At a glance:
Our panel of mum testers loved the extra features on the BT Video Baby Monitor 5000, such as the coloured lights on the sound level display, the thermometer on the camera unit and lullabies. However, they wished it had the 360-degree camera view similar models on the market offer and thought the image quality would be better for the price tag.
Read more about the best baby monitors according to our mum testers.
What they say:
"The BT Baby Monitor 5000 gives you peace of mind while your baby is asleep. It is packed with great features, allowing you to hear, see and talk to your baby while not in the room. You can also remotely adjust the camera to always keep sight of the thing that matters most and monitor room temperature so your baby is never too hot."
Tested by mum Hannah Cook for the Mother & Baby awards 2018:
Would you recommend this to other mums?
The baby monitor was extremely easy to set up and use straight out of the box. One of my favourite features is the ability to remotely control the camera so if baby moves you can adjust the view as necessary. The temperature monitor was very useful and the picture is clear and automatically switches to night vision when the room gets dark. There’s even the ability to play lullabies if needed. Another useful function is to be able to put the monitor into standby mode and then if any noise is detected by the monitor the parent unit will turn back on. I also like the sound level display which has a series of coloured lights on the side of the monitor which can change from green to red, which is a good function if you need to mute the sound and can gauge the severity of the cry.
How has this product made your life easier?
This product is invaluable to a parent as it means you can be safe in the knowledge that your baby is sleeping whilst carrying on with jobs downstairs. I really wouldn’t be without one and it takes the worry out of leaving your baby in a separate room. The fact that I can also see my baby as well as hear her is so useful.
Would you choose this product to win?
I really loved the baby monitor and think it definitely deserves to win. I certainly prefer it over the video monitor I had previously. The tilt and pan function wins for me and the only thing my old monitor had over this one was the ability to link a monitoring pad under the mattress. I think the BT Video Baby Monitor 5000 would really benefit from this too, especially with a newborn.
What changes would you make to this product?
If I could add a movement monitor pad, it would make the baby monitor just about perfect. Also, if I was able to add extra cameras to monitor more than one room, that would be great too. Other than that there really isn’t anything else that needs to change.
Tested by mum Vashti May-Driver for the Mother & Baby awards 2018:
Would you recommend this to other mums?
This video monitor allows you to keep an eye on your little one from anywhere in the house and the camera even has night vision and is remote controlled so you can follow your baby as they wriggle around their cot. The monitor is light, easy and simple to use and can just slip in your pocket like a phone. It gives me such peace of mind that I feel comfortable taking the bins out, hanging up washing (or having a glass of wine!) in the garden without constantly worrying you are out of range. There is also a thermometer on the camera unit, so you can keep an eye on the changing air temperature without entering the room, which is a huge bonus if you live in a draughty, creaky old house in Scotland like I do!
How has this product made your life easier?
I am able to work, do housework, or have friends over and be 100% certain I’ll know she’s stirring. When I used the simple old audio monitor the rasping white noise was hard to bear but I didn’t trust it to alert me properly, so always had it on the loudest setting. This monitor has made my life SO much easier – we are able to have a date night without taking it in turns going in to check on her!
Would you choose this product to win?
I first thought that this product wouldn’t be good for me as I am already a nervous enough mum and thought I’d be checking it every five seconds, but it has been a game changer. I do think it should win, and although I haven’t tried any other video monitors, it does everything I could need it to.
What changes would you make to this product?
I would make the stand on the camera heavier as I find it gets knocked over a lot by the curtains, so I often have to remember to reposition it. It would also be useful to be able to use it with batteries so we could take it camping with us!
Tested by mum Jenny Walker for the Mother & Baby awards 2018:
Would you recommend this to other mums?
I love this baby monitor as it allows me to check on my little one without having to enter his room. The handset holds charge really well, which allows me to be mobile whilst still having the security of being able to check on my son.
How has this product made your life easier?
As I said above, the handset hold its charge really well which allows you to move about the home and garden without having to be plugged in. We only have a small garden, but the signal allows us to be outside and still in range. The design of the product is great and very compact and the camera looks like it belongs in the nursery. There are a lot of features that come with this monitor, such as being able to pan and zoom the camera from the handset, a talk function and the ability to play music.
Would you choose this product to win?
I’m personally not a fan of this monitor against others on the market. Although there are a lot of great features and the design and portability of the handset is great, the sound quality isn’t that impressive. We changed from a BT monitor without video that was a lot cheaper and the quality of the sound was much better. The buttons and menus make this product pretty difficult to use and the camera isn’t great for a small room as it doesn’t zoom out too well.
What changes would you make to this product?
Changing the buttons and menus on this product would, I think, make the greatest improvement of all the faults. I feel like they have focused more on the look and design of the buttons rather than the functionality, which then in turn makes the menus difficult to navigate.
Tested by mum Jodie Ball for the Mother & Baby awards 2018:
Would you recommend this to other mums?
The video baby monitor is very straight-forward and easy to use. The instructions come on a double sided single sheet rather than a booklet, which I thought was great as it is much easier to refer to a single page than have to flick through. I was impressed at how light both the camer and parent units are and how good the screen size was on the parent unit. One of the things that impressed me most was how smooth and responsive the panning/zoom mode is. It’s also very quiet too which meant it didn’t disturb my toddler when he was sleeping. Having now used the unit for several weeks, I can say it is a really great baby monitor.
How has this product made your life easier?
The video monitor is great peace of mind and it’s great to have visual contact with your baby. There is a light indicator that lights up in response to noise level and the temperature sensor is an excellent feature. It was easy to take the monitor on holiday as it was so small and light and it had a great range of 250m outdoors and 50m indoors. I have a large garden and the monitor worked in every corner of it. The standby-noise activated mode is also a handy feature that aids battery life and gives peace of mind.
Would you choose this product to win?
I like the design of this product – the screen size is perfectly adequate and the picture is very clear. I found the panning/zoom quality and smoothness to be fantastic and I would definitely recommend this as a great all-round monitor and good value for money.
What changes would you make to this product?
I wasn’t really impressed by the selection of lullabies on this baby monitor – they reminded me of early mobile phone ringtones! Improved sounds would be a real asset to this video monitor – or the ability to download different tunes onto this device.
Tested by mum Amanda Richardson for the Mother & Baby awards 2018:
Would you recommend this to other mums?
I would recommend this to other mums as it is easy to use and set up instructions are clear. The parent unit is fairly easy to navigate. The camera has a motion sensor, so when any movement is detected the parent unit screen will re-activate automatically, which is great and it definitely saves having to keep switching the screen on to check.
How has this product made your life easier?
The motion sensor is one of the best features on this monitor – I live in quite a noisy area and it saves me having to keep switching the screen on every time I hear a noise. The parent unit also has noise activated lights down the side, so even with the volume turned down low it’s easy to tell how loud and frequent the noise is. I love the two-way talkback, allowing me to talk to my little one in his room.
Would you choose this product to win?
I personally think there are still better monitors on the market for similar prices.
What changes would you make to this product?
The one thing I would like to change on this monitor is to have a 360-degree view on the camera. I found the view on the camera quite limiting and it took me a while and a lot of trial and error moving the camera in order to get a good view of my little one.