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Summer Infant Handheld Monitor Sliver
Only $162.67 @ Amazon
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Summer Infant Handheld Monitor Sliver
First of all, I’ve tried 3 dissimilar baby monitors with the screen. What I expected/wanted from the baby monitors are these:
1) Good quality of the screen so I may see my baby (even breathing: chest going up and down at night)
2) Easy of use (I just hate anything that is a pain to use)
3) Camera pan/zoom option (My baby moves around and I like having camera close to him, so this is a genuinely good feature to have)
So, let me explain how those three monitors performed.
First one is Motorola Digital Video Baby Monitor with 3.5 Inch Color LCD Screen (At Amazon regular price: 229.99)
This one is the winner. It has a good picture quality, zoom in, is actually easy to utilized That’s it is It satisfied all those three categories. Other feature I in addition liked but not crucial are,, talk back, lullaby (well, kinda useless for my baby). I wish it was made with a small better quality plastic (compared to other two I’ve tried) and wish it had clock on the screen, which is very helpful at night when the baby wakes up! One thing I noticed though, was that battery of parent unit goes out SO QUICK when it is not plugged in, and use rechargeable battery.
Second one is Samsung Wireless Video Security Monitoring System w/ 3.5″ LCD (At Amazon regular price: 179)
This one,, sigh… I in truth wanted to love its I perpetually trust Samsung quality. and YES, it comes up to that quality frequent ordinary physical material that is made out of, and such a good deal of swell added features) that I look for. BUT there are a few cons that I just could not live with.
First of all, this one is LOADED with FEATURES. It has the best quality screen (almost like a digital camera! which is very impressive for a baby monitor! Both day and night time, it showed consistent swell swell talk back, Date/Time, viewable from the computer, etc etc… Just a lot!
However what threw me off was that vibration/beep when the parents unit wakes up from the sleep mode. Basically this thing goes to sleep when the baby does not make a sound or makes a sound that’s not too alarming. It is trying to give parents such a good deal of time to sleep unless baby cries so much. HOWEVER, I noticed that it did not pick up small cries that I in addition wanted to hear. And that VIOLENT vibration would just startle me each time the unit wakes itself from the sleep mode. I virtually had heart attack every time it did it is I mean it is VIOLENT vibration. It is way too powerful and listen this, you may not control it, nor you may turn it off. You may either choose between vibration or earsplitting beep, which is in addition annoying. I guess they did not test this out themselves. whether or not they had a baby, they would acknowledge that just sound of a baby crying will wake parents up.
Another thing that made me return this unit: lack of zoom and pan feature. OK. I will have to have read before purchasing this one, but so sad it did not have this feature, while having all other useless ones?! weird.
The Last thing I wanna point out on this: freaking annoying to go around the menu and hard to use! This thing is loaded with features (a lot of not so necessary) and but failed to coordinate it successfully underneath the menu. Also, it has way too a lot of buttons around the parents unit that I do not think are the “most-used” buttons for parents. Once again, did they actually test this thing with real parents with real babies?!! It’s like having a cell phone, trying to figure out where/what category the feature I want to use might be concealed under. A lot of them were where it did not make sense to me. Basically, very annoying to use.
Third one is Summer Infant Best View Handheld Color Video Monitor (At Amazon regular price: 199.99)
I had a high hope for this one, as I heard good things when it comes to Summer Infant baby monitors. I will make it short. It has the best “Ease of use” amongst all three. The parents unit had buttons (shapes and placements) that made most sense out of three I’ve tried. Plastic (or any other material that were used) quality was great. It does not have bells and whistles as other ones, such as talk back, lullaby, etc etc. It also has zoom in/panning feature that is very helpful.
BUT, this is why I returned this thing: the BAD, BAD, I mean BAAAAAAAAAAAD screen quality, peculiarly at night. It made my baby look like those “ghost pictures” persons take. Like those grainy pictures that people arrogate that they have captured the ghost in the picture… Get what I mean? It is super grainy I could not recognize my own baby’s face! My baby’s face filled up the whole screen (I’m saying this to say that I did not have the camera far from my baby) but still I had to guess, oh those two black blobs would be his eyes.. and another one beneath them is his nose?? no,, mouth??? Yes, basically, whether or not you are looking for a baby monitor with a screen, why would you waste cash on a screen that is useless? Move onto other monitors.
Finally, after using three, I realized that Motorolla had to be the winner, and I’ve been using it over a month and very pleased with it is Hope my review helped.
I owned the former generation of this monitor from Amazon and applied it for when it comes to a month before the screen on the monitor formulated a green static over the transmitted image. I called Summer Infant and they consorted to replace the schemes A few weeks later, the “new and improved” generation of the best view monitor arrived. I immediately noticed the divergence in the quality of the video. The old generation’s night imaginativeness image was crisp and comparatively clear, while this monitor’s night imaginativeness is grainy and fuzzy. The sound on this new monitor also cuts in and out, at times for a few seconds. I do not recall ever having an issue with the sound on the old version. If you are trying to decide between the old and the new version, I strongly recommend going with the older model.
I’ve owned the former BestView monitor for 10 months and in the last couple of months the battery lost the capacity to hold the charge and the charger would not charge consistently. When I called Summer (after being on hold for 45 min) the client Service Rep sent me new batteries which took 2 weeks to obtained The new batteries made no divergence so I called Summer again (on hold for 38 mins) and the Customer Service Rep said she would send me the new and improved monitor. She said the turn around time would be ONE week. I conservatively packed up the monitor and sent it back thru UPS- I have no idea WHY but it took 6 business days for Summer to receive my package. I waited for 4 days and wondered why I still had not obtained the NEW monitor. I called Summer again and waited for 40 minutes and the rep said she could see that their Summer Infant warehouse obtained my old monitor but the new one had not been shipped out. She told me she would email them and request that it was sent out that day. I waited 2 more days and called back to see if they had a tracking number. Again after an ludicrous wait on the phone the rep told me it had not been sent out but would notify their warehouse to send it out. She said she would email me a tracking number as soon as it had been shipped out. Again I waited for 2 days and still no email and no phone call. Very very frustrating! I called back and the rep said she could not get a hold of the warehouse. I told her to send one out from the United States and she agreed and her manager said it could be express. She said she would email me a tracking number. She did not. I had to call back and again wait for an ridiculous quantity of time. She gave me the tracking number. The new monitor took 5 business days to arrive. The total turnaround time for this fiasco was 3 weeks. I am furious!
The run around I got from Summer Infant’s customer service section is perfectly IRRESPONSIBLE and Unacceptable. Not only did they not DO as they said they would, they retained no regard that I had to call and follow up every couple of days. As a new parent, I wasted WAY too much time on hold and dealing with this situation. I bet if I did not follow up with them, I would still not have a monitor. Almost $200 dollars down the drain!
I have owned the best view for regarding 6 months. I had the former model, but it created an issue with the joystick working, and then they sent me a new one it was the new model. They replaced the product with no issues. Summer infant is a outstanding company and stands by their warranty, which I like. But as for this monitor, I like the older version better. The new model is sleeker and more high tech looking, but the sound is not as good. It does not go as loud, and pick up sound as good as the old version, and the picture is not as clear. I could see my sons eyes open and close on the other model, this one it is very unmanageable to see that. This one is definately not as good. I still like the product overall, but prefer the old model to this one.
The concept of a visual monitor is fantastic. We love the idea and the scan/zoom is a must , on that level we are pleased. The video and sound quality is very good however, we are unluckily on our 3rd one. They keep braking on us for no evident reason. They have not obtained any abuse, taken any harsh falls etc… they just stop working. Just now it seems that the infrared lights on the camera halted working –yet again for no apparent reason after being fine 30 mins ago. It is a pain as I cannot monitor my baby who happens to be sick at the moment.
My son has seizures and so we have to watch him 24/7 and a sound monitor isn’t sufficient because his seizures may be very quiet. After a especially bad seizure a few years ago we got the former version of this monitor. It was great, but it didn’t have pan and tilt. Now that my son is mobile and will oftentimes get out of his bed at night the old monitor wasn’t as helpful as it applied to be. We purchased this new verion by Summer a few weeks ago and I love its It has outstanding range, I may work outside after the kids go to bed and I may still see him. The parent unit is much smaller than the older version too, which is nice because it now fits in a pocket. The only thing negative that I could say regarding it is that the new version is digital instead of the analog picture that you used to get. This means that it has a “webcam” feel in regards to it and when you get started to get out of range the picture starts only moving now and then and you may get the untrue impression that they are still. With an analog picture you get started to get snow when you get out of range, but you can still see the movement. Overall though, we can’t live without it!
I used to own the old Best View monitor and camera, but regrettably with regards to 8 months into usage, the adapter jack halted recognizing the AC adapter and halted recharging batteries. Up until that point, I was very happy with the old version of the Best View monitor and camera. I was hoping there was an easy troubleshooting fix, but unfortunately there wasn’t. So I had to ship in my old broken monitor and camera in interchange for a replacement, which I was pleasantly amazed to see was the newer model of Best View.
Based on some of the negative reviews here, I appear to be in the minority that I received actually good, responsive customer service from Summer Infant as they sent me a replacement monitor and camera (this new generation Best View) within a couple of days of their receiving my defective older generation Best View. I thankfully fell within the warranty amount of time by just a few days, and they did not hassle me or delay at all. I was without a monitor for perchance a small over a week. The intercommunicating with Summer Infant was quite good (kudos to George who was super quick, friendly, and effective and didn’t hassle me at all — and I be grateful for him spending time with me to undertake to disturb shoot the issue).
This new Best View monitor and camera is terrific. Compared to the older generation, the screen quality seems better, and the sound quality seems a bit better, weeding out the irrelevant white noise. I like that the video mechanically turns off after a few seconds to conserve energy. I haven’t had any interference with my wireless devices, thankfully, as these types of monitors are known to do, but I have only had the new Best View for a couple of weeks now. The new handheld monitor looks and feels a little more modern, even though the previous monitor felt a little heavier and sturdier.
As other reviewers pointed out, beware of the very short 1 year warranty period. It is disappointing that the warranty amount of time is so short but make sure you mark the dates in case you do find you need to take advantage of the warranty replacements/repairs. To be safe, if you find a problem or defect, attempt to contact them as soon as possible.
Since I am still early into my usage of this device, I will attempt to update this review later.
I have had the Summer Infant “BestView” monitor (an older version of this one; ref ASIN B001NAATW0) for in regards to a year. We have liked it for the most elements The greatest problem is with the battery life.
After about 9 or 10 months, it plainly wouldn’t take or hold a charge. Very frustrating! I was about to trash it and purchase another, until I encountered that there is an easy solution. Inside the parent unit are 3 low-performing rechargeable AA batteries. They’re cheap Chinese PsOS, and can be replaced with something a lot better. Just unscrew the cover and swap them out! I like the Sanyo Eneloop brand personally, but any higher end Ni-MH rechargeable battery will work. Those will charge right in the unit and should do a much better job keeping a charge for you. Good luck!
This is a great monitor. Until it stops working. Which it will. In the past 1 1/2 years I am now on my THIRD Summer Monitor. It is GREAT while it is working. REALLY great – I don’t know how we would live without its My daughter is not a good sleeper, and it is such a piece of mind to be competent to watch her without going into her room (and waking her up). However, they are expensive, and for that price I would anticipate them to last longer than 7-8 months. Our primary one the screen halted working. It was not dropped – it just halted working. The second one stopped being competent to be charged. Hopefully the third one will last longer.