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COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale review: The future of nutrition?
8:56 pm | January 15, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Fitness Apps Gadgets Health & Fitness | Tags: | Comments: Off

COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Two-minute review

COSORI smart kitchen scale

(Image credit: Future)

New for 2025 in the world of health and fitness technology is the enticing COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale. I actually first encountered it on TikTok where I've seen a couple of viral posts about it, and now COSORI has officially launched the Smart Kitchen Scale in the UK. See the Price and Availability section for full details.

As a fitness enthusiast with an interest in food and nutrition, but as someone who often struggles to track food and count calories, the COSORI seemed right up my street, and after my initial go at using the scale I have to say I'm really impressed. It's not perfect, and the methodology has a couple of obvious flaws I'll get to, but this is a nifty little kitchen gadget that will catch the eye of guests and make a great sub-£50/$50 gift for the gym enthusiast in your life.

Out of the box, 6he COSORI feels premium and well-built, which you'd hope for a scale that costs nearly 50 bucks. The plastic base houses three AAA batteries, while the platform is made up of food-grade 304 stainless steel that's designed to be easy to clean. The sizing is pretty generous, it's a lot larger than my bog-standard kitchen scale and feels more useful as a result, without being unwieldy.

COSORI smart kitchen scale

(Image credit: Future)

The COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale is designed to provide you with accurate information about the food you eat, revealing the exact amount of calories, protein, fat, carbs, and micronutrients like fiber based on weight. Naturally, it requires a companion app where you'll access the database of food, scanning barcodes (or searching for food) as you go.

The scale arrives ready to use, with a QR code included for the VeSync app, I'd say installation, registration, and pairing all took less than a minute. The process to set up the scale was extremely easy and straightforward, with zero hiccups. So far, so good.

COSORI smart kitchen scale

(Image credit: Future)

The COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale is so easy to use that there's very little to explain when it comes to its functionality. The VeSync app, which syncs with Apple Health and Fitbit, includes a daily food-tracking platform. You enter your target calories and your desired breakdown of protein, carbs, and fat, the big three 'macronutrients' essential to balancing a diet, shedding weight, or building muscle.

Once your numbers are locked in, you log food just as you would in apps like MyFitnessPal. The most convenient way to do this is by scanning barcodes. The process is super snappy, but has an obvious flaw. The food data comes from Nutritionix, which boasts nearly one million food items. However, if your food isn't listed, you'll need to enter the details manually or pick a substitute.

I did a quick go-around of my fridge and was surprised to find eggs and Greek yogurt from one household UK supermarket didn't show up. However, eggs from another large supermarket showed up just fine, as did some frozen berries from my freezer, and a body-building mainstay: Pringles potato crisps. Your mileage will definitely vary when it comes to what foods are supported, and might even depend on where you live and shop.

Manually entering the information isn't the end of the world, but it's certainly frustrating when the barcode scanner doesn't throw up results.

COSORI smart kitchen scale

(Image credit: Future)

Once you've successfully identified your food, you simply pop it on the scale and the COSORI will automatically weigh it and provide you with a breakdown of all the nutrients in the food. Once you're happy with your amount, you simply tap 'Save and Add More', and you're done. Congrats, you've successfully logged the exact weight and calorific breakdown of the food you're about to eat.

In principle, you can use the COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale to track an entire day's worth of eating, with calorie tracking accuracy down to the nearest gram.

So who would benefit? While the COSORI can be used to simply weigh something, this is a lot of money to spend on a scale that you use purely for weight. The COSORI really needs to be used to its full potential to justify the outlay. I'd say that gym-goers, bodybuilders, and anyone trying to build a food regime to complement their fitness plan would absolutely love the COSORI.

It would especially lend itself to people who like to try new foods, mix up recipes, and experiment. By contrast, if you meal prep seven days of boiled chicken, rice, and broccoli every Sunday afternoon, you might be better off with a regular scale.

COSORI smart kitchen scale

(Image credit: Future)

The COSORI is particularly helpful for giving you insight into calories and ingredients which don't have an obvious calorie makeup, like a spoonful of peanut butter. I distinctly recall one TikToker being mortified at just how many calories were to be found in a fairly meager serving of peanut butter, for instance. If you take an interest in your diet, calories, and portions, the COSORI could take you from a portion enthusiast to a culinary Rain Man.

While you could in theory use the COSORI alongside something like MyFitnessPal to track your food, you'd lose out on the snappy, automatic tracking and instant results that make the COSORI an attractive package. Therefore, anyone who's already heavily invested in a different food or fitness app might not want to make the switch. The COSORI app even features recipes, including recipes you can use with the best air fryers (some of which, coincidentally, are also made by COSORI).

COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Price and availability

COSORI smart kitchen scale

(Image credit: Future)
  • $39.99 / £47.42
  • No AUS availability
  • Different brand name in the US

The COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale is available now in the UK from Amazon at the cost of £47.42. In the U.S, you can buy one under the brand name Etekcity, also from Amazon, at the cost of $39.99. Both COSORI and Etekcity are subsidiaries of the VeSync brand, and these are the same product. Unfortunately, the product is not currently available in Australia.

COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Specifications

COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Scorecard

COSORI Smart Nutrition Scale: Should I buy?

COSORI smart kitchen scale

(Image credit: Future)

Buy if it...

You care deeply about food and nutrition

This scale is the perfect companion for anyone tracking calories or trying to hit a fitness goal.

You want an easy way to track your calories

It doesn't get easier than scanning your food and then weighing it.

You tend to eat lots of different foods and create new recipes

This scale is particularly useful for tracking a varied diet and for people who like to mix it up a bit. View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You just want a scale to weigh food

If you don't care about the app or the tracking insights, this is too expensive as a normal scale.

There's not a lot of variation in your diet

While still useful, the COSORI will be less valuable to people who tend to eat the same foods over and over again.

Also consider

COSORI smart kitchen scale

(Image credit: Future)

The Renpho Kitchen Scales are an obvious alternative to the COSORI, and a lot cheaper. However, you won't get that epic LCD display the nutritional information, and it's a bit smaller too.

How I tested

I paired the COSORI Smart Kitchen Scale with my iPhone, exploring all of the features of the app. I used the scale to weigh a number of household foods to determine accuracy, as well as the barcode scanner to test the food library function.

Ublives’ SoleFlux Relax massage boots have convinced me of the benefits of leg compression
4:56 pm | November 19, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Fitness Apps Gadgets Health & Fitness | Comments: Off

Ublives SoleFlux Relax: Two-minute review

Ublives Leg Compression unit

(Image credit: Future)

I went into my first leg compression experience with Ublives somewhat skeptical of the benefits, and early on in my testing, I wasn’t blown away. Sure, getting a robotic leg massage was kind of cool, and enjoyable, but I didn’t feel like I’d found the vital missing link in my recovery chain. That was until I played my first game of soccer in seven years. After just an hour spent out of breath, fighting for my life on a cold Scottish winter night, I’ve become convinced that leg compression of any kind can provide a massive boost to recovery and performance, and the Ublives SoleFlux Relax are a great starting point for anyone looking to get involved.

Following my first serious aerobic exercise in years, I’ve been mainlining Ublives’ boots multiple times a day, and the only residual soreness I had in my legs was in the places they don’t reach, leaving me thoroughly impressed with their usefulness.

The SoleFlux Relax aren't the cheapest or the most expensive pair of compression boots on the market. You’ll find cheaper options from the likes of Pulsio or more expensive options from Hyperice. In and around the Ublives are offerings from Therabody, who make some of the best massage guns for fitness and recovery.

The SoleFlux Relax, like all leg compression boots, are simple in concept. They’re enormous boots that cover your feet, lower leg, and most of your thigh. Inflatable chambers receive air through a compression device, exerting pressure on your aching limbs to provide the sensation of a massage.

Ublives leg compression

(Image credit: Future)

At first wear, they’re very comfortable to put on, with a single zip running the length of each boot ensuring that you can get in and out of them very easily. I’m six foot tall with long legs and pretty beefy thighs and found that I couldn’t quite get them all the way on for maximum comfort. It wasn’t a deal breaker, but I often used them with the feeling that I hadn’t quite got my leg all the way in.

There are two basic designs of leg compression, and Ublives has opted for a modular design with a small air compression control unit that attaches directly to each leg. This means that you can use each side independently, and are free to move around a bit more. This can be handy if you need targeted recovery for just one leg, or want a bit more flexibility. However, I found that this also led to asynchronous massages where one leg didn’t quite match the other, even when I selected the same program, pressure, and duration. Using the power units was very simple, there’s a button for on, a toggle for pressure, and buttons to control the program and time length.

There are three programs each available in three different durations. Circulation Mode sends pressure up your leg starting at your foot and is dubbed as a sports recovery mode. Sequence mode is targeted at those with muscle soreness and moves from foot to thigh in a slightly different pattern. Finally, there’s Whole Mode, a deep care setting for people who sit for long periods of time and don’t exercise much. Each is available as a 10, 20, or 30-minute program.

I was surprised by how intense the pressure was, even in the middle or lower settings. In fact, the pressure is so intense I’ve not psyched myself up enough to turn it up to five. Rest assured, at least, that even the very achiest and stiffest legs can benefit from Ublives.

While it’s impossible to say whether you will benefit in the same way from leg compression, I’ve found myself impressed by their usefulness. As noted, they were a vital part of my recent recovery from my soccer-induced leg pain. Beyond sports, I’ve found myself using them at some point of every day for a variety of reasons. I’ve used them after a long day sitting down at my desk, and I’ve found another great benefit too. The Ublives seem to help with Restless leg syndrome, with a good program before bed really helping to calm my muscles as I try to sleep.

While Ublives have been my first experience with leg compression, I was surprised by how light they were, and the build quality was reassuringly sturdy. The control units are powered by USB-C and take around 2 and a half hours to charge. From that, you should get 20 minutes of use per day for 10 days, or 200 minutes of use. I’ve broadly found that claim to hold up, running 30 minutes five or six times before needing to charge up again.

Ublives SoleFlux Relax: Price and availability

Ublives Leg Compression bag

(Image credit: Future)

The Ublives SoleFlux Relax are available exclusively from Ublives.com. They retail at $599, with the price the same wherever you buy them from, so watch out for exchange rates. The AirFit Hyperbag is an optional extra that costs $120. Ublives advertises a 90-day money-back guarantee for users who want to try the product.

TechRadar readers can score them at the reduced price of $479 by using the code Techradar20 at Ublives.com.

Ublives SoleFlux Relax: Specifications

Ublives control unit

(Image credit: Future)

Ublives SoleFlux Relax: Scorecard

Ublives SoleFlux Relax: Should I buy?

Ublives Leg Compression Review

(Image credit: Future)

Buy if it...

You want excellent leg compression

Ublives deliver great pressure and a range of excellent programs

You want a split-leg design

With two separate boots and control units, these are perfect if you want a separate-leg design.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget

There are considerably cheaper options out there

You want a single-unit design

Other units can be found with a single control unit that manages both legs

Also consider

How I tested

I’ve used the Ublives SoleFlux Relax multiple times a day for a few weeks, including before and after workouts, in the evening at bedtime, and following long days sat down at the office. I used all three of the programs available for each of the three durations available. I also ran the batteries to zero and recharged them multiple times to test battery life and recharge time.

First reviewed: November 2024

PUSH review: The AI app of choice for strength-based athletes
11:03 am | October 24, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Fitness Apps Gadgets Health & Fitness | Comments: Off

Push Two minute review

After an entire year as my fitness companion, PUSH Workout & Gym Tracker has become an indispensable part of my training regime. PUSH is the brainchild of fitness influencer and YouTuber Joe Delaney, and is designed to do one thing extremely well. It’s an app made to help you build muscle as quickly as possible, using AI-powered workout routines, strict exercise tracking, and measured progressive overload.

The first thing you notice about PUSH is its sleek and well-built interface. Workout and fitness apps can often be a cacophony of bright colors, images, text, and numbers everywhere, but not so with PUSH. You can tell that real effort has gone into the user interface and the experience of using the app. The fonts, menus, and icons are all well-thought-out, spacious yet comprehensive. There are just a few colors set against the white background, a traffic-light system helps signal progress, PBs, and plateaus at just a glance.

When using PUSH for the first time, you’ll be asked to generate a workout plan. Plans are flexible, but range between three and six sessions a week. You also get to pick your preferred split (gym lingo for your sequence of training sessions), choosing between either "full-body" sessions or "push-pull-legs". The latter is more familiar to most gymgoers, but the former is the most optimal split, with muscles grouped together to minimize crossover fatigue.

You’ll also be asked about your sleep and stress levels, training experience, and muscles to focus, before finally the level of equipment available to you. You can even substitute certain exercises from your plan before you start, and over time the app will make recommendations if you generate new plans, so as increasing or decreasing your workout frequency. The plan generation software is really simple and easy to use, so you always feel like you get the right program for you.

Once you’ve got your program, it’s time to get started. You can view upcoming workouts and scroll between days to see what’s on the agenda, giving you a nice overview of how the week is panning out. You’ll probably be surprised to find a pretty diverse mix of exercises over the course of your week. You’ll often find yourself training legs, back, shoulders, chest, arms, core, and more on the same day or together in ways you might not expect, but it’s all part of the optimization process at the heart of PUSH. A bit unfamiliar at first, I’ve definitely felt the benefits of switching up my training routine and spreading the load more evenly across different muscle groups.

Push workout app on iPhone

(Image credit: Future / PUSH )

Workouts are broken down into phases, so you’ll start with a strength phase of high-weight, low-reps, with three or more minutes of rest. Then you move on to stabilized compounds like lateral pulldowns, before ending with a pump phase of lower weight, higher reps, and reduced rest. For each exercise, you’ll get very clearly marked target weights and reps, and you simply tick the box by tapping on it with your thumb to mark off a set and start your rep timer. You can manually adjust the entries if you fall short of your target reps, or you lift more weight than listed in the app.

Over time, the AI will track your progress, and it'll eventually suggest a new weight or an increased number of reps. This will become clearer over time as you use the app, but it’s highly motivating and gives you an amazing sense of progress. If you stall, it’ll recommend a "plateau breaker" exercise, or you can attempt the exercise again. You can also switch out exercises on the fly during workouts, too.

The app presents progress over your last seven days, highlighting muscles that are likely growing or stalling, which can help you refocus your efforts as you exercise. Each exercise is accompanied by a helpful animated guide video, although beginners might find the lack of instructions a bit daunting.

There are a couple of quirks to using PUSH. I don’t love that there’s no volume control for the rest timer. It’s tied to the volume of your music (at least on iPhone), so the louder your music or podcast, the louder the beep at the end of your rest period. The AI also isn’t infallible; recently I plateaued at a 100kg bench press, and the AI suggested I try a plateau breaker of 1002.5 kg, instead of 102.5kg.

It feels unfair to mark the app down for only serving one purpose, however, prospective users should be aware that PUSH is only tailored towards building muscle mass in the gym. You won’t find any Pilates, mobility, cardio, or any other discipline here: this is purely strength-based. The only other possible drawback is the price: at $89.99 / £89.99 / AU$144.99 , the yearly subscription is a big commitment, and some people might find the monthly cost too much to stomach compared to the price of, say, Apple Fitness Plus or Fitbod.

Generally, however, the app has been a joy to use in the 12 months that I’ve been a customer and is well worth the financial investment. And there’s more to come, creator Delaney has teased changes coming to the app on his Instagram, so there’s never been a better time to get on board with what is undoubtedly one of the best fitness apps on the market.

Push: Price and availability

Push workout app tracker

(Image credit: Future)

The Push app is available globally on Apple’s App Store for iPhone and the Google Play Store for Android. There’s a brief free trial available, after which you’ll pay $89.99/£89.99/$AU$144.99 a year or $15.49/£14.99/AU$23.49 a month to use it.

Push: Specifications

Push app reps and weight screen

(Image credit: Future / PUSH)

Push: Scorecard

Push: Should I buy?

Push app daily workout viewer

(Image credit: Future)

Buy if it...

You want to build muscle in the gym

This is one of the purest fitness apps on the market for building muscle mass.

You want a structured workout tracker with progressive overload

PUSH excels at tracking your workout progress and keeping you focused during sessions.

Don't buy it if...

You want a free or cheap workout app

PUSH is more expensive than other options on the market.

You want a fitness app for anything other than muscle-building

PUSH does not include any other type of exercise or nutrition guidance.

Also consider

Fitbod

A pocket personal trainer with huge range of exercises that caters to all skill levels.

Read our full Fitbod review

Apple Fitness Plus

Slightly cheaper, Apple Fitness Plus features a more diverse array of content with a focus on guided video classes, with disciplines including Pilates, Kickboxing, Yoga, and more.

How I tested

I’ve paid to use PUSH for one year, and have used it six times a week every week for the last 12 months. I’ve generated multiple fresh plans to follow, and have used its features over the course of an entire year by performing a daily workout with the help of the app. All of my testing was done on an iPhone 15 Pro Max or iPhone 16 Pro Max.

First reviewed: OCtober 2024

AllTrails review: an essential app for hobbyist hikers and walkers
7:20 pm | June 11, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Fitness Apps Gadgets Health & Fitness | Comments: Off

AllTrails: Two minute review

AllTrails is a hiking app that allows you to search for local hikes and trails, plan your routes ahead of time, and follow your progress along the route to ensure you don’t get lost. You can also rate the trail for other users, upload photos, follow other hikers and keep a virtual diary of your trail experiences. 

It was named Apple’s “iPhone app of the year” in 2023 – and for good reason: it’s a great community app, and one of the best fitness apps around, especially for hikers and nature lovers. It’s essentially Strava for hikers, rather than runners and cyclists, and the two share many similar features. These include showing your followers GPS maps of the trails you’ve walked; the ability to upload and share media; estimated stats such as calorie counts; and more accurate GPS-generated information such as distance, elevation and moving time. 

It’s missing some of Strava’s reliance on competition with aspects such as segments, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hiking isn’t trail-running or particularly competitive, and an AllTrails representative told me this was a deliberate choice. Features such as segments and leaderboards are unlikely to arrive on this particular community-based app. Competition can breed elitism, and AllTrails is designed to democratize hiking. 

In this, the app certainly succeeds. The average person who’s never hiked before can filter by length, difficulty or style of walk (such as “nearby”, “circular” or “pub walk”), pick a trail, read the reviews, and follow a GPS map all the way round. I’ve used the free version on For AllTrails+ members, where helpful haptic feedback hints alert the user when they stray too far from the trail, reducing the chance of the user even taking a wrong turn. 

Once the user has completed their walk, they can share their media, review by stars and add comments (such as “very muddy in winter, bring walking boots”). AllTrails then takes all this community information and uses it in its calculations to serve others the same trail. It’s a simple concept, and one that’s very well-executed; it’s well worth a free download for even the most occasional hiker. 

AllTrails app used on a hike

(Image credit: Future / Matt Evans)

Regular walkers and serious multi-day hikers will get more out of AllTrails+, which is competitively priced at $34.99 / £35.99 / AU$35.99. For the extras, you get more sophisticated filtering of local trails, those wrong-turn alerts, the option of 3D maps, the ability to download trails and save them for offline use (indispensable on more remote walks), and a Live Share tool. Live Share works like the LiveTrack feature on the best Garmin watches, broadcasting your location to anyone with the Live Share URL in case something goes wrong on the trail.

There’s very little to dislike about AllTrails: it’s a great community tool; the Plus version is reasonably priced, and every trail is vetted by a human before being shared with the community. Unfortunately, being largely user-driven, I did find some complaints online. These were mainly about the fact that the trails can be outdated or feature incomplete information, such as taking you across land that has been privatized.

I experienced one such issue during testing in the Lake District, with a small part of an AllTrails route attempting to lead me across a short stretch of private land. As previously mentioned, it’s worth checking the reviews and route before you go to see if the community has picked up on anything.

Smartwatch integration is a little underwhelming: maps are only shared to the watchOS or Wear OS via the premium version; otherwise, it’s a simple start/stop button and a few basic metrics. Another hiccup is that when using the free version, navigation is dependent on cell service, so more remote hikes require the premium version to follow the map as you go.

AllTrails: Specifications

AllTrails: Scorecard

AllTrails: Should I buy?

AllTrails app used on a hike

(Image credit: Future / Matt Evans)

Buy if it...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested

I used the free version of AllTrails on several hikes around the UK – in Wales, Cornwall and the Chilterns – and tested AllTrails+ on three hikes in the UK’s Lake District National Park. I examined the different kinds of filters on offer for searching out new hikes, tried both 3D and 2D map data on each of the AllTrails+ hikes I went on, and tested the map route and GPS accuracy against data from my Garmin Epix Pro.