Baby Monitor Reviews

Sony Baby Monitors

Sony has two similar baby monitors widely available, both very popular. They are the NTM-910 900 MHz BabyCall Nursery Monitor (pictured) and the cheaper NTM-900 900 MHz Babycall Nursery Monitor. 

The main difference is that the more expensive model offers 27 channels (versus nine for the cheaper model) and has rechargeable batteries. A greater number of channels reduces the risk of noise interference.

The Parentnoia child safety website posted an excellent review:

We tested this monitor inside of an older apartment complex with wood between the ceilings and floors and the phone signals from neighbors tended to interfere until we switched the channels and the yakking conversations went away. We then tested it inside a more modern building with cement and steel between the individual units and never heard a peep from the neighbors. Not once over the course of several months of testing it did we experience signal interference from cordless telephones. It's our conclusion that this isn't an issue unless you are living in a crowded older building, in which case you have recourse to the channels to tune out the interference.

The Sony Baby Call has a noise cancelling filter that is absolutely amazing. It will basically filter out ambient noise and pick up the movements of your baby from out of the noise or silence. For instance, we tested it on a baby who enjoyed sleeping with light music in the background. We set the baby monitor on the quiet mode and it remained quiet until she started shifting around in the crib. This is a great feature that is not found in many models and takes this baby monitor to the top of our short list of monitors for all parents to try.

This is a popular model, so don't be discouraged if you don't find it on store shelves, as they tend to fly out the door as soon as they are stocked- they are that popular, mostly from word of mouth recommendation.

Here is a review from the Consumer Democracy site:

We've been using this monitor for just over a year and have been very happy with it overall. Reception is extremely sensitive and clear, 27 channels to help avoid interference with other devices, and I like the rechargeable receiver. On the minus side, it's easy to accidentally turn the volume down when picking up the receiver, and more than once I didn't notice that my son was crying until I happened to look at the monitor and see the lights.

There is also a problem that appears repeatedly in user reviews: it's notorious for being a bit too sensitive at times and emitting random beeps (some types of interference apparently set off the "out of range" alarm). Even after going through all the channels ours does occasionally emit beeps, which can be annoying. Sometimes moving or rotating either transmitter or receiver seems to help. The monitor has some flaws, but to us they've been minor and not enough to be a problem. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to other parents.

And here's a review from the Judy's Book website:

This Sony Babycall monitor is the best monitor on the market! With 27 channels to choose from, you are bound to find one that will work for you. I've never had any interefence on these, and they are crystal clear in picking up baby's cries. My neighbors also have small children and none of their monitors interfere with this one. Hands down, Sony BabyCall is definitely the best monitor. Don't bother with the fuzzy Fisher-Price and Safety 1st monitors, this one's great!

Many more generally favorable reviews are at sales sites such as Amazon.com and Epinions.

* Get the Latest Prices on Sony Baby Monitors.

February 17th, 2007
Updated: November 8th, 2007