An Honest Ellie Baby Plus Smart Baby Monitor Review

I put off getting a baby monitor for as long as I could, since I work from home and have a full-time nanny looking after my baby. However, when my baby turned 9 months old, and we began trying to get her to nap in her own room, a baby monitor became essential for peace of mind. We also have a lot of family trips coming up, and I want to be able to relax here and there, without constantly checking on her.

Since we travel a lot and will want to bring a baby monitor with us on our upcoming trips, I wanted a baby monitor that does both: local and WiFi-connection. When Ellie Baby reached out to me to give their Ellie Baby Plus Smart Baby Monitor (use code Parenthood10 for 10% off!), I put the baby monitor to test, and here’s my honest review:

*This is a sponsored post, however, I do not positively review products unless I genuinely love them. Links in this post are also affiliate links that support us at no extra cost to you:

About Ellie Baby

Ellie was founded by Joe Tham, a father of three. With an expertise in AI technologies, Joe integrated his know-how into baby monitors, with the goal to help parents keep an eye on their baby’s activities without the need for constant vigilance.

There are currently four products available from Ellie: the Ellie Baby Plus, the Ellie Baby Pro, the WiFi Smart Baby Monitor with 2 Cameras, and the Ellie Portable Smart Height Measurement.

About the Ellie Baby Plus Smart Baby Monitor

Ellie Baby Plus is the first-ever non-WiFi baby monitor that offers all AI features on a dedicated screen without needing an internet connection. The baby monitor claims to carry the most complete AI features, which include detection of covered face, rollovers, breathings, cries, and sleep quality. You can also set up danger zones, which comes in handy when your baby enters the “let me crawl out of everything” phase, and the AI will detect them and notify you.

The 24-hour playback allows you to review the past day – who knows, your baby’s first “mama” or first steps may very well be captured. Speaking of which, the camera is pretty impressive at 2.5k HD (and 2.5k QHD night vision), and offers 5x zoom, large angle rotation and 360 degree room view. Ellie Baby Plus comes with a 2.5k HD camera, and a 5″, surprisingly lightweight LCD screen monitor unit for clear viewing. The screen displays temperature and humidity as well.

The free app is simple to use, and you can share access with up to 5 accounts (grandparents, rejoice!), and include cool features like sleep analytics that help you better understand your baby’s habits and patterns.

The monitor is also pretty cute, shaped between a penguin and a whale.

Price

Priced at $134 USD (and you can use code Parenthood10 for 10% off!), the box comes with a monitor, a camera, an adjustable crib holder, two charging cables, one adapter, one 32GB SD card, one 16GB SD card, and one cushion. For comparison, the popular Eufy Spaceview baby monitor costs $130.

What I love about the baby monitor

TL;DR: 

• Connectable both locally and via WiFi
• Both the monitor and the app are easy to set up and use
• AI features work without an internet connection
• App comes with several features including sleep report and lullabies
• Very impressive camera clarity, especially in the dark
• Monitor is very lightweight, and can be set upstanding or folded and tucked away

Both my husband and I are not the most tech-savvy people, and we prefer keeping things simple whenever possible. The baby monitor was easy to set up, so was the app, and we were ready to go within minutes. All of the AI features work without an internet connection, which means that the images and videos stay offline, instead of being streamed to a cloud. This is very important to me for cybersecurity – it’s a crazy world out there.

I put the app to test when I stepped out of the house to run some errands and left my baby alone with her nanny. It gave me peace of mind to be able to check on my baby remotely. I can control the camera position, take photos and even videos, and If I need to, I can also speak into the app to talk to my baby through the monitor. I will be taking my very first mom vacation next month, and I have a feeling that I will be checking the app every five minutes!

The sleep report could be very insightful in the early days, when you are trying to understand your baby’s sleep patterns. What I find most delightful is the AI’s ability to capture moments. I now have a few lovely photos of me and my daughter laughing together in her play pen, thanks to the app.

I was also very impressed by the clarity of the camera, especially at night. If your baby requires total darkness to sleep (hello, Slumberpod), then you can be rest assured that the monitor does a good job in the dark. The zoom function works exceptionally well, and in the photos above, you can see that the face is being tracked. If it can no longer detect the face, i.e, your baby is sleeping on their stomach or have their face covered, you will be alerted via the screen and/or app.

The monitor is surprisingly lightweight, with a foldable stand that can be tucked in when it’s not in use. It’s unbelievable how much needs to be packed when traveling with a baby, so anything that is compact and lightweight is a win in my books.

Speaking of traveling, Ellie is a great monitor for travel. Since it does not need WiFi to operate, all we need to do is setting up the camera at our destination and connect it with our monitor. It’s perfect for a little bathtub me-time in the hotel room, or a relaxing private pool evening while baby is asleep.

What could be better

Battery Life

I find that I am charging the LCD screen more often that I’d like. It’s good enough for regular usage, as with the screen on, you can expect 4-5 hours of battery life; with the screen going into standby mode after a minute, you can expect it to last overnight. We travel a lot as a family, and having yet another device that requires frequent charging is a bit of an annoyance. 

Local Transmission Range

Locally, the transmission range is only up to 100ft. We live in a pretty big house and would lose connection pretty easily. In comparison, the Eufy SpaceView allows up to 600ft local transmission range. Now of course, bear in mind that the Eufy does not have any of the AI features Ellie offers, and if you live in a small space, you probably won’t have an issue staying connected.

With that being said, a little bird told me that a new, improved baby monitor with better battery life and local transmission range will be launched shortly!

***

The Ellie Baby Plus monitor has been great for keeping an eye on my baby during nap and bed times, and the extra AI features are all very well appreciated. It’s easy to use both at home and on the road, which is great for parents who love traveling as a family.