YHE BP DOCTOR MED – The smartwatch for IPOCONDRIACI (but not too much)
Apple Watch (all generations) and Samsung's smartwatches are considered the best around, boasting top positions in terms of sales. The potential of these devices is often highlighted not only from a smart point of view but also in terms of being a health monitoring tool. However, there is one thing that Apple and Samsung wearables (but also other brands) are not able to do: measuring blood pressure, a feature that in some cases could really represent a matter of life or death. Here then is the solution to the problem that comes directly from the YHE brand poco BP Doctor MED watch released in crowdfunding. Let's find out together in this complete review.
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CONSTRUCTION AND MATERIALS
The BP Doctor MED "smartwatch" does not have quite the elegance of the Apple Watch or other renowned products but is still pleasant in shape and aesthetics. First of all let's talk about noble materials, considering a frame completely made of stainless steel, which brings the weight to 60 grams, but it is the strap made of silicone that makes the general experience not exactly comfortable as the 26mm strap is one of the aspects revolutionary features of this watch, as it integrates a sheath that will inflate during the blood pressure measurement operation, squeezing the wrist to capture the systolic and diastolic blood pressure values, just as happens with classic home blood pressure monitors. Being completely particular and unique, but not indestructible, if a breakage problem arises, you will have to throw the watch away unless you try to contact the supplier to find a second replacement strap.
But I was saying that comfort is not the best, first of all because to have a good pressure measurement you have to firmly tighten the watch on your wrist (wrist circumferences from 14 to 19 cm), but due to the sheath the breathability with the skin is practically zero . And then if you have large wrists like mine, the strap has a closure with a single loop which actually doesn't grip the inserted flap well and you will often end up with the latter having a flag effect. Finally, the sheath runs from one of the sides of the strap to the watch case, presenting several grooves to allow inflation, which however will become a receptacle for dust and dirt, which you will have to carefully eliminate as there is no IPXX certification. Finally, YHE itself declares that the life of the inflation mechanism is 5000 uses, approximately 2 years, so once the period is over should we throw away the watch?
On the right profile we find two buttons: the upper one to turn the display on/off or, if held down, will turn the watch off. Be careful, because when I say turn on/off the display I mean that this button will completely deactivate the display, canceling for example the wrist gesture for waking up. Furthermore, if you activate the AOD function and then press the mentioned button, the display will remain off until a new input. The lower button, if pressed, will allow you to wake up the display or enter the smartwatch menu, as well as return to Home. On the back of the case we do not find any sensor and this already makes us understand that in terms of health statistics such as cardio or SpO2 we would have nothing at all. Instead we find small magnetic contacts for charging the device via the base supplied in the package.
DISPLAY
I then introduce the display paragraph, which in the case of the BP Doctor MED is a 1,61-inch unit with AMOLED technology and 320×360 resolution. This technology guarantees excellent vision even under direct sunlight and above all deep blacks, but the Always On Display function that I told you about before is actually not the usual one we are used to with other smartwatches, but in a literal sense it will keep the screen 24 hours a day, effectively reducing battery life to less than 24 hours. Furthermore, there is no backlight sensor, so you will have to manually adjust the value to your liking. I would have accepted these compromises but I couldn't stomach the responsiveness of the touch, which was really poor at times. Another thing that left a bad taste in my mouth is the presence of only 4 watchfaces, poco functional and attractive.
SENSORS
As already mentioned, by turning the device upside down we are faced with the absence of any sensor but we only find the sheath which will inflate, as happens with traditional meters, for measuring blood pressure. Only during this activity will your heart rate be detected. I admit that the returned value relating to blood pressure is comparable to medical devices but I would like to underline that there is no official medical certification, indeed the company itself highlights this on the crowdfunding page, specifying that it will take at least 9 months for the definition of the process. But apart from the rather precise value of blood pressure, where in this case the heartbeat is also detected with equal reliability of the data, during the day we have no way of monitoring the state of health of our heart, we do not receive any alerts, we cannot monitor stress nor the SpO2 value, in short nothing. Even sleep is monitored approximately, since if you wake up in the middle of the night, it will detect the awakening but not the fact that you have fallen asleep again.
AUTONOMY
Charging the watch's battery, a 220 mAh unit, takes around 90 minutes, which is done via a dedicated base (you will find two in the package) to which the Type-C cable can be attached. Another sore point is the fact that the positioning of the charging input is located right under the base and therefore the device will rest on its side but not well positioned, considering the shape of the base.
Autonomy is not the strong point of this device which, depending on use, could last from a minimum of one day to a maximum of 4, a value that can only be reached if you use the smartwatch as a watch. With standard use, therefore taking at least two blood pressure measurements a day, receiving notifications, waking up the display with wrist gestures, heart rate 24 hours a day, you will reach 2 full days.
HEALTH DATA MONITOR
I would like to point out again that BP Doctor MED is not a medical device and does not have any medical certification recognized in Europe and/or Italy and I underline this because unfortunately some improvised reviewer, speaking about this device, said the complete opposite of what I have just mentioned .
Being able to monitor your blood pressure regularly is something that could help you avoid serious health risks that might otherwise go unnoticed, such as hypertension (consistently high blood pressure), kidney disease, stroke, and more. The way blood pressure is analyzed comes in the form of two measurements – systolic and diastolic – which are displayed as, for example, 120/70. As defined by the NHS, the first number (systolic) is “the force with which your heart pumps blood around your body”, while the diastolic metric “is the resistance to blood flow in your blood vessels”.
BP Doctor MED uses an inflation section within the band, which tightens around the area just above the wrist. This allows the device to get a better picture of your blood pressure through its various sensors. For correct measurement posture, the wrist must be brought to heart level and you must remain still. Furthermore, the data is channeled into the companion app and this allows you to build a picture of blood pressure and how it changes over time, allowing for a greater understanding of the state of cardiovascular health. What I liked is the possibility of measuring blood pressure from the wrist, switching to a Guest card, therefore the measurement made on the fly to the friend/relative on duty will not affect the personal history.
As already mentioned, in addition to blood pressure readings, BP Doctor MED does not allow you to monitor your current heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), blood oxygen levels, but only sleep monitoring and, of course, the counting daily steps whose accuracy in the recorded measurements, which all together contribute to a precise clinical picture, are not exactly reliable. The sports sector, however, is very limited, having only 3 sports available (outdoor running and walking, treadmill) with very basic metrics. Furthermore, it is not possible to have a route plan considering the absence of GPS on the smartwatch, but above all you will always have to carry your smartphone with you, otherwise the watch will not count any steps, as it always connects to the phone's GPS.
SMART FUNCTIONS
Even in this area the BP Doctor MED is not up to par. Nothing to do with modern smartwatches, even the cheapest ones, only allowing you to view the weather and receive notifications and calls, which cannot be answered. Furthermore, it is not possible to receive notifications from all apps, for example Telegram is absent, in addition to the fact that these are not synchronized with the smartphone. Instead, you can set an alarm directly from the watch, with awakening via a slight vibration. One thing that can be useful instead is the possibility of deactivating Bluetooth, perhaps if you have to travel by plane.
APP COMPANION
There is also a proprietary application capable of managing the functions of the watch as well as keeping track of all health statistics. Available for Android and iOS, the application is called BP Doctor PLUS, with a very simple interface and where the rest of the settings are limited. The only positive aspect is that during my tests I have already received 4 updates, although I am not able to tell you what changes have been made, considering that as you may have guessed there are no ideas to recommend such a device.
PROJECTED IMPACT
The BP Doctor MED is a product with an important idea behind it, capable of monitoring blood pressure, but the monitoring is limited only to this value keeping out data such as heart rate or blood oxygen saturation, a metric that carries more weight when it comes to offering true life-saving potential; so having it on a wearable is kind of a benchmark.
The band that inflates apparently does not take up much space but in everyday reality it is really annoying to wear this device but the sad truth is that with the expense we have to bear for this BP Doctor MED, i.e. 259 dollars on offer pre-launch on IndieGoGo (the price will then be 399 dollars), we can take home a very respectable smartwatch, because all things considered we can measure blood pressure with a dedicated device, less expensive and certainly more performing. There are many negative points and few, almost none, positive ones.
