The Levana Lila was discontinued in 2019.
REASONS TO BUY
Price
Good sound
Long battery life
REASONS TO AVOID
Very few additional features
Not the best images
Levana Lila Review
A budget friendly dedicated monitor that gets the job done well without all the fluff
Credit: Abriah Wofford
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Our Verdict
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Levana Lila video monitor is the second highest ranking dedicated unit in our review. While it lacks a variety of features, it does get the job done with a lower price tag and the longest running battery life in the dedicated monitor sub-group.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
Performance Comparison
The comparison chart shown below lists the video monitors we reviewed and how their overall scores compared to one another. The Levana Lila (shown in blue) earned a 5th place rank out of 9 competing products. It is the second highest ranking dedicated monitor in the group, with only the Philips Avent SCD630 dedicated monitor scoring higher overall in our tests.
The information provided in the subsections below details the Lila's performance in our tests and how it compared to the other products in each individual metric. The overall performance in each metric combined to give products their overall scores and rank.
Range
The Lila earned a 7 of 10 for range, which is the third highest score for range in the dedicated monitor group.
This monitor worked indoors with a range of up to 5 walls and 77 ft. The sound started cutting out just after the 5th wall and about 65 ft, with the video following soon after. In comparison, the Philips Avent SCD630 continued to work up to 5 walls and 92 feet. For our open field test this monitor worked well up till about 750 ft, when it started to struggle. It continued to work, though spotty, up to 800 ft, though not succeeding at 900 ft.
The daytime images on the Levana Lila have a reddish hue that distorts color in the room. The eye chart is difficult to make our, but you can see baby's face so you might be able to tell if they are awake or sleeping, even when they are quiet.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
Audio / Visual
The Lila earned a 6 of 10 for sound. The high score for sound is 8 for the Philips Avent SCD630.
The Lila has nice amplification with a max decibel level of 98 db, but the clarity isn't the best. This monitor does offer an adjustable sound sensitivity and activation feature, but no matter how we adjusted it we could always hear the white noise in the background. The sound sensitivity will filter at about 50 db in PEEP mode set on the lowest setting, but anything louder will still be audible. With music playing in baby's room during testing, the sound relay had some static and was very bright. It was better with crying only, but did sound somewhat like baby was in a tunnel.
The spotlight effect on the Levana Lila night images could be troublesome if baby moves out of the center of the field of view. The image itself is on the fuzzy side and details are missing from the eye chart, but you can almost make out baby's face.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
The Lila earned a 5 of 10 for video images.
The daytime images have a reddish hue, but are pleasant to look at. The picture itself is very clear and baby's face can be easily seen. This monitor does not offer a zoom feature, so it is good that you can see baby's eyes if you need to without zoom. Night vision images aren't as good and have a black fuzziness around the edges sort of like a spotlight is on baby. This can be a problem once baby is more mobile and moves out of the spot where the image is best and into the fuzzy corners.
While we like simplicity as much as the next parent, we worry that the lack of buttons on the front actually make the Levana Lila parent unit harder to use because you have to rely on an icon menu that means extra button pushing in a potentially sleep deprived haze.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
Ease of Use
The Lila earned a 7 of 10 for ease of use, with the Philips Avent SCD630 earning an 8.
This monitor pairs itself between the parent unit and camera with a plug and play design that works when plugged in and turned on with the push of a button.
The icons on the Levana Lila are a little hard to see and not the most intuitive, but the lack of features means you may not need to use them very often.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
Part of what makes the Lila an easy to use monitor is its general lack of features and a simple parent interface on the front of the parent unit. The limited number of buttons and options make navigating the menu fairly easy, and pressing the “home” button will help you select what you'd like to control and eventually it will take you back to the beginning should you get lost. We do think it would be easier to use if some common buttons like volume were on the front instead of in the menu, and the menu icons can be difficult to see depending on the lighting in your room.
Battery Life
The Lila earned a 9 of 10 for battery life, which is the best battery life score for the dedicated monitors in this review.
The Lila uses a lithium-ion battery that lasts about 12.75 hrs according to our tests. The manufacturer claims a 72 hour run time in PEEP mode, but we were unable to duplicate this claim during testing. They also claim 10 hrs in normal mode, and 6.5 hrs for audio and video on.
The Levana Lila camera is a manual adjustment only and does not offer remote controlled pan and tilt. This can be a big disappointment given the spotlight night images that could result in baby sleeping outside the lighted area dn parents being unable to adjust the camera to see baby.
Credit: Abriah Wofford
Features
The Lila earned a 2 of 10 for features, which is the lowest out of all 9 products we tested.
This is in large part due to the lack of features, including fairly common features like zooming in, and remote control over the camera's field of view. The parent unit screen is only 2.4 in (the smallest in the group) and it does not offer any way of attaching the unit for hands free carrying. It can be connected to up to 4 cameras (sold separately), but the PEEP mode will only work with the first camera.
This monitor does not offer any kind of temperature, humidity, or air quality sensors, nor does it offer additional features for baby like a nightlight or lullabies. It also does not have zoom capabilities and the camera can only be adjusted manually by rotating the camera by hand.
This monitor provides these additional features:
- Two-way talk function
- Night vision
- Automatic sound activation
- Auto screen wake/sleep
Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Levels
The Lila camera has an average EMF reading of 3.49, which is one of the highest in the group. This reading is with the camera 6 ft from the reader, mimicking the minimum standard distance between baby and monitor (most work well at 10-15 ft). The greater distance you can put between baby and the camera the better, as it will decrease the EMF exposure. Distance could be a problem with this monitor as it has no zoom feature, so if you place the camera too far away you won't be able to see baby's face. EMF reading for the parent unit at 3 ft is close to 3. The parent unit is likely to be closer to your head if you use it at night, so the EMF exposure would be greater the closer you have the device.
Manufacturer Video
—
Juliet Spurrier, MD & Wendy Schmitz
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