For this reason, busy parents look up to top rated baby monitors like they are blessings.
In this buying guide, we will tell you all about the best baby monitors on the market and put an end to the question of: “what is the best baby monitor”. At the end of the article, you will learn how to pick an excellent one for your family.
Types of Baby Monitor
There are two types: audio monitor and video/audio monitor.
- Audio Monitor
An additional feature that has been making an appearance on audio monitors recently is signalling lights. Basically, the louder the environment in the nursery is (such as when your baby is crying), the more lights will turn on in the parent’s unit. Even if you have the sound on mute, you will still be notified in real-time of the nursery’s environment.
Audio monitors have the advantage of being significantly cheaper than audio/video monitors. So if you are shopping on a budget, a best audio baby monitor is not that bad of an investment to put money into.
- Video/Audio Monitor
Wireless Monitor
Wireless baby monitors are appearing more and more frequently on top baby monitor reviews due to their convenience and security. Rather than sending the video and audio information to a separate parent unit like the two other types, a best WiFi baby monitor sends the data through your house’s WiFi network to your phone. No matter where you are in the world, as long as you have your phone with you and an Internet connection, you will be able to check in with your child. A wireless monitor is notably helpful for busy parents in today’s hectic world.
Analog vs. Digital Baby Monitors
A baby monitor is more or less a miniaturized radio station, especially audio monitors. In analog baby monitors where the transmission is not encrypted, anyone can tune into the frequency of the monitor with a radio and be able to listen to your child sleeping.
If that sounds creepy and even dangerous to you, that is exactly the point. There have been many scary stories of radios in cars passing by houses being able to pick up the sound of a child sleeping because of an exposed analog monitor.
Fortunately, best rated baby monitors nowadays are all digital monitors, meaning the transmission is encrypted digitally and can only be picked up by your receiver. No one else can listen in to the transmission other than you. Although digital monitors are a touch more expensive than analog, because of the extra layer of security it provided it will be worth the cost.
Notable Features to Consider
Aside from the basic features such as night vision, motion sensing, and HD quality video streaming that most people already know about, there are a couple of great features that the best baby monitors have that you should take special note of.
Temperature Sensor
More baby monitors are packing a temperature sensor recently. Toddlers are extremely sensitive to temperature and it can affect their health negatively if it is not in a good range. The temperature sensor tells you the ambient temperature inside of the nursery in real-time so that you will know when you need to readjust the thermostat to keep your child healthy.
Health Vitals Sensors
Top of the line baby monitors these days won’t just be able to let you listen in to the nursery or see your child from across the globe, high-tech monitors can also measure your baby’s vitals. Through your phone, you will be updated in real-time of your child’s breathing, heart rate, and oxygen level. Such sensors are loved by parents who want to keep an even closer eye on the health and wellbeing of their child.
Pre-installed Lullabies and White Noise Generator
For most toddlers, lullabies and white noise are quite effective at calming them down when they were throwing a fit. For this reason, a lot of the best baby monitors are equipped with speakers that you can set to play lullabies and white noise when your child starts kicking and screaming.
Not only that, some models allow you to record yourself singing to replay it at a later date if your child prefers your calming voice over pre-made lullabies.
Expandability
A lot of the top rated video baby monitors are now allowing you to expand your personal toddler surveillance network by adding more best baby monitor cameras to it. Unlike in the past, where you’re restricted to just one camera at a time, many now give you the ability to add up to dozens of cameras all throughout the house so that no matter where your child is, there will always be an extra set of vigilant eyes on them.
Because expandability gives you so much more flexibility, it has more or less become a criterion in order to be featured on the best video baby monitor reviews Thekinglive.
Encrypted Transmission
Like we mentioned before, the world is full of creepy people. Although digital monitors are much safer than analog monitors, there are no shortages of chilling reports of people taking the time to hack into baby monitors to watch your child sleep in the night.
Manufacturers have done a lot of things to keep this from happening. Many monitors are now armed with Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) tech or Digital Enhanced Cordless Communications (DECC) tech. Both of which are highly encrypted to make sure that no one other than you have access to the monitor.
For the privacy-minded parents, invest heavily into monitors with these encryption tech.
Conclusion
We hope that this short buying guide has given you a clearer idea of what a good baby monitor should be. If you think you are ready for purchasing, head on over to our baby monitor reviews articles and start buying!