VTech Crystal Sounds Digital Baby Monitor

If you can find one, the VTech Crystal Sounds Digital Baby Monitor has received some good early reviews, and it's notably less expensive than other DECT monitors like the top-rated Philips Avent SCD510 DECT Baby Monitor (*Est. $100). These types of monitors operate on a less-busy 1.9 GHz frequency, which results in almost no interference from other electronics and eliminates the chance of accidental eavesdropping that can occur with analog baby monitors. The problem? The VTech baby monitor is very hard to find in stores. We found it sporadically at ToysRUs.com, but it's frequently out of stock.

Features-wise, the VTech Crystal Sounds Digital Baby Monitor is pretty loaded, with LED sound-level indicator lights, a lullaby function with 20 melodies, remote volume and sensitivity controls. The biggest drawback is that the monitor does not have any sort of low-battery indicator (lights or audio), which means the battery in the parent unit could die suddenly and unexpectedly.

Reviews for the VTech Crystal Sounds Digital Baby Monitor are glowing, but lacking in depth. Paul Lamkin reviews the whole line of VTech DECT monitors while focusing on the Crystal Sounds model in his article for Tech Digest. Heather Corley, About.com's baby products guide, lists the VTech Crystal Sounds Digital Baby Monitor in her "Top 5 Baby Monitors" review. A brief, but highly positive, review of the monitor is given. User reviews from sites like ToysRUs.com are mostly positive, but not numerous enough to be of significance.