Editor Tested: How Owlet’s Baby Monitor Performs on Family Trips Big and Small

Everything worked out the next morning with fresh eyes and more patience. Six months later, we still use the Owlet at home and took it on trips to Austin, Phoenix, and Mexico City. Practice made set ups easier. I haven’t yet had a repeat of that first trip’s hang ups. Now, it’s become a nice-to-have baby item while we travel — after learning the workarounds and limitations first-hand.

My wife and I weren’t thrilled with our experience traveling with Owlet’s competitor, Nanit, that we used for our first kid. She got to see seven countries before 2-years-old and an uncounted number of cities across the country. After the first couple trips, we gave up on bringing the monitor entirely (and in doing so, a fair amount of sleep).

The Owlet has it’s own idiosyncrasies. Yet it’s got a one-up on Nanit that we at least always put it in our No Reception Club baby bag before we leave.

The basics of the Owlet setup

Photo: Owlet

The Dream Sock is a sensor-equipped wrap that goes around an infant’s foot and tracks pulse rate and oxygen saturation. The sensor talks to a bedside base station, which shows status via colored lights and alarms, and to the Owlet app when Wi-Fi cooperates. The Cam 2 is a 1080p Wi-Fi camera that adds encrypted video, audio, and environmental data like room temperature and humidity.

The system continuously tracks pulse rate and oxygen saturation while a baby sleeps and will alarm if readings stray outside preset thresholds. That’s a different category of oversight than a purely audio or video monitor.

The latest version of Dream Sock is FDA-cleared as an over-the-counter “infant pulse rate and oxygen saturation monitor” for healthy infants 1 to 18 months, 6 to 30 pounds. Owlet describes Dream Sock as the first and only FDA-cleared pulse oximeter of its kind for healthy infants, with SpO2 accuracy tested across skin tones.

At the same time, not all pediatricians give a full-throated recommendation. Our own pediatrician was sure to hammer that Owlet won’t reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome and that she was concerned people use Owlet as a substitute for safe-sleep practices. Not to mention the anxiety that some parents can get from false alarms or alerts about regular movement and oxygen variability. But as long as we understood that, she didn’t exactly discourage using an Owlet either if it gave us peace of mind.

And it does. Our first child came early and was under 5 pounds when we took her home. The second fell into a more normal range, but my wife and I had gotten used to being able to check vitals remotely. When the Owlet is working, it plays that role well.

Using Owlet for travel

Photo: Owlet

Theoretically, nothing changes about the Owlet when you travel. It can be a bit annoying to pair the devices again — I’ve learned the only guaranteed method for a successful first-time Cam 2 pairing is to take it off the child’s profile, pair it to the Wi-Fi, and then add it back onto the child’s profile — but it’s a minor inconvenience.

The bigger catch is the Wi-Fi connection. With a solid connection, we could use the monitor as normal. Owlet encrypts the stream and routes it through the app, so you’re not broadcasting a raw signal to anyone on the same network. You never really know what you’re going to get with hotel and Airbnb Wi-Fi, though.

Many hotels and some vacation rentals rely on login-style networks that require you to enter a room number or accept terms on a browser page. The Owlet base and camera have no browser, so they can’t authenticate. Other accommodations have an unsecured network that baby monitors (reasonably) won’t connect to.

Even when you have a normal password-protected router available, the Cam 2 can be undermined by weak signal in the baby’s room, crowded bandwidth, or slow speeds. We had a couple video stutters, feeds that wouldn’t load, and connection issues on our trips that were a minor inconvenience.

Photo: Owlet

I inadvertently came more prepared than normal for our trip to Mexico City: I brought a Solis Hero portable hotspot with me for work. The hockey-puck-sized device connects to local cell networks in more than 140 countries and shares that connection with up to 10 devices. The sock and camera became two permanently connected devices in our Airbnb for a week, and worked without any major issues.

It’s worth noting that this is a workaround, not a built-in travel feature of Owlet. It adds an extra gadget if you’re not already planning to bring a hotspot. Owlet’s video and real-time monitoring are only as good as the internet connection you can give it, and the hotspot is at least reliable.

What really won me over for Owlet during travel is the sock’s Bluetooth capability. The Sock pairs directly to the base station over Bluetooth, which means it continues to monitor whether or not you have internet. If your baby’s readings move outside preset ranges, the base flashes red and sounds an alarm.

This offline capability is one of the most important distinctions between Owlet and app-only smart monitors. The vitals data still flows from baby to base, and the base can still wake you up with its own alerts. You lose the live numbers in the app, video, sleep history, and range that Wi-Fi allows. But even without a hotspot, it still makes sense to bring the Owlet sock along with us and leave the Cam 2 at home.

The baby monitor travel alternatives

Photo: Owlet

Smart monitors like Nanit have similar features to Owlet — and similar Wi-Fi limitations, but without the sock’s Bluetooth connectivity. Other smart monitors also rely solely on the app on your phone. If that dies, so does the point of having the monitor. Owlet’s sock base station wins out there, too.

Monitors that connect over a radio frequency (RF) don’t require any internet connection. They’re immune to hotel and Airbnb network quirks, and real-time audio and video is easily accessible. These lack vitals monitoring if you’re a parent who needs that, though. Harbor makes another popular Wi-Fi baby monitor that also has an RF connection when the internet drops. The biggest downside to Harbor and other RF monitors is range — you might not be able to take the monitor farther than across the Airbnb if too many thick walls get in the way.

Another consideration is price. Owlet is not cheap. The Dream Sock alone is $300. The Cam 2 has been replaced with the newer Dream Sight camera model, which costs $100 or can be bundled with the Sock in the Dream Duo 3 package for $380. Then there’s the insights subscription that cost $100 per year.

But this is a common problem with top baby monitors. Nanit’s lowest-priced bundle starts at $280, with annual insights costing $120. Harbor’s camera is $250, but if you want to use it without Wi-Fi you need to also buy the dedicated monitor that doubles the price (notably, there’s no subscription needed).

The Owlet is small and easy to pack, plus we already have it with us since we use it at home. If you’re looking for a simple travel monitor and don’t already have an Owlet for home, it’s not worth purchasing just for travel. The travel bonafides should be weighed if you’re making a decision on which monitor to get depending on how much you plan to get out in the world, your budget, and your needs. Based on our seven-month mix of home use and travel to Maui, Austin, Phoenix, and Mexico City, however, we’re going to be bringing our Owlet with us on trips until our youngest gets a bit older.