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Greece, Athens
1 Level
738 Review
59 Karma

Review on πŸ“± IHealth Nexus Body Fat Scale: Your Smart BMI Scale for Accurate Weight Analysis with Bluetooth and Smartphone App Support - White by Chris Sweeton

Revainrating 2 out of 5

The iHealth Labs app is clumsy for the scale

For consistency, I bought an iHealth scale, blood pressure cuff, and pulse oximeter together. I was hoping to use an app and store all my information in the Apple Health Kit. I was surprised that each of these devices is so different. It's like they're made by separate companies and only packaged by iHealth Labs. Although the packaging is quite nice.- [ ] The first big difference; Strength. The scale uses 4 AAA batteries. Okay, batteries are to be expected in bathroom scales. The blood pressure cuff is rechargeable but uses a USB-B mini cable, and the pulse oximeter uses a USB-B micro-power cable. It's ok, but I'm plugging in four different charging cables now for iPhone, Apple Watch, Pulse -Ox, and blood pressure cuff. - [ ] Next up is the iHealth Labs app, iHealth. - [ ] I'll start with a pulse oximeter as it's the closest thing to a pretty good interface. When the iHealth Labs iHealth app is open, it automatically connects to Pulse-Ox (regardless of whether you're using it or not). All you have to do is put it on your finger and press the button. The app switches to the Pulse-Ox screen and displays your data in real-time as it is being recorded. Take it off your finger and you're done. The data is saved and imported into the Health Kit. Very good. - [ ] The scale works well, but it is very lacking in intuition. Step on the scale and get your weight and BMI in seconds. There is no indication that the information was stored or transmitted to the application. As a switch from FitBit scales, I am used to being shown that the data transfer was successful and that it is saved under the corresponding user profile. Now you need to open the iHealth app. Check if there is a weight - no. Go to the weight results section of the app, not yet. Choose the Actions tab. Once the Bluetooth connection is established, the message "Stand barefoot on the scale" will appear with a nice picture showing you how. But if you were very fast you would see the screen flicker. It was a download. Go to the "List" tab to check and you will now see your last weighing. Since I don't take my phone to the bathroom every morning when I step on the bathroom scale, I wonder if that weighing counts. - [ ] Finally, iHealth Wireless Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor. This defines what it means to jump through hoops to get a reading. Here is the process; Place it on your wrist (they claim it should be on the left side, but I've found they get the same reading either). Press the start/stop button to turn it on if it's not already on (if you touch the inside of the cuff properly, it will turn itself on). Now position your hand so that it is at heart level. Nice little indicators to get you there. Now you have to press the start/stop button (again) and the pump will start (problem? The lights that help you locate your position go out). When it's done, it will display your results. But to get them into the app, open the app, go to the Blood Pressure section and select the "Measurement" tab. (Almost finished.). Now switch off the cuff with the start/stop button. When it is off, press and hold the "Start/Stop” button for two seconds, then the Bluetooth cuff will turn on. The application will display the connection while waiting for cuff detection. The app will now show a large blue circle with the word SYNC in the middle. It's a button you have to press to sync, it just doesn't look like it requires any action. Your BP is now available - tap on the "Save" button in the last step. Now you have all your history in one place - Apple Health Kit for iPhone users. The only quirk I had was that for each metric (SpO2, BP, Wgt, etc.) you have to ensure that the application providing the information takes precedence. In this case, go to "Sources" under "Health" and make sure that iHealth is at the top of the list and has write permissions. Personally, I wish iHealth Labs had their own designers for the scale, and the blood pressure cuff would join forces with whoever made Pulse-Ox and designed all the interaction and interface. For example, open the app and connect to all assigned devices. When the device is on, start reading data and notify the user about it. When the readings are complete, save them! And export it to another app like Health Kit if it's configured to do so. If they did all that, they would get five stars from me for each of these devices.

Pros
  • Availability
Cons
  • Don't really like it, it's ok