Levana Mila baby monitor review
Our Verdict
The Levana Mila produced some of the sharpest, clearest video we've seen from a baby monitor. But other features lack the polish of competing products such as the Arlo Baby.
For
- Great, clear video, in our testing
- Easy setup
- Born temperature sensor
Against
- Company has halted production
- Audio is subpar
- No companion app for mobile phones
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Levana Mila produced some of the sharpest, clearest video we've seen from a baby monitor. But other features lack the polish of competing products such as the Arlo Baby.
Pros
- +
Great, clear video, in our testing
- +
Like shooting fish in a barrel setup
- +
Congenital-in temperature sensor
Cons
- -
Company has halted production
- -
Audio is subpar
- -
No companion app for mobile phones
Levana Mila infant monitor specs
Camera range: 330-degree pan, 90-degree tilt
Photographic camera resolution: 1080p
Handheld monitor: Aye
Handheld monitor size/weight: 6.one x 3.1 x 0.7 inches/8.v ounces
Mobile app: No
Temperature/humidity sensor: Yes/No
Video recording: No
Editors' Note: Later this review was posted, Levana confirmed that the Levana Mila suffers from a variety of issues, including video glitches, sound loss and pan and tilt defects, and stopped product of the baby monitor. While none of these bug surfaced during our examination, we withdrew our rating. The Levana Mila has since returned to retail shelves, with the company challenge the issues have been resolved. Our review reflects the original baby monitor.
In many means, the Levana Mila baby monitor feels like a throwback to a pre-smartphone age. At a fourth dimension when rival baby monitors are making use of your smartphone by beaming video to that device, the Levana Mila takes a different tack. Instead, it features a dedicated handheld monitor, which you use to check in on your sleeping infant.
It's a pretty proficient setup, if you don't mind the actress device. Our testing for this Levana Mila babe monitor review found a reliable device that features clear images and will provide parents with a lot of peace of heed when they need to brand sure that all'southward well in the nursery. Just there are some rough edges to the Levana Mila when you compare it to the best baby monitors.
Levana Mila baby monitor review: Cost
The Levana Mila infant monitor starts at $199 for a version that includes the handheld monitor and a single camera. If you want two cameras, that package costs $279. Levana says it will outset selling individual cameras in June for $99 each.
That's not the most expensive baby monitor we've tested. The Miku Smart Baby Monitor costs twice every bit much, though it includes animate detection capabilities. The Levana Mila's price is more in range with the Arlo Baby, our current option for the all-time baby monitor, which as well costs $199.
Levana Mila baby monitor review: Design
The Levana Mila has more in common with the Arlo Baby than just matching price tags. The baby monitor cameras also await similar, with a spherical camera mounted on a circular base of operations. Levana'due south photographic camera is 4.iv inches and anywhere from 3.2 to iii.7 inches around, depending on whether you're measuring the base or the camera. Its white-and-black aesthetic isn't inconspicuous, only depending on your plant nursery decor, information technology may be able to alloy in with its environment.
A pair of antennas juts out of the base of operations of the camera, with the larger one beaming video to the Levana Mila'south handheld viewer. A much smaller antenna detects temperature in your baby'due south room, and you tin set an alert if things become too hot or too cold.
The Levana Mila's camera must exist plugged in at all times to work — at that place's no onboard battery in case you want to move the camera from room to room to proceed tabs on your infant at different times during the day. That ways wherever you gear up the photographic camera needs to exist within two.6 meters (or 8.5 feet) of an electric socket, every bit that's the length of the included USB cable that keeps the camera powered upward. (When you practice prepare the camera, brand sure that cable is 3 feet abroad from the crib and deeply fastened to avoid potential choking hazards.)
Equally for the Levana Mila'southward monitor, it's about the size of a smartphone — albeit much thicker. Whereas smartphones these days tip the scales at half-dozen to vii ounces, the Levana Mila monitor weighs in at 8.5 ounces, or more than than one-half a pound. Fortunately, there'south a kickstand on the back that can prop upwards the monitor for like shooting fish in a barrel viewing of the v-inch LCD screen.
Levana says the monitor can stay connected to the cameras from 1,000 feet away. I never had any problem keeping a connection, though my habitation is pretty small.
You tin can gear up up the handheld monitor to be constantly on or just to flip on and alert y'all when it detects movement or noise. An orange button on the top of the device lets you turn the display on and off. You'll definitely want to brand use of some of these power management features, as the Levana Mila handheld monitor tin just last up to 8 hours in ever-on mode. Making utilise of the audio detection features to activate the monitor can stretch things out to near a full day of use, only my review unit usually needed to exist recharged after 12 to 20 hours of apply.
That'southward ane of the reasons I adopt infant monitors that axle images to your smartphone instead of a dedicated handheld device. The device is just one more matter you've got to recharge, whereas the phone is a device y'all've already got on y'all. Levana would counter that its monitor uses a 2.4GHz wireless signal to connect the photographic camera with the viewer, with FHSS technology keeping the connectedness secure. And the pictures on the LCD console are crisp and piece of cake to see.
Buttons on the Levana Mila monitor let you lot tilt and pan the cameras remotely and toggle through menus and settings. The controls are fairly intuitive, although the main push button — which clicks in four different directions and includes a dedicated push button in the centre — felt somewhat imprecise. Occasionally, I would endeavor to use that push to navigate from left to right, simply to find the on-screen menu from meridian to bottom. Perhaps a slightly larger push or more distinct directional buttons would help.
Levana Mila infant monitor: Setup
1 of the best things about the Levana Mila baby monitor is how easy it is to set up. Toggle to the Settings menu on the handheld monitor and select Camera Pairing. From there, information technology'southward just a matter of pressing a push button on the bottom of whichever camera you desire to pair with the handheld device. (The camera will need to be plugged in to pair, though.)
If you lot're setting upward multiple Levana Mila cameras, y'all only assign each camera to a numbered square (Camera 1, Camera 2 and then along). Using the handheld monitor, yous can decide whether to just view i photographic camera in full-screen mode or — if you're using multiple cameras — split and quad screen views. A Sequence Mode rotates betwixt the different Levana Mila cameras yous've got gear up around a nursery.
You tin can ready the Levana Mila on a shelf beyond the room from your babe's crib and enjoy a pretty good view. For a different angle, you tin can mount the photographic camera on a wall — the Levana Mila package includes a screw and an anchor, and information technology took about five minutes to anchor everything into place.
Levana Mila baby monitor review: Video and audio quality
Thanks to the 1080p resolution on the Levana Mila cameras, you'll become precipitous images of your child'due south nursery whatsoever time of day. When the room is well lit, that video appears in colour on the Levana Mila handheld unit, just once light begins to fall — whether it's night-time or y'all've fatigued the shades for a mid-twenty-four hour period nap — the cameras switch over to night vision.
My girl is long past the age where we need to have a camera in her room to make sure she'due south OK at dark, but she generously volunteered to permit me utilise her room to exam out the Levana Mila's shooting prowess. Even in the dark, I could clearly see her toss and turn and make out dissimilar details in her bedchamber. (If your child happens to turn to the camera when it'due south in night vision mode with their optics wide open, you tin likewise freak out at their glowing eyeballs.)
With a 100-degree viewing angle, there'south not much that escapes the Levana Mila'south unblinking eye, only if you desire to take a await effectually, the camera can pan 330 degrees and tilt 90 degrees. If you need to zoom in, tapping the buttons on the Levana Mila monitor lets you relish standard, 1.5x and 2x views of your sleeping child and their surroundings.
The Levana Mila camera uses a ring of infrared lights to pull off its night vision images, and while you tin can see pinpoints of calorie-free through the camera drinking glass, they don't throw off enough illumination to wake upwards or disturb a sleeping baby. My daughter also wasn't put off by the sound of the panning and tilting camera I installed over her bed.
I wish audio from the Levana Mila impressed as much as the video, but I found the sound produced by the handheld monitor to exist lacking. There'southward one rear-firing speaker on the Levana Mila handheld unit, and you lot have to actually crank up the volume to hear any noise your kid might be making. A two-way audio characteristic lets you soothe your baby remotely with the press of a push button on the handheld unit of measurement, but the crackle of that audio isn't exactly reassuring. It's also hard to adjust the volume of incoming audio so your baby isn't startled.
Levana Mila baby monitor review: Other features
The Levana Mila baby monitor includes a few actress features, like the same temperature sensor that overlays the room temperature on the image beamed back from the camera and sounds an alert if the room is hotter or colder than the range you lot've set. 3 preloaded lullabies play through the cameras — Rock-a-bye Infant, Twinkle Twinkle and Brahms Lullaby — though you'll want to calibrate volume advisedly so the consequence is "soothing" rather than "jarring." Because there'south no companion app for the Levana Mila, there's no manner to serenade your babe with your ain music.
The lack of a companion app limits the Levana Mila'south features in other ways. You tin can't capture video or share stills of your sleeping child with a spouse or grandparent. All the video beaming to the Levana Mila monitor stays there. (Some parents will exist perfectly happy with that limitation.)
Levana Mila infant monitor review: Verdict
At a time when nearly everyone carries around a smartphone, having a extra device just to receive video from a nursery can feel a trivial unnecessary. But if you prefer to keep your smartphone and your infant monitor separate, the Levana Mila baby monitor does a very proficient job delivering crisp images both in broad daylight and at night. That's the most important thing a baby monitor can do, and the Levana Mila has that role of the chore nailed downwardly.
It'south the extras where the Levana Mila comes up a little short. The baby monitor's audio doesn't measure out up to the high-quality video it produces, and extra features are few and far between, compared to what other top baby monitors take to offer. The two-way talk and lullaby features don't experience as polished every bit they should be, though parents volition appreciate the temperature-monitoring sensors on each Levana Mila camera. The Levana Mila excels at capturing video, and if that's the chief thing you lot want in a baby monitor, it's easy enough to overlook some of the less polished aspects of this device.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/levana-mila-baby-monitor
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