As in most things, the lower-cost baby monitor products are the most popular. But, user-reviews of low-cost baby monitors are filled with parents complaining about poor range and static. These fears were validated in our tests. Unfortunately, most of the baby monitors selling for less than $50 had very poor performance in our range and/or sound clarity. The lower cost monitors were also much more susceptible to interference from other electronic devices.
We found that range, clarity, and interference are all inter-related. Some monitors can still maintain a communication link at long range but do so with sound clarity poisoned with a sleep-robbing dose of static.
The Sony BabyCall was the exception to the rule, and turned in very solid scores in our tests, proving that being inexpensive does mean lackluster performance.
In our range and clarity tests, the Sony BabyCall flexed some muscle. While it's range was only about the middle of the pack, it did so with much better sound clarity than it's similarly priced competition. While most of the low-cost monitors greeted increasing range with static noise that rapidly became unacceptable as distance increased (or more indoor walls needed to be passed-thru), the Sony BabyCall offered excellent sound clarity through most of it's range.
Volume is sometimes an issue for parents, especially if the room you use the baby monitor in has a lot of background noise, such as from TV, washing machines, or air-conditioning systems. If this is an issue for you, then the Sony is going to be your very best option. The Sony was a star in the volume department, amplifying the sounds of baby significantly louder than any other monitor we tested.
Sony offers both one parent and two parent version of the BabyCall. We think this is a plus, and we love the convenience of dedicating one parent unit to the master bedroom and using the 2nd as the roving unit. It makes your life simpler to not have to haul the monitor around, and Sony makes the option very affordable.
The Sony BabyCall, along with most of the other low-cost analog monitors we tested, is susceptible to interference from other electronic devices. Interference could come from monitors in your neighbor's home, or from wireless phones, WiFi routers, etc inside your home. In an environment without interfering devices, the Sony works like a charm. But, if there is an interference issue in your home then range plummets to a fraction of the normal distance and static hiss becomes a major problem. If interference is present, we found that switching the Sony's channels (using little switches on the bottom of the monitor) was unsuccessful as a technique to work-around the problem.
The Sony BabyCall is a terrific monitor, offering a lot of bang for the buck. But the real risk of interference issues casts a cloud of doubt over an otherwise stellar offering.
In looking at user-reviews for the Sony BabyCall there is an interesting pattern. Some parents report the monitor works great and offered a very good range. Others say range was terrible and could barely reach the room next door to the baby. Why the differing perspectives? We believe that the parents who complained of poor were likely experiencing interference issues. We were able to duplicate the same results they had with interference devices, yet above average range if the source of interference was eliminated.
Our advice is simply this:
