EyeOn™ Baby Monitor HD 360

Product
Tested By Stephanie Coleman – Joshua 17 months

Stephanie
Awarded The D-Link EyeOn baby monitor HD 360 4.5/5

Very good
product with some teething issues. Looks good, feels great and is of excellent
quality. It is very easy to set up; it just took a while to get it connected
with my smartphone. You can use it with a USB charger as well as the mains. We have
only tried it using the mains as his wardrobe is right next to the plug socket.
Very portable as you we usually have our device on us the whole time. Just not
very good when your battery is running low. Not too portable when we just take
hand luggage. It would be too big then. We might not always have Wi-Fi when we
are abroad. I am confident when using this monitor and I can even see him now
which is even better. I can hear my baby loud and clear and this has very good
sound quality. It has several extra
features like temperature alerts, playing lullabies, a 2-way audio and I can
take cute pictures and videos of him. Good range as it even works in the garden
or when all the doors are shut. It is great but I am not 100% confident that I
always want to rely on my smartphone. It would be better if it had a second
smaller device just for listening in. Like a small speaker. It’s great watching
him play if I am going to the other room and of course just checking up on him
when he’s asleep. I would recommend and more so if it had that second little
speaker device with it. It’s an excellent product with some great features. We
had to get used to the lullabies setting though as to start with it just
started playing then without us asking it to play it. Brilliant forward
thinking high quality baby monitor with some excellent features. Stephanie
Coleman – Joshua 17 months

Product
Tested By Sarah Morgan – Ted 18 Months

Sarah
Awarded The D-Link EyeOn baby monitor HD 360 3.9/5

The monitor is an excellent concept which would fit
us well as a family with high-tech devices. The packaging is colourful and
clear and the features detailed are attractive and novel. The hardware (i.e.
the camera itself) is an excellent piece of kit – it is well made, attractive
and can be customised to the user’s needs. The viewing quality is brilliant
when compared to other monitors (the EyeOn allows 720 HD viewing) and the night
vision is clear and sharp. However the quality of the product overall is let
down by the accompanying browser, mobile and tablet app (which is required to
use the product). This frequently disconnects and when it does work it takes
too long to view the image. For a product such as this parents need quick and
reliable access to the camera as they will only view the video when they
suspect they are needed. The monitor was easy to connect to the Wi-Fi and we
were up and running within minutes of opening the box. The instructions were
not particularly explicit – and seemed to be written by a non-native English
speaker. Some features were not clearly explained (for example, it was not
obvious that the camera was recording everything from the moment it was
connected, saving to an internal SD card!). However the process was relatively
intuitive. The supplied mount was sturdy and well suited to the job, allowing
us to position the monitor perfectly. The ‘parent unit’ is virtually any
internet connected device – iOS, Android or internet browsers can all connect
to the camera, both when they are on the same Wi-Fi as the camera, and also
remotely if you set up an account (note that the camera is then password
protected). As a result, you could potentially be half way around the world and
still view your child on the monitor! When visiting friends whose Wi-Fi we are
able to connect to the monitor is perfect – however if we were to go on holiday
without Wi-Fi (or even with paid Wi-Fi, as the monitor will burn through any
allowance), then the monitor is unusable. However in this day and age it is
rare to visit somewhere without Wi-Fi! The monitor is not constantly connected unless
you leave the app open (or as the last opened app, in which it runs in the
background). Even then, the audio consistently ‘lags’ behind real-time and the
app itself frequently freezes with no warning so you are unaware the image you
are seeing is not current. Could hear baby clearly and the audio is very clear
– when it works! The monitor has a temperature gauge with an alarm is the
temperature exceeds certain limits; it can be remotely controlled from the app
to reposition the camera, as well as having saveable positions; it can record
footage up to the limit of the mini-SD card you insert; it has night vision; it
can lullabies both pre-set and any that you load onto the mini-SD card; you can
talk through the app and your child will hear your voice through the monitor;
you can access it over the internet remotely; you can take photos of the
current image and save to your device; it has an alarm if your child moves out
of screen and finally you can access saved footage if a mini-SD card is
inserted. You can access the monitor from anywhere in the world – as long as
you have internet access! Although it’s a nifty idea, we found that the only
time we would use the monitor was when we were already in the house – it would
be rare for our child to be in his cot for a nap or sleep and one of us not to
be in the house. For parents who more frequently leave their child with a
babysitter the monitor may be more useful – allowing them to check on their
little one remotely. We will continue to use this monitor. We would not
recommend this product purely due to the unreliability of the associated app
which is the crucial feature – when it works, it’s a very high quality product
but on the occasions you cannot get the app or browser to work it negates the
good points. For the price and the type of product it is, consistence and reliability
are hugely important. A high quality product with excellent features,
unfortunately let down by the unreliability of the required parent unit app. Sarah
Morgan – Ted 18 Months

Product
Tested By Sharlene Kirkaldy – Esmee & Iseabail – 2 Years & 4 Months

Sharlene
Awarded The D-Link EyeOn baby monitor HD 360 3.9/5

Good product that offers parents a way to safely
monitor their children whilst allowing them a little freedom. Good quality. All
fully assembled and could be used as it was or came with brackets for attaching
to the wall. Simple step by step instructions for initial installation through
app. This offers mains and battery operated options. Instructions state that this is possible
through the use of an usb battery pack but does not give a product number or
recommendation which to choose. This leaves the user to search the web to try
and find an appropriate usb battery pack. As this is a product that is aimed at
families with small children or babies who are unlikely to have spare time to
spend searching that clearer information on this would have been helpful. There
is no parent unit as such. Parents access the monitor through their own smart
phone or tablet using a free app. The instruction manual states that the camera
doesn’t need to have Wi-Fi access to be used but I was unable to work out how
to operate without Wi-Fi. I feel that his is a little limited as a portable
unit. To get the best coverage with this camera we needed to wall mount it
which would not be an option while using out of the home. Also as it is powered
via a cable positioning is limited depending on placement of power
sockets. Clearly able to hear and see
baby/toddler both during the day and night. Sometimes I found it difficult to
make out what my toddler was saying when using the two way talk, and we also
experiences some feedback problems. However when using it at night solely as a
one way system it works very well and we could hear clearly when our little
girl was crying. Has movement, sound and temperature alerts. Also automatically
switches between night and day visions. There are some built in melodies and
you can upload music of your own. Although this feature was not clearly
explained in the manual and required quite a bit on research to discover as
only found the instruction by looking at information sheets for other d-link
monitors and this information is not available on the link for this monitor. Is
all done through smart phone so as long as you have an internet connection you
can access your camera? I like the idea behind the smart phone app but found
the actual app a little disappointing. I had issues with the app crashing at
times and needing to come out of it and go back in which took longer than me
walking through to my daughter’s room. The app states that landscape mode is
recommended but automatically switches to portrait mode when the majority of
the extra features are used, I found this really frustrating and it made the
picture a lot smaller and therefore more difficult to see. I find it very
useful to allow my toddler to play in her room independently while I am looking
after her little sister elsewhere in the house. I would recommend for use with
other babies/toddlers. I wouldn’t recommend it for use with newborns due to the
flaws in the app. The camera its self is great but I feel it is let down by a
limited instruction manual and a flawed mobile app. Great for keeping an eye on
toddlers and allowing them more freedom but mobile app needs to be more user
friendly. Sharlene Kirkaldy – Esmee & Iseabail – 2 Years & 4 Months