In-depth reviews guided by a Pediatrician

Summer Infant Baby Pixel Review

Expensive unit with average video and a limited indoor range
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Price:   $200 List | $135 at Amazon
Pros:  Easy to use, longer battery life
Cons:  Higher price, shorter range
Manufacturer:   Summer Infant
By Juliet Spurrier, MD & Wendy Schmitz  ⋅  Aug 1, 2019
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59
OVERALL
SCORE

RANKED
#11 of 13
  • Range - 20% 5
  • Sound Clarity - 20% 5
  • Video Quality - 30% 6
  • Ease of Use - 15% 7
  • Battery life - 10% 7
  • Features - 5% 6

The Skinny

The Summer Infant Baby Pixel is a dedicated monitor with a 5-inch video and touchscreen parent unit. This monitor has a 3x digital zoom, remotely controlled camera, and an easy to use menu system. Unfortunately, this monitor is one of the most expensive dedicated options in the review, but it only has average video and sound quality with grainy images and washed-out color. With a shorter range than the dedicated competition, we feel this unit is not the best choice no matter what features you are looking for or what your monitoring goals are.


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Our Analysis and Test Results

In 1985, William Lockett III wanted a safe place to put his newborn while he tended to other things. Under the name of Summer Infant, he developed the first bouncy seat for babies. Summer Infant continues to create a variety of products for babies at reasonable prices. This gear includes strollers, cribs, bathing products, and monitors.

Performance Comparison


The Summer Infant Pixel is a dedicated video monitor with a limited range and grainy video images.
The Summer Infant Pixel is a dedicated video monitor with a limited range and grainy video images.

Range


The Pixel has a shorter indoor range than much of the competition. During testing, this unit maintained a connection between the nursery camera and parent device up to 65 feet and through 4 walls. If your house is larger, and depending on your home's construction, the Pixel may not work.

The daytime images on the Pixel are clear enough to see what is happening in the baby's room but the color on the screen is not an accurate representation of the color in the room.
Zooming in on the daytime action creates some lack of clarity and the details aren't as sharp.

Audio / Visual


The sound clarity on any monitor is important because that is what draws your attention to the parent device. This monitor has a maximum decibel level of 101 dB. This unit has no sound activation or sound sensitivity adjustment to help keep the unit quiet. The sound is a little hollow and bright and distorts as the volume gets higher. Without adjustability, the audio is always on which could be a problem if you are a light sleeper.

Night video is grainy and lacks the clarity and detail we saw in the daylight images. While we'd expect to see some degradation of quality some of the competition offer significantly better images.
Night visuals using the zoom feature are very difficult to discern and it isn't a feature parents will find particularly useful.

The daytime images for the Pixel are crisp, but the colors are washed out and not true to real life. The Pixel video quality with night vision images that are grainy. These black and grey images are hard to decipher, and the zoom feature makes it worse. While you will be able to get the gist of the scene, you won't be able to see if your little one's eyes are open or not.

The touchscreen menu on the Pixel has intuitive icons and works well.
The touchscreen menu on the Pixel has intuitive icons and works well.

Ease of Use


The Pixel is relatively easy to use. This monitor links automatically straight out of the box and is easy and quick to set up and get running. We didn't experience any time delay between action in the room vs. action on the monitor. Meaning you get a reliable picture of what is happening in the room.

The menu button on the parent device brings up the monitor options on the touchscreen which works well. The icons are intuitive and straightforward to use. The unit has separate buttons on the top for zoom, pan and tilt operation, and the nightlight.

The parent unit plugs in to charge and should probably remain plugged in if you plan to constantly watch a sleeping child.
The Pixel camera is plug in only with no battery backup in case of a power failure. This lack of batteries is common but unfortunate.

Battery Life


The Pixel battery life is better than average. It has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. In our testing, the Pixel parent device ran for 11 hours. This duration is long enough to make it through the night.

The Pixel comes with a nightlight that has two color options.
The Pixel comes with a nightlight that has two color options.

Features


The Pixel has a variety of features.

The parent unit for the Pixel has a 5-inch touchscreen.
The parent unit for the Pixel has a 5-inch touchscreen.

This video monitor includes:
  • 2-way talk-to-baby microphone
  • 5" touchscreen monitor
  • Sleep zone boundary alert
  • Nightlight
  • Temperature sensor
  • Voice activate screen wake up
  • Moonlite™ Night Vision Boost for in-color night images
  • 3X digital zoom
  • Wall mount hardware
  • Remote camera

Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Levels


The average EMF emissions for the Pixel during our testing was 2.6 V/m at a distance of 6 feet from the reader. This level is higher than all of the wi-fi options and slightly higher than most of the dedicated options. While the level that reaches your baby can be less by moving the unit further from your baby, the camera can only be so far before it becomes virtually ineffective. The parent unit emits 2.71 V/m at a distance of 3 feet, the average space between a sleeping parent's head and a bedside night table.

Manufacturer Video




— Juliet Spurrier, MD & Wendy Schmitz