GoodBaby SM663 Review

Audio / Visual

While the audio is about average for the GoodBaby, the video is so bad it borders on offensive, earning one of the lowest scores in the group.

The audio is really the shining star of the Goodbaby, and even then, it is only average, with a high volume of 80 dB. The baby's cries are audible; you know it is a baby, but they sound sharp and somewhat fuzzy, lacking the nuance to indicate what type of crying it might be. It never sounded like adorable baby cooing, but we could tell when the baby was making sounds to themselves rather than crying. If you plan to head to the nursery every time your little one cries, this might be all you need. But if you were hoping to assess and respond based on the type of cry, or wait and see if they soothe themselves, it might not be enough.

The monitor never goes completely silent, and you can always hear some level of white noise. There is even a bit of static at the highest volume. Turning on the sound activation (VOX) feature helps create a quieter experience. This works well when the baby cries, coming through within a few seconds of the crying starting. It did a good job of distinguishing baby sounds from other ambient noise. The screen also activates and dims within a reasonable amount of time to resume sleep.

Daytime video is better than night, but neither is impressive, which isn't shocking since the camera is only 480p. It has a 90s-era blurry, grainy feel, with rainbow halos around the edges. It almost looks like a filter, making us wonder how old the technology is. The patterns on our car are all blown out, and none look sharp; some areas are so distorted that they have made their own patterns. We couldn't read the eye chart any further down than the 6th from the bottom, but even what we could see was distorted. The colors are okay, but the dark blues tend to look black.

Night images are washed out, muted, and blurry shades of gray. You can see major shapes and blunt edges, but anything in the shadows or with finer details is lost. We couldn't even see the clock face in the room. And the baby? The baby has no eyes, which is not what you want to see when checking on your baby in the middle of the night to relieve your anxiety.

Range

The range is below average, with a measured distance of 186 feet and 4 walls before dying, but it did start getting choppy at 111 feet and 4 walls. While not the worst in the group and should be adequate for smaller homes, it might struggle with transitions between levels, more walls, or longer distances. The manufacturer claims a line-of-sight distance of 1000 ft, but this is not a great measurement for use inside a home.

Ease of Use

Despite being straightforward and lacking most bells and whistles, the GoodBaby still scored below average for ease of use. The setup is easy enough with auto-pairing parts, and there is no app or account you need to set up. We mounted at a height above 5 ft to get the best angle into the crib. If you don't care about a top-down angle, a lower shelf would probably suffice, but the field of view is pretty tight.

The buttons work well, but the design is less than ideal. To engage camera mode, you have to hit the pan-tilt button, then the arrow buttons, but they are not labeled as arrows because they have dual functionality. Then, if you stop adjusting the pan-tilt for more than a few seconds, it will disengage, and you have to start over. It would be far easier if they just had dedicated buttons.

We don't think the button icons are intuitive, and it took a lot of trial and error, even with the manual, to use some of them consistently as intended.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

The GoodBaby is easy to hold.   Credit: Matt Lighthart

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The unit is a good size, and you can connect another camera to it to monitor multiple kids. It is highly portable with just two parts and no WiFi connection to worry about.

Battery Life

The battery life is impressive, but it could be because it doesn't do much. The manufacturer claims a run time of 10 hours. In our tests, it lasted a bit longer with continued use, up to 12 hours and 27 minutes, with the screen at full brightness continuously and the volume at 50%. This is long enough to make it through the night without plugging it in if you need to.

Features

We appreciated that the GoodBaby offers sound activation and a few other features, but nothing spectacular or that would knock your socks off. It does market an alert setting, but we couldn't get it to alert to anything, so it is hard to say what this feature does. At best, the audio stream comes on, which is just sound activation.

• 2-way talk
• Lullaby
• Room temperature reading
• Remote camera, pan/tilt
• 2x digital zoom

Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Levels

If EMF exposure matters to you, the GoodBaby had an average reading of 1.66 V/m in our tests. This is higher than the average, which was closer to 1.55, and significantly higher than some values closer to 0.25. Placing the camera farther from the crib can help limit exposure.

Security

This monitor does not rely on WiFi for connectivity, and therefore, the potential for security concerns is significantly less.

Should You Buy the GoodBaby?

Maybe for grandma. It is one of the better dedicated monitors in the under $100 product group. However, its video is disappointing, which could be hard to overlook on a primary monitor. Does it get the job done? Sure. Can you see any details, like whether a baby's eyes are open or closed? Nope. Does the baby kind of look like a doll or a lesser demon? Yeah, in our opinion, so much detail and resolution are missing that it is hard to tell what is in the crib. While we get the appeal of the street-friendly price, it kind of falls short of what a video monitor should excel at, so we aren't likely to suggest it to most friends. That said, we can see it potentially being a good choice as a second monitor for grandma's house or for caregivers if your primary monitor is WiFi and requires an app. Being able to see every detail might not be as critical when what you'd really want them to do is respond to the crying.

What Other Video Monitor Should You Consider?