Motorola MBP49 Baby Monitor Review

Making the big baby purchases can be a daunting experience. You want to make sure you're getting the best for your baby, without completely blowing the bank. I already had an idea in my head of which brands I wanted to opt for when it came to most things, but the baby monitor was a tricky one. I thought the one my sister had was a really good choice, and I knew it came recommended, but when I browsed the internet I discovered it had been discontinued, so it was either completely out of stock or the websites that still had some were charging the earth for it! Whilst scrolling through the products in one of the Mothercare baby events, I spotted the Motorola MBP49 Monitor at half price (£99.99 - it's now £199.99 but may go in the sale again!) and decided to add it to my basket. The blurb looked impressive, and with it usually being so expensive, I thought it had to be good. Oliver's been in his own room for four months now, so how have I been getting on with it?

First off, it looks good. I know that shouldn't factor too much with purchases likes this, but I have to admit that it did sway my decision a little. The parent unit is a sleek, curved white with a large 5 inch display, with buttons either side of the display. There's a pull out stand on the back of the unit, so that you can prop it up whilst doing work if you wish. The picture is in colour, though we've never really had Oliver's room bright enough to benefit from this, and infrared night vision, so that you still get a good picture in the dark. At the top of the screen there are symbols indicating signal strength, battery life and room temperature - this in particular we found useful, as Oliver's room can become a bit of a hotbox at times!

The camera itself can rotate 270 degrees to get the best view of your little one while they're sleeping, perfect for if they're a little wriggler, as this can be controlled by the parent unit, meaning you don't have to disturb them to change the angle. There is a light indicator on the camera, when it is switched on, which also flashes when the parent unit has been turned off, so it catches your eye if you've accidentally forgotten to turn the camera off. When you first switch the parent unit on, the picture will stay on for five minutes, and then go into power saving mode, which means the picture disappears, but the sound is still on. There is a 10 second countdown, so you do get warning if you are looking at the screen at the time and can stop this from happening by pressing the play button again before the end of the countdown. There is an option within the menu is change the amount of time the picture stays on, to either 30 or 60 minutes, so that you don't have to keep pressing the play button every five minutes! This will drain your battery quicker of course, but you can turn the display off at any time, and switch to sound only just by pressing the play button. If your parent unit is plugged into the mains, however, the picture will stay on permanently until you power off or press the play button to switch to sound only.

So what about the other features within the menu? First off, there's a zoom feature, only two options mind, but this is handy if you have to plug your camera in further away from the cot. There's also the option to play five different sounds and lullabies into the room to help your baby settle. Whilst this was very useful to us in the early stages when Oliver was getting used to being in his own room, I do has a little gripe with this feature. Whilst there are volume controls on the top of the parent unit, which controls the level of noise coming from the room, there is nothing to control the volume of these sounds being played into the room, and they are pretty loud, which made us reluctant to use them at night when others were sleeping. There is also an option to set an alarm every 2, 4 or 6 hours, which will sound on the parent unit. We've never used this feature, but I guess it would be useful if you wanted to check on your child at set times during the night. As well as these features, there's also options to adjust brightness, temperature display etc, as well as adding extra cameras to your view, if you've got more than one child to keep an eye on.

As well as these features in the menu, there's also the option to talk to your baby, by pressing & holding the microphone button, to perhaps reassure your baby if they wake up distressed. Oliver has now clocked that this sound is coming from the camera and will stare at it whenever he wakes up waiting for it to talk to him! The monitor has a really good range on it, I've never had any issues with it not detecting the camera, however once you turn the camera off, the parent unit makes an horrendously loud beeping noise, so I'd definitely recommend switching the parent unit off before you go into your little ones bedroom!

Overall I'm really happy with this monitor and the features it has to offer. I'm particularly impressed with the picture quality, even when it's in night vision mode. The only real issue I have with it is the battery life. I'm not sure if I just have one with a bit of a dud battery, or my expectations are too high - this is my first experience with a baby monitor - but I find that we are having to charge the unit every day. Currently Oliver is having two naps a day, usually around 45 mins - 1 hour, and sleeps 11-12 hours at night. Whilst we do have the monitor on throughout this time, it is mostly on power save mode, especially at night as we are asleep ourselves for most of it. If find that if we leave the parent unit off charge, at some point it will begin beeping to indicate low power - highly annoying in the middle of the night - so we always plug it in when we go to bed to avoid this happening.

Whilst I am really impressed with this product, battery power aside, I'm not too sure I would recommend spending £200 on it. This is pretty pricey for any baby monitor, and unless it was all singing, all dancing, and had absolutely no issues with it, I wouldn't consider it worth that money. I would however recommend keeping and eye on the Mothercare website (this model is exclusive to them) and seeing if it goes on offer again at some point, and then snapping it up. With most video monitors in excess of £100, I think the fact that I managed to get this half price was very reasonable.