It feels weird as a 35 year old man to be writing my first review about a baby monitor, but here we are. I guess I’ll justify it by this quick point. As a 36 year old man with a 3yo and a 1yo, sleep is an important part of life. When the kids don’t sleep, we don’t. Having to get up in the middle of the night means we waste more time getting back to sleep. Enter the baby monitor. Having a quality monitor means you can decipher, more accurately, whether or not you need to get up and address an issue or let your child work it out for themselves.
Of all the things baby monitors do, one of the most important is that they provide peace of mind. Keeping an eye on your little one from afar means lower blood pressure for you, and a higher level of care for them. That being the case, with any equipment that provides peace of mind, the last thing you want is for that equipment to malfunction. Failures for equipment like that results in more stress because now you don’t have a tool in your arsenal that you’ve come to depend upon.
After we had our second child, we were determined to upgrade the basic, big box store baby monitor we were using with a more reliable model. After having done some research we settled on the BabySense 5” HD Split-Screen Baby Monitor.
Features
The BabySense 5” HD monitor is packed full of features. Some we knew we wanted, others that became indispensable once we had them.
5” Full Color Display
The display on the monitor stands tall with an impressive 720p display. In daylight colors are clear and defined. The picture is crisp with plenty of detail, even under the 4x digital zoom, and 5 inches gives you plenty of real estate to distinguish everything you need without being too bulky to lug from room to room. The screen is encased by a durable, easy-to-clean plastic cover that hasn’t degraded at all in the year that we’ve been using it.
Night Vision Mode
The BabySense 5” HD Monitor is equipped with a fully functioning night vision mode. IR illuminators are present in the camera units which provide all the light the camera needs to see in the dark. Night vision isn’t a new technology, however, high-quality night vision still comes at a premium. Thus, the night vision does produce a slightly grainier picture than the daylight mode, but for the price it’s hard to complain. The graininess comes out more when using the digital zoom, but, given you have knowledge of what you’re looking at, the image is plenty clear to determine what you need without straining.
Dual-Axis Articulating Cameras
The standard unit comes with two cameras, both of which boast a 360° pan and 90° tilt, all of which is controlled via simple directional buttons on the monitor unit. Regardless of where you mount these cameras, you’ll be able to see everywhere in the room. They don’t see through solid objects though, so you still have to mount them accordingly.
Multi-Camera Connectivity
While the base unit comes with two cameras, extras may be purchased separately and linked to the monitor, up to four in total. Linking the cameras to the base unit is straightforward. We had no trouble whatsoever when linking the two that came with the unit.
Active Temperature Sensor
Each camera is equipped with a temperature sensor that reports the current temperature in the room back to the base unit. Temperatures can be changed between Fahrenheit or Celsius for our friends from across the pond. While this doesn’t offer control of the temperature, knowing is half the battle. Once you know, you can make accommodations accordingly. The monitor even comes with Hi-Lo temperature alarms so you can set the base unit to alert you when the temperature creeps outside of the range you want.
20-Hour Battery Life
One of the biggest issues we had with our first baby monitor was the battery life. We constantly had to drag the charging cable around to keep it going. Not ideal when you’re doing chores after bed time. I even tried to change out the rechargeable battery pack with a AA replaceable battery holder so we could just swap out regular batteries when needed.
The BabySense 5” HD monitor has a robust battery and after more that a year of constant use, it still holds up fine. From time to time we have to charge it in odd intervals, but most often we can keep it on the charger overnight and it’s good to go for the next day. Honestly, no complaints about the battery whatsoever.
Built-In Night Light
Each camera also comes equipped with a night light. The night lights are perfect for providing that little bit of extra light you need to change diapers or feed baby without fully waking your child with bright room lights. With three different brightness settings you can get as little or as much light as you need. And if your child sleeps with a night light, then this might do the trick without needing to get another piece of equipment.
Security
We are a very security-minded family and as such we take security very seriously. The BabySense monitor uses 2.4GHz FHSS interference-free, 100% digital wireless signals to communicate between the cameras and the base unit, ensuring that only you will be viewing your baby. It’s not something we think of everyday, but it provides that peace of mind we all need.
Split-Screen Monitoring
A split-screen monitoring mode means you can keep an eye on two rooms at the same time, with the ability to switch feeds between spaces with a simple button press.
What We Like
There’s a lot to like here. One of the main features we were interested in was the multi-camera capability. Two cameras out of the box gave us what we needed for our first two children. When number three comes along all we need to do is buy another camera and link it up; good to go.
The battery life is awesome. With our old monitor, a cheap Vtech model, we were constantly dragging the charging cable from room to room because it started holding no charge after a few months of use. With the BabySense monitor we rarely have to move the charging cable from where it lives at my wife’s night stand. We keep it on the charger overnight and it’s good to go for the next day. After a year we haven’t noticed any appreciable degradation of the battery.
The temperature sensor is one of those features we didn’t know we needed until we had it. Now I can’t say that the sensor is terribly accurate; it’s not. However, we don’t really need it to be accurate, we just need it to be repeatable. I’m sure that may sound counter intuitive, but let me explain. If I keep my thermostat set at 72°F and that results in the camera reporting 68°F in the baby’s room, then I know that the offset from the camera to the actual temperature is about 4 degrees. So long as the camera always reports 68°F, then I know the temperature in the room is fine for my child. This doesn’t require a lot of testing either. Just set the temperature to what your baby needs, then see what the monitor reports; you’ll have your target temperature, regardless of whether it’s accurate or not. We even run space heaters in the bedrooms with success using the temperature sensors.
From our first monitor we decided having articulating cameras would be a benefit. Mostly this was due to the fact that our first child was going to be moving from a crib to a toddler bed and we assumed he’d be getting out of bed at all hours of the night. Having articulating cameras meant we could find him in the room without getting out of bed. Fortunately, he listens incredible well and has yet to crawl out of bed overnight. Who knows, maybe our second will give the camera motors more of a workout. Until then, it’s a nice feature to have, especially for watching your kid cuddle up next to your spouse while they rock them to sleep. Those precious moments are worth the extra cost.
While night vision is a pretty standard feature on baby monitors these days, we really appreciate the extra clarity from the night vision mode on the BabySense monitor. Other models are really grainy and give you very little illumination. The BabySense has excellent IR illuminators in the camera, meaning there’s more IR light for the camera to pick up in the room. This results in a much better picture quality for the night vision mode. Having better resolution at night means less getting out of bed for minor or non-issues.
Most monitors advertise some absurd connection range and this one is no different. BabySense advertises a 960 ft range for this model. We haven’t directly tested this, but I can confirm that 960 ft is a best case scenario. On a perfectly sunny day, with no outside interference and line-of-sight, yeah you might get 960 ft, but in the real world where all of those things exist and the weather never cooperates, range is reduced significantly. However, this unit does have excellent real-world range. We live further outside the city where the lots are about 2 acres each. The other day we were at the neighbors house with the monitor over nap time and it kept connection without issue. I measured the distance on my local area GIS map and it shows something like 230 ft. That’s pretty respectable considering there were probably something like 6-8 walls between the base unit and camera as well. It’s not 960 ft, but it’s certainly better than anything else I’ve seen.
Of course, all these benefit don’t mean much if the price of the product is unattainable. You could certainly go out there and spend upwards of $400 for a monitor, but that’s not really feasible for most Americans, not in this economy. When we got the BabySense 5” HD monitor we spent $199 for the base unit and two cameras. At the time of this writing Amazon currently lists the same unit for $179. It’s certainly not the cheapest, but for what you get it’s an awesome price. This was one of the main reasons we purchased this product. After reviewing the features and making sure all our requirements were checked, this unit offered the best price. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with this model.
Lastly, I will recommend BabySense because of their customer service. We haven’t directly needed to contact them. Which is a good thing. Not having a problem is better than having one. However, thumbing through reviews on Amazon shows a distinct level of care BabySense has for theirs products and their customers. Hard to say no to a company that stands behind their products.
What We Don’t Like
If you know me you know I’ll shoot you straight, and while the BabySense monitor is a great one, it’s not without its faults.
First is the graininess of the night vision mode when using the digital zoom feature. Digital zoom means that the camera isn’t doing anything different, rather, the monitor is just blowing up the current picture to make is bigger. When this happens there are no extra pixels being added to the image to fill in the gaps, so you get a grainier picture. I understand what BabySense was going for here with a zoom feature, and from time to time it does help, but most often you’d be better served just holding a magnifying glass up to the monitor. You accomplish the same thing and skip the digital resolution circuit that has to “zoom in” on the image altogether. We don’t do this by the way, I’m just pointing out that the zoom feature, while nice, leaves something to be desired. If somehow BabySense were to add an optical zoom feature, a much cleaner image could be produced under zoom, but such a feature would add substantial cost. Some folks might want that, but I reckon most won’t, at least not for the added cost.
The next thing we don’t like is the VOX level setting options. VOX level refers to the amount of noise, in decibels, that is required to activate the unit. Like all monitors, when activated the BabySense monitor will turn on the screen and start transmitting audio as well. It will do this for any camera connected to the base unit. Therefore, if camera 1 picks up noise, it will kick on with the camera 1 feed, and so on for each additional camera. There’s two main problems I have with this. The first is that you only get to set one VOX level, and that level applies to all cameras regardless of ambient noise levels in each particular room. So if you have a room that contains a higher level of ambient noise than the others, you may see the unit kick on from nothing more often. We use white noise generators to help our children sleep and there’s a noticeable difference in how often we get false flags from our daughter’s room since here white noise generator tends to be louder. The second issue is that there are only three settings for the VOX threshold level, and of those three, there isn’t quite enough resolution to get an optimal outcome. For example, we have the level set at the lowest setting, hence, all noise exceeding that level will be reported to the base unit. When we tune up to the next level, we rarely see any events from the base unit because only the loudest of noises kicks it on. If the unit had more VOX level options and each camera could be set with it’s own level, I wouldn’t have any complaint here. But since that’s not the case I tend to get woken up from time to time throughout the night from the base unit turning on for no apparent reason.
May last complaint is a minor one because of what I discussed earlier, and that is the inaccuracy of the temperature sensors. We didn’t know how much we’d use them until we got them, but now that we have them I wish they were more accurate. As stated above, this is easily overcome by understanding what an offset is, but it would be nice if it reported more accurately. However, being an engineer by trade with intimate experience involving temperature measurements, adding a more accurate thermal sensor would significantly up the price. I’m fine with what’s there for the price we paid.
Conclusion
The BabySense 5” HD Split-Screen Monitor is certainly not the best monitor out there, but it delivers all the features you need at an excellent price. You could get away with less. Previous generations certainly did, having only audio in baby monitors from 30 years ago. I would advise against that. With technology getting cheaper and better technology becoming more available, it behooves us to leverage it in a safe manner. Audio will tell you when your baby is crying, video will tell you why they’re crying. This has helped us in the past, numerous times. I could go through a handful of situations but I think you get the point. We like the BabySense 5” HD monitor and I think you will too.
And if you have a story regarding this product, feel free to leave it in a comment below.