WithingsBPM Connect - Digital Blood Pressure Cuff & Heart Rate Monitor - Blood Pressure Machine Arm Cuff, FDA Cleared, FSA/HSA Eligible, IOS & Android

Executive summary: this is worth the extra cost. It’s accurate (I checked), compact, has an attractive and inconspicuous design, automatically uploads the data for you to the Withins app *and* the iOS Health App, and creates .PDF reports that you can easily share with your doctor. My main reason for purchasing the Witihings blood pressure cuff is that it automatically logs uploads the readings to the Withings app and the iOS Health app. Three quick button presses and the device does the rest: expands the cuff, releases it when done, displays the results 3 times, then uploads the results to health apps. To be blunt: I wasn't taking regular readings from my old cuff because it was a hassle. I had to manually log every blood pressure reading by hand and create my own tables. I had no easy way to graph the results, averages, identify trends, or create reports to share with my doctor.The Withings cuff now does all of those things for me, automatically. Also, the cuff itself and Withings app are well designed and easy to use. This is the cuff Apple would make. Here are the other key reasons why I recommend the Withings blood pressure cuff:1. It’s accurate. I checked this against my doctor's BP readings, and they were nearly identical (within a point or two). The nurse even seemed surprised it was so accurate; she said sees a lot of inaccurate devices.2. It's compact. It rolls up into a single, inconspicuous, package that you can easily hold in one hand, drop into a drawer, slide onto a shelf, or put in your pocket without fuss or fumbling.Most other blood pressure readers have the pump/display attached to the cuff with tubing, which makes for an ugly, tangled mess.3. It’s very easy to set up and use. Slide it on, secure the velcro. Tap the button three times. It quickly reaches full pressure, deflates, and displays the readings 3 times (Systolic, then Diastolic, then Pulse; it then repeats these numbers 2 more times). It gives you plenty of time to take the cuff off make and make a note of the numbers, if you also wish to track them manually.The readings are automatically logged into the Withings app and then synched to your iPhone's Health app. Downloading the app was quick and easy, as was setting up the synching. I was ready to go in just 3-5 minutes. Just be aware that it may take a few minutes for the data to appear up in the Withings App and Health app.4. It’s rechargeable, so no fussing with batteries. The devices comes with a USB-A to micro-USB cable (it’s about 21 inches long). The USB-A plug should fit charging cube that you use for your iPhone. It does not come with its own charging cube. 5. You can set up multiple users. After a reading, you can specify (switch) to save it to a different person's profile. I haven't tried this.6. The Withings app can also create a basic .PDF report to email to your doctor. It's very simple: it shows two lines, one with the average blood pressure reading, the other with the split, i.e. what percentage of readings fall below a given reading.In my case, the report also displays my weight, BMI, and daily steps. These are things I track on the Health app. However, it did not display my pulse oxygen data, which I also track. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Bottom line: for me, it was worth paying a bit more for a very well designed device that is accurate, compact, looks nice, and (most importantly for me) automatically logs all of the data for me, wirelessly. Because it's easy to use, I use it regularly - unlike past cuffs that I've had.If you want or need to regularly take your blood pressure, the Withings blood pressure cuff will make the process as easy and appealing as possible. —————————— Pacemaker ICD concerns: Withings says that this blood pressure monitor should not be used with a pacemaker. Doubtless Withings cautions people for legal reasons, and out of an abundance of caution. However, I have a pacemaker/ICD and it's been fine. My cardiologist and electrophysiologist were fine with me using it. And I've had no problems with it. Here’s why I wasn’t worried: First: I use it at a safe distance. I wear the cuff on my right arm which is more than 6 inches from my pacemaker/ICD. By itself, that should be sufficient precaution. Note: blood pressure readings are usually taken from the left arm, but it’s not a law. You can switch arms and aren’t likely to notice any difference in the readings. You can always confirm this at your doctor’s office, as I did. Second: timing. The wireless signals from the cuff don’t begin until 20-30 seconds *after* the readings are complete. That’s plenty of time to casually remove the cuff and set it aside.Third: Medical devices like pacemakers/ICDs are well shielded against electromagnetic signals. Doubtless the average smart phone transmits more and stronger Bluetooth and WiFi signals throughout the day, hours on end, without causing problems. You should not, of course, rest your phone or blood pressure cuff on your pacemaker. But chances are your smart phone is closer to your pacemaker countless times each day without ever causing problems. Of course, I am not a doctor, yet alone your doctor. So be sure to check with your electrophysiologist first.

This replaced my Qardio one. THAT app kept crashing or having issues and you couldn’t use it without app!THIS Withings one work without app!!! I LOVE that!!! You DO need to install app and set it up the first time, it syncs to Apple Health and Google Fit. Not sure why I have both…..but once it’s set up first time you use the button on it to take and read the results!Since it syncs to your Apple Health, it logs all your readings there so you can see trend, highs, lows it’s great to have when you have high blood pressure so you can monitor it yourself at home and when you go to doctor it’s easy to pull up on app to show them your average readings.So easy to set up and use. I got one for myself and one for my husband so we can each monitor and keep log of our health.

I got this BP cuff because I loved the idea of having my BP readings automatically logged every time I took them, in a place where I could easily review the history--similar to my Withings Body Fat scale. The thing is, I have now learned that, for an indeterminate amount of time (quite possibly, over a year), I have now been getting incorrectly-high readings. I only learned this because, after a year of high readings, but always much lower ("good") readings at most doctor's visits, I finally brought my cuff into the clinic, and compared the readings. The doctor's office was still reading my "normal" BP, but the Withings BPM Connect was reading high. This, mind you, was after I finally DID have a high reading at the doctor's office (may have been an outlier), and, based on the history of high readings from my BPM Connect, my doc put me on BP meds. Yep! So for all we know, my BP hasn't really been that high for most of the past year, but the Withings made it look so consistently bad that we thought I needed intervention for my high BP. Now, I'm using my old Walgreens/HoMedics BP cuff again, and I'm seeing that it's consistently reading my BP as similar to what the doctor's offices were reading, which is like 20 points below what my BPM Connect is reporting my BP as. So I figured it was pretty clear my BPM Connect needed repaired, and THAT brings me to the support experience, which is where my opinion of Withings has suffered what may be irreparable damage...So a month ago, I spent 40 minutes chatting with a support rep a month ago, trying to get this fixed. All kinds of questions, and things to try, and then I was left with homework--I had to have someone ELSE try both BP cuffs, and see if THEY also got different readings. I did that, but I forgot to reply to tell the rep I had done it, honestly, because I was subconsciously dreading wasting more time with this... and my fears were apparently completely founded. So they closed the old ticket without telling me, and I opened a new ticket today. The rep read the history of the old ticket, and worked with me, but I literally spent over 1.5 hours on the chat with him. THIS time, I had to take a video of me taking my BP with the cuff, and upload it to him. But the chat system only allows 20MB attachments, so how the h*** am I supposed to upload the video to him?!? So then he asked me to EDIT the video, to shrink it down. What?!? Who knows how to do that?!? If they're asking for videos, why don't they have a tool that actually allows people to upload normal-sized videos?!? So then I decided to just upload it to YouTube, and send him the link. Over an hour and thirty minutes later, I'm still chatting with him, and still no answer. I told him I need to get back to work, and he said he needed to "coordinate with [his] senior team member to help us resolve the issue." So I have now spent over TWO hours working with Withing support, and STILL, I'm unable to use my BPM Connect. And its false readings may have literally led to me getting put on BP meds, because it made it look like there was a long history of higher BP, when really, the one high reading in the clinic may have been a one-off.I don't know what's causing this BP cuff to give such incorrectly high readings, but 1) if a medical device can give you grossly incorrect readings, the vendor needs to give you clear instructions on how and how often to check its readings. And 2) when a customer demonstrates that the device is giving incorrect readings, you shouldn't give them a million hoops to jump through to get it fixed. I have very little spare time, and so having my time wasted carelessly is one of the things I hate the most. Withings has now earned a place on my blacklist for their support/warranty process being so onerous, and wasting so much of my time.

This device is remarkably well designed, with clear attention paid to usability. The choice of a micro-USB connector—and the omission of a USB-C to micro-USB cable—feels like a minor oversight, especially given its deep integration with the Apple ecosystem, but it hardly detracts from the overall experience. In every other respect, the usability is exceptional, the Apple Health integration is effortless, and the accuracy rivals that of models that cost hundreds, even thousands, of dollars more.