Tiny Love Black & White Decor Collection Soothe 'n Groove Mobile vs Skip Hop Moonlight & Melodies Projection Mobile (Safari)

The Soothe 'n Groove is the only one here that treats the baby's view, the parent's volume control and the end of the mobile stage as design problems rather than afterthoughts. The Skip Hop is the runner up and the more atmospheric buy: it is the only product in this comparison that gives you a rotating mobile and a ceiling projection at once, and the only one that lets you run the light without the movement or the movement without the light.

Tiny Love Black & White Decor Collection Soothe 'n Groove Mobile

Buy it

The rare mobile designed around what a newborn can actually resolve, with real volume control and a second life as a music box.

• Everything that hangs is black, white or grey, which is the contrast range newborn vision handles best.
• Tiny Love lists volume adjustment, a shuffle button, two speakers and a light or no light mode, so you can dial it down instead of switching it off.
• The base detaches and works as a standalone music box once the mobile has to come out of the crib.
• Tiny Love publishes the mobile-specific age window, the dimensions and the battery type, which is more than most of this category manages.

• Tiny Love states 0 to 24 months overall but only 0 to 5 months as a mobile, so the overhead phase is short no matter how much you spend.
• It takes three C cells, which are not included and are less common around the house than AA.
• It is a large object on a rail at W 34cm by H 62cm by D 44cm, so it needs a crib side with clearance.

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Skip Hop Moonlight & Melodies Projection Mobile (Safari)

Buy it

The only mobile here that turns above the mattress and projects a star field on the ceiling, with a remote so you never lean over the crib.

• Four glowing leaves rotate on the arm while a star field is projected onto the ceiling, so the baby gets movement close up and light overhead from one product.
• The glowing leaves, the projected stars and the sound are each selectable independently, so you can have movement without light, light without sound, or any combination.
• Eight audio tracks: four melodies (Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Brahms' Lullaby, Rock-a-bye Baby) and four nature sounds (rainforest, jungle crickets, waves, and white noise with a heartbeat).
• A one-touch remote starts or stops it, which matters because it auto-stops at 20 minutes and you will otherwise be restarting it over a half-asleep baby.

• An earlier version of this exact mobile, model 185509, was recalled by CPSC in December 2015 after eight reports that the strap attaching it to the crib rail could break and drop the mobile on the baby. The current model number is 186500 and the design was relaunched, but check the number printed on the back of the base before you buy, and check the strap regularly once it is up.
• No volume control is listed anywhere, so you get the level you get, which is a real problem in a small room at night.
• Skip Hop does not publish the battery type or an age range for it, and states no mobile-specific removal window at all.

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Side by side

The bottom line

Our overall pick is the Tiny Love Black & White Decor Collection Soothe 'n Groove Mobile - The rare mobile designed around what a newborn can actually resolve, with real volume control and a second life as a music box. Choose the Skip Hop Moonlight & Melodies Projection Mobile (Safari) instead if parents who want the ceiling lit and the mattress busy at the same time, and who will actually use a remote at 3am.

Want the full picture, including the other options we compared and the popular one we'd skip? Read the complete The Best Crib Mobiles: 4 Compared (and One to Skip).