It might be Platinum, but it doesn't even reach silver standard (Tomy Walkabout Platinum Digital)

Member Name: buzzard_cad

Product:	Tomy Walkabout Platinum Digital
Date:	01/07/08 (302 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of functions, night light, temperature and last feed timer

Disadvantages: Many faults with the Parent unit

This baby monitor by Tomy is called the 'Walkabout Platinum Digital'. It has the main features of digital telecommunications between the units, a night light and a few other things. Out of the box you will get two units, two power cables and a charging cradle for the parent unit. Essentially one unit is placed near the baby with a microphone and one for the parent with the speaker. Both had the option of plugging into the mains or running on batteries, which meant they could in theory be taken with you if you left home.

The baby unit is mainly white, it's about the size of a large orange with a flat base so it can stand up, or it has a hanging slot on the back so it can be fixed to the wall. The power button on top doubles up as the night light button and when depressed turns on the unit, a blue button to the side resets the min/max temperature monitor. The unit has a blue screen with an LCD display that displays everything in black numbers and symbols. Here you can view the current temperature, the min/max temperature range and battery status. Hidden around the screen are 4 LEDs that provide the blue lights for the night light function, which only light up when in use. Finally there is a small microphone antenna that pokes put of the top to record every sound near the unit.

The parent unit is also white, however it has a belt clip and won't stand up on its own. For this it needs the charging unit, which is a docking station to enable the unit to recharge. This unit is really meant to be portable and can be moved around the house or even outside. The parent unit has a similar face and design to the baby unit, but is different as the display has more information, more buttons on it and more coloured LEDs. Firstly the top button has the same power/night light function, then there is a blue button to the side, which allows the parent unit to transmit sound to the baby unit, such as a reassuring 'go to sleep' Next there is a volume control on the back, which can also be cancelled by the 'vibrate' alert button if you're in a noisy environment. Finally one last feature button is the 'last feed timer', which brings up a handy timer in hours and minutes to let you know when you last fed baby.

The parent unit display will give you a battery icon, temperature reading, a last feed timer (if its on) and a signal display. The one thing that is different about the display on the parent unit is that there is a visual display that relates to the audible sound transmitting. The 5 green LED's and 3 red ones show the noise level that the baby unit is picking up, this is mainly for when the vibrate mode is engaged, but it is a constant feature. The LED's will light up in order from the lowest green LED on the left side clockwise to the lowest red LED on the right. Baby doesn't have to scream to hit the top red LED, but you should be able to hear them crying a few rooms away.

Initially when we set up the units we had the baby unit on the floor near the cot and the parent unit in our bedroom with the volume at 9 the highest setting. Naturally we didn't sleep well that night as either we couldn't hear breathing which brings in the new parent panic attack or baby was crying and the sound was massively amplified through the speaker. Gradually the volume got turn down until it was on silent 'vibrate' mode. This one buzzes when the sound is in the red LED zone, but eventually we found even this was an annoyance as we could hear baby crying before she was loud enough to make the unit buzz.

By the time baby was three months old the parent unit had been moved into the lounge as our sleep was being interrupted by the LED lights on the unit flickering intermittently in the night and waking us up even when baby was sleeping perfectly and making no sound. We later discovered that with the baby unit on the floor, it was possibly picking up the creaking of the floorboards in the night so I moved it up onto the wall, however the problem still remains today.

The parent unit isn't problem free and issues included the portability of this particular unit. Firstly the rechargeable battery supplied never reached the 10 hours use time that the manual supplied stated. To start with it was about 6 hours, but a year later and the unit will only work for 30 minutes when it is removed from the charging cradle. Also the cradle will always need a power supply for it to charge up the rechargeable battery in the parent unit so the product cannot be used for say a camping trip. Then the belt clip supplied with the parent unit is next to useless as it is weak and will not stay in position. A little bit of upward pressure and the unit will lift up and fall off. Also Murphy's law means that it will always hit one of the two large buttons on the outside and activate either the night light or the talk button.

Despite the problems with the parent unit we did use a lot of the functions that came as part of this monitor. The night light was particularly useful in the early months for changing babies nappy as the blue LED's are bright to light the room in a blue glow. The temperature function is still used today to check and regulate the temperature of the room. The last feed timer is very useful in the early months as time between feeds is short and it helps you work out whether baby is crying because of hunger or something else.

In summary then this baby monitor was good for a while, but it does have a lot of drawbacks mainly due to the manufacturers statements in the manual and on the box. They say on the box that it is '100% portable', it is not as power will always be needed to recharge the parent unit. The parent unit itself has many faults, like picking up sounds that are not there, the battery time is very short and the belt clip is rubbish. The digital communication between the units is very good, but the communication distance between them is not the 300m stated in the manual, it's nearer 30m, which is when the annoying bleeps kick in as the parent unit loses the baby unit's signal. The temperature function, night light and last feed timer are excellent additions, but I can help thinking that the basic package could be better. This product set us back about £70, but I feel cheated out of my money. A year later and the parent unit needs replacing and that is not good for that amount of money. In short I cannot recommend this product to anyone as I believe that this type of baby monitor is pandering to the new parent neurosis that we all experience in the first few months. Now I'm calmer and more experienced I think that the only things we really needed were a night light and a temperature monitor. A baby is designed with a ear splitting squeal that will wake the nearest sleeping person if it requires attention. A microphone and a speaker as supplied in this product is not really required. If you do want a baby monitor with sound do, by all means get a cheaper one.

c2008 buzzard_cad
This review may be found on other review sites under the same username and is also written by me.

Summary: On paper a complete unit, in reality it is lacking in many places