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.
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