Withings BeamO
Price: €250
Website: https://www.withings.com/eu/en/beam-o/shopOpens in new window
Where To Buy: Withings
Every family has a thermometer of some sort. But over the years, it has gone from the traditional under-the-tongue thermometer to a more easily readable digital version. Now health tech company Withings is trying to oust that one in favour of a multifunction device that not only measures your temperature, but records your heart health too.
The BeamO pitches itself as a family care device, a complete health tool that will link in with telehealth services to give you and your doctor an overall picture of your health. It packs four medical grade sensors into a hand-held device. It takes your temperature, while also keeping an eye on your respiratory system through an electronic stethoscope, it measures blood oxygen with a built-in oximeter, and monitors cardiac health through a full one-lead electrocardiogram (ECG).
The key thing with the BeamO though is convenience. The device itself is easy to use, with a single button that scrolls through the various functions, which are displayed on the built-in LED screen.
The temperature sensor is on top of the device, with the ECG and blood oxygen sensor on the right hand side. The digital stethoscope is on the bottom, and a USB C port, which doubles up for charging and for hooking up headphones to hear your heart and lung sounds live as they are recorded, is on the left.
All you have to do is select the reading you want to take and get started. The app shows you how to take the various measurements, and the device will nudge you when necessary, such as the correct finger pressure for the ECG or blood oxygen measurement, or the different areas of the chest recorded by the digital stethoscope.
All the data is funnelled to the Withings app via a wireless connection, building your health data history over time. That can all be sent to your family doctor in a report – or you can simply keep an eye on the various scores to pinpoint any changes that could indicate an emerging health concern.
That will be particularly useful for the heart and lung sounds. What should a healthy heart sound like? Or a lung? I have no medical expertise, so couldn’t judge it accurately. The recordings in the app just sounded like a pocket dial with a heart beat in the background. If I need to send it on to an expert however, the recordings are there and available over time. And they are automatically labelled according to the area of the heart or lung that it has recorded, which means you need to carefully follow the on-screen instructions.
One of the frustrating things about digital thermometers is the battery life. Many times I have pulled out the trusty in-ear thermometer to discover the battery was running low, or in some cases, the plastic covers it needed were missing. The BeamO doesn’t use the latter, and the former hasn’t been a consideration. Charge the BeamO fully once and you should get up to eight months of use from it. Then it takes only an hour to charge up before you are good to go again. It’s not quite as convenient as swapping a disposable battery out, but it is more easily fixed than discovering the thermometer battery has died at 2am on a Sunday.
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Withings, like most of the health tech companies, has added some extra health insights to the platform. That includes access to a cardio check-up every quarter, which shares your ECG data with a certified board of cardiologists and a clinical review of your ECG. It also gives you ongoing health improvement scores using the various data recorded in the app. The heart score, for example, is based on your sleeping heart rate, vascular age and regular ECG readings; activity scores track your physical activity based on the number of steps you take and active minutes. The body score uses data over the previous 90 days to monitor body fat – measured by a smart scale – and BMI. Sleep, menstrual health, nutrition and respiratory health are also recorded if you provide the data.
An overall snapshot of your body’s energy – the Vitalite Indicator – gives you a daily indicator of your body’s available energy, tracking your vitals and daily effort. It makes it easy to use all that data to make a real difference to your health.
The catch? It will cost an extra €100 a year to access, which is an ongoing cost on top of a fairly pricey device.
Good
A lot of data wrapped up in one package. The BeamO does a lot but it is still easy to use. Once you set up the app, you can create family profiles, so the readings are assigned to the right person.
The battery life is more than decent, and the ability to store plenty of data makes it a good tool to have in your family’s healthcare kit.
Bad
The BeamO packs a lot in so it isn’t the cheapest device to have in your family care arsenal. Some of the health insights are locked away behind the Withings+ subscription, which will cost you an additional €100 a year.
Everything else
You can add up to eight users, and there is a guest profile too. ECGs are limited to the over-18s, so child profiles on the device will not be able to access the feature.
Verdict
Could the BeamO be the future of family health? It could be – even without the extra subscriptions.