Customer Reviews

Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor (Apple and Android compliant)

I've had the excellent WiFi Withings weight / body fat / air quality scales for sometime now and have been very pleased with them. They are sleek and elegant but are also very practical if you - like me - have bought into the 'big data' revolution and want immediate submission of your data into the 'cloud' for ongoing analysis.

I'd been holding back from buying the older wired blood pressure monitor from Withings as it shipped with the old iPhone adapter and I don't like using the fiddly adapter for the iPhone 5/5s for retro-fit. I also hoped they'd bring out a wireless version that is far more future proof and of course will work with non-apple products. So along come this brand new wireless version in Jan 2014 so I just had to try it!

As with all Withings products it is beautifully designed and put together. The gorgous packaging and fine materials of the device itself gives you a premium feel similar to that of opening an Apple product for the first time. In the box is the Withings wireless blood pressure reader, a back-up wired connector (very useful just in case the wireless fails or you don't want to use Bluetooth), a quick start manual and a more detailed manual. The 4x AAA batteries are pre-installed so the product is ready-to-go out of the box.

Set-up is a joy via Bluetooth and took literally just a couple of minutes with intuative step-by-step instructions on-screen through the Withings app on my iPhone 5. The Withings unit is seamlessly controlled via the app on the phone during use with no need to mess with any setting on the actual device after initially switching on. It turns off automatically after use.

One of the nice surprising new features is the "Auto" feature that you can set to automatically conduct 3x measurements in succession (with obviously a short gap in between for rest) with the average taken for even more accurate measurements just as my doctor asked me to do when using a manual traditional blood pressure monitor.

Other really nice features include:

- automatic time of day capture with each blood pressure reading that you can later analyse between am and pm readings and understand how your blood pressure changes throughout the day automatically via the dashboard in the app
- auto capture of your resting pulse
- real-time readings being sent to the app on the phone so you can see what's going on whilst the devise is working
- battery charge indicator through the app

For those geeks / power-users out there who want more, the best and most useful feature is of course the seamless ability to capture all the readings from the device which are then sent 'to the cloud' and shared with the other growing number of apps in the wellbeing/health eco-system that you give permission.

For me I use:

- Combination of Withings BP monitor & Scales for my weight, fat percentage, pulse-rate and blood pressure readings
- Jawbone UP for my activity tracking 24/7 and sleep tracking
- Sleepio for personalised CBT sleep training (which seamlessly integrates to Jambone UP)
- MyFitnessPal for food and drink tracking
- Run Keeper for fitness tracking
- The ability to easily send data through to your doctor and/or 3rd party as required via email
- and all the data from all the above automated & manual inputs analysed and reported by TicTrak

And what does all this data tell me? Well, that I am over-weight with high blood pressure who eats (and drinks) too much and spends an awful lot of time sitting around and not enough time exercising.

Sadly non of this wonderful technology replaces personal motivation, some personal discipline and lifestyle change. But SURELY there must be an app for that I hear you cry!?

In summary, the Withings wireless blood pressure monitor is highly recommended and a joy to use and own.

I received my Withings BPM a few days ago and paired it with my Sony android phone. I am very disappointed with the device. 9 automode measurements out of 10 fails. I have carefully wrapped it on my arm according to the instructions in the manual. The air pump does not lift start pressure high enough, most often only up to 160-170mmHG, which is not enough to measure my often high blood pressure. The electric motor with 4 small AAA batteries seems too weak and under-dimensioned, not giving pressure enough and stops pumping too early. This causes the measurements to fail. I have tried with 3 different brands of alkaline batteries, all fresh batteries. Did not help.
My old device, an Omron M7 with a similar type of cuff works without problems. It always lift start pressure above 210 mmHg. It has a far much more effective pump powered by 4 AA batteries. The Withings device is a useless toy compared to my old Omron.
The wireless connection is nice, but wireless connection does not compensate when the meter itself fails.
I also have a Withings WS-50 scale which is a great device, the scale is accurate and Wifi a most nice feature, but their BPM is useless.

The idea of having a blood pressure monitor which will communicate with your blue tooth device and keep a record of readings over time is appealing. Couple that with the Withings App, whereby you can also monitor weight, set objectives over time and also keep a record of your heart beat and you are creating a very useful record to have which will be, for some, quite motivational.

It was therefore with high hopes that I started to use this device. However, unfortunately I ran into technical difficulties. There was no problem in pairing the monitor with my iPad, which recognised it straight away. Having downloaded the app I was all set to go and quickly registered putting in my weight, height etc. The iPad recognised and connected with the BPM35 as soon as it was switched on. However, when I tried to install the monitor on the app, it all went into deep thought mode and gave a message `Waiting for the Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor'.

After some minutes of this inactivity we moved on from the message above and some instructions as to how to use the BPM came onto the screen. I was able to start the BPM from the app. However, although the cuff inflated and then deflated the screen continued to state `Measurement in Progress' and refused to budge. Then, after a few fruitless efforts miraculously everything started to work and the device took my blood pressure and recorded it. I was impressed and put the issues above down to teething difficulties which would soon be forgotten. Having subsequently used the device, there have been further minor problems along the lines described above, but generally it has worked fine. The iPad has recorded the readings and it has been a useful resource to refer back to. The readings given have been reasonably consistent with my trusty Omron.

Therefore to date, once the teething difficulties were overcome, this BPM has worked as intended and appears accurate. It clearly costs quite a lot more than a less sophisticated device without the bluetooth connection. However, if you are interested in keeping an ongoing record of your blood pressure then this is a good way of doing so.

Unit hangs when using it with Bluetooth in iPhone 4s.
Another reviewer mentions the same issue.
Purchase with care. Does work OK with the cable.

It is not value for money product. The only value added function is the coonection with smartphones, but dosent,t work properly with my 4s of apple, crashes every use and restart is nnede ( by battery removing). product underdeveloped, it is not worth any of money in my opinion

I have mixed feelings about this blood pressure monitor.

Firstly, it works and seems to work well. The design makes it easy to fit on yourself without help and the Healthmate app makes it nice and easy to control and view the results. I also like the fact that it not only gives you the reading, but tells you if your reading is healthy or not.

On the cuff itself, my only issue was the fit. It's quite a tight fit on my relatively small arms, but when pressurised it's quite uncomfortable compared to my old Omron unit. I'd have thought it would be most uncomfortable for people with larger more muscular arms.

I did have issues with the initial connection. The instructions are nice and clear, but for some reason the monitor would not connect with my Android tablet. I then performed the initial setup with my Android phone, which worked perfectly. However after that the device will now work correctly with the tablet, but won't connect with the phone at all. I had the exact same issue with the Withings Pulse. I have contacted their support desk who misread most of the emails I sent answered the wrong things and were generally useless about the whole issue before they stopped answering altogether.

In all, a good device, easy to use, but with a lack of customer support at times.

This monitor is so easy to use. Half of the 'cuff' is fairly rigid, so you can 'hook' it around your arm and secure the velcro using one hand without it slipping off.

I downloaded and installed the Withings app on my Android tablet, and within a couple of minutes I was able to take recordings of blood pressure (high and low) and heart rate. You need to register online to have these stored on the Withings database, but it's all pretty anonymous.

When you have a few tests, you can see a nice chart showing your metrics over time. I have a wireless Withings weight scale, so I can see weight and heart metrics displayed together.

I don't know how absolutely accurate the device is, but it's certainly repeatable.

My wife is a GP, and she was impressed with it, so that can only be a good thing.

Several dozen readings taken so far, and the original AAA batteries are still going fine.

I have had the body analysing scales for some time and they are really useful, except, the heart rate apparently differs in my feet to that in my arm...

The pressure monitor is in the same vein as the scales. Easy to use and easy to set up. The cuff comes with batteries installed and it really is hassle free if you have any other Withings products, as you would have set these up before (i.e. with Bluetooth) It would be nice if the cuff worked similarly to the scales through wireless but that would be a little difficult as you need to start the pressure test through the app. So in reality it makes sense.

I bought the cuff when there was one review on here, a positive one, and the day after that the second popped up with description of the issues that the purchaser had. This did concern me but I was committed. I have to say that I am not disappointed at all. I have had no problems at all, worked straight away and very accurate.

The only negative is that I bought it from the Withings website and found the day after my order that Amazon had it �40 cheaper.

I am not at all disappointed with the purchase

This is the best blood pressure monitor that I have owned. Easy to use and automatically sends data to the Withings app on the iPhone

A wonderful product for keeping a good record for your physician. I find it also integrates well with their scale.