The Best Baby Monitors for Your Nursery and Beyond
Rest easy (or rather, shower or nap as quickly as you can) with these smart buys.
A good baby monitor lets you fully relax during those most precious free moments, but only when they're truly reliable. These are the best of the best for the top-notch picture quality, tracking multiple kids, and peeking in on the nursery when you're out of the house.
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Wide Screen: Motorola MBP36XL
$180
If you want a large screen, the Motorola MBP36XL's screen is 5 inches wide. It also has remote panning and zooming in case baby shuffles during the night, boasts a far range (up to 1,000 feet), and displays the room's temperature. We particularly liked the two-way communication feature, which lets you talk to your spouse or caregiver from another room, and it even plays lullabies to help lull your baby to sleep.
Clear Picture: Nest Cam Indoor
$199
Consider a general security camera powered by WiFi and you can access your baby's room anywhere you have a connection. The Nest Cam Indoor offers impressive picture and video quality (1080p HD) and access to 24-7 streaming video footage. The Nest doesn't offer audio, so you may want an audio-only monitor on-hand, which can also serve as a backup for occasions when your internet cuts out.
Audio-Only: VTech DM221
$30
If you don't want to splurge on a video monitor, an audio monitor is a less expensive route. This model from VTech features a night light on the baby unit and a vibrating alert and graphic that indicates sound without the constant background noise.
Clear Sound: Philips DECT SCD570/10
$150
If you're down for bells and whistles, the Philips SCD570 comes fully-loaded with a built-in night light and lullabies, temperature monitoring, two-way audio, and vibration alerts. And the sound quality is top-notch, according to our engineers.
Multi-View: Infant Optics DXR-8
$230
The Infant Optics DXR-8 doesn't miss a beat. It's got remote pan, tilt and zoom, room temperature display, and two-way audio. While we wish the screen was larger (it's only 3.5 inches), you can purchase additional lenses to better see your baby. The wide-angle lens is great for capturing the entire room, and the optical zoom lens lets you see up close. The bundle comes with a single camera, but you can purchase up to three additional cameras for other rooms.
Car Cam: Garmin Baby Cam
$199
Some new vehicles have monitoring capabilities for seeing kids in the backseats, but if not, we like the easy-to-install Garmin babyCam. It allows you to view your baby in the backseat on most Garmin GPS units (or you can purchase a bundle).