Philips is a Netherlands company with a focus on health technology and improving healthy living. In 1891, Gerald Philips and his father Frederik Philips started manufacturing incandescent lamps and small electrical products, later naming the company Philips. Gerald's brother joined the company and it became the leading maker of light bulbs. Over time Philips expanded into other electronics.
The DECT SCD570/10 offers great sound clarity though it ties with cheaper options in this metric.
With a maximum volume of 101 decibels, the parent unit is one of the loudest in the group which may be good for deep sleeping parents. At max volume, the sound is bright but clear and sure to wake the most sleepy parents. At a lower volume of 81.5 dB, the sound is nice and clear but still a little bright sounding. This monitor was fairly good at sound filtering and even though it didn't have sound activation the mic sensitivity worked well and we mostly heard only the baby.
For two-way communication the sound baby hears is the sound was a little hollow and quiet. We aren't sure the baby will be able to tell what you are saying, but at least it isn't a scary or robotic sound.
The DECT SCD570/10 provides average ease of use. Having a variety of features or a poorly designed user interface on the parents unit usually translates to harder to use. This monitor is below average for ease of use, but it isn't the hardest one we tested.
This product is easy to set up with no pairing necessary only requires plugging in and turning on to start monitoring. There are some options you'll need to set, like the time, but it isn't hard to do just an extra step over simpler products.
Using the monitor can be a bit trickier with buttons on the face and sides of the unit. The volume, menu, and OK button are on the front of the parent unit and the side has power, talk, and nightlight. With these buttons, you can set the mic sensitivity, vibrate alert, feeding timer, temp, set clock, set language.
The DECT SCD570/10 has an above-average range distance between the baby and parent unit.
The manufacturer claims an open range of 1038 ft. This value is a line of sight range and not a good indicator of how this monitor will work inside your home with walls and interference from other items. In our outdoor open line test the monitor worked somewhat up to 1350 ft. This unit kept a strong connection until 200 ft before becoming intermittent and inconsistent.
For indoor range, the manufacturer claims a range of 164 ft. We were unable to duplicate this range in our tests and only experienced a distance of 95 ft through 6 walls. The parent unit was still trying after 8 walls, but the connection wasn't consistent enough for good baby monitoring. The best in the group worked up to 8-9 walls and over 100 ft, but those options suffered in sound clarity. Most families will find 6 walls and 95 ft sufficient but keep this in mind if your home is larger.
The DECT SCD570/10 battery is rechargeable and Philips claims it can last up to 18 hours.
In our tests, this monitor parent unit didn't die for 30 hours, which is ample time for a full night or a day and night combo without requiring a plugin. This unit does offer a battery backup in the baby unit making it ideal for families with semi-regular power outages in rural living areas or those who may want to take the monitor camping or on the road where plug-in may be hard to find.
The DECT SCD570/10 has fewer features than much of the competition.
This monitor has some of the features parents will be looking for including two-way communication with the baby and adjustable mic sensitivity to limit what level of sounds the baby unit picks up. However, it doesn't have sound activation which we think is a big deal because it keeps the parent unit quiet unless the baby is making noise. A quiet parent unit translates to a better night's sleep because you won't be interrupted by white noise or static. This may not be a big deal if you sleep well, but if any small noise keeps you up this monitor may not be the right choice for you.
The baby unit also has a temperature sensor that was fairly accurate and showed only a 2-degree difference from the actual room temperature.
When placed 6 ft from the baby unit, the Philips has an average EMF reading of 1.02 V/m. This is one of the lowest readings in the group.
