How easy is the Summer Infant Baby Pixel to set up?
It took our parent testers, Rachel and Bobby, around five minutes to set this monitor up using the supplied instructions. These are packed with clear, easy-to-follow diagrams, guidance on adding extra cameras and troubleshooting information. The handheld parent unit and the camera should already be paired before set-up, which Summer Infant say is for privacy reasons.
There’s also an online video on the Baby Pixel product page on Summer Infant's website if you get stuck, and you can also download the instruction manual there if you lose your paper copy.
Rachel and Bobby noted two frustrations during set-up. One was that they needed to charge the monitor for a whopping seven hours via the mains before first use, and the second was that the stand on the parent unit was quite stiff to open, so much so that they feared it was going to snap (thankfully, it didn’t).
If you encounter any problems, Summer Infant offer a one-year warranty and you can also contact them via email with any customer service queries you may have.
How good is the audio on the Summer Infant Baby Pixel Monitor?
Overall, the Baby Pixel's audio quality is of a high standard while also being interference-free. The volume is easy to alter with a dedicated volume button, and Rachel and Bobby experienced no distortion whatsoever when trying out each of the monitor's seven sound levels. That said, they did find the parent unit's constant background hum quite irritating.
The Summer Infant also boasts a two-way talkback feature, which worked really well and helped our testers settle their eight-month-old baby from the comfort of their own bed on more than one occasion.
While the monitor's sound-activated LED lights seem like a useful feature meant to offer extra reassurance (the LED light bar on the top of the handheld parent unit will light up as it picks up sound, even in power-saving mode), our testers felt that it wasn't always sensitive to quiet sounds or particular nuances and it didn't correlate well with the actual noise levels coming from the nursery.
How about the signal?
Rachel and Bobby found the signal strength generally strong throughout the house and out into the garden, however they noted that it tended to drop behind certain objects in specific rooms every so often.
As such, the layout of your house and furniture may affect how strong you find the audio and video signal to be, however the monitor does have an out-of-range indicator which will let you know if and when signal is lost.
How long does the battery last?
The Summer Infant Baby Pixel falls short when it comes to battery life, which runs down after only five hours.
You can, however, save battery life (but still listen out for coos or cries) by using the power save or VOX functions. The former automatically switches the screen off after 30 seconds if the parent unit isn't plugged into the mains, and the latter sends the monitor into sleep mode while keeping the microphone active, which means that the screen will be turned on as soon as the monitor catches a sound. You can switch the VOX feature on or off at any time.
If your baby sleeps for decent chunks of time, you may also need to keep the parent unit plugged in overnight.
A low-battery alert will let you know when you need to recharge the handheld parent unit – you'll hear a beep and the first LED light on the device will flash red. The baby unit will need to be plugged in at all times.
How does it look?
The Summer Infant Baby Pixel monitor looked super smart in Rachel and Bobby's nursery and, while their eight-month-old did initially find the moving camera quite mesmerising, it didn't disturb their baby's sleep in any way.
Our testers also liked the parent unit's modern, rounded design with its large 5-inch high-resolution screen and clear LED indicators.