May 212013
Samsung SEW-3036WN Wireless Video Baby Monitor with Infrared Night Vision and Zoom, 3.5 inch
- 3.5″ high quality color LCD display, Secure and interference free 2.4Ghz signal
- VGA(640×480) Resolution, Pure Digital Signal up to 800′(244m), Time display
- 2-Way Talk Audio/Built-in Mic & Speaker, Quiet mode to remove white background noise, Expandable up to 4 Cameras
- Uses A/C power /Rechargeable Battery (Only parent unit), Monitor LEDs Indicate 5 Level of Sound
- Night Vision allows for low light viewing up to 15ft, Non-visiable IR LEDs, Low battery warning, Flip stand with belt clip
Video baby monitor with 3.5″ screen, rechargeable battery, two way talk with voice activated mode and 2x digital zoom. Included camera has night vision capability. Range up to 800 ft.
List Price: $ 219.00
Price: $ 169.99
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A Video Review on the Samsng SEW-3036WN Baby Monitor,
Customer Video Review Length:: 3:48 Mins
First things first… I mention this in the video portion of the review, but ALL infrared night vision baby camera have poor resolution in the dark. They just do… I have tried four separate cameras and none of them offer a clear picture in the dark. They are all fuzzy and it is difficult to distinguish any level of detail. Another observation…. it seems like the bigger the display the WORSE the picture becomes when using night vision. I guess the resolution of the cameras are all about the same, but when you blow it up to a bigger screen, you lose additional detail. Soooo…. the Samsung SEW-3036NW baby monitor really does not have great picture when you are using it in the dark. The good news? It really doesn’t matter too much.
Why doesn’t it matter? When we are using the camera at night we are trying to see a few basics, is our daughter still in bed, is she sitting up, and other big types of things. What are not trying to do is distinguish if she is smiling or has something in her hand. The Samsun SEW-3036WN works well enough for the big things, but like all baby monitors, it will struggle to pull out the details (although they all will distinguish between *open* and *closed* eyes.
Notes-
-The Samsung SEW-3036WN will allow you to talk to you child through the camera. This is more important that it may seem – it is always nice to be able to ask “What is the matter”
- The range on the camera seems more than accurate – 800′ seems a little over-generous, but it certainly has enough range for our home.
- The daytime camera resolution is very good
- The camera has the ability to zoom and pan – although zooming in at night lessens the already poor resolution
- The camera can be mounted to the wall, but it does not come with a mounting clip (like the Levanas)
- Can support up to 4 camera from one monitor/display
- Has a built in clock
- Has the ability to be used with voice activated controls – but we have found that just leaving the camera on seems to work better for us.
- Very large 3.5″ screen – although it does cost use some picture clarity/resolution
- The display is fully rechargeable – The battery life seems to be in the 6-8 hour range
Final Verdict – The Samsung SEW-3036NW is a very nice baby monitor, but like all infrared baby monitors, it does have its limitations in low light situations.
4 1/2 Stars
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A Great Brand New Video Monitor From Samsung – Detailed Review,
I consider myself pretty tech savvy and I enjoy my electronics. So in anticipation for my son’s birth in November, I started an intensive research on various video monitors. There’re a lot of choices out there but I stumbled on Samsung video monitors.
At a first glance, I think Samsung has the best look and design out of all the video monitors out there; simple and attractive. I love the big screen and simple design. There’s nothing to figure out, everything is simple. You play around with it for about 5 minutes and you know what you have. I’ve seen a lot of various monitors and most of them are cheap looking or bulky… or they’re way too complicated.
The Samsung brand also sold me. I love their TVs and I love their phones… I figure they’d do a great job for their baby monitor as well.
Out of all of Samsung’s monitors, I zeroed in on the SEW-3036. I bought it to test it out and get used it…to make sure it’s going to be a dependable monitor for our son. Our first child, so you can get pretty obsessive.
I was impressed with the video and sound. Video, both day and night time, is the best I’ve seen. Sound is clear and their two way talk button is a very convenience feature. I can imagine using it to talk to my baby as well as my wife… The audio on this camera is very stable. Usually when a microphone and speaker is involved…there is a lot of feedback. This monitor, as long as you don’t have the monitor volume at the highest, the feedback is almost non-existent.
The battery life on this monitor is also very impressive. I tested and fiddled with it all day long and the parent unit just kept on going. The parent unit comes with something called the `Vox’. It’s pretty useful. If your monitor doesn’t detect sound for a minute, it’ll go to sleep. If it hears something, it comes back on. It makes the battery life last even longer.
A list of its other features, it has a zoom button with a pretty clear 2x zoom but I found myself not using it much. But it’s nice that it’s there if you need it. It has a scan mode that I might use if I had more cameras. You can connect up to four…I don’t know if I’ll need that many, but that’s pretty good. I guess you can put the cameras in multiple rooms; something I think I’ll need when my kid gets bigger and starts walking.
Overall, it’s a great system. The price isn’t bad. I found more expensive comparable units or inferior units more expensive. Samsung has made the right choice. They brought down the price and focused on the most important features to make the SEW-3036 a very solid monitor. I’ve played around with it for a couple of days now and I really think it’s going to make things a lot easier for me and my wife. A very excited soon-to-be dad here writing what I found! I’ll update the review after I try it out with my baby!!!! But so far, I am very very impressed!
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fast and easy set up, but several problems – like wi-fi interference,
First things first: this monitor operates at 2.4GHz, which can interfere with 802.11g or single-band 802.11n routers. If you have such a router, don’t get this baby monitor unless you need some way to stop yourself from going online while your baby sleeps.
Beyond that, this monitor is really easy to use. It comes all set up such that you can plug it in and go. No set-up required. The picture quality is pretty good, and the sound quality is on par with the audio-only baby monitor i had already.
There are some serious problems, though.
First off, when you turn on the parent unit (the one with the screen), it plays a little tune. I’ve found no way to turn that off. Even when the device is muted so i can’t hear any sounds from the baby, the darn thing still wants to play me a song when i turn it on. Likewise, if it can’t detect the camera, it helpfully beeps at you to let you know. There is no way to disable this audio alert.
Second, the camera is basically designed to be wall-mounted. I wanted to set mine up on a dresser near the crib, but the crib mattress is at a much lower level. I can’t tilt the camera down enough to get a good angle. If i wanted to screw it into the wall above the crib, it would have good range of motion, but i don’t.
Third, of course, is that i can only use this device if i want to block all wi-fi in my house. I could go buy a new router to get around this problem, but that’s a bit silly.
So if you don’t use wi-fi for your internet, or have a router other than the type i mentioned above, plan to wall-mount the camera, and remember to never turn the parent unit on near your sleeping baby, this is actually a pretty good video monitor. Otherwise, it’s just not.
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Update – down to one star:
After about 12 hours of use over 3 days, my camera has stopped working properly. It cycles randomly between day and night modes (1-20 seconds in one mode before flipping to the other), even if the room is so dark that on night mode the screen just shows blackness. Unplugging the camera and plugging it back in fixes the problem for an hour or two. I haven’t yet contacted tech support, since they’re only available by phone, and with a newborn in the house i have precious little time for phone calls, especially when i don’t know if it will take 30 seconds or 30 minutes.
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Another update:
I got an email from a vendor kindly offering to replace my obviously malfunctioning unit. They claim it should _not_ interfere with wi-fi, despite operating on a frequency known to interfere with wi-fi. I’m not going to bother getting the replacement, primarily because the other issues (some of which aren’t malfunctions, like the annoying start-up sound) render this monitor useless to me.
In addition, i did some experimenting and found that the range of this monitor is less than 50 feet in my house. There are only two walls between my kitchen and the nursery, and probably less than 50 feet, but at my kitchen table the monitor repeatedly cuts out saying it lost signal. Maybe this is yet another aspect of its malfunction, but at the point where a monitor is malfunctioning in three apparently unrelated ways (wi-fi interference, day/night mode switch, and range), it suggests a certain lack of quality in the product.
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A third update:
I have a 3037 unit as well, the fancier pan-tilt-zoom version. It also interferes with wi-fi. If the wi-fi interference really is a malfunction, then it’s a common one across at least two product lines, which seems unlikely.
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