Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsUPDATED: Eh...
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2019
UPDATE: So we've had the monitor for a while now and I have to say that in hindsight I would not have chosen it. It's not a bad product mind you - it's just not what we needed. Or more precisely, it's missing several features that we needed. Prime among these is motion activation, followed closely by VOX/voice activation. The sound is always on - which can be an issue if we go to bed early, because if we want the sound setting high enough to make sure we hear our daughter even if she doesn't speak up, the ambient noises can be quite distracting. It's nice that the visual can be set to sleep after a few minutes, but when our daughter does talk and we need to answer her, the screen stays dark unless we activate it on our parent monitor. Which means, in the middle of the night, when she calls for us and wakes us up, we have to have the presence of mind to find the button to talk to her in the dark since the screen remains black until we press a button. These are features that were included in our last two monitors, at similar price points, so it never occurred to me that I had to make sure they were present in this one - I assumed they were standard, since they seemed to essential. That's on me I know, but in case you haven't paid attention or made the same assumption I did, consider that they are NOT included here before making your purchase so you aren't surprised as we were...
That aside, if those are not features that are important to you, this may still be the monitor for you. I highlighted a few other things in my original review, which I've left below.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: We've been through several monitors since the birth of our daughter (she's now 5 1/2), each lasting anywhere from 1-2 years before spontaneously losing connectivity and having to be replaced. We chose the InfantOptics because it was recommended by Amazon and the price point was about what we spent on the last one (a vTech that we quite liked that made it nearly 2 years and is no longer available). It arrived and the first thing I loved about it was that it didn't require ANY integration/pairing/effort beyond inserting the battery and plugging it in before we could use it. The vTech had to be paired and that was one of the issues we had with it in its dying days - we had to constantly re-pair it for it to connect. This one was a breeze to set up and works beautifully so far - the visuals are great, the connectivity is perfect (our daughter is on the second floor; we are in the basement - no issues whatever, it connects perfectly and is crystal-clear), the sound is excellent.
I have two issues keeping it from a 5-star review though, and am surprised at both because less expensive monitors we've had in the past both dealt with them, and I don't understand why this better monitor doesn't... First, this is NOT voice activated. The sound is on ALL THE TIME. You can set the display to "sleep" after 3 or 5 minutes, but the sound is always on. Our daughter is older, so there is more noise in her room - she falls asleep to music or talks to herself or listens to her music box dolly when she can't sleep. Our previous monitors all had an ambient noise feature, wherein the audio would shut off after a few minutes if the noise was consistent and steady; an unexpected noise/voice would engage the monitor and turn on the display and sound. It allowed us to know when there was something unexpected going on with her/in her room, and was a very nice feature because if things were all good, the monitor would be dark/quiet, which made it easier for us to sleep or work or whatever we were doing without interruption.
And that brings me to my number two issue - the brightness of the display and side power lights. WOW - they are BRIGHT! The display can be "dimmed" but that seems more about contrast than actual dimming, at least with the night vision feature on. Even at the dimmest setting, the monitor throws off a LOT of light into the room - which is disturbing in the darkness of the middle of the night... Our daughter is a crazy sleeper, moving her arms and legs a fair bit, and we often check on her in the night - the display sleep feature is 3-5 minutes long, and at midnight that is a LOT of light when you're a half-asleep parent! But the brighter and more disturbing to me personally is the sidebar power lights - they are INSANELY bright and there's no way to dim them. They are blue and green and even when I turn the monitor away from my pillow/bed they reflect off the wall in a diffusion they are so bright... I put a band-aid over them to try to dampen the light, and could STILL see the lights. I next went with dark duct tape - that works, but it seems like it would be a nicer feature if the monitor offered a way to dim or even shut them off.
Regardless of the lights/VOX issues, this is - so far - a great monitor. As I said, the quality of the audio/visual is great, and that's really what matters. I'll let you know if anything changes - so far each of the monitors we've had has been great out of the gate; the proof of the pudding for us has been a year or more in. Hopefully this one will get us through the next couple of years and by then we won't need one anymore!
