Bellabeat Women's Wellness Gadget Review



    The European company Bellabeat deals with a very rare topic. No, not a sports watch, not smart lighting, not drones, and not even virtual reality. She produces gadgets for women. Today we will talk about the Spring bottle, the wellness trackers Leaf Urban and Leaf Chakra.

    From dopplerography to wellness


    Startup Bellabeat was founded by two very different people: the Slovenian artist-sculptor Urska Srsen and the Croatian mathematician Sandro Moore. Together, they developed a portable device for Dopplerography (ultrasound method), which allowed pregnant women to independently monitor the condition of the fetus.



    One of the sources of inspiration for the couple was the joint work of Moore with the doctor of gynecology and obstetrics Tanya Premru-Srsen, the mother of Urshka. The modern approach to perinatal care was sterile and cold, and a new generation of young mothers desired more. A portable dopplerograph helped to monitor the development of the fetus, as well as to listen and record its heartbeat.

    The daring idea won the startup competition of the Pioneers Festival conference in Vienna, and at the same time attracted the attention of the American business incubator Y Combinator. Europeans went to conquer America.



    Bellabeat founders recall the time at Y Combinator with warmth. However, they had to abandon the idea of ​​tracking pregnancy: it is too difficult for users and hard to put into practice as a mass product. But what could they offer the world? They turned out to be Leaf wellness trackers .

    What is Wellness for Bellabeat


    It is not enough for a modern person to be only “healthy”. He wants to always combine good physical health with mental health. This is wellness, a concept popularized by lifestyle books for both sexes and actress Gwyneth Paltrow. The word means "well-being," and, in accordance with the spirit of the times, is interpreted by everyone differently.

    For Paltrow and her wellness brand GOOP, well-being is the result of an expensive purse, detox smoothie, and shaman chakra cleansing session. Any Men's Health offers exactly the same thing. The founders of Bellabeat came up with a practical question: a person feels good when he is fast asleep, moves regularly and from time to time gives himself a chance to rest and relax. This means that it is worth concentrating on these three areas, tracking and analyzing them.


    Bellabeat Leaf Original, also known as Nature.

    At the time of Leaf's launch, the market was oversaturated with fitness trackers. The devices were experiencing a peak of popularity, many of them monitored sleep and activity, as a new gadget should have done. The Bellabeat product was not conceived as another Fitbit competitor, which turned out to be a very sensible decision: after a couple of years, the market for “wearable gadgets” collapsed (for example, Jawbone). Leaf was created for women who are likely to never buy a sports bracelet or watch. The gadget is not for sports, but for a person.

    In 2017, the company expanded its range with a smart Spring bottle.. It was a response to a new growing trend in the wellness industry - water consumption metering. The concept came from the world of marathons, where a lack of water leads to sad consequences.



    It turned out that for an office employee sitting all day in front of a computer, proper drinking is also an urgent problem. Replacing water with coffee and junk food, a woman (and any person) worsens her well-being, sleep and concentration. Therefore, you need to gently make the bottle user drink more water than Spring does.

    Best of all, the bottle manifests itself as a “partner” for the wellness tracker, but it can be used separately. All Bellabeat gadgets work within one “ecosystem” - a mobile application.

    Leaf: smart decoration


    Outwardly, any Leaf wellness tracker resembles an eco-style brooch. This is because its body is made of wood composite, which to the touch is exactly the same as natural stone. "Pebble" holds a stainless steel frame.



    A pleasant moment: the frame does not leave an unpleasant smell of “metal” after contact with the skin and there are no visible fingerprints on it.

    The Bellabeat team went through three versions of the frame design that the original tracker model had, Urban and Chakra . The original Leaf is no longer available; its frame was made in the shape of a curly leaf. Urban's steel decor has a bizarre geometric shape. The oval rim of Chakra presses a rose quartz or black onyx petal to the body.


    Left -Bellabeat Urban , on the right - Bellabeat Chakra

    The tracker case is black and gray, the frame is silver and pink gold. They combine in different ways so that the potential owner of smart jewelry can choose her design and her colors. With Bellabeat, you don’t have to choose between pink and blue silicone bracelets, as usual.

    In addition to the decorative function, the frame serves as a clip for fixing on clothes. It is tightly clamped to the fabric and it will not work to shake off the device. Each Leaf tracker can be hung on a chain and worn around the neck like a pendant. Urban has loops on both sides, so these trackers easily turn into elegant bracelets: just attach a complete strap to them. Chakra has an eyelet only on one side, so that it is worn exclusively as a pendant or brooch.



    Naturally, the question arises: does the position of the wellness tracker affect its accuracy? At Bellabeat, we took into account and worked on the moment. The tracker considers activity approximately the same regardless of the location of the fastener. To do this, in the settings you need to specify his position: as a bracelet, brooch or pendant.



    Tracker housings are protected against ingress of water according to the IPX6 standard. This means that they can not be removed in the shower or while washing hands, but you should not completely immerse them in water.

    App for good mood


    No buttons and screens are provided for the Leaf trackers, and access to statistics and its analysis is possible only through the application. Synchronization is not automatic, it is done each time manually. The process is simple: you need to press a button in the application and knock on the tracker a couple of times. It is not necessary to do synchronization every day, the tracker stores the data collected for the last 14 days. There is no difference in the work of Leaf Urban and Leaf Chakra, they have an identical set of functions.

    By the way, for some other everyday and wellness devices such as Misfit trackers, information about steps and proximity to daily goals for activity is indicated by a blinking LED: blinked once - 25% of the target, two - half, four - almost 100%. The developers of the light "Morse code" seemed an incredibly elegant idea. In practice, it is more convenient and faster to pull out a smartphone than to remember light signals. In addition, the potential owner of Leaf would rather not want her “smart decoration” to blink an LED, like some kind of power bank. Therefore, all data is available only in the application.



    The application is extremely simple and conveniently organized. A brief summary of all the indicators tracked is on the main page: activity, sleep, water tracking, meditation, stress level and the menstrual cycle. Minimum settings, they indicate goals for physical activity, duration of sleep, water consumption and the number of meditations. Statistics on any other tab are scrolled back and forth by the calendar panel.


    Activity tab and comparison with step counting in Mi Fit

    Activity mainly includes the number of steps taken. In our experience, Leaf counts fewer steps than the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 fitness tracker. On the other hand, both Chinese gadgets and more expensive Fitbit bracelets add energetic hand movements to the steps. So beautiful statistics were wound up even in the days of the Nike Band glory. The Leaf Wellness Tracker is often worn on the body rather than the wrist, which by default gives a more conservative estimate.



    Goals are set either in minutes of activity or in steps, but both will be considered. The implementation of the selected goal can be monitored on the tab "Activity". It also shows how many steps or workouts on average have taken in the last week. Statistics are also kept on kilometers traveled and calories burned, including idle calories. Exercises like yoga, in which the user of the tracker hardly moves in space, the tracker itself does not recognize. They must be entered manually with a large green button.



    Leaf tracks sleep automatically. The accuracy is not bad, but if you leaf through Instagram posts for a long night in bed, the tracker will make a mistake with the calculation. It doesn’t matter: the necessary hours are easily corrected in the morning, cutting off the excess. From statistics, the following are offered: percentage of the goal, average duration of sleep per week, and assessment of deep sleep. For happy lovers to take a nap after lunch, the “Add a Dream” button is provided.

    Separately, you can specify the position of the Leaf in a dream to increase the reliability of observations. Apparently, if you fix the gadget on your hand, and not on the collar of your pajamas, then it will react differently to movements in a dream.



    Leaf meditations are one of the most thoughtful parts of the app. Three dozen of them are offered, from training respiratory to “mental journeys”. Some help to relax, others promise to help with back pain (and deal with the urge to eat junk food. Thank you, Bellabeat).



    Before meditation, the tracker clings to a belt where he must monitor proper breathing. Then you need to get comfortable, close your eyes and follow the voice instructions of the application (so far only in English). At this time, a large pause button appears in the application. For some meditations, diverging concentric circles appear around the button, indicating the phase of breathing: the circle inside is the breath, the circle outside is the breath. There are many applications of this type, however, everything works beautifully and without unnecessary difficulties.

    Tracking stress looks interesting. At the very center of the tab is a large graph that illustrates how the state of the user is affected by sleep, the phase of the cycle, physical activity and meditation. Under the graph are panels on which it is described in more detail what and why affects the level of stress.



    If you scroll forward a few days, you can see how the chart changes its shape. No advice is given here: apparently, so as not to increase stress!

    The last tab is dedicated to the menstrual cycle. The calendar on it is depicted as a horseshoe, on which fertile days and menstruation days are marked. A button in the middle adds and ends a new menstruation. In the tab with history, past cycles are recorded and three future ones are predicted. The “Add Pregnancy” button is hidden in the settings in order to, accordingly, start tracking pregnancy. Everything is simple and without unnecessary settings like “today I wanted a sweet tooth”, which are found in individual applications for tracking menstruation.



    As mentioned above, the Bellabeat application works with a smart bottle of Spring and also serves as a mobile interface for it. There is nothing to complain about, the information is presented clearly and without unnecessary difficulties. After each synchronization, the data on the drinking water is updated. The application gently encourages the user to drink more and slowly learn how to drink more in a few weeks. If you wish, you can manually add a couple of glasses of water, drunk not from Spring, and set reminders that it's time to take a sip or two.



    Bellabeat data can be synced with Google Fit and Apple Health. More health data, including minutes of awareness and drinking water, is transferred to the “apple” aggregator. Google Fit accepts and shows less data, but this problem has existed since the last redesign of the Google application, when its functions were greatly reduced.

    Spring: a bottle with a couple of tricks


    There are many “smart” bottles on the gadget market. The big minus of almost everyone is that they are plastic. Plastic is strong and durable, which is proved by garbage islands in the ocean. Do you want to drink from it? Not everyone.



    Unlike competing bottles, Spring is glass. Not entirely, of course: only the vessel is made of borosilicate glass, and it does not have a bottom. The bottom replaces a screw-on plastic base with a silicone coating, where the electronic "filling" is hidden. A plastic neck with a lid is mounted on top. To prevent the bottle from slipping out of hands, a two-piece silicone cuff is put on it.

    The lower part of this cuff closes the seam between the glass bulb and the base, that is, it serves as additional protection against leaks. Although all parts of the bottle sit very tight and do not leak. This design is not accidental: everyone who has used bottles in life knows that they are inconvenient to clean. Organic residues always accumulate along the edges of the bottom, which give the liquid an indescribable taste and aroma. No bottom - no problem.



    Disassembled Spring can be washed by hand or in a conventional dishwasher. In addition to the base: it is gently wiped with a damp cloth - although it is airtight and does not deteriorate by slightly getting wet. The seal on its reverse side opens, a battery and a small vibromotor are hidden under it. During synchronization, it turns on to indicate that the bottle is working.

    The bottle is incredibly beautiful. Spring is nice to hold. The design is minimalistic, no frills, but clearly thought out to the smallest detail. At Bellabeat, we worked hard to ensure that their product really wanted to be carried around every day.

    How to use Spring? Pretty simple: 1) Connect it to the application. 2) Calibrate before first use. 3) Pour water and drink. From time to time, launch the application, click the "Sync" button and shake the bottle vigorously. Done, your water consumption has been updated. Compared to manually recording water in an application (or on a piece of paper if you like hardcore), it's simple.


    Bellabeat Spring Calibration

    In terms of the nuances of using the bottle, the developers excelled themselves. After the first calibration, technical issues can be forgotten. You drink from a bottle, you pour water, you pour water, and it independently decides what happened now. For some gadgets, this level of autonomy is just a dream. Apparently, someone at Bellabeat sensibly reasoned that users hate to constantly synchronize data via Bluetooth. He was a wise man.

    Spring records and stores up to seven days of water consumption data. You need to synchronize them to see the current progress. If there is no time to do this in the middle of a busy day, then you can safely continue to use the bottle, as if it does not have built-in electronics.



    Many call tracking drunk the solution to another invented problem. Meanwhile, insufficient water intake is a related issue with excessive consumption of junk food. According to statistics compiled as part of the US National Health Survey 2009–2012, its participants received 70% of their water from drinks (including sugary soda) and food. Only 30% of the drink turned out to be pure water . The consequences of such a diet can no longer be spoken about.

    For a woman, the lack of water is sensitive, it is indispensable for maintaining the health of female organs. In addition, no expensive cream with magic anti-aging nano-particles will help the skin like a timely sip of water.

    Even a smart bottle like Spring will not force anyone to switch to healthy lifestyle. But if you put the gadget in front of you on the table, then drinking water becomes easier and faster than, say, going for a cup of coffee with buns.

    * * *

    When it comes to gadgets designed for women, it is usually customary to scold technology startups and companies for not developing such things out of sexist motives. The founder of Bellabeat does not think so: “I think everyone wants to hear - this is because they (wearable gadgets) are developed by men. Not sure if the answer is correct. Women's health seems like a niche for companies. ”

    Bellabeat has confidently occupied this niche and created impressively user-friendly products. They gently push their owners to be more careful about their health and well-being, without overloading them with unnecessary information and millions of notifications. And thanks to the beautiful design, I want to use Bellabeat gadgets.

    We are currently localizing the Bellabeat application. Soon it will be available in Russian - wait. Until March 31st, Madrobots has a 15% discount on all Bellabeat products using the BBHBR promotional code.

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