VTech VM3250 Video Monitor

I have tried a Tapo C210 2K 3MP security camera and it works fine, but for my needs, it’s a little OTT. I really don’t need it clogging up my network and tying up a phone screen just to see who is creeping up on me as I sit at my workstation! So, I went the simple and cheap route, tracking down a monitor and camera that most people would buy to watch their brat sleeping.

The setup I have is a workstation in a room with only one window, and that points the wrong way to see what’s going on out front leading to my door. I realise that if I had the Tapo unit, I’d be able to monitor the camera from Istanbul (assuming the network stays alive), but I really can't imagine a world in which I’m likely to leave my country, let alone my town - or even my neighbourhood, actually!

I wanted an always-on screen on my desk, powered, using its own network (not mine), with a camera at the other end. It doesn’t even need to function at night, really, as my curtains will be drawn. I just want to be able to see who is coming and whether or not I want to pretend to be out! No, not really - but you know what I mean. If the plumber or a courier is due, I can keep an eye open while getting on with work, instead of constantly leaping up to look or listening for knocks.

All of which, yes, can be achieved with "Alexa this", "TP-Link that" or "Home Network the other" for those who have one set up. Well, I don’t, and I’m not really interested, to be honest. I had a smart plug on a light a while back but concluded that I could easily just use the wall switch - or reach across and turn a lamp on in the traditional way. You remember? When humans had legs and arms! Besides, I don’t know how much bandwidth is being taken from my router - and it won't work if the router goes down or there's an outage.

So, enter the baby monitor! Which one to get, though? I asked Gemini. She led me through a merry dance starting at £300, but we ended up with this one for £38. Exploring it with her showed that this cheap’n’cheerful model was all that was needed - and it was. It does the job perfectly, with some extra features I doubt I’ll ever use.

The camera plugs into the mains via its own proprietary cable (which is a bit of a shame), whereas the mothership unit with the screen uses USB-C. It can be used plugged in and always charging (as I do), or via the built-in battery - presumably for parents of said brats so they can move from kitchen to lounge and still see their horror snoozing. Apparently, the 2,600mAh battery will last for up to 19 hours of video monitoring or 29 hours of audio if you shut off the screen.

The camera has a microphone and the base unit has a speaker on the back. In fact, the camera also has a speaker so people can (presumably) sing sickly lullabies from the screened unit to the little blighter if they’re too pissed to get off the sofa!

Press and hold the "Talk" button on the base unit and it works on-the-fly. Let go and it cuts off - so no embarrassing bedroom antics can be heard by the babysitter, after she decides to stay the night after all! There are two volume buttons on the top edge to adjust the speaker but it is decidedly tinny at both ends. In the absence of a naughty toddler, I played some music next to the camera and it continued perfectly when I pressed the LCD on/off button.

The screen is a baseline, functional colour LCD - no (need for a) pretty OLED here. It's 320 x 240 pixels and just 2.8" diagonally. The camera sits on a ball-joint for positioning and holds well - you can also wall-mount it if needed. There is a zoom button on the base unit which provides an instant 2x digital zoom, which comes with the inevitable loss of quality (which thankfully avoids parents getting too close to snotty-nosed kids in high definition), but it works fine for my purposes - zooming in to see the colour of a car more clearly, for example.

The screen provides a temperature readout from a sensor in the camera, adding fuel to my fire, being obsessed with the climate! There’s also a battery icon with "growing" bars as it charges. The camera has an LED and light sensor on the front which, when dark enough, switches the camera to Night Vision (low-light black and white) which works well and the IR stuff does the job for a view in totally dark (to the human eye) conditions.

But back to my usage and there is a problem pointing the camera out of a window at night (even from a dark room), as the LED and IR sensors reflect horribly on the glass, making it unusable in my tests. Strategic use of black tape over the sensors would cut out the LED, but the IR sensors are in a large circle, so you’d have to cut a ring with a hole in the middle for the lens. Fortunately, I don’t need it when it’s dark outside. It’s not a "security camera" as such - rather a "see who is coming" one.

There’s a very clunky menu system with cursor keys and a "Select" button. You can control the screen brightness and a screen-off timer (to save power) which has a maximum timeout of 60 minutes. That’s enough for me, as I can just tap a button to start another hour. For parents, the microphone continues to work when the screen is timed out, so it’s "audio-safe". There is also a VOX (voice-activated) mode where the screen triggers at a certain noise level. Finally, there is a temperature alert and a mode that plays "relaxing" sounds like waves on a shore or tunes - again, if you can’t be arsed to get up!

There’s a lot to like here, for my purposes at least. You can, of course, pay much more than £38 for better features, but for my use, it’s perfect. No recording needed - just a simple, well, baby, monitor - with no sprogs in sight. Hurrah! Here's my Amazon Affiliate Link if you want to buy one and help me out with a few pennies in the process. Thanks.