With so much choice in baby monitors about it's hard to decide which does the job well. I decided against a video monitor so opted for a good spec digital sound only one. The BT150 which I paid £49 (on offer) from Mothercare was my choice.

In the box you get the baby unit, parent unit, a charging stand, two ac adapters, a wall mounting unit for the baby unit, two rechargeable batteries, a MP3 connector and a carry bag.

Baby Unit

The baby unit can be powered by battery as well as mains, takes 4 x AA batteries. It has a 3.5mm socket and using the supplied cable you can connect up your MP3 player and play your music through the unit, sound quality is fine and does the job, especially if your baby sleeps to certain music, you can also play audio books, so for those parents who don't want to sit and read a story you can let the machine do it for you!

Other buttons on the baby unit control volume, the night light which has 3 settings - on the highest it's no way bright enough to light the room, more for ambience purposes. A music button allows you to turn on the pre-programmed music (polyphonic). It has a record button which allows you to record 2 minutes of whatever you want, and this can be played instead of the song, maybe your baby is soothed by the sound of your voice. A page button so you can find the parent unit if lost and finally an on/off button. A thermometer probe hangs out of the back of the machine.

Parent Unit

The best thing about this monitor is the ability to control the baby unit remotely, so you can turn on and off the night light, turn on the music and switch between the different tunes. So if your baby is starting to wake you can activate the options from the parent unit to try and send him/her back to sleep or at least entertain them for a few minutes.

The parent unit has a button each side one for talk so you can communicate with the baby unit and the other is the torch - it has a small LED torch at the top which is a nice touch. The parent unit has a belt clip and sits in a charger, battery life I find is fine for a few hours and by opting for reduced sensitivity the battery will last longer. (At the highest sensitivity 5 the monitor is permanently on but if you lower the setting it becomes sound activated so only turns the speaker on if noise is heard). A mute function and vibrate function are also included. The monitor has lights across the top which move to the sound. The parent unit display the room temperature and you can pre-set warning max low temperatures and if the room temperature drops or gets too high the unit will warn you.

Performance

Well the quality and clarity is very good, it picks up every little sound, its very clear. I have found no issues with interference even though I have wireless internet and a cordless digital (BT) phone. The parent unit is situated right next to the home phone and no issues. Distance is great and not had any issues in any of my house or garden - I haven't seen the need to walk down the road and test it!