Philips SCD 590 DECT Baby Monitor Review

What the reviewers like:
The Philips SCD 590 DECT baby monitor gets excellent owner feedback for its range, signal clarity, ease of use and reliability. This digital audio monitor operates on a newly approved 1.9 GHz frequency (also called DECT). It comes with two receivers.

What the reviewers don't like:
The two most frequent causes for complaint are the Philips SCD 590's very high price and Philips' indifferent customer service. Some parents find the volume on the receivers is too low. Battery life also draws some criticism.

Philips SCD 590 DECT Baby Monitor review highlights

While owners love the Philips DECT SCD 590, giving it near perfect scores across the board, some experts say it's just too expensive. Although the Philips baby monitors easily get the best reviews overall, the high price makes them more appropriate as a last resort for parents who've experienced interference and accidental eavesdropping from other baby monitors. The Philips SCD 590 and similar SCD 589 baby monitor (*est. $160 with two receivers but no temperature readout or recorded lullabies) work on a little used frequency to eliminate interference from other electronics. Reviews say the Graco iMonitor (*est. $60) is better than cheaper models at minimizing interference, but it's not as good as the Philips baby monitors.

The best professional review of the Philips SCD 590 baby monitor comes from the book Baby Bargains by Denise and Alan Fields. Although the authors don't conduct extensive hands-on tests for their reviews, they do base their ratings on extensive product research along with feedback from their many readers. The best sources of owner-written reviews on the Philips SCD 590 are Amazon.com and ToysRUs.com, both of which include enough posts to be useful. Consumer Reports has not tested this particular model, but it has tested a similar Philips baby monitor.

Also see full report: Baby Monitors

*In order of credibility (see our Ratings Criteria).

1. Baby Bargains
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Baby Monitors
Denise Fields and Alan Fields
7th Edition, 2007

Consumer advocates Denise and Alan Fields include Philips baby monitors along with other brands in their detailed and thorough section on monitors. The authors say that the SCD 590 has had some positive initial feedback from readers but it's criticized for its high price and Philips' history of weak customer service.

2. Amazon.com
Philips Avent SCD 590 Digital Two-Parent Baby Reviews
Contributors to Amazon.com

Over two dozen owners posting to Amazon.com give the Philips SCD 590 baby monitor excellent ratings for clarity and range with a large majority giving this monitor perfect scores overall. Some of the reviews here are just a sentence or two, but many are extremely thorough.

3. ToysRUs.com
Philips Baby Monitor with DECT Technology Reviews
Contributors to ToysRUs.com

ToysRUs.com has a useful number of reviews of the Philips SCD 590 baby monitor, and several are quite long and detailed. Almost all the owners posting here give the SCD 590 perfect ratings and excellent feedback on its signal clarity, reliability, range and ease of use.

Also see full report: Baby Monitors

Philips SCD 590 DECT Baby Monitor Review