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The Chillax Giraffe Cam Pro was the winner of the best value baby monitor award in our tested best baby monitor roundup. Here you can learn more about this excellent monitor and why we recommend it so strongly.

Baby monitors can be pricey, and may even represent one of your first experiences with sticker shock as a new parent perusing high-tech baby gear. Some push into the hundreds of dollars, especially if you are trying to keep tabs on multiple children. They’re sometimes pricier because they include a wealth of features—many of which you may not want or need at 3 a.m. when your only concern is whether your baby is asleep or not. The Chillax Giraffe Cam Pro cuts through the unnecessary extras to provide a consistent, high quality product at a more reasonable price of just $150.

The Chillax Giraffe Cam Pro is a versatile and affordable baby monitor that works with a standalone ... [+] monitor or connects to your phone via Wi-Fi.

The Giraffe Cam Pro also offers the best of both worlds for anyone unsure if they will prefer the security and privacy of a dedicated, standalone monitor or the freedom using your phone with Wi-Fi. You can even switch back and forth, perhaps using the standalone monitor day-to-day, but connecting with your phone for the occasional date night or when going out of town on a trip. That’s just scratching the surface. Want to know why the Giraffe Cam Pro is worth considering for your next baby monitor purchase? Read on for the full review.

Wi-Fi: Yes (Also includes handheld monitor) | Camera resolution: 1080p | Range: 1200 foot

Regardless of all the bells and whistles some monitors offer, parents fundamentally want a reliable product that works as expected at every bedtime and every naptime, effortlessly and without fail. Through extensive testing with Chillax’s Giraffe Cam Pro, I was never disappointed when it came to the basics. The handheld monitor range is among the best available, as much as 1200 feet. That eliminates any worries that a conversation with the neighbor in the next driveway might lead to connectivity issues. I found the sound quality to be excellent, without static, glitches or interruptions, and the system isn’t overly sensitive to ambient noise like other monitors can be at times. That means when a toddler runs by the baby’s room, you won’t be needlessly alerted (unless you are in my house where the toddler stomps like an elephant on purpose and does, in fact, wake him up… always fun).

If you are used to watching high-definition television, you’ll be right at home here. The handheld monitor is also HD, and is paired with an exceptionally sharp and clear camera to help you easily see whether your baby is crying over a lost pacifier or got an arm stuck in the crib slats.

The bendable neck can point anywhere you need it to look after clipping it to a shelf or other ... [+] surface.

One of the most commonly mentioned fan favorite features in this monitor’s reviews is that you can set up the monitor almost anywhere. The flexible, highly adjustable “giraffe” neck can point in any direction, and you can clip it to a variety of surfaces. All that means you have a tremendous number of options when it comes to how you set up this camera—a lot more so than with most other baby monitors. I expect that this will be a win as your baby grows and you may sometimes need to move the clip higher or otherwise out of reach for safety, then crane the neck to point it at baby.

The last thing an exhausted parent needs is to be forced to wade through unnecessary pop ups, options, and extraneous data within a baby monitor app. Instead, they need quick access to the camera, with clear and simple buttons for additional tools. The Chillax app provides just that, with large, obvious selection options on the home screen to navigate to the video gallery, diary for logging additional information about your baby, devices (in case you have multiple cameras in separate rooms), settings, and parenting tips to learn more.

It's hard not to love the simplicity of the mobile app.

One of my favorite settings is the Giraffe's optional “background monitoring,” which lets you hear sound from the camera even when the app isn’t running. This prevents you from having to keep opening the app and preventing your phone from going to sleep while you’re busy doing something like washing dishes. The diary can be a helpful resource for new parents who are often instructed to log basic information to share with the pediatrician in the baby’s early weeks, such as feeding, diapering, sleeping, and more.

I also really liked the Giraffe Cam Pro’s “smart zones”—areas within baby’s room you can specify using the app. Once configured, the Giraffe app will alert you if your baby crosses one of those lines. This is great for a baby learning to climb out of the crib—you’ll be alerted if baby actually manages to escape. Or, if you are trying to train a toddler to stay in bed, you’ll know when they get up and start walking around (or climbing the curtains… an actual personal anecdote).

Parents have long been concerned about the “hackability” of baby monitors that run on Wi-Fi, worrying if others can see into their baby’s room or communicate with their baby if the Wi-Fi signal is compromised. Chillax has accounted for that in a decidedly foolproof way: a physical camera cover shuts off access to the room visually when Wi-Fi isn’t in use. You can easily turn Wi-Fi off by switching an orange button on the neck of the camera, which shifts operation to the standalone handheld device instead. This extra level of security will help parents concerned about safety and privacy.

Parents can also save and secure the videos their monitor records in the cloud for up to 24 hours, and you can store a maximum of ten 30-second videos. This might give you a chance to show your partner or a grandparent a cute moment, or to download a video to show the pediatrician something that concerns you.

After testing a total of ten monitors, we chose the Chillax Baby Giraffe Cam Pro as one of the top two winners, and the most “budget-friendly” model at $150. The main difference between the Eufy Spaceview Pro—the best overall—and the Giraffe Cam Pro is that the latter includes Wi-Fi, which transforms your phone into another monitor. If you prefer to watch your baby from any distance, get the Chillax. But for those who don’t intend to use Wi-Fi at all, the Eufy is another, slightly pricier, quality choice. Both have excellent sound, usability, and visibility.

The Giraffe is inexpensive, but holds its own against competitors like the Eufy SpaceView Pro and ... [+] Lollipop Baby Monitor—though each has its own unique advantages.

We also recommended the most portable model, the Lollipop, which features a wrap-around camera style to attach to almost any surface in your nursery, such as a crib rail or shelf. For those who might need to move the camera itself to alternate locations (say, a light fixture to outsmart a crafty and curious toddler), this could be a better choice. The main difference between the Giraffe and Lollipop is that the Giraffe Cam Pro includes the standalone monitor, while the Lollipop can wrap around surfaces like a helpful snake. But both are exceptionally portable.

As a parent to four sons under age seven, I’ve shopped for, studied, and tested numerous monitors in my parenting “career.” I’ve looked for monitors for different purposes over time, from newborn babies with more alerts, to those that are meant for multiple rooms or older children. I’ve also personally tried both Wi-Fi and no-Wi-Fi monitors as I personally debate which is safer. Of course, I also tested no fewer than 10 monitors for the full guide to the best baby monitors.

To test the Chillax Giraffe Cam Pro, I placed it inside and outside of my one-year-old baby’s room. I used the monitor while he napped or slept overnight, testing its features, range and image quality.

While setting up the product, I focused on ease of use and intuitive features, to ensure all parents would find it helpful and not stressful to integrate into their lives. I paid attention to aspects like battery life, button functions, and communication features.

I observed the same features for each monitor: image and sound quality, ease of use, and how sensitive a monitor was for distress functions and crying alerts. I also played around the Chillax’s settings to see how easy it was to customize views, notifications and features like zooming to various sides of the room.

Lastly, I tried the Chillax clip on multiple surfaces in the room, including a light fixture, dresser, shelf, and crib edge to ensure it would stay securely on many surfaces, which it does.