Withings BeamO Smart Health Monitor review: Simple health monitoring

Bottom Line: The BeamO is best for people with ongoing health issues who use the Withings Health app to communicate with their doctor online.

Here’s one of the challenges you face as a technology reviewer you might not be aware of: Sometimes you have to review a product you might not be the target audience for.

This is the case for me, reviewing the Withings BeamO.

The BeamO is an impressive product. Its simple design and certified health performance won it numerous awards when it was announced at CES in 2024.

It’s effortless to use, compact and feature packed. It takes your temperature, blood oxygen, ECG and acts as a digital stethoscope, and does all of that really well.

But for me, as someone who wears a smartwatch almost 24/7 and has no major health issues, it feels a little redundant. My smartwatch can run an ECG and check my blood oxygen, as well as my temperature.

At $499, this is not an impulse purchase. But who is it for? Turns out, it’s probably not who you think.

What health insights does the Withings BeamO provide?

The BeamO has four key functions:

• A thermometer
• A pulse oximeter, which measures your blood oxygen
• An electrogram, which monitors your heart health
• A digital stethoscope, which records the sound of your lungs and heart.

It’s all packaged into a single, compact device with a rechargeable battery that will last for months. It was approved by the TGA back in June, and is available exclusively through JB Hi-Fi.

Except for the digital stethoscope, none of the measurements are exactly unique. A smartwatch like the Withings ScanWatch Nova or Apple Watch will record ECG and SPO2 readings on your wrist, while a cheap digital thermometer lets you take a temperature quickly and easily.

From a design perspective, it’s pretty incredible that the BeamO does everything it does. It measures in at 37 × 136 × 19 mm and weighs just 74 grams, meaning you can easily fit it in your pocket or bag and have a medical health tracker with you wherever you go.

The BeamO is designed to record health for up to eight family members, which you can easily set up within the Withings app. There’s also the option to make recordings for guests, if required, which helps when you need to check someone outside your family’s temperature.

The fact you can record up to eight people’s health measurements from the single device implies that this is a device designed for families.

But there are a couple of big reasons that doesn’t actually turn out to be the case: The ECG and SPO2 measurements are only available to people over the age of 18 years old.

This isn’t exclusive to Withings, for what it’s worth. The ECG feature on the Apple Watch isn’t designed for people under the age of 22, while Apple’s smartwatch won’t measure SPO2 for users under 18 years of age.

That means that, for parents wanting an all-in-one device to monitor and track their child’s health, only 50% of the functions will actually measure for their kids.

Design and user experience

The BeamO looks like a gadget, rather than an obtrusive medical device, which helps with the appeal.

Its white body with rounded sides has a simple screen on the front, with a four-way navigation control wrapped around aa circular select button. It’s incredibly simple to control because it really only has four functions.

At the top of the BeamO is a hole for the thermometer, while one side of the device has two stainless-steel sensors used for the ECG. In the right ECG sensor is another sensor for measuring SP02, which means that you inevitably measure blood oxygen levels every time you take an ECG.

The digital stethoscope microphones sit in the bottom of the BeamO, unseen.

When you go to measure anything with the BeamO, the display walks you through every step of the way, regardless of the measurement being recorded. Measuring SP02 is arguably the easiest, requiring a single finger pressed at a certain pressure level, which is displayed on the screen.

But it also walks you through taking a temperature. I’m not sure why, but this involves moving the BeamO from the centre of the person’s forehead to the temple, while maintaining a short distance away from the skin. It’s a bit more complex than my traditional digital thermometer, but I assume it’s for accuracy.

You also get detailed instructions when taking a stethoscope recording. The screen shows you where to place the BeamO to get the right measurement as well, while letting you record the heart, lungs or “wide”, which offers freedom to place the device where you like.

There’s a single USB-C port on one of the sides as well, which is obviously used for charging the device. But the BeamO also comes with a USB-C to 3.5 mm jack, so you can connect a pair of headphones to listen to the stethoscope feature.

Overall, the BeamO is robustly built and is easy to use, which arguably is a victory for a device that sits in the “medical” space.

Health monitoring performance

Withings has been focused on health tech for years now, and the fact the brand has managed to get TGA approval means that accuracy will sit within the necessary guardrails.

I can’t speak to the performance of the measurements from a scientific perspective. And to be honest, I’m not even sure I should – as much as the BeamO is TGA approved, it’s still not really designed for use by medical professionals – it’s for home users.

What I can say is that everything I tested seemed accurate. Side by side with my cheap digital thermometer, there was about a 0.5ºC difference in measurements, though I expect the BeamO was more accurate.

Compared with the Apple Watch Series 10, the BeamO measured my SPO2 at 97% compared to the watch’s 98%. The ECG on both claimed normal sinus rhythm, with similar heart rates (though I had to run one recording after the other).

The stethoscope is arguably the most interesting feature here, but it’s not actually a measurement as much as a recording. It’s easy to measure and record in different locations around your body, but once it’s done, for the most part, it doesn’t actually offer anything.

Which all cycles back to that question at the top of this review:

Who is this actually for?

And the answer is not who I thought it would be. It’s not for parents of young children, looking for an all-in-one family medical recorder.

Instead, it’s a device for the grandparents of the world, the people approaching their more senior years. The part of the population whose bodies are starting to slow down, and maybe need a bit more medical attention than they did in their youth.

More than that, though, it’s designed as a gateway to better healthcare for those people through Telehealth. And for Withings, that means pitching its Withings+ subscription.

App integration

One of the key differentiators of the Withings health app, compared to other wearables providers, is that it makes it easy to share your health recordings with health professionals.

I found this when testing the Sleep Analyser and the BodyScan Smart Scales. You can easily export recordings in a format to take to your doctor, so they can use the data from your device to better diagnose issues.

The WIthings+ subscription takes this a step further by letting you get a fast response from a specialist doctor.

If you don’t have a Withings+ subscription, you can still export your recordings and measurements. But you’ll also be prompted to subscribe when viewing a measurement.

Here’s what it looks like: You take an ECG, and when you look at it in the Withings App, there is an app to get a “Cardio Check up” – or have the ECG reviewed by a cardiologist in 24 hours.

According to the fine print, the cardiologist review is “conducted in partnership with local board-certified physicians to ensure a thorough analysis of your data”.

Now think about that in the context of your elderly nanna, whose heart isn’t as strong as it used to be, but she has trouble getting down to the doctors to get a check-up every month.

In that context, where the BeamO is a device to help the elderly monitor and maintain their health without having to physically go to the doctor, the BeamO is remarkable.

The only real hurdle there then is that it does require the Withings app to really be effective, and, in my experience at least, some older folks can be a little resistant to using their smartphone for stuff like this.

But with some guidance from family or friends, I think the BeamO can make a big difference to how people like my parents can better manage their health.

Battery Life, connectivity, and maintenance

The BeamO’s battery is designed to last for up to eight months, so I wasn’t able to effectively test it over the past few weeks of this review. But given it’s charged by a simple USB-C cable, I don’t expect any issues on the battery front.

Pairing the device during setup is pretty straightforward. It’s all done through the Withings app, as is adding additional family members. Adding kids is easy, but adding a partner means they will need their own Withings account.

The settings option on the device is really only for resetting the device – if you wanted to give it to someone else – or updating the firmware.

Which is a testament to how easy the BeamO really is. There’s no calibration or maintenance required over the lifetime of the device – it should just work.

Verdict

When I was pitched the BeamO to review, one of the top points was the fact it supported up to eight users, making it perfect for families.

But in my time testing the device, it became clear that this is not a device for families. Sure, if you have a family it will be useful, but that’s not a reason to buy it.

The people who should buy the BeamO are people who require regular health checkups, but find it difficult to get to the doctor. It’s for the elderly, or the getting-elderly, or those with pre-existing health conditions.

For people who actually need to spend a lot of time visiting the doctor, the BeamO does enough to actually make a difference, by allowing them to take measurements for Telehealth sessions.

And in that light, the $499 RRP isn’t too shocking. For a parent looking for a device to take their child’s temperature when they are sick, the BeamO is way overpriced.

But for someone with a heart condition that just needs to monitor their health? Then the BeamO is a brilliant gadget that can potentially make their life much easier.

Buy if:

• You have ongoing medical conditions and want to take regular measures to check your health without having to visit the doctor every time
• You’re getting on in years and travelling to the doctor is a burden
• You just like having the latest gadgets

Skip if:

• You just need a thermometer for your kids
• You’re typically healthy
• You already own a smartwatch that takes ECG and SPO2 readings

Consider Instead:

• Honestly, there is nothing on the market like the BeamO

Where to buy the Withings BeamO

The Withings BeamO is available now exclusively through JB Hi-Fi for an RRP of $499

• JB Hi-Fi