Review

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The Summer Infant Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor is probably the most popular handheld system that parents all over the world are able to rely on with complete peace of mind.

Even with many other competing products entering the market lately, this Day & Night Handheld model still continues to sell in huge numbers and be highly regarded amongst parents today.

There are some variations on some packages that you may see around from time to time, but the actual product that this review is based upon is for the Summer Infant Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor With 1.8 Screen.

Overview

For those of you that may be new to the whole world of baby video monitors, I thought it would be useful to give a quick overview, mainly to make sure that you buy the best one for your needs.

For those that are already familiar with baby video monitor functional choices available, then you can simply skip over this overview section.

Baby video monitors provide the ability to place a video camera in your baby’s room whilst they are sleeping, playing or anything else really.

The other end of the system provides a receiver that you can see what your baby is up to.

There are a number of functional variations at the video end depending upon what model of product you may look at, but the most common additional features on top of video may include sound, night vision capability and movement / activity sensory capability.

The handheld monitor side also provides a number of possible variations, typically handheld (like the Summer Infant Day and Night Handheld Monitor unit reviewed here), larger monitoring screen, alerting ability, and sound only mode.

Build Quality and Design

The two main units that come with the package are neutral in color, functionally and intuitively designed and overall they look very good.

The quality of the units are really something that has been so well commented on in thousands of actual parent reviews, that it is worth mentioning here.

The units and system as a whole lasts forever! Well, maybe not forever…

So many parents have used and reused this baby video monitor system for an additional one, two and three babies, that really the proof of its high level of build quality and longevity is self proven.

Portability

A number of new parents initially opt for some of the more expensive baby video systems with the latest large flat screen, but often end up buying a handheld device (or wishing they had done so in the first place) afterwards.

The great benefit of the Summer Infant Day and Night Handheld Monitor system is that the parent device is literally small enough to take wherever YOU may want to go within range of your baby.

The other larger units are really fixed in the one position, usually by your bedside, which kind of defeats the purpose of any anticipated ‘freedom’ when your baby is napping or amusing themselves.

Screen and Video

The screen on this handheld monitoring unit measures 1.8”, which for its purpose is ideal.

The daytime video that you get is incredibly clear and vivid and you really couldn’t find better.

At night time with the ‘night time vision’ settings the video resorts to black and white – which is a good thing.

Many monitors before tried to keep the night time video in color and it turned out to be near to useless, unable to provide any clarity of what was actually happening.

The Summer Infant Day and Night black and white picture is sometimes a little grainy, but the actual clarity for your prime monitoring purposes is always more than sufficient.

Power

The video monitor itself runs off a dedicated AC adapter and the handheld unit can either be run from an additional AC adapter or use rechargeable batteries.

The rechargeable batteries provide about 10 hours of constant use when fully charged.

Night Time Vision

As touched upon before, the Summer Infant Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor is also capable of black and white night vision, thanks to the multiple LEDs fitted in the video camera.

Sound

When you first use this video monitor system, you will be absolutely stunned at how clear the sound is through it.

The video monitor contains a multi directional microphone for ideal sound reception and really does a first rate job of filtering out unwanted noise to deliver clarity but also has the ability to pick up the tinniest of noises.

Activity Mode

The Summer Infant Day and Night Handheld Color system has a built in activity warning system.

When your baby’s activity levels intensify, a LED warning light flashes on the monitor unit.

This works even if you have switched off the video capability of the unit and are just using the sound functionality.

Other Technical Stuff

The wireless video signal is sent at the 900 MHz frequency, which reduces any kind of other appliance interference as most household gadgets use the 2.4GHz frequency.

There are actually two selector channels on the unit that you can switch to for less interference as well or to use to accommodate an additional video camera.

Although the books say that this unit works at up to 350 feet, this is the unobstructed distance, the normal recommended workable distance is around 100 feet.

You can add an additional video camera into this system separately, if you require to monitor two rooms, which will be cheaper than having to buy a whole new system.

Conclusion

The Summer Infant Day and Night Handheld Color Video Monitor has earned the high reputation it has in terms of reliability and functionality and anyone that is looking for a feature rich and easy to use handheld video monitor system really can’t go wrong with this one.