7 Best Baby Monitors (2023): Wi-Fi, Radio (No Internet), And More

Posted On April 16, 2023

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What to Look For

Best All-ArounderHubble Nursery Pal Premium

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Great Pan, Tilt, and Zoom OptionsKodak Cherish C525

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Best Audio-Only MonitorVTech DM221 Audio

Read moreNew parents, here’s a tip: You might not even need a baby monitor. A healthy, hungry baby can shriek in tones piercing enough to bend metal, let alone your poor eardrums. Nevertheless, baby monitors can provide high-quality audio and crystal-clear videostreams from the camera directly to a separate parent unit, your smartphone, tablet, or all three. This means you can move freely around the house while keeping a close eye on the baby as they sleep or play contentedly in their crib. Here we take a look at the most intuitive baby monitors available online and rate them on design, features, picture, and audio quality to highlight just how well they work at keeping a watchful eye on your bundle of joy.

For more of our favorite baby gear picks, check out our Best Strollers and Best Baby Carriers buying guides and our Gift Guide for New Parents.

Updated April 2023: We’ve overhauled our baby monitor picks for 2023 with entries from Hubble, Kodak, Cubo, Angelcare, VTech, and Owlet.

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Photograph: twomeows/Getty Images

What to Look ForThe best baby monitors have quick response times and come well equipped with technology that picks up the slightest cry or fuss. They’ll give you a heads-up the moment they detect any sound or movement from the baby, so you know when it’s time to gulp down your coffee and attend to their needs. If you just want to be able to hear your baby from another room, you may want to consider a simple but effective audio-only monitor. Monitors with cameras that can capture video and stills go up to 1080p resolution, but 720p HD is plenty of pixels for a good view of your child.

A video monitor that streams footage to a separate wireless “parent unit” that you can carry around the house can be very convenient. You get real-time sound and motion alerts whenever your child moves or stirs. You may also like to consider a smart baby monitor with a camera that streams footage to an app on your smartphone or tablet. Those with secure two-factor authentication will add peace of mind. If you’re limited to using just your smartphone, this can sometimes be a pain if you’re keen to limit screen time and turn your phone off when you’re at home. Also, check whether the storage of the monitor footage is in the cloud or on an SD card. If you want to record and save video, you may have to sign up for a monthly subscription plan.

Photograph: Hubble

Best All-ArounderHubble Nursery Pal Premium

With both a parent unit and smart app control, we think this Hubble Connected Nursery Pal Premium baby monitor is a great value buy. It gives you the flexibility of being able to view your child via the 5-inch HD touchscreen unit while you’re in the house and within the 300-meter range. You can then switch to the HubbleClub App for monitoring from your smartphone when you leave the house and have the babysitter in. We particularly like the touchscreen capability of the parent unit, which makes it easy to see your baby on the decent-sized 5-inch display. You can simply move your finger to pan, tilt, and zoom around the room, so you get a clear picture of the nursery. Once it’s charged, you can use the parent unit wirelessly to walk around the house without having to worry about cables getting in the way.

To make use of live videostreaming features from the nursery camera to your smartphone, you need to download the HubbleClub App and follow the steps to connect to Wi-Fi—this is a process we found simple and straightforward. Both the parent unit and app give you access to lullabies and white noise, which you can play to the baby through the camera unit. You can even record your own songs to play back to the baby should you feel the need to go all American Idol for the night. What’s rather unique about this design is that the parent unit also doubles as an interactive kids’ tablet. While it’s pretty basic, there is a range of child-friendly games, videos, and stories for them to watch. These may come in useful when you want them to keep still while you’re changing diapers or you just want an extra five minutes of peace.

Photograph: Kodak

Great Pan, Tilt, and Zoom OptionsKodak Cherish C525

This compact Kodak baby monitor comes with a parent unit with a 5-inch display and the ability to access video of the baby via the dedicated app. Aesthetically, this device is one of the more stylish designs in our test, and its camera shoots good-quality 720p nursery footage with excellent remote pan, tilt, and zoom features and an 85-degree viewing angle. Overall we were impressed by the picture and video quality. The rechargeable batteries come in useful too, as they let you use the parent unit wire-free for up to five hours at a time. It also provides good range and is designed to work in a home of up to 4,000 sq ft.

In our testing, the Kodak Cherish’s camera was sharp, had a quick response time, and picked up noise immediately. It also has two-way communication and infrared night vision, as well as sound and motion alerts. For more flexible monitoring, you can also connect to the Kodak Smart Home App on your smartphone and get notifications for any sound and motion in the nursery. They appear in the app in a coherent timeline, so you can analyze sleep patterns after the fact if you wish. A neat all-rounder.

Photograph: Vtech

Best Audio-Only MonitorVTech DM221 Audio

Sometimes, when you’re tired and need a little downtime, the simplest things are best and an audio-only monitor is all you need. While it doesn’t give you the reassurance of being able to see your child, this Vtech audio baby monitor provides great support. It’s a small and compact set, with Dect 6.0 technology providing a reasonably clear audio transmission that eliminates most background noise.

The parent unit has rechargeable batteries that last up to 18 hours and a clip so that you can carry it with you as you potter around the house. It has a range of up to 1,000 feet, which makes it easy to roam freely—that’s more than enough for you to enjoy a little backyard evening sun while the kids slumber. We think the night light on the loop of the baby unit makes for a nice touch, as does the talk-back feature that lets you talk to your baby through the unit so you can soothe them back to sleep.