we mostly have 5Ghz 802.11n devices, so we are in a different bandwidth that doesn't conflict.
If you have additional cameras (up to 4), you can set the monitor to manually scan through them, it will stay on each one for 12 seconds based on what it says in the manual. You can have up to 4 cameras, but there is no ability to see multiple ones on the the screen at once (like the Lorex).
CONS
I guess a minor quibble might be that you can't put batteries in the camera, but the old monitor had this functionality and we never used it in 2.5 years so not an issue for me. One other possible thing worth mentioning is that the monitor unit takes a proprietary battery, very similar to what a lot of cordless phones have. One other minor thing worth mentioning is that the infrared LEDs at night are not very bright from 10 feet away, we are just going to put a shelf near our 3 year olds bed so that it will be closer (think of the LEDs around the camera as flashlights for night vision).
I can say without reservation that this thing deserves 5 stars after a 3 full weeks with it. My wife loves the size of the screen, the light weight monitor, the portability, ease of use etc. Its a very cool product.
*Update 8/24/2011* minor spelling correction (sales to sails) and added clarifying point in final paragraph "even though it supports 4 cameras", which was already mentioned above but needed reiterating.
*Update 9/1/2011* Removed comments about additional cameras not being available since I bought one today. Added a few minor updates to the review.First of all, I've tried 3 different baby monitors with the screen. What I expected/wanted from the baby monitors are these:
1) Good quality of the screen so I can see my baby (even breathing: chest going up and down at night)
2) Easy of use (I just hate anything that is a pain to use)
3) Camera pan/zoom option (My baby moves around and I like having camera close to him, so this is a really good feature to have)
So, let me explain how those three monitors performed.
First one is Motorola Digital Video Baby Monitor with 3.5 Inch Color LCD Screen (At Amazon regular price: 229.99)
This one is the winner. It has a good picture quality, zoom in, is really easy to use. That's it. It satisfied all those three categories. Other feature I also liked but not necessary are,, talk back, lullaby (well, kinda useless for my baby). I wish it was made with a little better quality plastic (compared to other two I've tried) and wish it had clock on the screen, which is very helpful at night when the baby wakes up! One thing I noticed though, was that battery of parent unit goes out SO QUICK when it is not plugged in, and use rechargeable battery.
Second one is Samsung Wireless Video Security Monitoring System w/ 3.5" LCD (At Amazon regular price: 179)
This one,, sigh... I really wanted to love it... I always trust Samsung quality. and YES, it comes up to that quality standard (both physical material that is made out of, and some great added features) that I look for. BUT there are a few cons that I just could not live with.
First of all, this one is LOADED with FEATURES. It has the best quality screen (almost like a digital camera! which is very impressive for a baby monitor! Both day and night time, it showed consistent great quality), talk back, Date/Time, viewable from the computer, etc etc... Just a lot!
However what threw me off was that vibration/beep when the parents unit wakes up from the sleep mode. Basically this thing goes to sleep when the baby does not make a sound or makes a sound that's not too alarming. It is trying to give parents some time to sleep unless baby cries so much. HOWEVER, I noticed that it did not pick up small cries that I also wanted to hear. And that VIOLENT vibration would just startle me every time the unit wakes itself from the sleep mode. I almost had heart attack every time it did it. I mean it is VIOLENT vibration. It is way too powerful and hear this, you can not control it, nor you can turn it off. You can either choose between vibration or loud beep, which is also annoying. I guess they did not test this out themselves. If they had a baby, they would know that just sound of a baby crying will wake parents up.
Another thing that made me return this unit: lack of zoom and pan feature. OK. I should have read before purchasing this one, but so sad it did not have this feature, while having all other useless ones?! weird.
The Last thing I wanna point out on this: freaking annoying to go around the menu and hard to use! This thing is loaded with features (a lot of not so necessary) and but failed to organize it successfully under the menu. Also, it has way too many buttons around the parents unit that I do not think are the "most-used" buttons for parents. Once again, did they really test this thing with real parents with real babies?!! It's like having a cell phone, trying to figure out where/what category the feature I want to use might be hidden under. A lot of them were where it did not make sense to me. Basically, very annoying to use.
Third one is Summer Infant Best View Handheld Color Video Monitor (At Amazon regular price: 199.99)
I had a high hope for this one, as I heard good things about Summer Infant baby monitors. I will make it short. It has the best "Ease of use" amongst all three. The parents unit had buttons (shapes and placements) that made most sense out of three I've tried. Plastic (or any other material that were used) quality was great. It does not have bells and whistles as other ones, such as talk back, lullaby, etc etc. It also has zoom in/panning feature that is very helpful.
BUT, this is why I returned this thing: the BAD, BAD, I mean BAAAAAAAAAAAD screen quality, especially at night. It made my baby look like those "ghost pictures" people take. Like those grainy pictures that people claim that they have captured the ghost in the picture... Get what I mean? It is super grainy I could not recognize my own baby's face! My baby's face filled up the whole screen (I'm saying this to say that I did not have the camera far from my baby) but still I had to guess, oh those two black blobs would be his eyes.. and another one below them is his nose?? no,, mouth??? Yes, basically, if you are looking for a baby monitor with a screen, why would you waste money on a screen that is useless? Move onto other monitors.
Finally, after using three, I realized that Motorolla had to be the winner, and I've been using it over a month and very pleased with it. Hope my review helped.The Minutiae of 2 Monitors: Motorola MBP36 & Summer Infant Touch
Motorola Digital Video Baby Monitor with 3.5 Inch Color LCD Screen
Summer Infant Baby Touch Digital Color Video Monitor
This review discusses the minutiae, good and bad, of both monitors. (Same review under both products).
Summary: Motorola: 4 stars, SI: 4.5 stars. Both monitors are great and fit the bill for a pan/tilt monitor. It's the little details and personal preference that will determine the best monitor for you. FYI, we come from a history of owning the Summer Infant BestView-pre2011. We would have just added a 2nd camera to our unit if it were still available. Where applicable, we noted where SI has improved some things from the BestView to the Touch.
Both monitors have a 3.5" screen. The pictures in both daytime and night vision are very good. The sound and talk back on both units is good. The pan/tilt is quiet overall on both cameras. The biggest difference is how to access the features you feel are most important to you. Below are some notable differences between the two units.
Overall layout (see labeled pictures):
Video On/Off: external button on both
Volume: in menu on Motorola, dedicated top toggle on SI
Pan/Tilt: external (Left) buttons on Motorola, in a menu with touch arrows on SI
Zoom: in a menu on both
Scan: external button on Motorola, in a menu on SI
Buttons: SI wins this hands down. Unless you are awake every time you use the monitor, you cannot easily find and press the correct button, one-handed, in a dark room/semi-sleep state. For us, this design difference is what sealed the deal for SI over Motorola. We can easily find the Video On/Off and volume with tactile sense. We would have resorted to making a raised surface on the 3rd button if we chose to keep the Motorola.
SI touch screen: Many people commented that you can brush up against the screen anywhere and turn the menu on/select items. This doesn't seem to be totally the case. You not only have to have the video ON, but you also have to press on the very right or bottom strip of the picture/screen to bring up the menu. A random touch anywhere on the screen will not bring the menu up. Also of note, accessing the main functions (Video On/Off and Volume) does not require the touch menu since these buttons are located on the OUTSIDE of the unit. We are fine with going into a menu for less-common functions such as pan/zoom/scan because we will not be doing this nearly as often as turning the video on/off and adjusting volume. (And the SI volume toggle does NOT activate the touch screen so the monitor can stay dark while you adjust volume.)
Interference: we had problems with our old SI (BestView) and wireless interference. The Motorola had much less interference than the SI Touch, the SI Touch seemed to have the same interference as the SI BestView. We opted to upgrade/change routers to solve this problem instead of compromising on any monitors. A router is a cheaper electronic piece to swap out than a monitor system (esp with multiple cameras).
Camera range: we placed each camera on the same peg over the bed. The SI showed ¾ of the bed, the Motorola showed a little less than ½. For us that meant HAVING TO pan the Motorola each time to see where baby rolled. We have the camera at the max height on the wall. The camera could easily be placed at a different angle relative to the bed to avoid panning. This is just to compare how the video outputs differ relative to each other. (The specs are undoubtedly written in the manuals somewhere describing the camera lens type.)
Night vision LEDs: both the Motorola and SI Touch have 'invisible' LED lights to provide night vision. On the monitors, this looks like a spotlight with darker edges that look like they're `in the shade.' This is subtle and not really noticeable except at the lowest screen brightness setting. For reference, the old SI BestView had a circle of red LED lights around the lens that resulted in a more evenly-lit monitor picture.
Speaker: located in the back of the unit on the Motorola. The SI speaker is redesigned but still on the front of the monitor. Both units have an 8-level sound bar and each level between the 2 brands seems about equal. Several have been concerned that the volume does NOT go to zero on the Motorola. However, the speaker is on the back of the unit and makes the lowest setting almost equivalent to a mute setting. In testing it, we found that the rear speaker placement helped block the background rustling/movement that we didn't want to hear, but did not hinder us hearing the louder baby noises that we did want to hear. (Also for comparison's sake, the Motorola and SI Touch level 4 is equivalent to SI BestView level 2 so there is improved ability to adjust the lower/quieter sound levels; the quiet sounds are quieter and loud sounds (above level 4) are still loud. ...a great change for SI fans.
Cameras: The Motorola has nice rubber feet at the base that keep the camera from sliding where placed. The SI has a light plastic feel and the base is so light it feels like the camera will topple over. (But it doesn't.) We put ours on the wall (not on a shelf) since that's the best way for us to use the pan/tilt, so the padded bottom is a non-issue (although the SI vibration against the wall was loud until we placed a felt pad sticker on it).
Monitors: The Motorola monitor also has the nice rubber grips on the bottom. It stays in place on a tabletop making it easier for you to grab. And you WILL need to grab it...with BOTH hands...in order to press the correct button(s) to activate any function. The SI comes with a little saucer-like magnetic recharging base. It's so light and plastic-y that it hangs on to the monitor when trying to break the magnetic connection. Because you need adequate pressure for the touch screen, you'll need to get your hands on the monitor to work the touch screen functions. Put the fancy saucer base in the trash and just use the charger port on the left side of the monitor unit itself. Overall, the Motorola is a niiiice monitor to hold. It's thick and chunky, like a portable game unit (think psp), and you can thumb the left and right buttons very, very easily. The SI is thinner and more sleek (fake chrome cover) and less comfortable to hold. And because you need to hold it length-wise (buttons on the top of the unit get in the way...), it's a little harder to balance than a touch phone that you may be used to holding.
The SI comes with a cordless click-on base for the camera. It takes 4 AA batteries, advertising a 10hr battery life. The batteries do NOT come with the unit and we think that you CANNOT use the power cord to charge the base, eg rechargeable batteries need to be taken out of the unit to be recharged. This is different than stated on the Amazon description. We have not tested this, but it's directly from the manufacturer info.
Motorola has a temp gauge. Never had it before and it's a nice feature to have. The temp of the Motorola is accurate since the camera doesn't run hot (goes up a few degrees temporarily when you move the camera) unlike reviews of other brands.
Motorola has an audible beep when the battery is low. Most people like this. We do not. A flashing light is adequate. We'd be pissed if this woke us up in the night, so any monitor stays plugged in during the overnight hours for this reason. (Plus the manufacturer recommends running the battery down during the day and charging at night to keep the battery life optimal.)
SI turns the video off in 3min if not plugged in. Motorola takes longer by about 1-1.5min.
Again, both units are great for a pan/tilt multi-camera setup. What you're used to in a monitor and what makes life easier for you in daily use will tip your scales one way or the other. But you cannot go wrong with either of these choices. We hope these little itty bitty details of these two units help someone.
*UPDATE* 11/10/11 We really wanted to like the Motorola because it had a more compact and nicer camera and the monitor design was superior to SI and had a great feel to it, but the accessibility of some features won out on the SI vs the Motorola. We've had the SI monitor for a month now and everything is still behaving. The only thing to add to the above information for the SI is that the touch screen is a little better than expected. As stated above, it is activated only if you push the menu button on the right side of the unit (very inconvenient location for one-handed use) or tap along the bottom/right of the touchscreen (like old-school digital picture frames). The nice thing is that once activated, the screen is very responsive to one-handed touch when sitting upright (eg on a nightstand). It's very easy to reach over and adjust brightness or use the arrow buttons with one finger and not knock it over. The only negative is in selecting items. Once you select the menu item (eg Brightness or Camera), you need to use the arrow buttons in the popup menu to get to and highlight what you want. For example, under Brightness you cannot just tap a higher level and have it go from 2 to 7. Instead, you have to tap the arrow up incrementally. The menu items of Brightness, Scan, and Switch Camera do this. (FYI in comparison, the Motorola has the same menu system but instead of tapping on the initial menu icon you needed to arrow thru all the menu icons to get to what you want. As mentioned in the original review, the VOLUME was one of these embedded menu items so it took 3-4 button clicks to adjust volume once you pulled up the menu.) Too bad these two monitoring systems can't have a child and make the PERFECT user-friendly system.**UPDATE 12/21/12** I have now owned this monitor for year or so, and have recently encountered more problems.
The night vision on one of the cameras has died (the other camera is fine...so far). I can barely see my son anymore, and if he didn't have dark hair, I am not sure I would even know where he was in the crib.
The battery life of the parent unit is also dying. It used to hold a charge for about 5 hours, and now the charge lasts maybe 1 hour.
It is a hard call on this monitor -it has so many wonderful features that are better than comparable monitors out there, but the disappointing elements/quality issues are so huge I am not sure it is worth it.
*UPDATE 5/14/12* I changed my rating down even another star, which is SUCH a shame because it really is a great camera overall. However, I am soooo frustrated with the placement of the two-way communication button. As I mentioned in my original review, the button that allows you to talk into the camera is located on the main display and right under the view button. After having several incidents of either myself mistakenly pushing that #!%?! button and thus waking the baby because he suddenly hears our voices, noise, etc., I have to say this would have probably been a deal-breaker if we had known this before purchasing this monitor. It is so easy to accidentally hit that stupid button (via putting monitor in back pocket; trying to locate view button in middle-of-night, etc.) that it has become a real issue in our household. In fact right now, I have to go and get a screaming baby that was abruptly awoken from a nap due to a curious preschooler who got her hands on the monitor and was trying to "see" her baby brother... *SIGH* Just a thought to put in your considerations before buying this...
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After kiddo #2, I did a lot of research before purchasing another video monitor. Our first (Safety 1st True View) was lacking in many, many ways, so I wanted to make sure the next monitor got us the most bang-for-our-buck, as they say.
First the PROS of this unit:
Nice big screen -it really is wonderful as you can see everything!
The pan/tilt feature is awesome! Kids move around when they sleep. Kids move around in their room. Enough said, right?
Control buttons pretty intuitive (but poorly situated -read cons).
Sound quality is great.
Picture quality is fantastic, both day AND night vision. I know others have said they thought the night vision was terrible, but both of our kids have dark, dark rooms with blackout curtains, and I can see every blink of the eyes and breath that they take at night.
Temperature feature helpful, but I am not sure it is accurate. Nonetheless, it give me a good idea if their rooms are too hot or cold. Our kids' rooms have much more drastic temperature issues that the rest of our house as they sit over our garage, so this feature has been nice.
The battery life is pretty good -it usually lasts about 4 hours.
The camera and parent unit lights are really dim -in our experience, it does not light up the whole room and is barely noticeable. No more spotlights on babies! Nice.
If you have two cameras, it is very easy to toggle from one to the other using only one button. This button also allows you to set it to "Scan Mode" where every 12 sec. the screen will show each room cyclically.
Rubber grips on the stand and parent unit so that it doesn't slide around or fall off.
Long A/C adapter cord -this can be both a pro and con -pro in that it has a great reach from any outlet; con in that I trip on it all the time when I am moving the monitor to another room...the cord is SO LONG!
All those Pros being said, Motorola left out some very BASIC features, and some of the included ones are useless. My family calls me the Queen of Complaints, but whatever. Here are the Cons:
There are NO back lights to the parent unit. And while this makes it really dim (a plus), it is terrible when you have been awakened in the middle of the night and are trying in vain to find the view button, but instead are accidentally panning the entire room, or pushing the two-way communication button so the baby hears scrambling around (Arrrrg!). Seriously, Motorola??? This seems like a no-brainer feature to add. They should have a back light that is activated by touch, much like cell phones have.
There is no way to turn the volume completely off. So, what is the point of having the noise level LED lights??? You can HEAR the noise level your baby/kid since they give you no choice not to. This stinks when you are trying to sleep, but your kid has a cough; or baby is fussing-it-out a bit; or you are trying to actually watch a movie with your spouse after the kiddos are down.
Which brings me to the next basic feature Motorola left out: Voice Activation! They should have let you turn off the volume to the unit, but program voice activation if baby lets out a blood curdling scream, or whatnot. I also wish that they had a voice activation feature for the multiple cameras, so that the parent unit would automatically focus on the room where a kid was crying. Instead, you have to have it on that 12-sec scan cycle, and it is really annoying to hear the different "sound" of each room repeatedly.
Also regarding the volume: you have to manually enter into the menu in order to adjust the level. Too time consuming for such a simple function. A volume control should be on the side of the unit for quick access (with the ability to turn the volume completely down!!!)
As I mentioned before, the two-way communication button is on the main display -this can easily be accidentally hit, causing your kid to hear you when you don't want them to. This feature should have been on the menu, not the main options. Also, if you are in Scan Mode and are using the two-way communication for one room, it will still switch to the other room causing your other kid to abruptly hear your voice and possibly wake up. (!!!)
(BTW, the two-way communication is terrible. I tried it a couple of times when my husband was in my daughter's room, and he said he couldn't even tell what I was saying and it sounded freaky. Nice.)
An alarm feature? Why would you want that on a monitor? I want my baby to SLEEP. Sheesh.
The on/off button is practically microscopic. I have very small fingers and it takes me a couple of tries to get the unit off/on. Not a huge deal, but annoying.
So, all-in-all, a great monitor with great quality sound and visual, but Motorola amazingly left off some very basic, basic features that would have made this monitor the King of All Monitors. Such a shame since it would have been so manageable to accomplish this.
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