Renpho White Noise Machine Review

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Full review

Please note that this article isn’t an exact transcript of my video. I’ve organised it to be easier to read and scan for specific information, but all the main points in the video are also here.

Introduction

Hi, I’m Ethan Green from nosleeplessnights.com, and in this video/article I’ll be doing a review of the Renpho white noise machine.

There’s a lot to like about this one, for a reasonable price. I paid £25.99 for it in the UK, which means that it’s at the budget end of the spectrum of prices for white noise machines.

Even though it’s at the budget end, it has lots of features, a wide range of sounds, a great night light, an internal rechargeable battery, and also a headphone jack.

Let’s pop over to the table and play through the sounds so you can listen to them. I’ll also talk about the features, show you the night light in action, and finish with some pros and cons.

Power / internal rechargeable battery

(This section starts at 0:35 in the video)

Before listening to the sounds, let’s talk about the two different ways you can power the Renpho. It came with quite a short USB-C cable, so you can plug it in and it will stay playing for as long as you want it to.

You can also use the cable to charge up the internal rechargeable battery, which is one of the great features of the Renpho. It takes about two and a half hours to fully charge it, and then you’ll get around seven hours of use.

However, that will depend on the night light that you’re using, whether you’re using a night light at all, the sound choice, and the volume. I’ve found that you can get less than seven hours or a few hours more even.

The sounds

(Starts at 1.11 in the video)

Note: this section is obviously better to watch in the video as talking about the sounds in written form isn’t the same. I’ll leave it in though in case you can’t watch the video and want to know my view on the sounds.

Let’s have a listen to all 29 sounds now. We’ll listen to the white noise first, then the fan sounds, and finally all the nature and other sounds.

I like how they’ve split the sounds into three different buttons: white noise, fan sounds, and the nature and other sounds that are not quite nature sounds, but they’re not white noise or fan sounds either. You’ll hear them as we go through.

Dividing them into three buttons makes it quicker to find the exact sound you want rather than cycling through 29 on one button.

So let’s have a listen – I’m not going to talk, I’m just going to play through them all.

List of the Renpho sound options

My opinion of the sounds

I’m not going to give you my opinion of all 29 sounds because it’s a personal preference which sounds you like or not, but I will say a few things.

First of all, I really don’t like the ‘ding’ sound when you get to the end of the sound choice. I think that’s a pointless inclusion in any white noise machine. It can be a bit disturbing, and it’s even more disturbing that it happens when you reach the maximum volume as well.

I don’t know why they’ve included that chiming sounds. I know it’s something that annoys some people, so if you’re one of those, this isn’t going to be the device for you.

As for the actual sounds, I really like the white noise choices. I think there are some very good deep white noise sounds and the speaker can handle them. It’s a two watt speaker technically, but I find it does a good job of coping with the pink and the brown noise or whatever colors they are – they don’t say in the manual.

The seven fan sounds are also excellent. I like the fact that it has good variety and the speaker really handles them well. As for the nature and other sounds, there’s some interesting variety in there.

I like that they’ve included crickets and bonfires, thunder with rain, or rain on its own without thunder if you prefer. It’s nice that there’s a range of water sounds: small waves, running water, dripping water, though I don’t know why you would listen to dripping water. I’m not quite sure who does! If you do, leave a comment below – I’d like to know who actually listens to the dripping water sound.

There’s a shushing noise and fetal sounds that might work for some kids. I’ve got to say though, if that was the sound of the womb that I had to listen to for nine months then no wonder I turned out a bit weird because it’s not a very nice sound to listen to!

The lullaby and the music box sound good through the speaker as well. There are a few options to play to little kids, and there are lots of options as an adult. So I like the variety in the Renpho.

Volume

(Starts at 5.33 in the video)

Now let’s check out the volume range. I’m going to turn it back on to a fan sound and we can have a listen to the volume.

You can hear that it’s quite loud on the maximum volume, and actually, I didn’t pick a sound that would sound naturally particularly loud. But this machine does get really loud with some of the white noise and some of the nature sounds. Perhaps too loud even – you probably wouldn’t want to listen to them on the maximum volume.

Once again, I have an issue with the ‘ding’ sound that notifies you when you reach the maximum volume though. I just don’t think that any white noise machine should have that.

Timers

(Starts at 5.33 in the video)

Another feature I like is the auto-off timer. There’s a simple button to change the timer options. You can choose from 30, 60 or 90 minutes, or leave it to play continuously if you want to.

There’s a little LED that tells you which timer it’s set to. The timer is designed to fade out too, so once it’s reaching the end of the time it will slowly reduce the volume.

I think it’s great to have auto-off timers – some devices don’t, which I always find a bit of a shame. So it’s good that you’ve got different timers, because at the end of the day it’s not really necessary to listen to white noise all night and it’s probably not a great idea to play it to kids all night either.

Headphone jack

(Starts at 6.51 in the video)

Another useful feature is the inclusion of a headphone jack. It’s a standard 3.5-millimeter pin, so most wired headphones will work with it.

It’s great that you can use headphones with this machine because it means that you can listen to it privately. So if you’re sleeping next to someone they don’t have to listen to your white noise, and if you’ve got someone else in the room with you during the daytime, they don’t have to listen to it either.

Night light

(Starts at 7.08 in the video)

Let’s have a look at the feature which for me is the most exciting about this device – the night light. Here you can see some filming that I did yesterday to show the night light in action.

What I really like about the night light is that you can change colors, which is very unusual for a white noise machine. Generally, they just have a fixed night light or maybe a couple of brightness settings, but this one has a whole range of colors.

There are seven different colors and white as well, so it’s great that it’s got those options. If you want, you can select the option to cycle through all the colors gradually, you can have it on a fixed brightness for any of the colors that you choose, or you can have it on breathing mode.

Personally, I think the breathing mode is a bit odd. I would have preferred it to change color gradually, or change brightness gradually rather than having a sudden pulse/jump in the pattern.

You can also just select any of the colors that you want to use as a night light, and then by holding one of the buttons you can adjust the brightness that you want. So it really does give you a lot of flexibility to play with the night light.

Night light buttons

(Starts at 8:04 in the video)

The night light buttons are a little bit confusing. Fortunately, they explain them clearly in the manual, which you need to have otherwise you might need to watch this video so I can explain how they work!

The top left button does three things: turn it on or off, or select breathing mode. Breathing mode isn’t really my favorite – I would rather just keep it on personally.

The top right button – if you hold it and release, you can choose the brightness of the color selected. It’s kind of tricky to find the exact brightness, but once you get used to it, it’s fine.

If you click the bottom button, it will go through the different colors. And if you long hold it, then it will go onto a gradient mode where it cycles through all the colors.

If you don’t have the manual or you haven’t watched this video, you could probably work the buttons out, but it might take a little while as it’s a little tricky. It’s such a feature-rich night though, it makes sense that they’ve got a few different buttons and it takes a while to understand how to use them.

Dimensions

The Renpho is one of the heavier white noise machines I’ve reviewed, perhaps because it’s got a good speaker and an internal rechargeable battery. It weighs 0.8 pounds, which is 363 grams.

As for the dimensions, it’s 4.6 x 4.6 x 2.3 inches, which is 11.7 x 11.7 x 5.8 cm. That puts it in the middle compared to other sound machines for the actual dimensions.

It won’t take up much space on a bedside table though, and there are some with a much larger footprint. So for the size, it’s quite portable. The weight and internal battery are the only possible issues when it comes to tucking it into a suitcase.

Final thoughts

(Starts at 9:10 in the video)

Pros

Night light: I think the main pro for this one is the night light, even though it’s a white noise machine. I think the nightlight is excellent – just the fact that it’s got all those colors and you can dim it as well. It’s a great feature and it’s designed especially well on this device.

Sound variety: 29 sounds means a lot of choice and flexibility. You should be able to find one that’s good at blocking out the noise next door or outdoors, and hopefully one that you find relaxing to listen to as well. You can experiment and have different sounds for different nights, which is great.

Buttons: It’s convenient that the buttons are quite clearly labeled and you’ve got three different buttons for the different sound choices, so it makes it quicker to find the sound that you like.

Timers: It’s good that it’s got three timer options. I think it’s important for a white noise machine to have timers, but if you do want to play it continuously then you can do.

Battery: I like the fact that it has an internal rechargeable battery. I think that’s a very convenient option for white noise machines, or you can play it plugged in if you prefer to and then you don’t need to worry about the battery running out.

Loops: It’s good that there’s no obvious end to any of the loops, such as clicking sounds, so you can’t really tell when a loop begins and starts unless you listen to it a lot and you start to learn where it is, which is more noticeable with certain sounds that aren’t consistent. I could only time a small number of the sounds, and the loop is around 90 seconds. That’s fairly good for a budget white noise machine as some only last for around 30 seconds before repeating.

Speaker quality: For a white noise machine, the speaker quality is decent in terms of the bass. Quite often, these devices don’t have much energy at the lower frequencies so they struggle to play deeper sounds like thunder. They sometimes sound a bit shrill and high pitched, but this one does a pretty good job of being more balanced in terms of the sound that it produces.

Cons

Unnecessary chiming sound: I think the most important con is the fact that it makes that chiming sound when it reaches the end of the selection. Perhaps if you’re new to the device then it might help you to understand, “Okay, I’ve reached the end and now I’m going to go back to the beginning.” But if you listen to it for weeks, or months, or even years on end, you just know what the sounds are. So having that chiming sound, which can be quite loud as well at the louder volume, is unnecessary.

Some high-pitched sounds: There are a couple of sounds that I find quite difficult to listen to, especially when the volume is turned up. That’s because I’ve got tinnitus, and there are certain sounds, certain frequencies, that can bother my ears if they are too intense. For example, I find it difficult to listen to the birds when the volume’s turned up – it’s just a bit too piercing for me.

Night light pulsing mode: Even though I like the night light, there’s one feature that I would complain about, which is the breathing mode. I think there’s just something about the way it jumps in the brightness, the intensity, that’s a little bit disturbing. I’d much rather it be done in a way that it just slowly cycles through the brightness.

Night light buttons: The buttons take some getting used to and are mostly fine. However, it’s tricky to select the exact brightness you want on a fixed color because you have to long hold and release it at just at the right time. It’s not particularly difficult, but might be frustrating for some people.

Volume control knob: I don’t mention this point in the video as I only thought of it after filming. For me personally, the control knob isn’t an issue. I know some people find 360 degree controls irritating though and prefer simple up and down buttons, or a control that can’t keep rotating. So that’s a point I wanted to include just in case you’re reading this and wondering how the volume control works exactly.

Final verdict

My final verdict of the Renpho white noise machine is that you get a lot for your money with this device. It pleasantly surprised me, and I think it’s one that kids or adults can use. It’s got a great night light, an extensive set of sounds to choose from, and an internal rechargeable battery.

Just be prepared to tolerate some slightly tricky buttons for the night light and an annoying chime sound when you’re selecting the sounds. But if you can tolerate those gripes, the Renpho is a decent white noise machine for a very reasonable price.

Your view

It’s always good to hear from people who’ve also used a product I discuss, so please let me know your thoughts if you have the Renpho already.

And if you don’t own it, but have questions or suggestions of points I should include but didn’t, I’d also love to hear from you.