Withings Smart Baby Monitor, White

by Withings

• Watch over baby in exceptional conditions on your iPhone, iPad or Android
• High-resolution video, motion free and intuitive Pan Tilt Zoom, automatic night vision
• Ability to talk to baby, play lullabies, or turn on the multicolor night light
• Monitor noises, motion, temperature and humidity in baby's room
• Enjoy an unlimited range-watch over baby at home, on the road, or from work

Product Description

Amazon.com

The Withings Smart Baby Monitor lets you monitor your baby from any location using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Its wide-angle, 3-megapixel camera gives you clear, high-resolution pictures of your baby's room, while virtual pan-tilt-zoom technology lets you navigate the room with a touch of the screen. You can talk to your baby while watching him on the screen or launch a lullaby directly from your iPhone. Automatic alerts let you know immediately when your baby fusses or cries. Whether you're at home, at a friend's, or traveling abroad, the Smart Baby Monitor keeps you close to your baby.

Smart Baby Monitor

At a Glance:

• Monitor babies day or night from iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
• High-resolution video with night vision capability
• Intuitive PTZ technology for easy navigation
• Automatic noise, movement, and temperature change alerts
• Talk to, comfort, and play lullabies for your baby
• Connect via Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or Bluetooth

Age Recommendations:

Newborn +

Assembly Requirements:

One lithium-ion battery (included)

Warranty:

One-year warranty

The Withings Smart Baby Monitor lets you monitor your baby from an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. View larger.

The Smart Baby Monitor keeps you close to your baby even when you're not at home. View larger.

With the infrared camera's night mode, you can monitor children at any time, in dim conditions or at night. View larger.

High-Resolution Video for a Crisp, Clear Image

The Smart Baby Monitor's high-resolution video sensor with image stabilization allows you to see every detail of your baby's room. And with pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) technology, you can move virtually around the nursery. Just slide your finger like you would on a web page to get a full view of your child's room. Non-deterioration 4X zoom and the pinch zoom effect, which works just like on your iPhone, let you keep an eye on your child's surroundings at all times.

Monitor in the Dark with Night Mode

With the infrared camera's night mode, you can monitor children without waking them. As soon as ambient light decreases, night mode automatically switches on so you can check on your child at any time, in dim conditions or at night.

The monitor also comes equipped with a multicolor night-light. Choose a color from your iPhone or use a handy button on the monitor itself.

Clear, Uninterrupted Sound via WithBaby App

The Smart Baby Monitor comes equipped with two microphones to give you clear, uninterrupted sound when listening to your baby. With the free WithBaby app (available for download at the Apple App Store) you can keep one ear on your child as you go about your day.

Once you launch the app on your phone, it will remain running in the background even after you close it.

Talk, Play, and Interact with Your Baby

Use the Smart Baby Monitor to interact with your baby. The monitor's built-in speaker lets you play a nursery rhyme or comfort your baby with a few reassuring words. A secure connection between your iPhone and the monitor provides clear, interference-free sound. A touchscreen on the monitor allows you to control volume and start or stop a lullaby while you're in the same room.

Alerts for Noise, Motion, and Temperature Changes

The WithBaby app allows you to be instantly notified on your smartphone when there are changes in noise, movement, temperature, or humidity in your baby's room. Alert thresholds are easily configurable from the app, and the monitor visually presents sound, motion, and environmental changes so you can keep track of your baby's comfort.

Monitor at Home or While Away

The Smart Baby Monitor allows you to monitor your baby from any location. Your iPhone can connect to the monitor over Wi-Fi at home or at work and over 3G on the street. It can also be connected via an Ethernet cable or via Bluetooth in locations without an Internet connection (Bluetooth range up to 164 feet).

Product and Compatibility Information

The monitor requires iOS 4 or higher and is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3rd generation, iPod touch 3rd or iPod touch 4th generation.

It comes equipped with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, as well as a carry bag for nights away from home and a white bedside stand so you can easily attach it to your baby's crib.

The Withings Smart Baby Monitor is backed by a manufacturer's limited one-year warranty.

What's in the Box

Smart Baby Monitor, carry bag, bedside stand, battery, power supply, three local power adapters, and user manual.

Product Description

Withings designs, develops, and industrializes connected objects, as well as the associated network platform and software applications associated with these objects. Smart Baby Monitor, monitor baby's safety and comfort from an iOS device.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 104 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Really Wanted This to Be Good April 3, 2012

By kc679

Just want to start this off by saying I really wanted this to work well. My daughter was born in the fall and when looking for a baby monitor, I saw the Withings unit and loved the concept, Issue was at the time it was not out yet. As soon as I got the email in Jan that it was released for the US I bought the unit. I didn't rashly post an immediate review since I hate when people do that, so this is now my reflection after a good 2 months of use.

Unfortunately I tried every which way to fall in love with this product, but I did have to finally return it. There are definitely a lot of positive aspects of the unit and the SW, but a few negatives that in the end of the day made me realize this product just isn't ready for prime time. The biggest problem is that if the unit isn't near 100% reliable, its not worth the risk when dealing with an infant. I found myself constantly running this monitor as well as my other monitor as a backup, which is not a long term solution.

So very quickly after unboxing I was set up, that truly was a breeze. You initially connect via Bluetooth, but then set up over WiFi. Had the unit set up over 3 devices (Ipad, Iphone, and Ipod touch). I eagerly awaited the first night to test this out.

So first reactions and several positives:
1. Loved the way the app worked in the background. It didn't tie up the device, or the battery, yet still notified you and let you hear the monitor
2. The trending, while limited to 15 minutes, was cool to see graphically the activity on the motion and noises
3. The history log as well was great to see the patterns that occur through the night, be great if this could also be graphed, but that's just SW App development
4.... The temp and humidity monitoring were also good, this was the first unit I could find that did both along with having iphone integration.
5. The music and lights are really bells and whistles, I don't use them, but its added features

Most of my cons are really product design and quality. This wouldn't be the first time I saw a great idea, for a rather expensive product fail on product quality. Rather upsetting, but also tells me there is no hope for it being fixed until a later release.

1. The unit is basically a large clam shell. Its actually even a bit bigger then I expected. When you fold it up, you literally have to point it straight forward otherwise the base gets in the way of the image. This literally cut out about 30-40% of my crib. After one or two times of my child crying, but being out of view I had to change something. I literally had to make a white finished wooden wedge with a rubber top and a Velcro strap to angle the entire withings unit down to capture most of the crib. It was better, but you shouldn't have to do that for a $300 monitor.
2. The night vision is really sub-par. Man nights it took squinting to see if the baby was on her back or her stomach. Average would have been OK, but I didn't expect it to be substantially worse that run of the mill video units. Again, for $300 why not beef this up.
3. I was actually able to deal with the first 2 issues, but #3 was the game breaker. The unit is not stable. It disconnects and buffers endlessly on occasion. This is not anything I was comfortable taking a risk on. I'd say realistically it was about 5-15% of the time, meaning one morning every 1-2 weeks I would awake to find out that I was not monitoring my baby all. Scary right? Literally the application would say you have been disconnected with your monitor and could not be reconnected. Some times the unit buffered and never would let you actually begin monitoring. Not all the time, but enough for me to not take a risk of not having a monitor.
4. From my experiences above, I can also tell you there is no quick support resolution. You cannot call the company. You must email and get a response back anywhere from 1-5 days. They are helpful when you get them, but being in a different time zone it was at least a day to troubleshoot each step.

To elaborate more on #3. The unit has Bluetooth connectivity in case the WiFi fails. This never is sustainable, even just one room away. My router, the monitor and the device in most cases were withing 25 feet of each other. I even tried the unit at someone else's house to see if its my network. I ran into the same issues. Sometimes shutting down the apps completely and relaunching helped, but I cannot do that when I'm sleeping! Eventually I was simply told that it would not get better and I should return the unit. Again, any other device, I'd chalk it up to being n early adopter and take the pros and cons, but with my child, there is no risks worth taking.

I'm hoping this helps those on the fence and also gets some attention to look at the product quality. Like I opened with, I truly wanted this to work as I love the concept and the features. Read more ›

71 of 83 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to like it, but it needs work March 8, 2012

By El Duque

I really wanted to like this. iPhone/iPad integration, portable, it has some nice features. I am comparing this against my Sharx SCNC2700W camera. Both are about $300. Sharx info can be found here:

Sharx Security VIPcella-IR SCNC2700W Wifi Wireless b/g/n IP network camera with MicroSD DVR and True Day/Night vision

I did not care for any of the push notifications, other parents may like this feature. I don't care to hear any audio since I live in a small condo. The talk back feature is nice, although with a slight delay (to be expected).

What I like:
* Music feature is nice, but could use some more songs
* I like the iPhone/iPad app
* Pinch and zoom feature is okay, but I can do the same thing with Sharx camera, although they work a little differently. The quality increases slightly on the Withings camera where the Sharx camera has no quality gain, but also doesn't need to refresh.
* Frame rate seems to stay fairly smooth when connected through ethernet. It's slightly better than Sharx when viewing on iPad.
* Portability - This is a nice bonus (1 hour of video on battery) but I don't cover this in my review because I would only use this 1% of the time.
* Wireless quality and frame rate don't degrade too much compared to Ethernet (with a good signal).

What I don't like:
* My main gripe is that I can't view the video on my computer. I believe Withings has said this feature is coming in the future.
* Video quality - not on par with the Sharx camera I own in quality.
* Night Vision quality not as good as Sharx. I would say the Sharx camera night vision is A LOT better actually.... The Withings IR lights are too bright in the middle.
* No option to force IR mode on/off.
* No option to turn off audio on iPhone. This could be fixed with a firmware update, but not sure if it will ever happen.
* Delay - I noticed maybe a 1.5 second delay when connected through ethernet. A little under 2 seconds wireless. Sharx delay is almost no delay when viewing on a computer, and less than a half second on iPad. These numbers are with a fairly strong wireless N connection.
* Sharx is a half second faster on WiFi than Withings is connected through Ethernet when viewing both on the iPad. I don't mind a small delay, and even 1 second to me isn't that bad.

For a baby video monitor, I don't think you need HD quality (Sharx is only 640x480). You mainly just need to see the baby and be able to tell if they are moving, awake, pacifier out, etc. The Withings monitor is definitely good enough to be able to see all of this. The Sharx camera is noticeably better which is a nice bonus. The Withings camera has a wider angle of view than Sharx. Sharx certainly has a lot more options - continuous recording, snapshots, dydns setup, etc. Sharx does involve more network knowledge to setup, where the Withings is easier to setup out of the box.

If you are not experienced in network setup, DHCP reservation, dyndns configuration, don't mind slightly lower quality, and don't need to view it on a computer (yet), and don't mind a slight lag, the Withings monitor is decent. If you are a more advanced user, want better quality, instantaneous feedback, and more advanced options, Sharx would be the way to go. If Withings optical quality was a little better, and I could view it on a computer, it might be a different story, but I think I am going to keep the Sharx unit. The portability, and iPhone/iPad integration is pretty cool and nerdy, but Sharx still looks better using Safari browser in iPad than Withings does with their app. I really hope Withings does well with this, because I think they could make a lot better 2.0 product, and a little more work. That said, it isn't a bad initial offering in my opinion.

The biggest deal breaker is Withings charges to view away from home. I think 15 minutes each day are provided free. My wife loves the setup of the Sharx so she can see her baby when she has time at work. I would like it if Withings allowed a dns setup so I could use my own bandwidth for away-from-home use.

6-1-2012 *I guess Withings has allowed unlimited viewing away from home which is nice, but it should have been offered in the first place. I still stand by my 3 star review*

There are many many other video cameras, IP cameras, & Baby monitors on the market. These are just the two that I have used. Actually, I have used the AngelCare monitor as well, but that has the worst quality of all, even though it has a nice portability factor. Read more ›

23 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Way better than our old monitor! March 9, 2012

By reviewer

We used to have the MobiCam Audio Video Baby Monitoring System. We always seemed to have problems with it, even from the start. Sometimes there was just no picture even though our room shares a wall with our baby's room. I researched baby monitors for quite some time and was excited when I found the Withings smart baby monitor. The only issue was that it was not available in the US yet. After several months of waiting it finally became available so I snatched it up and I am so happy I did.

Video quality is much better than our previous camera and I LOVE that I can access it away from home. It is so wonderful to see my baby sleeping while I have to work late. I haven't had a problem with the limited time period away from home but it would be nice to have the option for extended viewing for free. The night vision is about on par with our previous monitor and gets the job done. I am able to tell what he is doing in bed without issues.

The screen shows temperature and humidity which is nice feature that I would have really enjoyed having when he was a newborn.

I love being able to use my phone to talk to him, my husband and I have both utilized this feature away from the house and it works very well.

It would be nice to have another way to mount it (perhaps on the wall) besides on the crib because the other day my son had managed to pull it off and into the crib.

I really enjoy having this baby monitor and have already recommended it to several of my friends. If you have an iPhone and the $$$, I would say go for it, you will not be disappointed.