 Great to be able to see what your baby is doing |
| Review Date: September 5, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Baby Chaos, Istanbul, Turkey |
| We had a BT monitor but it died a few weeks ago so we decided to buy this. I think it's brilliant and I wish we had bought one at the start. The image isn't super sharp and the screen is a little small but just to see what they are up to is fantastic. We sometimes heard nothing and assumed he was asleep, now we can see him sitting playing with his toys. It's hilarious. It really helps you to decide whether to go in or not. We have parkae floors and creaky doors so we couldn't sneak in to check him before and now we have a solution. Would recommend it. |
Bad design, build and operation. Total rubbish.
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| Review Date: August 31, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Andy Rapkins, Poole, UK. |
One of the worst products I have ever bought. The video quality is OK but everything else about this poorly designed product lets it down.
1. Build quality - terrible. The buttons have worn out after only 6 months use.
2. Design. So many things are badly thought out. The stand is useless, the sound meter is stupidly linked to volume of the unit rather than volume of the baby.
3. Menus - can only be accessed when the video is on so if you want to adjust volume, you firstly have to press the button on top to turn video on, then the menu button, then adjust volume. Not exactly simple or well thought out.
4. Audio - not enough adjustment. Lowest isn't quite low enough.
5. Power lead - this failed after only 3 months.
6. Power consumption - even after being on charge for hours, the battery meter never reads full. Doesn't last anywhere near as long as suggested - even with the video off.
7. Reliability - sound has dropped out completely at random times requiring the unit to be reset (and batteries removed). On a few occasions, we have missed our baby being really upset because the sound has stopped working.
All in, this has probably caused more stress for us dealing with baby than if we didn't have it. The quality is dire (cheap plastic) and the reliability so bad I don't think it should be on sale as a baby product. |
Excellent monitor with unique features and decent value
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| Review Date: August 19, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Mr. Paul Dennett, London, UK |
We have had ours for 2 weeks now, and so far are extremely pleased. We are currently using four cameras (the maximum number supported) and a single monitor, and it only took a couple of minutes to get everything set up and working together. We have three young children so have a camera in each of the rooms where they sleep, and a fourth in the kitchen that looks over the playpen. Our house has thick walls and the cameras are spread across all three floors, but reception is excellent throughout, and seems to be unaffected by our wifi, microwave, cordless phones etc.
Picture quality is perfectly decent - certainly better than our old video monitors - and the zoom function is a helpful addition. If pushed to be critical, maybe the colours aren't 100% accurate during daylight, but neither are they at all bad or weird so don't be concerned on that front - and in any case the cameras are mainly used at night. Night vision is very good, with a clear picture and sufficient range to see anywhere even in quite large rooms. Whilst (as with any night vision) it is basically black and white, we've noticed that our GroBag Egg thermometers show up clearly in their proper colour, so as a bonus we have extra reassurance that the temperature in the room is in the right range.
Some reviewers have commented on the number of lights on the camera, but we haven't found these to be a problem. They consist of a single standard green LED, and an inverted 'horse shoe' of nine incredibly faint red lights. We have a crib on my side of the bed and so I have one camera on the far side effectively pointing towards my face from a range of about 2 meters, and whilst it is of course visible at night, it certainly isn't intrusive (and of course disappears when you close your eyes!). None of our children seem the slightest bothered. I guess if your child is incredibly sensitive then you could cover up the green light, which should be pretty simple, but I suspect this isn't going to be necessary for the great majority.
Sound is also very clear. We haven't had any issues with background buzzing noise, which was a constant irritation with our old monitors (more on them below). We'd read a couple of comments about there not being a mute button, but can't really understand what the problem has been for those reviewers as there is the volume scale includes a 'zero' option. Even when the volume is down and/or the image off, the monitor has a bar of lights which show when the camera detects a noise (more lights = louder sound, with red lights showing for big noises!).
Clearly one of the biggest selling points for this system is the ability to remotely move the camera around - I didn't find any other baby monitor offering this. We've been really pleased at how well this has been implemented, with the motors being extremely quite and the range of movement extremely wide. It has been great for tracking my one year old in close up as he wanders up and down his cot, plotting his escape, and for keeping an eye on my three year old as she potters around her bedroom looking for a teddy or causing mischief.
The monitor is a sensible size, being small and light enough to be very portable, whilst still having a big enough screen to have a clear view of your child. There is a toggle button at the top of the monitor for switching the image on and off. If you are using the monitor on the battery rather than plugged into the mains, the image will automatically switch off after a couple of minutes as an energy saving measure. A couple of reviewers have been annoyed by this, but it seems pretty sensible to us as you still have the sound and the light bar to alert you if anything interesting is going on, and then all you have to do is hit the toggle button to get the picture back. We tend to have the monitor plugged into the mains all night, and despite regular use during the evening, haven't yet had the battery charge drop below around 50%.
The menu system is simple and intuitive. My one suggestion for an improvement for the next generation model is to add a manual button for quicker and easier switching between multiple cameras, but it only takes a couple of clicks to do this via the menu, and as we tend to leave it set to our newborn's camera most of the time anyway, so far it's not been too annoying
We bought the Summer Zoom model as a replacement for the BosieBoo video monitors we'd been using for the previous 3 years. The reasons for the upgrade were (i) the steady degeneration of quality in the images and sound on the BosieBoos, to the point where only one of our three cameras and one of our two monitors was functional, and (ii) the interference we got on the BosieBoos, for example losing all reception whenever the microwave was on. Whilst the BosieBoos were the most attractive of all the monitors we've researched, they clearly had issues with build quality (especially the fragile plugs/adapters) which I'm sure contributed to them going (I think) out of business.
It is too early to tell how well built the Summer monitors are, but they look and feel very sturdy and we've read dozens of reviews - including many from the US - and there don't seem to be any common problems showing up, aside from the very occasional dud that seems to happen to any range of electrical kit. In fact, our first camera had an intermittent fault, but Summer immediately sent us a replacement and have let us keep the original as a spare, so no stars lost for this review.
There is also an issue to look out for if you are adding extra cameras, but we got back directly to Summer customer services and they've been refreshingly excellent in resolving this quickly too. We ordered two additional cameras (I believe the only way to get these is directly from Summer, but they are reasonably priced at under £50 each, though don't forget to order an adapter/plug with each one as they aren't included). Neither of these new ones seemed to work properly, and it turns out there are two batches of cameras and they don't like being mixed up on the same network. Summer got us to read the codes off the bottoms of the cameras and were then able to send us out (next day delivery) replacements from the same batch as the original. This has sorted the problem. Again, the speedy, helpful and courteous customer service from Summer saved a star being lost!
In terms of value, we've ended up spending about the same amount on this monitor as we would have done on one of the more sophisticated audio-only monitors and having previously benefited from having video (saving endless unnecessary trips up and down stairs) there really was no chance of us trading that in return for the benefits of two-way chat, the ability to play lullabies or a thermometer. Other quality video monitors we were considering were coming in at £100+ more expensive for an equivalent set up, particularly as extra cameras would have been double the price, and lacked the panning and zooming functionality of the Summer.
So all in all, an excellent video monitor with unique features and decent value, backed up by great customer service (something iCandy could learn from, but that's a whole other story so don't get me started.....) |
Fantastic Product!
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| Review Date: July 15, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Adsoxxx, |
We bought this monitor just before the birth of our first baby and have used it now, every day, for 11 months. I cannot praise the product highly enough. It is hugely reassuring to be able to see as well as hear our baby girl (particularly now that she is becoming more mobile) and, for us, a sound only monitor would not have provided that reassurance. My wife has dropped the monitor onto hard floors on numerous occasions and even submerged it in water for a period! It has survived all of this, the screen as bright and detailed as ever. It is a well-made product.
The range is very good, although the image does become slightly grainy the further from the camera you get. The signal does seem to interrupt our WiFi connection but moving the monitor a couple of metres away cures this. There is a light on the camera that flashes in the dark (presumably infrared) but it does not "shine" like a light and it has never bothered our baby. When the camera is moved using the joystick on the monitor it moves quietly. This is a useful function to enable you to centre on the baby. The zoom function (one step only) is a nice touch too.
As I said I cannot praise this product highly enough - I doubt you will be disappointed if you buy one. |
Would Recommend This Monitor
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| Review Date: July 14, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Lau Marie Ho Man, |
| We had previously owned the Nscessity Digital Wireless Camera Monitor and had to replace it with a new monitor after my 2 year old son had thrown it on the floor several times. I picked this camera because I thought the pan / zoom function was so cool, especially testing it in the store. We are very happy with the camera and it's great that I can zoom in to see my son sleeping, pan the nursery to see him play and the screen is much larger than Nscessity monitor I used to own. I don't find the battery lasting very long, I do need to charge it each night. Also, if the monitor is running on the battery the video will turn off after several minutes to save on the battery life, so you need to press the button on the top to see your baby if the video is on standby mode. The one thing I wish it would do that the Nscessity Monitor does is that when the baby wakes up (stirs or cries) the video would automatically turn on to you can see what is happening; this would be an asset for mothers cooking in the kitchen. Lastly the range is not as high as other monitors in the market, but we live in an apartment so it's fine for us, however I could see it being a problem for people living in large houses. I noticed a comment on the resolution or video quality and I personally find it to be fine, after all this is a baby monitor and not a HDD camera for family videos! I'm expecting a second child and planning to get an additional camera so I can see both my children in one monitor. |
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