Cheap phone for LibreLink app

[TDavies]

I just wanted to let people know this:

I was searching for a compatible phone to use with the FreeStyle Libre sensor using the LibreLink app to scan it. You need a phone with NFC for this (stands for "Near Field Communication") and Android 5.0 or higher, or iPhone 7 I think, according to Abbott.

The cheapest option I found for a phone like this was from Vodafone, who have their own brand of phones.

The Vodafone Smart N8 is currently £79 on pay as you go, with a £10 top up (so £89 altogether).

I got it for my mum and she uses the app (she is 84!!) and it's so easy to use. All she does is touch the phone onto her arm. Then I get a message on my phone every time she does it, with her blood sugar reading! (I use the separate LibreLinkUp app to receive these)

Best wishes to all x

It's really great!

 

[Alexandra100]

I just wanted to let people know this:

I was searching for a compatible phone to use with the FreeStyle Libre sensor using the LibreLink app to scan it. You need a phone with NFC for this (stands for "Near Field Communication") and Android 5.0 or higher, or iPhone 7 I think, according to Abbott.

The cheapest option I found for a phone like this was from Vodafone, who have their own brand of phones.

The Vodafone Smart N8 is currently £79 on pay as you go, with a £10 top up (so £89 altogether).

I got it for my mum and she uses the app (she is 84!!) and it's so easy to use. All she does is touch the phone onto her arm. Then I get a message on my phone every time she does it, with her blood sugar reading! (I use the separate LibreLinkUp app to receive these)

Best wishes to all x

It's really great!

This is very useful. I have an EE Rook and a Nexus 7 (2013) neither of which is any use for this purpose. Does one have to pay for the LibreLink app?

 

[DCUKMod]

This is very useful. I have an EE Rook and a Nexus 7 (2013) neither of which is any use for this purpose. Does one have to pay for the LibreLink app?

There's no price on it, or any indication that in-app purchases are required when I looked in iTunes.

 

[Diakat]

You could also have looked at purchasing a saving hand phone outright. I recently bought one for 40 pounds for a family member who broke theirs.

 

[TDavies]

You could also have looked at purchasing a saving hand phone outright. I recently bought one for 40 pounds for a family member who broke theirs.

I couldn't find a second hand phone with the right specs for any less than the new one! As you need quite a recent order high spec one.

 

[Alexandra100]

You could also have looked at purchasing a saving hand phone outright. I recently bought one for 40 pounds for a family member who broke theirs.

The crux would be to be sure it would perform the right kind of NFC and be compatible with the app. The phone I already have doesn't do NFC, and my tablet can't handle the app. The last thing I want is to acquire yet another piece of digital tech that won't do the one thing I bought it for.

 

[Alexandra100]

You could also have looked at purchasing a saving hand phone outright. I recently bought one for 40 pounds for a family member who broke theirs.

Do you know how much the Libre Reader costs, for comparison?

 

[TDavies]

This is very useful. I have an EE Rook and a Nexus 7 (2013) neither of which is any use for this purpose. Does one have to pay for the LibreLink app?

Both the apps are free.

 

[Diakat]

Do you know how much the Libre Reader costs, for comparison?

57.95 inc vat

 

[Diakat]

The crux would be to be sure it would perform the right kind of NFC and be compatible with the app. The phone I already have doesn't do NFC, and my tablet can't handle the app. The last thing I want is to acquire yet another piece of digital tech that won't do the one thing I bought it for.

At our local CEX you can see the phone specifications and ask questions.

 

[jlarsson]

I can only speak for my own(Xperia XA1) phone but the NFC scanner on it is absolutely rubbish and doesn't work half the time, regularly requiring several attempts to get the data from the sensor while the official Libre reader works immediately and very rarely has any problems.
I got my phone on the cheap(£20 up front and £21/month contract) on purpose as I don't care about phones in general despite being a massive tech nerd. As I only use NFC for this particular use case, is this an issue in general, is it the LibreLink app that stucks or is it just my phone that sucks?

 

[TDavies]

I can only speak for my own(Xperia XA1) phone but the NFC scanner on it is absolutely rubbish and doesn't work half the time, regularly requiring several attempts to get the data from the sensor while the official Libre reader works immediately and very rarely has any problems.
I got my phone on the cheap(£20 up front and £21/month contract) on purpose as I don't care about phones in general despite being a massive tech nerd. As I only use NFC for this particular use case, is this an issue in general, is it the LibreLink app that stucks or is it just my phone that sucks?

As long as you hold the phone over the sensor in the right place (usually you have to touch the middle of the back of the phone onto the sensor), it works fine every time for us.

 

[Deleted member 308541]

What ever phone you buy make sure it's not made by the Chinese company ZTE as they have been forced to close down.

Some of the major telcos in Australia supply these on their mobile plans, and are now worthless.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/technology/zte-china-us-trade-war.html

 

[Alexandra100]

The Vodafone Smart N8 is currently £79 on pay as you go, with a £10 top up (so £89 altogether).

I got it for my mum and she uses the app (she is 84!!) and it's so easy to use.

Thank-you so much for sharing this. I have just read a review of the Smart N8. It had two criticisms that might be important to me. One is that the phone gets very hot in use. The other is that the battery life is very poor, so it will not even last one day. Could you possibly comment? Thanks again.

 

[TDavies]

Thank-you so much for sharing this. I have just read a review of the Smart N8. It had two criticisms that might be important to me. One is that the phone gets very hot in use. The other is that the battery life is very poor, so it will not even last one day. Could you possibly comment? Thanks again.

Yes the battery is poor! We just keep it plugged in overnight so not a problem.
The screen brightness uses most of the power so I just press the power button to put the screen off whenever it is not being used.

If you are using it a lot in the day for other things then you would definitely have to have a charger with you, or one of those power bank things to plug in to.

It does get a bit hot, but not so it would burn you or anything, I noticed it but it did not worry me.

 

[Alexandra100]

Yes the battery is poor! We just keep it plugged in overnight so not a problem.
The screen brightness uses most of the power so I just press the power button to put the screen off whenever it is not being used.

If you are using it a lot in the day for other things then you would definitely have to have a charger with you, or one of those power bank things to plug in to.

It does get a bit hot, but not so it would burn you or anything, I noticed it but it did not worry me.

Thank-you so much. As Abbott readers are still not available, but sensors can be bought from Superdrug, I think I will venture on this phone. The battery life certainly is a concern, but on the other hand the storage capacity is reasonable @16GB. This is something I am very aware of as I already have an EE Rook with only 8GB, most of which is used up by non-removable bloatware. I like also the fact that this phone has the latest Android 7 Nougat OS, so I'm hoping won't go out of date too fast.

I would normally only be using the phone for Libre readings but I would be checking those a lot. Is this how your mother uses hers, and if so does it last the day?

 

[Alexandra100]

The screen brightness uses most of the power so I just press the power button to put the screen off whenever it is not being used.

When the screen is off, does it wake up when it is brought close to the Libre sensor, or do you have to wake it up first?

 

[novorapidboi26]

my last phone, the nexus 6p actually displayed a message in the app saying it wasn't compatible.....

my current phone doesn't display that message so I am assuming the NFC is compatible....

 

[TDavies]

When the screen is off, does it wake up when it is brought close to the Libre sensor, or do you have to wake it up first?

If the screen is dark, you have to press the power button to turn it on. Otherwise you don't have to specifically open the app, you just put it on your arm:

Put the middle of the back of the phone (this is where the NFC is) onto the sensor on your arm and it beeps twice to tell you it's done the reading, which then shows instantly on your phone, along with a recent graph x

 

[TDavies]

Thank-you so much. As Abbott readers are still not available, but sensors can be bought from Superdrug, I think I will venture on this phone. The battery life certainly is a concern, but on the other hand the storage capacity is reasonable @16GB. This is something I am very aware of as I already have an EE Rook with only 8GB, most of which is used up by non-removable bloatware. I like also the fact that this phone has the latest Android 7 Nougat OS, so I'm hoping won't go out of date too fast.

I would normally only be using the phone for Libre readings but I would be checking those a lot. Is this how your mother uses hers, and if so does it last the day?

Yes she checks all day and it does last for that.