High Quality Baby Monitors
The New Sharper Image and Philips Electronics monitors are compared.
Aug 9, 2006
When my family moved from an apartment to a house, we realized we would need high quality baby monitors. Our master bedroom is on a different floor from our children's rooms, and our inexpensive Safety First baby monitor couldn't penetrate the thick cement floors. A new baby monitor was a high priority on our "To Buy" list.
Sharper Image Video Monitor
We decided to get a video monitor from Sharper Image, which has a setting to switch back and forth between our children's rooms. The Sharper Image Wireless Security Camera and Monitor with 2.5-inch Color TFT Active matrix LCD, has a swiveling transmitter. it also has infrared night-vision capabilities, so we can watch our kids as they sleep. Or, toss and turn. Or, stand up in the middle of their bed and yell, "Mommmyyy!"
This is an expensive video baby monitor, but it promised to work through the ceiling/floor of our home. We also justified the price by noting that we'd only need one monitor for both kids' rooms: A setting allows the video receiver to switch back and forth between rooms. Unfortunately, the Sharper Image video baby monitor has quite a bit of static, so at night our bedroom sounds like that archetypal scene from Poltergeist, when the little girl stares at the staticky TV screen. Further, each time the monitor switches receiving images from one bedroom to the other, it does so with a discernible "Zot!" sound. What with the static and the "zot," us parents were sleeping about as well as if our children were actually keeping us up, which they usually weren't.
Philips Electronics Baby Monitor
For a couple of years, we've dealt with this problem, but now Philips Electronics' Domestic Appliance division is selling a new Digital Baby Monitor (available September 2006). Each monitor has a base for the child's room, and two receivers, presumably one for each parent. They are mobile, durable, and travel well. More importantly, the Philips Digital Baby Monitor has a zero - yes, zero - static interference guarantee! This is due to the new Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, or DECT, technology.
Would Philips hold up to its guarantee? In a word, yes. There is absolutely no annoying static emanating from our receivers. It is quite literally static-free. Further, the receivers are smaller than those of Sharper Image, and readily mobile. The sound quality is amazing; when one of our kids call, it's as if we're in the room with them. Even better, this is a two-way system. In other words, if we press a button on our receiver, we can communicate with our children, walkie-talkie style. Considering the flight of stairs that would otherwise have to be scaled in the middle of the night, this is a real labor saver. Take one on a vacation; the two-way system makes luxury hotel suites even more fun!
And the winner is...
Now, the Sharper Image baby monitor is video capable, whereas the Philips baby monitor is not. However, the DECT state-of-the-art technology's zero static, and two-way communications capability, makes Philips the "clear" winner (no pun intended). No more "zots" for our family!
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