Reviews for Withings Smart Baby Monitor

I wanted to love this product. It makes so much sense...

First, the good:

1. It's well thought out. The device is slick, with simple buttons and the interface is simple and easy to use.

2. The sensors are very good. The video and audio quality is excellent.

3. Connecting to the device from the office or even another country works without issue. Great for me and relatives abroad (when Skype would be intrusive or too much effort).

Now, the bad:

1. Automatic switch to infrared is rubbish. The camera automatically switches to infrared (because it thinks its dark) when it shouldn't and there is no ability to manually manage this switch. Problem being, when it's dim or the device is close to a white wall, the camera endlessly switches between normal and infrared mode (and 10 seconds out of every 20 seconds, nothing is visible). Super annoying. The monitor also does this when the camera is at a less than 90 degree angle (because it picks up its own white base) - I verified this with customer support and its a known issue, for which no fix is planned!

2. Automatic infrared adjustment is rubbish. The camera tries to find the right infrared balance/contrast, but sometimes it uses the wrong object as its focus (eg the side of our crib and not our baby). Again, super annoying that your not able to manually adjust this to see your baby clearly.

3. Battery is rubbish. Literally, lasts for 10 minutes. Don't know why they other providing one, pretending the device can be used on this basis.

Now, the mediocre: connection stability.

It manages a relatively stable connection. There are a few disconnects (and some refusals to connect), but it generally holds its connection or can be reconnected with minimal effort. That said, this can be very frustrating (esp for partners that may not be IT savvy) and is something that should not happen with this price tag. Also, it was totally dud one evening, but I understand that this was due to the Withings servers being down. Again, this should not happen.

One upshot about having had these connection issues is that I found out that if the wifi doesn't work, you can connect to it using Bluetooth. This is an excellent backup and works really nicely!

All in all, I would by this product again, because I think it's best baby monitor on the market right now. I also want to throw it out the window some evenings....

If Withings could fix the connection issues, improve the battery, and allow the user to control the infrared switching and adjustment, this would be awesome! At this price, this should have been sorted before it was sold by Apple.