I consider myself pretty tech savvy and I enjoy my electronics. So in anticipation for my son's birth in November, I started an intensive research on various video monitors. There're a lot of choices out there but I stumbled on Samsung video monitors.At a first glance, I think Samsung has the best look and design out of all the video monitors out there; simple and attractive. I love the big screen and simple design. There's nothing to figure out, everything is simple. You play around with it for about 5 minutes and you know what you have. I've seen a lot of various monitors and most of them are cheap looking or bulky... or they're way too complicated.
The Samsung brand also sold me. I love their TVs and I love their phones... I figure they'd do a great job for their baby monitor as well.
Out of all of Samsung's monitors, I zeroed in on the SEW-3036. I bought it to test it out and get used it...to make sure it's going to be a dependable monitor for our son. Our first child, so you can get pretty obsessive.
I was impressed with the video and sound. Video, both day and night time, is the best I've seen. Sound is clear and their two way talk button is a very convenience feature. I can imagine using it to talk to my baby as well as my wife... The audio on this camera is very stable. Usually when a microphone and speaker is involved...there is a lot of feedback. This monitor, as long as you don't have the monitor volume at the highest, the feedback is almost non-existent.
The battery life on this monitor is also very impressive. I tested and fiddled with it all day long and the parent unit just kept on going. The parent unit comes with something called the `Vox'. It's pretty useful. If your monitor doesn't detect sound for a minute, it'll go to sleep. If it hears something, it comes back on. It makes the battery life last even longer.
A list of its other features, it has a zoom button with a pretty clear 2x zoom but I found myself not using it much. But it's nice that it's there if you need it. It has a scan mode that I might use if I had more cameras. You can connect up to four...I don't know if I'll need that many, but that's pretty good. I guess you can put the cameras in multiple rooms; something I think I'll need when my kid gets bigger and starts walking.
Overall, it's a great system. The price isn't bad. I found more expensive comparable units or inferior units more expensive. Samsung has made the right choice. They brought down the price and focused on the most important features to make the SEW-3036 a very solid monitor. I've played around with it for a couple of days now and I really think it's going to make things a lot easier for me and my wife. A very excited soon-to-be dad here writing what I found! I'll update the review after I try it out with my baby!!!! But so far, I am very very impressed!
First things first... I mention this in the video portion of the review, but ALL infrared night vision baby camera have poor resolution in the dark. They just do... I have tried four separate cameras and none of them offer a clear picture in the dark. They are all fuzzy and it is difficult to distinguish any level of detail. Another observation.... it seems like the bigger the display the WORSE the picture becomes when using night vision. I guess the resolution of the cameras are all about the same, but when you blow it up to a bigger screen, you lose additional detail. Soooo.... the Samsung SEW-3036NW baby monitor really does not have great picture when you are using it in the dark. The good news? It really doesn't matter too much.
Why doesn't it matter? When we are using the camera at night we are trying to see a few basics, is our daughter still in bed, is she sitting up, and other big types of things. What are not trying to do is distinguish if she is smiling or has something in her hand. The Samsun SEW-3036WN works well enough for the big things, but like all baby monitors, it will struggle to pull out the details (although they all will distinguish between *open* and *closed* eyes.
Notes-
-The Samsung SEW-3036WN will allow you to talk to you child through the camera. This is more important that it may seem it is always nice to be able to ask "What is the matter"
The range on the camera seems more than accurate 800' seems a little over-generous, but it certainly has enough range for our home.
The daytime camera resolution is very good
The camera has the ability to zoom and pan although zooming in at night lessens the already poor resolution
The camera can be mounted to the wall, but it does not come with a mounting clip (like the Levanas)
Can support up to 4 camera from one monitor/display
Has a built in clock
Has the ability to be used with voice activated controls but we have found that just leaving the camera on seems to work better for us.
Very large 3.5" screen although it does cost use some picture clarity/resolution
The display is fully rechargeable The battery life seems to be in the 6-8 hour range
Final Verdict The Samsung SEW-3036NW is a very nice baby monitor, but like all infrared baby monitors, it does have its limitations in low light situations.
4 1/2 Stars
Buy Samsung SEW-3036WN Wireless Video Baby Monitor Now
First things first: this monitor operates at 2.4GHz, which can interfere with 802.11g or single-band 802.11n routers. If you have such a router, don't get this baby monitor unless you need some way to stop yourself from going online while your baby sleeps.Beyond that, this monitor is really easy to use. It comes all set up such that you can plug it in and go. No set-up required. The picture quality is pretty good, and the sound quality is on par with the audio-only baby monitor i had already.
There are some serious problems, though.
First off, when you turn on the parent unit (the one with the screen), it plays a little tune. I've found no way to turn that off. Even when the device is muted so i can't hear any sounds from the baby, the darn thing still wants to play me a song when i turn it on. Likewise, if it can't detect the camera, it helpfully beeps at you to let you know. There is no way to disable this audio alert.
Second, the camera is basically designed to be wall-mounted. I wanted to set mine up on a dresser near the crib, but the crib mattress is at a much lower level. I can't tilt the camera down enough to get a good angle. If i wanted to screw it into the wall above the crib, it would have good range of motion, but i don't.
Third, of course, is that i can only use this device if i want to block all wi-fi in my house. I could go buy a new router to get around this problem, but that's a bit silly.
So if you don't use wi-fi for your internet, or have a router other than the type i mentioned above, plan to wall-mount the camera, and remember to never turn the parent unit on near your sleeping baby, this is actually a pretty good video monitor. Otherwise, it's just not.
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Update down to one star:
After about 12 hours of use over 3 days, my camera has stopped working properly. It cycles randomly between day and night modes (1-20 seconds in one mode before flipping to the other), even if the room is so dark that on night mode the screen just shows blackness. Unplugging the camera and plugging it back in fixes the problem for an hour or two. I haven't yet contacted tech support, since they're only available by phone, and with a newborn in the house i have precious little time for phone calls, especially when i don't know if it will take 30 seconds or 30 minutes.
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Another update:
I got an email from a vendor kindly offering to replace my obviously malfunctioning unit. They claim it should _not_ interfere with wi-fi, despite operating on a frequency known to interfere with wi-fi. I'm not going to bother getting the replacement, primarily because the other issues (some of which aren't malfunctions, like the annoying start-up sound) render this monitor useless to me.
In addition, i did some experimenting and found that the range of this monitor is less than 50 feet in my house. There are only two walls between my kitchen and the nursery, and probably less than 50 feet, but at my kitchen table the monitor repeatedly cuts out saying it lost signal. Maybe this is yet another aspect of its malfunction, but at the point where a monitor is malfunctioning in three apparently unrelated ways (wi-fi interference, day/night mode switch, and range), it suggests a certain lack of quality in the product.
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A third update:
I have a 3037 unit as well, the fancier pan-tilt-zoom version. It also interferes with wi-fi. If the wi-fi interference really is a malfunction, then it's a common one across at least two product lines, which seems unlikely.
Read Best Reviews of Samsung SEW-3036WN Wireless Video Baby Monitor Here
I have a new born baby and searched a video baby monitor.There were many baby monitor on sale and I started compare them with my needs.
I chose three baby monitors, Motorola MBP36, Infant Optics DXR-5, and Samsung sew-3036wn.
First of all, I removed infant optics because I thought video screen should be big enough.
Motorola and Samsung have 3.5 inch screen. I compared Motorola and Samsung functions in detail. It came down to the Pan and tilt function vs a $60 discount. I selected $60 discount. I thought I will just put my baby in the crib, so I won't need pan and tilt function that much.
Furthermore, Samsung model has sound wake up function which is called VOX, and it looks very cool to me.
When I get Samsung baby monitor on hand, the first feeling is that the design looks cool. It has very simple and great design. The video display was not excellent t but clear enough. The night vision was fine. The battery life was even longer than written in manual. With continuous video display, it goes about 4 hours and with auto sleep mode, it goes over 6 hours! The sound is super clear. My baby sleeps on the second floor and I put the baby monitor on my kitchen desk. I realized just how great the sound was on this monitor as I was climbing upstairs. Hearing both my baby upstairs and the sound from the monitor downstairs, I couldn't tell them apart. It sounded like I was listening to my baby surround sound.
The most satisfied function is VOX! It's so cool function and works very well. When I turn this function on, the video display automatically turns off when my baby makes no sounds, and the video turn on immediately when it detects sound. . It gives me a signal with sound when my baby makes noise so I don't have to pay attention to baby monitor when my baby is sleeping. There is no constant background noise as well. I love this function.
I love this monitor and now looking for an additional camera for my baby play yard use.
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Very disappointed in this baby monitor. I love the samsung brand. I have a Samsung galaxy phone and tablet and really enjoy them, but this baby monitor does not compare at all. For six months I have been using the Levana 32102 Era Advanced, it is much cheaper than this monitor and has a smaller screen but I must say I think I like that one much better than this samsung one.First, whenever you turn on this baby monitor it plays a little tune. Which isn't good in my house because usually I am using the baby monitor when my baby is sleeping and this tune is loud enough to wake him from another room. Plus I am in the habit of turning on the monitor before I leave the room and I have woke him a couple times because of the tune this monitor plays when it boots up. Very annoying.
Then, I usually use this in the mornings when I am getting ready for work and it is still dark so I use the night vision a lot. But the night vision on this monitor blacks out every 3 seconds, then shows the feed for 3 seconds then blacks out for another 3 seconds the entire time it is on! It is frustrating. What is happening it is goes from night vision to regular mode every 3 seconds! And because the room is dark I only see a black screen. During the day when I use it, it also cycle through from night vision to regular mode every 3 seconds, it is so annoying!
Also, the quality of the video is horrible. It is not crisp at all. It is blurry and the color is horrible. The color on the screen looks blurry in night vision an fuzzy in regular. One time I couldn't even figure out how my baby was positioned because the quality is so horrible. The Levana 32102 Era Advanced screen is smaller but the quality is much more crisper and I can see my baby breath and everything from that screen. I love the size of the samsung baby monitor screen but what good does it do when the video is blurry, bad quality and bad color? Plus, it blinks in and out every three seconds from night vision to regular so it frustrates me even more!
The camera can sit on flat surface or hang on the wall and it comes with two screws if you want to go with the latter option. I hung my on the wall and the camera does move very well so you can get it to the right angle to see your baby in the crib. It moves up, down, side to side, back and forth. So, one of the pluses is the camera has good angles that you can have it anywhere and position the camera.
There is a sleep button on the monitor so you can turn off the video and hear only. There is also a VOX option which blinked off and on from night vision to regular as well every 3 seconds.
Overall I am disappointed with the blinking off and on every 3 seconds. It is harder to focus on what is going on when it constantly goes to from night vision to regular mode. It doesn't matter what the lighting is in the room it does it no matter what making me not want to use this monitor. Guess I will stick to my cheaper Levana 32102 Era Advanced.
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