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Motorola MBP26 Review

Motorola MBP26

Most of us will know of Motorola as an organisation who make and sell mobile and smart phones. They have been around since the 1920’s and originate from the USA. They don’t just make phones these days, they also make, drum roll please…..baby monitors. The Motorola MBP26 digital video baby monitor is one of five baby monitors they produce. It’s one in the middle to lower price range, and has a range of features that should suit parents who don’t need, or want, a fully loaded video baby monitor. Please read on to see what the MBP26 has to offer.

Motorola MBP26 Review

The Motorola video baby monitor comes with a useful 2.4-inch (6cm) colour LCD screen. This allows you to see what your little cherub is getting up to in their room, which is hopefully nothing as they should be asleep!

The unit has the (now) standard night vision mode. It will automatically switch to infra-red night vision, without you having to remember to switch this on yourself. Its great knowing whatever time of day, or night, you can keep an eye on your baby.

FHSS Technology

The Motorola MBP26 baby monitor comes with 2.4 GHZ Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology. This means the unit automatically switches between the 55 built-in channels. This keeps the signal clear and free from interference from other electronic devices.

FHSS technology means the signal strength is maintained at its strongest, from the 55 channels available, and there is better signal range preventing signal drop.

The unit has LEDs on the parent unit to indicate sound levels received from the camera unit. Listening to sound from the parent unit is the primary means of knowing when you need to go and attend to them. Having a visual aid is also helpful. Sometimes you may have to mute the sound or cannot hear very well due to outside noise, especially if you live near a noisy road.

Up to 200 metres range

The Motorola MBP26 has a range of up to 200 metres. In reality you probably won’t get this range if you are using this indoors. Although, unless you live in a massive house, mansion, or castle, this shouldn’t really be a problem!

If the parent unit does go out of range or cannot connect to the camera unit, you will hear an alarm alerting you to this. A handy feature, which gives you additional piece of mind that you can see and hear your baby when you use this baby monitor.

Digital pan and tilt

You can remotely control the camera to pan and tilt from the parent unit. This allows you to change the camera angle if your baby wriggles around in their cot. It saves you going into their room disturbing them, to move it by hand.

You can also expand the Motorola MBP26’s monitoring capabilities by adding additional cameras. The unit can handle up to four cameras. You can put these in separate rooms, if you wish, and watch on the parent unit toggling through the cameras.

It seems a decent baby monitor, any problems with it?

There aren’t that many problems with this baby monitor. Although there are a few niggles. The battery life of the parent unit isn’t that great. You should be able to get around 3.5 hours of use before you need to re-charge the batteries. Not that bad, but an hour of two more would have been helpful.

The parent unit will go into standby mode if it’s not plugged into the mains, to save battery power. It will still be on and monitoring sound, but the screen will go blank. An obvious feature, given the power a LCD screen uses. But it can be a bit frustrating having to ‘wake up’ the screen to see the picture from the camera unit.

Sometimes the infra-red mode switches on too soon. Some have said there is a few minutes where no identifiable picture is available to see as the unit adjusts to the darkness of the room. This could be down to the baby’s room not being completely dark. You should aim to make your baby’s room as dark as possible when they go to sleep.

Motorola MBP26 Video Baby Monitor Main Features

  • Audio monitoring
  • Video monitoring
  • 2.4 GHZ audio technology
  • 2.4 inch video screen size
  • Maximum range – up to 200 metres
  • Out-of-range alert
  • Visual noise level alert
  • Two-way communication
  • Infrared night vision
  • Expandable up to four cameras
  • Wall mountable for camera unit
  • Remote control pan/tilt for camera unit

Pros

The Motorola MBP26 baby monitor is decent video baby monitor for the price, with a practical amount of features. The MBP26 has good reception, with little to no interference. It has a good picture, in daytime or night time mode. It’s easy to use and set up, the parent unit is portable and has a good signal range. It’s a reliable video baby monitor that does everything it should do, and well.

Cons

The downsides to this baby monitor aren’t anything to lose any sleep over. The main issue is the battery life for the parent unit isn’t brilliant. It can last around 3.5 hours before you have to re-charge the parent unit. The night vision mode can turn on a bit too early, especially if your baby’s room isn’t pitch black.

Summary

The Motorola MBP26 baby monitor is a decent mid-range video baby monitor. The features is comes with, all work well. It’s a solid and reliable unit made by a company who know how to make electronic devices, not least baby monitors.

Comments and feedback seem to mention that it lacks a few features, such as no night light, and no temperature display. You have to remember that this is a mid-range baby monitor, the price reflects this. If you want all the bells and whistles, you have to pay a bit more for those. You get what you pay for!

If you want a baby monitor with all the bells and whistles, there’s nothing to see here, move along please. However, if you want a video baby monitor that works well, doesn’t come with a bewildering amount of features, but more than covers the basics and a bit more, this is worth some serious consideration.

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