Customer Reviews

Philips AVENT SCD510 DECT Baby Monitor

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Having recently destroyed our tried and tested Philips DECT baby monitor we had to get a new one. Our old Philips lasted for nearly 5 years and has been through two kids and has been easy to use and reliable.

I expected a newer model to have improved features/performance. However, the Philips Avent SCD510 DECT range was a big disappointment. I'm not sure if this new version has less powerful transmitters/receivers than the old type, but the monitor had trouble keeping a signal in our house. When it loses it signal, the beeping alarm goes off and we would have to wonder around the house holding the monitor above our heads searching for a signal, followed by a gentle and prolonged walk back to our starting point! Yes, we do have an old house with thick walls, but the 5 year old monitor worked perfectly.

I've had to send this back - it simply doesn't work unless you're in the next room. I thought the price was too good to be true for a DECT monitor!

Summary: Might work in a newer house with thin walls but don't go near this if you have an older house/thicker walls.

Build quality: ***
Sound Quality: ***
Battery: ****
Range: *
Features: ***

I've recently taken receipt of both this monitor and it's bigger brother - the Philips AVENT SCD520 DECT Baby Monitor. This review is a modified version of that review as the two items are very similar, hopefully the two reviews will help to detail the main differences between the two...

This monitor doesn't have a screen, but it still does the primary job very well: The sound quality is very good and as with other digital baby monitors I've experienced, this suffers from very little interference. It's sensitive enough to pick up baby breathing - but you can turn it down if you find it too dominating a noise in the living room!

I tend to have baby monitors turned turn down and rely more on the lights to alert me of any noise, and this Avent model manages that fine. This is a basic model and doesn't have the bells and whistles of many others out there. For example there are no `soothing lullabies', but that's not a massive loss - I'm not a big fan of polyphonic lullabies but during loud bouts of crying it does come in handy to have a lullaby cut through the noise to distract baby, and it does sometimes work, but nothing ever beats a cuddle!

The nightlight is impressive - it's not bright but it isn't meant to illuminate the entire room! I've had baby monitors with nightlights before and they were piddly little ones, the Avent nightlight provides a nice comforting glow.

All in all this is a great baby monitor which will serve its purpose well. It's quite basic by modern standards - but the main job of a baby monitor is to allow you to listen in and that is something which this unit excels at. You can still press a button to talk back to baby - very handy to provide a gentle "shush, shush, shussshhh" when required. I've given this the same four star ranking as the more advanced model, although it has less functions - you do pay less for the product.

We have had 3 monitors before this one, the other 2 being BT monitors and a Tomy monitor. I would say this particular monitor trumps all of them in terms of crystal clear sound and zero interference.

The other nice thing about this particular model is that the remote unit is relatively compact and light it also has a belt clip facility which is extremly handy when doing the chores around a large home. None of our other monitors have a simple but effective ability to carry around the home or outdoors. We tend to spend allot of time in the garden and having the ability to clip to your belt is very handy. The range of this unit is 330m, but we've tested this in our bricked garage and still the sound is crystal clear, very much like being in the same room as the baby.

Our BT unit was good, but this unit trumps it in terms of crstal clear sound. Also, it guarantees zero interference, which I must admit is very reassuring, our BT unit sometimes had static when we used our panasonic phone, which was a bit annoying, this unit is flawless, we've not experienced any static noise. The base and remote unit can be used with batteries or the adaptor provided. This was very handy when on holiday. Our last place had really thick walls so mobile phone reception was bad and most of our friends monitor did not work due to the thick walls, but this unit worked a treat with clear sound even in the basement.

The unit has a night light and you have the ability to talk back to the base unit, which helps reassure the baby when they hear your voice. It doesn't have the fancy temp/humidity. monitor etc, but we don't need this functionality.

I cannot fault this baby monitor and I have relegated my BT monitor to it's box. If any parent is looking for crystal clear sound and zero intereference, then they look no futher as this is possibly the best monitor me and my wife have come across. It's flexible and discrete which is a added bonus in my view.

Thorughly recommend this unit to any parent who is possibly undecided when it comes to choosing the right baby monitor.

I am very impressed with this monitor, very simple to use and excellent quality.

The battery life on the parent unit is very good and has a small led light to indicate when the unit is fully charged. When the battery starts to run low the light flashes and the unit beeps to let the parent know it needs recharging.
The parent unit also has a talk-back function allowing the parent to talk to the baby through the baby unit.
Both units are small, the parent unit is sturdy, lightweight and includes a removable belt clip making it very portable.

The sensitivity and sound quality on this monitor is simply amazing! On the highest sensitivity setting I can hear my daughter suck her thumb and on occasions when the bedroom window has been open, I can also hear sounds from outside the house.
The sound quality is crystal clear with no interference or static noise.

Overall I am very impressed and would definitely recommend this product.

I purchased this product based on other peoples great reviews. I have new born twins and this was our second monitor in the space of a week as the first one was even more rubbish. Initially I thought it was fab. The sound quality is great and I do like the intercom and two way talk facility to allow me to alert my hubby or speak between rooms without having to shout. However the battery life is apalling and rather than being a neat, compact and easily portable monitor it is now nothing but a chore to set up when moving the babies around the house as it always ends up being plugged in to recharge and we end up with the unsightly leads everywhere attached to a plug socket and never able to put it somewhere more convenient and closer to the babies. I can't fathom why they'd manufacture this unit with the potential to recharge the base unit and only be able to have normal batteries in the portable unit. Its ridiculous. However if you can be bothered to overlook that hassle then everything else about it good.

This monitor comes highly recommended.

It is very small and streamlined (handy for carrying around the house and garden using the belt clip provided) but most importantly has a really crystal clear sound and zero interference. We have not experienced any annoying crackles/hissing and the such like.

We use the base and remote unit predominantly attached to the mains but they both can be used with batteries.

The unit has a night light which gives a subtle warm glow. However, unlike more expensive models this cannot be switched off using the remote unit.

There is a talk/page function which can be handy when you're changing and have left something downstairs and need it bringing upstairs or vice versa!!

Great quality and, in my opinion, good value for money.

Really happy with this very neat monitor. Have had two philips monitors before - the last one was dropped one-too-many times! Was a little worried about buying this model after reading a review of one of the other philips avent monitors (the reviewer said that the monitor was missing the beginnings of any sounds from baby). I've never had any problem with this and am much relieved to see that this monitor also works as well as my previous ones in that respect. I did notice a few days ago with my old monitor that if I turned the sensitivity down, the beginnings of any sounds would be missed so maybe this is what was happening to the other reviewer?? Anyway, I'm really happy with this. Not too fancy (my little one's 15 months now so don't need nursery rhymes or room thermometers) and it's really a really neat and compact unit for the nursery.

I bought this monitor to replace our old Tomy analogue monitor which produces an annoying buzz due to radio interference.

The new Philips monitor looks very good and seems well made in terms of the quality of the casing, power supplies and the buttons on the devices. Unfortunately though when I tried to use it I experienced some problems.

First the parent unit produces an annoying bleep whenever you press the buttons to adjust the volume. This is enough to wake the baby up that you just carefully put to bed. However, this is bearable if you just leave the volume on maximum.

Why leave the volume on maximum you might wonder? Well unfortunately, even if you have very good hearing it's almost impossible to hear what is going on in the baby's room unless you have the monitor right next to you and there is no other sound in the room you are in. That's right, turn off the TV, or you might not hear baby!

The old analogue Tomy monitor allows us to hear the baby clearly even over TV or low level music, and we don't have to sit right next to the parent unit. So sadly I just had to box up the Philips and return it to Amazon. We've repositioned the Tomy and the interference is just about bearable now.

Pros:clear sound, no disturbance, no breakage of link, speaker on parent unit so you could talk to your baby
cons:Parent unit needs to be charged frequently, sound from the parent unit is very low...would need to carry it on you to be able to hear your baby.

The volume on this monitor did not go high enough to be able to hear our daughter very well at all. Also, the power light and battery charging light are too bright! I had it sitting on the table next to me and it was so bright I could see the lights with my eyes shut. And when our daughter made a noise, the noise lights lit up and filled the whole room! I am not kidding, this was around Guy Fawkes Night when we had it, and I thought it was fireworks lighting up the room. I covered the lights with a piece of fabric and tape, and it was fine, but the sound was just so low we returned it.

The whole point of a monitor is to be able to hear your kid, so I do not understand why they did not make the sound able to go up loudly.