Philips Avent DECT Baby Monitor Review

Price When Reviewed

Not currently available in the US

Many baby monitors these days come with a camera and display that lets you see your sleeping baby, but an audio-only monitor can be just as effective and often have other benefits, including a lower price tag and more reliable sound. 

The Philips Avent DECT baby monitor prides itself on just that, and thanks to the DECT technology it offers a completely secure and private connection with no interference from other devices such as phones and nearby baby monitors.

Take a look at our round-up of the best baby monitors for more buying advice.

Philips Avent DECT Monitor Price and Availability

The Philips Avent DECT Baby monitor is priced at £99.99, available to buy from Philips itself or from Amazon. 

In the US, it’s also available to buy at Amazon for a similar price of around $95. 

That makes it cheaper than some other baby monitors we’ve reviewed, but that’s largely down to the lack of a camera and video display. There are cheaper audio baby monitors available from the likes of BT and Motorola, but many miss out on the high quality audio thanks the Philips offers using DECT technology. 

Philips Avent DECT Monitor Design and Build

Philips is an established household name, and its Avent range for babies is well-known for its quality. Despite being a simple, plastic monitor with a grey and white design, it’s clear from the finish of the units and the sturdiness of the design that you’ve got a good quality piece of tech here. 

Both modules of the monitor can be used without being plugged into the mains, but you’ll only get two rechargeable batteries in the box, designed to be used with the module you’ll carry around with you as the parent. It’s nice to have the option to use batteries in the module you leave with the baby for if you’re travelling, but you’ll need to get yourself four AA rechargeable batteries if you want to do this.

It manages to be quite compact, and the portable module comes with a clip on the back that you can attach to your belt or clothing to keep it with you wherever you wander. 

If you’d prefer a video baby monitor with the option to have both modules unplugged, you might like the Babymoov Yoo Travel.

Philips Avent DECT Monitor Features

Despite the lack of video, there is a little display on the parent module of the baby monitor, with an easy to navigate menu that gives you all of the options you might need. You can check the temperature in your babies room from there, as well as the time and the battery life of the monitor. It also lets you adjust the volume of the monitor, and the sensitivity of the microphone.

There are three lights on the parent module that indicate how much noise is coming from the room, so even if you have the volume turned down you should spot when the baby is crying or making noise thanks to these.  

You can also turn on Smart Eco mode, which means the closer you are to your baby, the less battery it’ll use. It offers a longer range than many other monitors, at up to 330m. 

The baby module has a sweet, soft nightlight available that you can turn on and off remotely via the menu, as well as five lullabies that are reasonably good quality. You can also use the baby module to turn these on and off if you’re nearby and don’t have the parent module with you. 

You’ll get an easy to reach ‘talk’ button on the side of the monitor that you can use as a sort of walkie talkie to chat to your baby should they need soothing. 

We’ve already mentioned the audio quality briefly, but during our testing this is what we were most impressed with. It’s fantastic, and better than any other monitor we’ve tried, which definitely helped make up for the lack of visuals. We weren’t entirely confident that we would like an audio-only monitor as much as one with a camera, but were very pleasantly surprised. 

Verdict

Audio-only baby monitors aren’t going to be right for every parent, but if you’re not concerned about the lack of visuals this is one of the best audio baby monitors you can buy. The sound quality is fantastic, the range is more than most will need and it offers some sweet extra features including a nightlight and lullabies.

DECT technology helps make sure the audio feed is entirely private and secure, and won’t suffer from interference from nearby phones or monitors. 

There are cheaper audio-only monitors available, but if you want the best quality you’ll find it with the Philips Avent SCD710.