Best Overall
Infant Optics DXR-8
The Infant Optics DXR-8 produced outstanding results in our tests. It achieves this quality by focusing only on features you need and forgoing others that could make it more convenient.
Best Value
Summer Infant Wide View 2.0
At less than half the cost of our top pick, the Summer Infant Wide Vide 2.0 is understandably less powerful. However, it has good audio and battery life, and it’s extremely easy to use.
Best for WiFi
Philips Avent Smart baby monitor SCD860
The Philips Avent Smart baby monitor SCD860 has good video and audio. Its Wi-Fi lets you watch over your baby using your smartphone, but it can be difficult to set up.
Best Overall
The Infant Optics DXR-8 outperformed the other baby cameras we reviewed in all our tests.
The video on its handheld unit is sharp and consistent, and even with 30 feet between the camera and the handheld unit, there wasn’t lag or interruption in the video. In addition, you can use the handheld unit to remotely point the camera at different parts of the room. Although you can't record video or take pictures with the DXR-8, these aren’t important features for a baby monitor.
Setup is incredibly easy. After charging the handheld unit overnight, we plugged in the camera and it instantly connected. There was a slight lag in the video when the camera and handheld unit were 50 feet apart, which is why it only scored 90 percent in our connection test, but that’s still better than other baby monitors we reviewed. In our battery life test, the monitor lasted 10 hours – only one other model has a battery that lasts this long.
This video baby monitor doesn't have Wi-Fi, but that's not a problem. Our top Wi-Fi monitor, the Philips Avent, is more expensive and didn't perform as well as the DXR-8 in our tests.
This baby camera has swappable lenses for telephoto and wide-angle views. It also has invisible infrared LEDs that let you see your baby in complete darkness without waking them. The DXR-8 doesn't have a nightlight or lullabies to comfort your baby, but those exclusions don't make this baby monitor any less impressive. The warranty on the DXR-8 only lasts a year, compared to the two-year warranty on the Philips Avent.
Pros
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Best video quality
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Best audio quality
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Longest battery life
Cons
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No nightlight
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1-year warranty
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Doesn't record video
Best Value
The Summer Infant Wide View 2.0's audio quality is good, scoring an 80 in our audio testing. There was some delay and crackle, but the quality was similar to a phone call.
The handheld unit's 5-inch screen is the largest in our review, complementing the camera's wide-angle lens. However, its resolution is the same as smaller units, so the video quality, while acceptable, is poorer. Also, you can't move the camera remotely, a feature you may not use if you only watch your baby as they sleep.
The Wide View 2.0 makes up for its video quality with a user-friendly design. It only takes a few minutes to set up and a couple hours to charge the handheld unit. The handheld unit lets you adjust the volume and has an uncomplicated menu. This simplicity comes at the cost of common features – the Wide View 2.0 doesn't track room temperature, and it can't play lullabies through the camera unit.
Because this is a simple video monitor, the battery lasted nine hours before it needed to recharge during our tests. The overall best baby monitor, the Infant Optics DXR-8, went 10 hours before shutting off, so this is a very good result.
The Summer Infant Wide View 2.0's handheld unit has a limited indoor range compared to most other baby cameras – it’s good enough for most homes but insufficient in particularly large ones. Summer Infant offers a one-year warranty, which is average for video baby monitors.
Pros
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Good audio quality
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Easy to use and set up
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Excellent battery life
Cons
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Okay video quality
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1-year warranty
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Limited indoor range
Best for WiFi
Because this baby camera uses a mobile app instead of a handheld unit, it has good video. In fact, its video quality was second only to our top pick from Infant Optics.
The audio is quite good as well, with very little distortion. As with other Wi-Fi video baby monitors, there is lag as the video stream travels through distant servers before reaching your smartphone. In our tests, the SCD860 had good results one moment and issues shortly after. This is one of the reasons we gave it a low score for connection quality.
A few of our testers had trouble setting up this baby camera using the smartphone app. The camera doesn't work without a wireless connection, unlike traditional video baby monitors that use a handheld receiver. The app is easy to use, and it lets you set up push notifications and adjust the sound sensitivity. We had a few connection issues independent of our Wi-Fi connection, which could cause concern. For a time, we had no connection, so we didn't know what was going on in the other room.
This monitor lets you track the temperature and humidity in your baby's room and has a nightlight with multiple light color options. If your baby is upset, you can use the app to talk to them or play one of the 10 lullabies through the camera's speaker. The Philips Avent Smart baby monitor SCD860 has a two-year warranty, which is the longest of all the models we tested.
Pros
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2-year warranty
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Good video quality
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Good audio quality
Cons
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Difficult to set up
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Doesn't record video
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Expensive