Reviews for Smart Baby Monitor by Withings

I really wanted to like this monitor- when I heard about it I waited on the waiting list for 3 months until it got approved in the US. Got the first one direct from Withings, and shortly after setting it up the power cord broke. Contacted customer service who said that parts are not available, so I'd have to get a new one. Sent that one back for a replacement
Got the replacement very quickly, and set it up. Was great for 2 days, with the exception of the normal delay that WiFi monitors have- about 5 seconds. After 2 days, none of my iPhones or iPads could connect without rebooting the monitor and the the app. Contacted Withings, and sent it back.
At that point, I was so disappointed because the idea of only having to carry around my phone as the monitor was so great. I figured I'd give it one more shot and got the third one from Apple. Just packaged that one up for return. Once again, worked great for 2 days except for expected delay in signal, but then, once again, despite green lights saying the monitor was connected and great WiFi signals, my iPhones and iPads again could not connect without manually rebooting everything. Once the monitor was unplugged and plugged in again, the app could acquire it, though it took some time to get a good signal, and then had a lot of drop-outs before I could not take anymore. The simplest thing that I can say is that it is not very "Apple". It just doesn't work.

Other reviews state problems with customer support or WiFi. Just remember these are people that are frustrated with connection problems that likely have nothing to do with the function of the monitor. I've had to deal with customer support twice and they were fantastic.

Pros:
1. Push notifications - you can set a threshold of movement, noise, temperature, or humidity and the app notifies you when those are met. You can then open the monitor and see what's going on

2. Is optimized now for the iPhone 5 giving you full access to the 4 inch screen

3. It has two modes, one is video and the other is audio monitoring in the background. The fantastic thing is you can just listen and use it as a traditional baby monitor while the app runs in the background.

4. Overall video quality is good especially over cellular or Wi-Fi networks

CONS/LIMITATIONS:

These are all the things that people are failing to mention. These are not issues with Wi-Fi or cellular networks which could just be the fact that they don't know how to properly set up a wireless network. These are true CONS and limitations of the device and the software.

1. Although you can pinch zoom and scroll you cannot actually physically pan the camera back and forth. This means that you really must be very intentional on where you place the camera so that way you have a wide viewing angle

2. The supplied mounting hardware is very limited. Unfortunately it only gives you approximately 1 inch gap to place the device on a crib or railing. Unfortunately there are no better mounting solutions.

3. There's no ability to purchase an additional charging cable. This is problematic if you set up a system where you try to hide the wire in your home for a semipermanent solution and wish to use the device elsewhere. Unfortunately I have had to purchase an additional Mophie battery so that I can use the device on the go

4. Just like number three above the internal battery last maybe an hour at best so must be plugged in at all times

5. Like others have mentioned, the night-vision isn't amazing, but I have found it's because I have to keep the camera far from the crib to get the widest viewing angle.

6. Cost - it's a bit expensive to have the limitations above. All in all I'd pay $200 for this unit again, not $300.

7. No mac app. In the iPhone era, it's super simple to turn an iPhone app into a desktop app... which they have not done yet. For $300 a unit, they should have this already.

All in all it's a good monitor. All the bells and whistles are nice, it has an integrated thermometer and humidity sensor (which is improperly placed it should be on the front of the unit, not the side) which will save you a good $40 from buying a separate one. There is obviously a 1 second delay from real time to your device, but do you really expect this to be a live feed? 1 Second isn't going to make a difference if your baby just started to whimper.


Since there have been some cheaper units released I don't know if I'd definitely buy it again, but I'm certainly satisfied with it.

Before I share the bad I would like to say the other Withings product we have has been great. I had hoped for the same but did NOT get it.

First, they are expensive and I would have never written a review if we could have at least felt comfortable enough by using this product to get some sleep. This is NOT the case. The product will freeze and go 'off-line' periodically and it is VERY easy to be asleep and not notice this! So for potentially several hours you may not be getting the monitor you expect. We have two and it is the same for both units. The modem (Apple) is directly beneath the two baby monitors, signal strong but still constant disconnections. The design of the IR light to provide night vision is very odd. They cause a white almost 'halo' effect on the nigh pictures of the cribs. I think it is because the IR is 'bouncing' off the extreme whiteness of the baby monitors plastic housing. I can not see my twins very clearly but at least I can occasionally hear them when it works. There is also a VERY unusual 'ghosting' effect that occurs. What I mean is at times in almost total darkness I will first get picture of a brightly lit room. The problem is this picture is from hours ago and seems to fight whether it will be shown or the actual one. Finally the dark (and accurate) picture appears but again it is back and forth between the ghost of the old picture and the new one. In the day time the pictures are quite good. Perhaps in this one area a traditional wired if possible or wireless (radio type) of audio/video would work more efficiently.

Very, very disappointed with this product. It reflect poorly on Apple overall - and I'm wondering why the folks at Apple have decided to carry it as a preferred brand at all. Maybe I have been tainted by my experience.

Essentially, the product does not function as advertised. I have been unable to connect to the monitor over a cellular network or a WiFi network, other than my home network to which the monitor is connected. Countless emails back and forth and still no solution .. Withing is now ignoring me and have clearly decided not to support any further...

Frustrating all around... don't buy this product...

Used for 2 weeks before my daughter was born, thought is was great. It disconnected from time to time but felt it was going to work out. My wife and I kept our daughter in our room for about a month before moving her into her nursery and finally getting to use the monitor. First night it disconnected after we fell asleep. The nursery is across the house and neither of us woke up for a couple hours before we realized our baby was crying and the monitor had disconnected so we were not alarmed... We felt terrible and found it impossible to fall asleep with this monitor. Point of my review is this... I wanted it to work SOOO bad but, it disconnects randomly and cant be trusted when you're trying to sleep. Returned for full refund. Apple was great to deal with on the return, very happy with their customer service.

We LOVE our Withings baby monitor. It has traveled with us to three different houses on a family trip and worked each time, both on Wifi and Bluetooth. We were having some issues with the iPhone 5 but our iPads never stopped working. The iPhone 5 issues may have been solved server-side as two days ago they seemed to go away. It does occasionally disconnect but always reconnects. People having disconnection issues should make sure the Wifi signal is strong enough in the monitored area or run an ethernet cable. We had problems when I moved the base station and I solved them by doing some optimization of the network.

I was leery of this product due to the many negative reviews, but gave it a try anyway. In short, it was returned for the following reasons:

1) It could not hold a constant wifi connection
2) Mounting "clip" was too skinny to fit on crib rail
3) Magnetic mounting base was not secure enough from protecting the monitor from falling into crib

Just bought this product and installed wifi connections on all our iphones ( two 4GS and one 3GS) and one ipad without any issue. The main pros and cons are well covered by other users. I found one useful experience we have and would like to share this with you. My in-laws are living at a location 8 hours ahead of our time zone. When our baby is sleeping at night, their grand parents can wake up in the morning and watch their first grand child sleeping peacefully. If required, my mother in law can speak when the little one and play music. She is so happy with the product and has more fun than us I think. I also know there is a reliable remote baby sitter who can alert me if needed.

the Smart Baby Monitor by Withings is wonderful. I love the ability to turn the night light and music on remotely and the over quality of the video is great. I have not used it internationally, but I have checked up on my kids from our local Rubio's and they get a real kick out of being able to hear me. The Withings Customer Service is by far OUTSTANDING! I have never written a product review before, but was inspired to do so because of how incredibly helpful they have been. I recommend this product and this company to anyone.

We, too, really wanted this baby monitor to work. Night vision is very hazy making it nearly impossible to see the child in the crib. The audio also had a lot of static. We hope the manufacturer will improve these deficits. When they do, we'll tthis product again.