Owlet Cam 2 baby monitor review

Choosing a baby monitor seems simple enough, but actually it can be tricky because there are so many different types available. 

They range from the most basic walkie talkie-types (or just leaving your phone on speaker?) to ones that track your baby’s breathing or even alert if something covers their face.

Some connect to your phone via the internet, some to a separate screen via their own limited Wi-Fi, and some via a radio transmitter. 

I found it quite an overwhelming task to try and work out which one was best. 

After some trial and error, I realised I wanted one that showed video, rather than just relayed sounds. This is because I could tell earlier if my son was wriggling and about to wake up, or had rolled into an awkward position.

Owlet Cam 2, sold for £159, offers a real time stream of your baby in their cot. It connects to your phone via your home’s Wi-Fi, and can also send notifications for movement or sound with different sensitivity settings. It can film even in the dark, and monitors room temperature and humidity. 

It can be bought individually, or along with the Owlet sock – a great and innovative product that can give anxious parents peace of mind which I also reviewed here. 

When the camera worked for me, it was quite effective. Unfortunately, I eventually gave up using it because it didn’t deal well with moving to a new Wi-Fi network or losing connection signal. 

The video was clear (although still grainy and mainly in black and white even if the room was not completely dark), with the option to zoom in close if needed and a wide angle frame of vision which can be controlled from your phone.

It needs to be connected to mains electricity via a cable to work, but comes with equipment to mount the camera on the wall and hide the wire away (though you’d need to be pretty good with DIY to do this, so I just propped it on a shelf).

As the monitor connects to your home’s Wi-Fi, it is not limited by your distance from the baby so you can move all around the house – even if you live in a mansion or Buckingham Palace – without ever going out of range. 

Even if you’re going back to the office, you can still see how your baby is getting on remotely. The monitor can also record clips prompted by any sound or movement to your phone, so you can watch them when it’s convenient. 

This benefit can also be a drawback, though, as all baby monitors using Wi-Fi like this have the increased potential to be hacked, with strangers viewing the stream or even talking through the speaker. If you have a private network, keep the app updated and use a strong password to ensure this shouldn’t happen, but the rare possibility is still scary. 

For this reason, some parents choose more simple monitors that only work via radio, or via a local Wi-Fi connection that can’t be accessed unless in close proximity.

Video from Owlet can only be viewed on your phone, which is cool in a way as you don’t need an extra screen, but also annoying for the same reason. 

If you want to keep an eye on your baby in the corner of your eye, you need to have the app open and so can’t do other things on your phone, such as take the rare moment of quiet to mindlessly scroll Instagram. There is no option to minimise the video stream and have it open as a thumbnail in the corner. This meant I ended up using the app on a spare phone, which didn’t really seem to be the point.

Although the Owlet Cam does send notifications, I found they were either too frequent (so ended up being ignored) or I’d miss things if I turned down the sensitivity.

It is possible to set the app to play background noise so you still hear sound even If the app is closed, but you would not be able to continuously watch what was happening.

If Owlet offered the optional extra of purchasing an additional screen to just prop up next to you, I think this would be a good solution – but it doesn’t so far.

Setting up the Owlet monitor could also be a bit frustrating. You need to hold a QR code up in front of the camera until your phone ‘chimes’ with it. This process of moving the camera back and forth like playing an accordion sometimes took a long time, which was annoying. 

Another minor irritation is that you cannot set up multiple people on the Owlet account. Any second parent has to download the app and log in using the first person’s details, which is an easy enough workaround but seems a bit of an oversight. 

Once connected, the app also does not have a reliable way of alerting you if the signal has dropped. On one occasion, I had the screen open watching my son but the internet connection had gone and the picture had frozen without me realising.

I thought my baby was just in a deep sleep and not stirring, and even talked about how he could be getting into more of a bedtime routine.  But he was actually crying out of earshot upstairs, and so this was distressing for both him and me when I realised what was actually happening.

Owlet’s website says the app will notify you that your video feed cannot connect, but on this occasion it did not happen.

The biggest problem though, and the reason I eventually gave up using it, was that when the internet connection dropped (which mine quite often did as I was abroad with occasional power cuts) it was difficult to get it back up and running again as it would forget the previous details, and I sometimes had to reset the whole thing as it kept giving an error message.

When you have a young baby, the last thing you want is added stress of trying to become an IT troubleshooter at the point they’ve finally gone to sleep. 

I ended up preferring a camera with its own Wi-Fi. It doesn’t have as clear a picture or as good a range, but at least I don’t have to worry so much about connectivity issues.

So if you’re thinking of getting the Owlet Cam 2, make sure your home internet is very reliable first. 

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.