This high-tech go-anywhere baby monitor is as sweet as candy

Buying a baby camera is, oddly, much like ordering a pizza for a group: You think it’ll be a straightforward task but soon realize the vast, varied number of choices you’ll need to make.

Enter the Lollipop Smart Baby Camera
(available at Amazon)

, which does indeed resemble candy on a stick. The Lollipop can be placed in, on, or above a crib, to keep an eye on your little one. Unlike some baby video cameras, there’s no monitor so you’ll use your smartphone, tablet, or computer to see and hear what’s going on in the nursery (or a toddler’s bedroom).

While its minimalist design, impressive HD video, and smart app make the $169 Lollipop a tasty choice for new or expectant parents, it’s missing a few things (like pan and tilt) and requires a subscription fee for many of its advanced features.

About the Lollipop Smart Baby Camera

• Dimensions (Monitor): 11.7 inches (H) x 3 inches (W) x 1.06 inches (D)
• Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz/5GHz, Bluetooth
• Power source: Lithium-ion battery, included
• Camera/Monitor: 1080p Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) at 30 frames per second, 128-degree field of vision. Sony Starvis CMOS Sensor.
• Monitor: None (requires app on mobile device)
• Pan/Tilt: None
• Zoom: Pinch to zoom on app
• Night Vision: Black & White, single and invisible IR light
• Audio: Speaker/Microphone
• Operating Range: Unlimited with the app (can be used outside of home)
• Temperature and Humidity Alert: Extra/Optional Device for $55
• Warranty: One-year limited warranty

What we like

The unique design offers a variety of mounting options

You don’t have to be a “sucker” to fall for the Lollipop’s adorable design—evidenced by the many Instagram and TikTok videos.

Available in three colors—turquoise, Cotton Candy (pink) and Pistachio (greenish-yellow)—this camera can be screwed onto its included bendable stick to prop it up anywhere. The flexible stick can also be twisted around a crib’s gate or placed on a table or dresser by twisting the bottom of the stick into a stand.

And bonus: The camera head can be propped up on a flat surface, like a night table, without the stick at all. Also included are optional clips and a clamp to secure it to even more types of cribs, along with cable holders (to hide the wires, if desired).

In practice, it’s quite versatile and can work in several different environments. Like most baby cameras, it requires power but at least it ships with a super long 10-foot USB cable (120 inches) and wall plug.

The camera provides clear, quality videos

At 1080p Full HD, the camera quality is quite good—due in part to the Sony CMOS sensor—but as you might expect, videos look much better with a little bit of light.

During nighttime, or when dark in the room, it reverts to the black-and-white night vision mode (though it is less grainy than other baby cameras we’ve tested).

There are so many useful features in the app

Available for iOS, Android, and through a web browser, the Lollipop app is easy to set up and quick to recognize the camera. Even if you’re not tech savvy, within a couple of minutes you’ll see the camera feed on your smartphone or tablet screen. Because the Lollipop uses an app instead of a monitor, you can invite family members or friends to see your child via the app or send them a link to a prerecorded video.

While there’s no pan and tilt function, the 128-degree camera should be wide enough to see the baby and you can pinch and zoom on the app for a closer look. You can also set a border inside the camera view and opt to be notified if the child strays outside that area (an excellent feature for when the little ones start to climb out of their cribs).

Speaking of notifications, you can set it to push alerts to you if sound or motion is detected, and even opt for the AI to detect a cry only (vs. other sounds, like babbling or moving around). Similarly, an AI vision tech feature can monitor your baby’s breathing (no wearable sensor required) and can show you baby’s respiratory rate and sleep position history, but a subscription is required for that.

Like the features offered by some smart video doorbells, you can go back in time to see history, and the Lollipop app will even help you identify sleeping patterns, but a subscription is required for more than a week (see below).

An optional Lollipop Smart Air Quality Sensor ($55) plugs into the wall in the same room, wirelessly talks to the camera (via Bluetooth), and pushes environmental info to the app, including temperature, humidity, and air quality. This works well, too, as the app automatically detects the sensor once plugged in.

You can talk to your baby via the camera, through its small microphone and speaker, and opt to play music to the baby (though the volume is quite low). Finally, there’s also smart speaker support (Amazon, Google), so you can say something like “Alexa, ask Lollipop to play music,” or “Hey Google, ask Lollipop to report recent events,” and you’ll hear a summary.

What we don’t like

There’s no option for an external monitor

For $169, the Lollipop Smart Baby Camera might be considered between a midrange price and a premium solution, so it’s too bad you don’t also get a handheld monitor to place somewhere in the home in case you don’t always have your phone on you. Plus, using the app could impact your device’s battery life.

However, if you have a spare phone or tablet you’re not using—say a 5-year-old Android device in a drawer somewhere—you can install the Lollipop app on that and make it a de facto dedicated monitor. Don’t forget the app works on any web browser, either on a laptop, desktop, or tablet.

Subscription costs are required to access all the features

Between a variety of entertainment streaming services, apps, fitness trackers, and so on, we all have plenty of subscriptions. The Lollipop, like several other baby monitors, offers tiered levels of subscriptions to unlock additional features.

There is a Basic (free) tier, but you can only look at previously recorded videos for up to 7 days (and up to 30 seconds each). After that, they’re gone—and you can’t download them either. Lollipop has three additional tiers (Advance Pro, Premium Pro and Elite Pro), that offer more features but cost between $80 and $240 annually.

Paying for these plans will get you additional features such as more access to video clips, the ability to download clips, the breathing monitor feature and a sleep tracker (scrollable diary of your baby’s sleep patterns). As with any subscription, it’s up to you to decide whether the yearly fee is worth it however, without them the Lollipop lacks some of its key functionalities and benefits.

It requires a Wi-Fi connection

Lollipop uses the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, which is highly secure compared to other servers, and while all data is encrypted and protected, it still requires a Wi-Fi connection to view the camera feed.

That means, like all other baby monitors, it could hypothetically be hacked. It also means that if your Wi-Fi goes out, or if you’re traveling to a place with a slow or spotty connection, you won’t have consistent (or any) access to your baby monitor.

Should you buy the Lollipop Smart Baby Camera?

Yes, if you don’t mind paying for a subscription

Of all the various baby monitors we’ve tested at Reviewed, there aren’t many stinkers, thankfully, but much of it boils down to your budget and what features are important to you.

If you have two babies and/or toddlers then it may be more economical to go with a two-camera system instead (though Lollipop does let you add multiple cameras to the same app, you’ll still have to purchase each $169 camera).

If you prefer to have a camera with a parent unit, like the Vava, then the Lollipop isn’t for you since there is no monitor included.

But when it comes to its versatility (all the ways to position the camera), clear video quality, and the intuitive, full-featured and stable app, Lollipop is an excellent choice for parents of young’uns.

It may still have some drawbacks—having to pay to download your own videos from the cloud really irks this reviewer—but overall, Lollipop is one sweet pick indeed.

Lollipop Smart Baby Camera

Keep a close eye on your little one through the Lollipop 1080p baby monitor that can deliver real-time alerts, record footage and detect crying.

Buy now at Amazon