HelloBaby Video Monitor Review

HelloBaby Video Monitor

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The Hello Baby Video Monitor Model HB65 is a straightforward, budget friendly baby monitor. Overall, it is a solid piece of baby gear, but has a few things we don’t love, which we’ll go further into later.

The HB65 Vs HelloBaby Monitors

The newest HelloBaby monitor is the Hello Baby Video Monitor Model 5 inch Screen. This monitor is very similar to the HB65 we purchased, with a larger screen, 5″ vs 3.2″, for a slightly higher price. It was introduced in 2023 compared to the HB65 which was released in 2019.

The Hello Baby Video Monitor Model HB40 is the budget baby monitor in the lineup, with many of the same features as the Model HB65. Besides the lower price, the main difference is the 4″ square screen.

The Hello Baby Video Monitor Model ‎HB6550-1 is the upgraded version of the monitor. It has a 5″ screen like the newest version above, but also claims to have 16 hours of battery life with video streaming, enhanced night picture quality and an extendable antenna for better connectivity. For an upcharge, you can order it with two cameras.

How it Compares:

Specs

Testing and Research

The HelloBaby Model HB65 is one of sixteen top-rated travel friendly baby monitors that we purchased to test and compare, which included sound-only monitors, video monitors, and security camera style monitors. We put each baby monitor to the test, ranking each of them on their battery quality, included features, audio and video quality, usability, and range to determine which was the best baby monitor.

The HelloBaby had decent scores in all areas, though the battery, video quality, and sound quality were just average.

Common Complaints

While testing our baby monitors, we read the critical reviews for each product so we could compare them to our experience while testing. We found that we agreed with some of the critical reviews, while others we did not experience.

Customer Complaint	Our Experience
Wouldn’t pair	The monitor paired immediately when we set it up
Flickers and glitches	We didn’t notice any flickering or glitching
Night vision is low quality	The night vision is pretty clear, but everything white glows brightly
Annoying volume control	The volume can only be adjusted through the screen’s menu, which we didn’t like
Static noise	Though there was a little static noise, we didn’t think there was very much
Not worth the price	We think the HelloBaby is priced fairly for what it offers

Related Reading: Babysense Split Screen Monitor Review

Features

The HelloBaby includes some great features, such as built-in lullabies in the baby unit to soothe your little one to sleep. Though it does not include white noise like some monitors, it does have eight lullaby choices.

The monitor also includes a temperature sensor and alarm if it hits a pre-set high or low temperature. We liked room temperature monitoring and the addition of the temperature alarm as an extra piece of protection for baby.

There is also an additional alarm feature that we like, which can be set for a minimum of 30 minutes or a max of 6 hours, all at 30 minute intervals.

The monitor can accommodate multiple cameras – up to four total. Each additional camera is sold separately. This is great for parents with multiple children or who would like to have multiple camera angles in baby’s room.

Though there is no sleep mode, there is a sound only option if you prefer to keep the monitor dark overnight or to conserve some of the battery. The HelloBaby includes VOX (voice activation alert), allowing you to hear all sounds from baby’s room or just sounds over a certain volume.

This baby monitor had low EMF emissions compared to some of the others that we tested. Though we are not aware of any formal guidelines related to electromagnetic radiation, but there is some research on the topic out there.

HelloBaby Radiation Emissions:

The HelloBaby brand highly values security. Their monitors do not require WiFi connection and employ FHSS (frequency hopping spread spectrum), which repeatedly switches the monitor’s signal to keep the signal secure and to prevent the monitor from getting hacked.

Overall, we found that we preferred monitors that didn’t require a WiFi connection, like the HelloBaby and Babysense Split Screen, as opposed to WiFi and app-requiring monitors like the Owlet Cam Video Monitor.

Usability

The HelloBaby is a very easy monitor to set up and use. It took us less than two minutes to unbox and connect the monitor for the first time. The baby unit paired with the parent unit as soon as it powered on.

Here’s how long it took to set up the HelloBaby compared to other monitors:

The parent unit is easy to use. Something we did not like was that the volume can only be adjusted through the main menu, there is no button on the exterior of the unit. This is a little inconvenient when trying to make a quick adjustment. We preferred a style that had the volume buttons more easily accessible, like the Infant Options DXR-8 and the Infant Options DXR-8 PRO.

The menu itself is pretty easy to navigate, with clear symbols to represent each option. One thing we didn’t love was the layout of the menu’s navigation buttons. Their placement felt a little unnecessarily complicated.

The HelloBaby also offers a remote pan/tilt/zoom option, making it easy to change view angles or zoom in to check on your baby from anywhere in the house. We liked that the camera offers a 355 degree horizontal field of view, as well as a 120 degree vertical field of view.

The baby unit can be set up pretty easily by either setting on a flat surface, such as a bookshelf or side table, or by mounting to a wall using the included mounting set.

Here’s how the VTech Video scored in the usability category:

Another aspect of the usability category we took into account was the overall quality of the monitor. A lower quality monitor is more difficult to use, but we felt that the HelloBaby HB65 was good quality. It is solid and balanced while still being lightweight. The parent unit, though small, is easy to navigate. Though there were a couple of things we would change if we could, such as the volume button placement.

Range

The HelloBaby claims to have a 960 foot range, and overall we were very pleased with the camera connection. When we took it outside to see if it would stay connected from an upstairs bedroom to out in the yard, it did keep its connection. The sound did drop in and out a bit as we got further from the house, but the video stayed consistent. If parents are wanting to do some yardwork while baby is napping, they shouldn’t have much issue with the HelloBaby.

Here’s how the HelloBaby scored in its outdoor to indoor range capabilities:

The monitor keeps its connection indoors very well also. We measured its capabilities between three stories in a large home. We never had any issues with it in a nearby upstairs bedroom, a floor below, or even two floors down in a basement. The video and sound stayed consistent the whole time.

Video

The HelloBaby monitor has a 720P resolution, which is pretty good overall. We felt that the picture display is pretty clear, though a little fuzzy. We did feel like the picture coloring had a bit of a pink/red tint to it, discoloring the image a little.

The screen is pretty small, about 3.2 inches, making the unit nice and portable. However, we do wish it was a little bigger to be able to see baby more clearly.

The HelloBaby had a decent score in the video category:

The HelloBaby does feature a night vision mode. Though some parents complained that the night vision mode was low quality, we felt like it was good overall. We did think that the white portion of the black and white imaging glowed pretty brightly, but images are still clear enough to see without issue.

The feed is a little bit delayed, which we didn’t love, but not so much so that you would miss anything from baby. We never noticed any glitching or freezing up from the monitor in our testing process. The feed did well at staying consistent.

Sound

The HelloBaby has decent sound quality overall with a good volume range, being able to get pretty quiet, a great asset if you’re a particularly light sleeper. But it can also turn up to a fairly high volume if you are a heavy sleeper and worried about missing noises from your little one.

Here are the max decibels the HelloBaby hit in our high volume static sound testing:

And here are the max decibels the HelloBaby hit in our low volume static sound testing:

The monitor does have a two-way audio feature that we liked. It was mostly clear with just a little static sound. However the audio quality was certainly clear enough to be able to have a conversation without issues.

The HelloBaby also includes VOX (voice activated alert), allowing you to customize the sensitivity of sound your monitor picks up and how much background noise it catches. The monitor has music playing capabilities, with eight different lullabies to choose from. The lullabies play through the camera and are picked up pretty loudly through the parent unit, but we felt like we could still hear noises from baby well over the music.

A complaint we noted about this particular monitor is that there is loud static background noise. Though we agreed that there was a little static background noise, it wasn’t enough to be disturbing.

Battery Life

The HelloBaby had a pretty decent battery life and charge capabilities. It only took a little over 4 hours to fully charge from a dead battery.

The HelloBaby lasted us around 9 1/2 hours when testing its charge, which was on the higher end of many baby monitors we have seen. We wish it would have gone a little longer to guarantee accommodating a full night, but it was still pretty good.

We ran the parent unit from full charge to dead battery to time how long the monitor battery lasts and note any changes. The HelloBaby had an average battery life of around 9 1/2 hours.

Here are the results for how long the Hello Baby battery lasted in its three tests:

Test 1	9 hours, 28 minutes
Test 2	10 hours, 45 minutes
Test 3	8 hours, 7 minutes

The HelloBaby’s battery life deteriorated a very large percentage from our first to last test. It lost more life than any other battery that we tested.

The negative values means the battery life actually improved over the first 3 tests.

Here’s how the HelloBaby ranked in battery deterioration compared to others:

Is the HelloBaby Worth it?

We read some critical reviews of people complaining that they didn’t feel the HelloBaby was worth the cost. Personally, we disagree. The HelloBaby is not a very expensive monitor, costing less than $75. Though it may not be the most fancy or have the clearest picture or sound, we felt that it was a good product for a lower cost.

There are certainly monitors on the market with more bells and whistles, clearer picture, and sharper sound, but the HelloBaby will definitely get the job done.

There are some things we would probably change about the monitor if we could. A minimum of 12 hour battery life would be nice, as well as a larger screen. We wish the volume button was on the exterior of the parent unit instead of only accessible through the menu. It can be a pain to adjust, especially if you are wanting to make a volume change in the dark and have to try to find the menu button.

The HelloBaby Model HB65 has excellent security features and is a solid piece of baby gear. Its lack of WiFi and FHSS help prevent the unit from being hacked, ensuring safety and peace of mind for you and your baby.

The HelloBaby is a good baby monitor. It’s a great option if you are looking for something inexpensive but effective for travel, or something to keep at a grandparent’s house for overnight visits. If you’re on a budget or looking for a good gift for a baby shower, this is an excellent product to consider.