How to Choose Baby Monitor?
How to Choose Baby Monitor? Here’s what we can do. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to choose the right baby monitor for you. We’ll show you the pros and cons of each type, so you can decide which is best for you.
It’s hard for even the savviest parents to find the right baby monitor that balances features, functionality, and price.
There are more than 30 video baby monitors reviewed in our best baby monitor reviews, making for a confusing array of options. What factors did we consider when selecting them? We looked for what?
What to Look when choosing Baby Monitor
You will learn all the important things you need to consider when buying a video baby monitor from this guide. Over the past few years, there have been some more fancy options appearing on the market.
Wi-Fi baby monitors, motion monitors, cry detectors, and multi-camera versatility are some of the newest options on the market!
Vision clarity during the day and at night
In the beginning, wireless baby monitors with screens made use of outdated display technology, resulting in grainy, blurry, and often unreliable images. Liquid crystal displays are used in newer baby monitors, just like those used in your smartphone.
In addition to having very good color contrast and high resolution, HD video baby monitors tend to be much more reliable as well. Unlike some of the old-fashioned stand-alone baby monitors that still exist on the market, most of the stand-alone monitors we list above have high-quality displays.
Due to the absence of color in night vision, the picture will either be grayscale or greenish in color. Even the best baby monitor does not have color night vision, so keep that in mind before you use it for the first time.
Wi-Fi or no Wi-Fi
Most parents fall into two categories when deciding which baby monitor to buy. The other option is to get a camera with a wireless connection so they can keep an eye on their baby from anywhere, at any time.
If they want a camera and monitor that displays what the camera sees, they can get a handheld video monitor. You may have difficulty deciding which one you want. The following are both their pluses and minuses.
Camera with Wi-Fi
Advantages:
- A high-tech device often contains high-tech output data (e.g., sleep quality, sounds, movement logs, etc.).
- When you’re not at home, you can access video
- Video recordings from different times can be viewed
- Your phone is all you need, no monitor is required
- Other rooms/children can be monitored with additional cameras
- It is possible to update software via WiFi
Cons:
- Real-time video requires a strong Internet signal
- Your cameras are at risk of being hacked if you use Wifi
- You cannot access your camera if you lose your Internet signal
- A higher price
Handheld video camera with monitor
Advantages:
- Video feeds that are secure
- Technology-challenged people will appreciate it
- You can always hear your child with a consistent video feed
- Internet is not required
- You can add cameras to other rooms/children if you wish
Cons
- Real-time video is the only way to see it
- The range of monitors can be limited
Which features are most important to you? Think before choosing baby Monitor
It’s now time to decide which features are most important to you. You’ve seen the good and the bad of both types of monitors.
Choosing a WiFi monitor might be the best choice for some parents who want to know all the details about their child’s sleep. Some parents may consider a camera with a handheld monitor as the best option because they don’t want Internet connectivity.
In this case, there is no right or wrong answer-just think about what really matters.
An excellent portable base unit
Babies nap during the day and go to sleep earlier than their parents. For best results, you’re going to want a baby monitor that has a long range and good battery life, unless you want to spend a lot of time watching the video stream.
Taking the unit and, say, taking out the trash or letting the dog out while keeping your baby close is possible.
You can even view the digital color video stream from anywhere with our best-rated wireless baby monitors that run on iPhone or Android apps. As a result, you won’t need to buy a camera and monitor, just the cameras that modern security cameras use.
This makes portable wifi baby monitoring easier than ever with a more universal baby monitor, and we’re definitely on board with this emerging trend. Taking your child out on a date night and want to keep an eye on them? These modern systems solve the problem, but only if you have one of them.
A camera that can be tilted, panned, and zoomed
Using a baby monitor isn’t fun when you realize the camera isn’t aimed at the baby, and you don’t see anything, after closing the door and turning on the monitor. In most baby monitor systems, you would need to manually adjust the camera in your baby’s room.
As we review below, some systems allow you to remotely adjust the camera angle, so you do not have to go back into the room to pan side-to-side or tilt upward/downward. This is a really useful feature, and it’s what keeps our baby monitor at the top of the list.
Even if you don’t have wireless camera panning and tilting, with a wide-angle camera, you will be able to see your baby pretty well, even if you don’t have wireless camera panning and tilting.
Camera lenses that are interchangeable
Several baby monitors are available with interchangeable lenses for best fitting your baby’s room. You may prefer the wide-angle camera if the camera is near the baby, such as on a nearby dresser or crib edge.
You might prefer the regular narrow-angle camera if the camera is placed far from the baby, such as on a bookshelf. It’s nice to be flexible, especially if you have to rearrange your room or move things out of harm’s way.
Easy-to-use menus and features
When you can’t navigate the menu, change settings or customize options, what good are 25 fancy features?
In addition to high video quality and an impressive feature set, all of the best baby monitors we reviewed above have great utility. Nevertheless, some are relatively user-friendly. If you want to change one silly setting, you won’t have to spend a lot of time searching through menus.
System that integrates intercoms
You can interact with your baby through an audio intercom built into some of the best baby monitors, allowing you to sing a lullaby or ask a question without shouting down the stairs.
Consider Child Safety to choose baby Monitor
Our baby monitor reviews don’t make an exception when it comes to the safety and well-being of your little ones. Parents’ due diligence is often the cause of baby monitor safety problems.
The wires need to be secured out of sight and reach of your baby, and the camera needs to be mounted far away from your baby (especially when mounting to a crib rail). A running humidifier and water must always be kept away from them.
Additionally, you may want to check out our review of the Levana Oma Sense heart rate monitor. Parents who are concerned about their baby sleeping in another room can be reassured by movement monitoring systems.
Streaming heart rate and blood oxygenation levels to your smartphone is possible with the Owlet Smart Sock (which was recently withdrawn from the market by the FDA). Remember, these aren’t hospital- or lab-grade monitoring systems, so don’t get too confident.
Communication over a wireless network that is encrypted
Some people have reported tapping into baby monitors and watching your baby feed in the middle of the night or sleeping while you feed the baby. It’s creepy and strange.
There are a few manufacturers that have incorporated wireless encryption into their systems to reduce this risk.
Assurance of reliability
In order to pass this test, one must have extensive knowledge of system reliability, through thick and thin. In spite of the fact that many baby monitors start out excellent, they tend to malfunction or fail within a few months after being purchased.
There are many unrecognized brand names that saturate the market, especially for many unrecognized brand names. Don’t let the new parents think you cheaped out on a junky baby monitor if you’re buying it as a baby registry gift!
In some cases (like the Infant Optics option), we’ve seen these video monitors last several years now after first being purchased.
Furthermore, even when the internet is down, most modern wifi baby monitors will keep connected to your app as a local connection. Streaming video can continue even when the internet is down as long as you are in your house.
