Motorola Baby Monitor Camera PIP1010 – WiFi Motorized Video Camera with HD 1080p – Connects to Smart Phone App – Remote Pan, Tilt, Zoom – Two-Way Audio, Room Temp Sensor, Lullabies, Night Vision

Typically I don’t go for WiFi monitors but wanted to give this one a try, because our regular one has poor range and battery life. The first one we got had some issues, the night vision wasn’t working properly so I returned it and got a replacement which worked fine. Here are a few insights I suppose after using it for a month:1. The temperature sensor seems to be a bit off…our other monitor seems to be more accurate. Ours reads a bit cooler than the actual room temp, maybe by 2 degrees or so, sometimes even more.2. The image quality is good, but that can depend on your phone’s connection as well – poor connection/image might be not as sharp, etc.3. Panning works seamlessly/quite well, and has good range of motion.4. The application is…not the best. If you have it open on your screen the entire time, it stays connected and sound works continually. There is an option to have it running in the background (so you can use other apps on your phone, and still be able to hear sound) but that doesn’t work well for me. It frequently disconnects from the sound, and I have to go back into the app where the camera tries to reconnect and it can take a minute or so before it actually does that.5. I did briefly try the storytelling and music, which is a nice feature, especially the stories which I haven’t seen before on any other monitors. My little one doesn’t really care for it as she has a nightlight that plays music she prefers. You can also do a personal recording, which is a nice touch.6. It has a journal where you can log activities, feeding, changing, etc. That’s especially helpful for a new parent because I had used an entirely separate app for that. I like how this one is built in, would have been really useful for me back then.

Motorola’s baby monitors are not usually found at the top of lists of “Best Baby Monitors”, but they’re often somewhere lower on those lists and user reviews are favorable. I don’t know if these are a Lenovo product (Lenovo bought the Motorola brand of cellular phones a number of years ago) or still made by the American manufacturer, but Motorola baby monitors have been around for some time now.Motorola up until now has made two basic forms of video monitors. One type connects solely to a handheld LCD receiver via 2.4Ghz radio. It’s not wifi enabled, just a basic unit with fairly long range usable only when both you and your baby are at home. The other type connects both to a handheld screen AND, via wifi to your phone. This type monitors your baby both when you’re at home and, via the app and internet, when you’re away from home.Now Motorola has taken the logical next step and removed the handheld monitor from the equation, relying on your phone for all monitoring. Thus this is simply a wifi connected camera. It comes with no monitor, but uses your phone in the monitor’s place.(Motorola sells this same camera with a dedicated 5-inch monitor in addition to the wifi/internet capability on your phone for $90 more here: https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Baby-Monitor-PIP1510-Connect/dp/B09Q83W826.The sole significant downside to the lack of a local monitor is the lag time implicit in using the internet. If you are looking for real-time control of the camera and observation, the lag can be frustrating. Yet note as I comment below that though other reviewers complain of significant lag with this model, I found lag to be minimal both with a local connection and over the internet.This camera connects to your phone via wifi and the internet. The camera is mid-level quality for Motorola’s Connect wifi models. It has motorized pan and tilt and a vaguely person-like look. Motorized pan, tilt and zoom allow you to direct the camera toward other points by remotely moving the camera’s direction electronically and physically rather than just digitally.Wirecutter, the review site, said it disliked Motorola’s wifi baby monitor the least of all the wifi+handheld LCD monitor units it tested, but it didn’t give any wifi unit a glowing review. However, when Wirecutter reviewed baby monitors Motorola was still using its Hubble app for phone connectivity–an app I’ve not used–and reviewers say that the new app used by this system is far superior to the old Hubble app.OK, a few noteworthy features with differentiation between this and less expensive models in parentheses:1) Zoom is said to be motorized. I’m not sure if this is so or if it’s solely digital because I can’t see movement in the lens. Regardless, it has an effective zoom function.2) Pan and tilt are motorized (vs digital pan and tilt on other models).3) 1080p resolution camera (vs 720p resolution on lesser Motorola systems).4) Typical additional abiilities include: night view, 2-way intercom, room-temp monitoring.5) Motorola “Nursery” app available for IOS and Android.Finally, let me emphasize in conclusion that the quality of the picture from this camera is excellent and that the Nursery app connects easily and works well both locally (over wifi) and remotely. Altogether an excellent performance with minimal lag in my experience, there is almost no difference in lag time between wifi connection on my phone and over the internet with the wifi turned off and the app connecting over the phone’s internet connection.I’m happy with Motorola offering a monitor-less camera. It saves you a bundle of money by allowing them to use their smart phone as their monitor both at home and away.