Philips Avent Digital Baby Monitor with Zero-Interference DECT Technology
by Philips AVENT
|
List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Baby Products Reviews of Philips Avent Digital Baby Monitor with Zero-Interference DECT Technology
Customer Review: nice, but...
Summary: 4 Stars
Here are some things I like and dislike about this Philips Digital SCD 589 monitor.
PROS:
1. I love the look and functionality. It charges easily into the holder, and it's very easy to figure out. Very user friendly, but you do have to read the directions. It comes with a lanyard or a belt clip, and it's very lightweight.
2. It has more bells and whistles than you'll ever need. It has a baby's room temperature monitor (and you can set the range--it'll alert you if it's not within the range you specified), a soft glow nightlight, you can speak into it to talk to the baby, and you can make it play a lullaby; all from the parent unit.
3. It's got ZERO interference. Period.
4. It's got the longest range of baby monitor I've ever owned.
CONS:
1. It's incredibly expensive for a baby monitor.
2. The range is not 900 feet as described. With trees and walls (other houses, etc), it's probably more like 450 feet.
3. Even with the sensitivity and the volume all the way up, it's very quiet. Sometimes I like to hear the baby breathing, and it doesn't pick that up, unless the baby unit is right on top of him. Of course, when he's screaming, it's loud and you can't miss it.
4. This is small, but every time I control the volume up or down on the parent unit, I hit the "talk" button that you can talk to the baby with, and I'm afraid I'll make more noise and wake him up...
5. I've never used the bells and whistles.
So, good luck deciding on a monitor. I really do like it, but can't give it 5 stars because I don't think it's perfect.
Customer Review: Charging problems...Like many other reviews here.
Summary: 1 Stars
********BUYER BEWARE********Charger basically fries the rechargeable batteries, rendering them useless in a day or two. Been through three sets of after market Duracell rechargeables at this point, since it fried the batteries that come with the unit. As far as I am concerned Phillips owes me my $199 plus the cost of batteries I have had to buy. Many others have reported this same problem so read all reviews carefully and notice the trend here, and BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK. Personally, I would recommend staying away from this monitor as it seems Philips has not worked out the problems with it yet. I will most certainly be returning mine, and won't even consider looking back on this purchase. Been a nightmare for a couple with a newborn child.
Lastly, in regards to the other features. The night light feature is absolutely and totally useless. It would not light up a doll house, never mind an entire bedroom. Doesn't even provide the slighest hue of light in the darkest of rooms. None at all, totally useless.
I will sum up by saying very simply, the concept of this monitor is superb, and when it works it is clear and sensitive. But chances are it won't work for you, and you will have battery/charger problems. Save the headache until Philips actually hires better people to beta-test their products before they are released to consumers. This one is an embarrassment to those involved in it's development. *********BUYER
Customer Review: Best baby monitor yet...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll admit- I am a TOTAL baby stuff geek. I research it all, and am VERY tough to please. We originally bought the now discontinued Phillips 900mhz monitor, and it was wonderful (2 years ago). We've used the Fisher Price units at friends, and for the money, they are really decent. However, we added a video monitor system for our children in our home, and the interference between our old Philips and the video system was unbearable. Made the audio monitor useless.
So we bought this unit- the Philips SCD 589. It is PERFECT. Rechargeable batteries, 2xAAA, and VERY small- easily fits in a pocket. The range is great, and b/c it digitally scans 60 channels and switches channels whenever it senses interference, it works in our "noisy" environment as if it was the only electronic device in the world. That is the main reason we bought it, and it delivers. It does not suffer from interferance- period. Philips is first to market with this technology, and it costs a definite premium. BUT IT WORKS. WHen you run the monitor at night, you need it quiet with no hiss or hum so YOU can sleep. This one delivers. I'd recommend this hands down as the best monitor out there- but you pay for it. All of the bells and whistles are nice (temperature, temp hi or low monitor, etc.) but the fact that it is quiet is what sells it. It is the best out there today.
Customer Review: very good, but not perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
we bought this monitor when it was still fairly new in the US. luckily, philips gave a few of these monitors away to epinion reviewers in exchange for a review. the review were mostly positive, but a few things were mentioned there (and are mentioned here on amazon).
volume on the reciever is kind of low - even with the receiver volume turned up all the way, it can be hard to hear in a crowded room unless you're very close to the receiver. it would be nice if it were louder, but we've learned to carry it around whereever we are.
battery life on the receiver sucks - yeah, no getting around this. tonight we got around 4 hours before we started getting the low battery alarm. some people will tell you that you need to charge and discharge it a certain way, but in this day and age there's no real excuse for that poor of battery management in an electronic device. it's not like they were trying save every last ounce of weight like apple did with the ipods.
still, we're happy with our purchase. I do wish that we could get a second receiver unit though. I'd love to hear if anyone has tried to purchase a second unit and managed to link another receiver to the base unit. I assume that you could link one unit, then link the second after the first's battery died down, but we'd like to have two recievers linked to one base.
Customer Review: You Get What You Pay For...
Summary: 5 Stars
Does exactly as promised. During my research, I found that many of the lower/mid priced baby monitors from other companies would "possibly" interfere with wireless home networks and wireless phones. We have a 2.4Ghz wireless router, 5.4 Ghz wireless phones, 900 Mhz wireless headphones, cell phones, etc. and there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO interference as promised. I haven't tested the range as the babies room is right around the corner (less than 25 feet) so I can't tell you how far it works. I'm fairly good with all types of new technologies and it may take the average user a little time to get used to all the bells and whistles. Only drawback is the price ($200.00), however, if you have a wireless network or don't want to pick up other people's phone calls, this is the ONLY unit on the block that guarantees no interference (as of 3/20/2007). One of the main reasons we spent the extra $ for this Philips baby monitor is because of a horror story we heard from a friend of ours who picked up a conversation of a neighbor talking about her and her child on their baby monitor. If privacy is a big factor in your consideration and willing to shell out the additional clams, this is the unit to buy. Being a first time parent, I've been told that baby monitors are used for many years as your child grows...you can easily justify the cost over several years.