Motorola Lux65CONNECT-2 Baby Monitor Review
Five months ago my family was blessed with the birth of a baby boy so when Motorola contacted me about reviewing the Lux65CONNECT-2 monitor system I jumped at the chance. Read on for my review.
DESIGN
The $190 Lux65CONNECT-2 system I received came with 2 magnetic mount FHD cameras and a rechargeable battery powered monitor/hub. It has a white and gold color scheme that’s subtly elegant. The front of the monitor has a 5 inch LCD display, a directional pad for navigating the interface, and control buttons. Around back is the speaker, a moveable antenna, and a ring the can be used to hold onto the device or prop it up for easy viewing.
Each camera unit has a base and camera that connect magnetically. The magnets are strong and though we mounted one of the cameras on a wall there’s no fear of it falling off or coming disconnect. The rounded socket where the camera meets the mount combined with the strong magnet make it easy to make slight adjustments to get the perfect viewing angle. Overall, I’m quite please with the look and design of the Lux65CONNECT-2.
SETUP and PERFORMANCE
Connecting the cameras to the base was simple. Just plug them in and they seem to be pre-paired. There is a pair button on the side of the camera but that only comes into play when setting up the phone/tablet app. The cameras connect to the hub via 2.4 GHz FHSS radio signals. FHSS, or Frequency-hopping Spread System is designed to help secure your baby monitor signal from being intercepted and monitored by anyone else. It’s still theoretically possible to intercept the signal but it’s unlikely so I was very pleased to see this technology in place herre.
The magnetic bases allow for easy adjustment of the viewing angle. Add to that the digital pan and zoom, which works quite well, and it’s a simple matter to get just the view you want. I mounted one camera on a wall and use the other as more of a portable, move-it-wherever-is-needed camera.
The only thing I wasn’t crazy about is the user interface. Few of the icons in the interface seemed to have any correlation with their functions so navigating around and configuring things takes a bit of guesswork and trial-and-error. Setup is all done with buttons and a d-pad. They work fine, but there’s a bit of an adjustment coming from an all touch smartphone world. Fortunately, setup is a one and done thing unless you need to move the cameras around.
The cameras will switch to “night mode” when the light levels drop. In my testing, this mode worked well and everything in the room was still visible and clear.
Motorola lists a range of about 1,000 feet for the base station. Even if you assume half of that in the real world, 500 feet is more than adequate for most home situations. In my testing I never once ran into a problem getting signal or connecting to the cameras.
There’s an optional Hubble app that you can use to connect the cameras to wifi so that you can view them via any smartphone or tablet and from anywhere. Setup is pretty simple and the streams launch fairly quickly. The app takes advantage of the two-way communication and allows you to hear and speak to your child. You can also add notifications for movement and sound and adjust the sensitivity for each. It’s a very nice feature.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Lux65CONNECT-2 is not cheap at $189. It does work quite well, however. Camera quality and audio pickup are good and there’s the nice benefit of having an app for use while away from home. One of my favorite features is the digital pan and zoom and really made it possible for me to get just the right angle of the room and crib. Folks in the market for an Owlet Cam should definitely take a look at the Lux65. It’s available on Target.com.
