Infant Optics DXR-8 PRO Review

In 2011, Infant Optics started by developing top-ranked baby monitors. They created what they call active noise reduction and continue to advance their design techniques. Each Infant Optics version includes interchangeable lenses.

Performance Comparison

Range

Dedicated monitors connect directly from one unit to another, and things like distance, walls, appliances, and other electronics can impact this connection. Manufacturers put a distance on the box and in advertising, and this range often sounds super long, but in reality, this range is typically a distance with no interruptions. The Pro manufacturer claims an unobstructed range of 1000 ft.

In our tests, we experienced a distance far closer to 500 ft when it started having spotty connection and difficulty maintaining connectivity. For indoor testing, our tests showed connectivity up to about 70 ft and 5 walls. We could push it to 155 ft, but then only 3 walls or doors before it started to struggle with sound. It isn't a terrible test result, but it isn't the best in the group either. If your house is big and your distance long, then it might not work as well as some of the competition.

Audio / Visual

The Pro offers better sound than some of the competition but worse video than the competition and its non-Pro brother. Neither performance were impressive to testers compared to the competition.

The sound quality is decent overall, but the vocals are distorted and harder to decipher. You can understand the words, but they are tinny and hollow and not as true to real life as we expected. New sounds would cause the sound indicator light bar to activate, but it didn't cause the monitor to "wake up." Despite having what Infant Optics calls their ANR noise reduction, the monitor always emits noise. The monitor is audible at all times if there are sounds in the room, and turning the monitor down just results in a lower sound that is hard to hear. The ANR feature did improve the quietness of the monitor during testing, however. We couldn't hear the white noise at volume 4 with the ANR on, but we had to have the volume down to 2 without ANR, and we could still hear the white noise.

The video for the Pro is disappointing compared to most of the competition, and while it is good enough to determine your baby's level of need, it isn't as true to life as you'd hope or we expected. The screen overall is somewhat dark compared to the others (even when set to max brightness). It has a limited range of colors, and many of the colors are not like real life at all, with blues and purples appearing as almost black, yellow appearing as orange, and red appearing as black. The images are crisp, and the zoom worked well, but if you were hoping for true to life, this isn't your camera.

The night vision is a little dark but decently crisp. You can see the baby and furniture outlines clearly, but there is a vignette effect happening outside the center of the frame. Whatever is in the center of the frame has a small bubble of light that picks up more detail than the rest of the shot. Overall it isn't great, but we preferred it over the daytime images.

Ease of Use

The Pro has an oddly dated appearance, much like its brother. From the button design to the beige color it feels like something that hasn't changed since 2010. Perhaps for that reason, it is one of the easiest options to use. For the most used features, there are straightforward buttons on the surface of the parent device. They are easy to navigate, and you likely won't use most of them very often outside basic functionality. This monitor is easy to set up and pairs on its own when you plug it in. This monitor seems to be trying hard to increase ease of use, even including little pictures of the part it charges on the chargers, so you can keep them together.

Battery Life

The Pro has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a manufacturer-claimed run time of 11 hours in Standby mode and 6 hours with the screen consistently on for viewing. We tested the parent unit with the viewing screen on under normal monitoring situations. Our testing run time was 6 hours, which aligns with the time claimed by the manufacturer. This is not the best length as some ran up to 16 hours, with the average being closer to 10. However, it is long enough for nap time when you might be moving around your house with the parent unit, and you can use the parent device plugged in overnight to avoid disconnection.

Features

The Infant Optics Pro has several features parents will want, and they all work as expected, but nothing is a real standout or super baby-centric like night light or lullabies. We suspect the fun but somewhat useless interchangeable lenses will go unused over time and eventually end up lost of full of dust. It is unlikely that sleepy and busy new parents will bother or even know ahead of time what lens they want at any given time.

• 2-way talk to baby
• Interchangeable lenses
• Sound-activated LED indicator bar
• Active noise reduction
• Optical and digital zoom
• Pan and tilt
• Temperature Sensor
• Connect 4 cameras

Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Levels

EMF emissions concern some parents because we aren't entirely certain about the impact on developing infants. For us, we like to err on the side of caution by limiting child exposure to EMF whenever possible. You can start by unplugging your monitor when not in use and placing it as far away from your baby as possible without making the camera ineffective. We tested each video monitor for EMF emissions and compared the average emission at 6 feet from the camera to the competition for this test. The Pro EMF average emission was 0.2 V/m, which was one of the lowest in the group.

Should You Buy the Infant Optics Pro?

While we understand the fun of additional lenses, we don't actually think most parents will use them. With a price this high, we expected better video and sound and overall felt the Optics looks and feels outdated with overall disappointing performance in our tests. We think there are better options on the market that cost less and offer more, including both dedicated style monitors and WiFi-enabled.

What Other Video Monitor Should You Consider?

If dedicated plug-and-play monitoring is your preference, we'd recommend the LeapFrog LF920HD 7" Display. This monitor has a large parent device, good battery life, and a better-than-average range. It is easy to use and has video images that are good enough to get the job done, even if it lacks finer detail and image crispness at night. The LeapFrog monitor has more features, a simple user interface that is marked well, and a camera you can rotate or pan and tilt remotely.

Manufacturer Video