Why You Can Trust CNET Ozmo Active Smart Cup review: This smart drink holder doesn't quite measure up
The Bluetooth-enabled Ozmo Active Smart Cup tries to track your water and coffee intake, but gets a little lost along the way.
The Ozmo Active Smart Cup is an intriguing concept that gets bogged down by its high price and lack of features, ultimately making it tough to recommend. Here's the gist.
Ozmo Active Smart Cup
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
To combat dehydration, Hong-Kong-based startup Ozmo developed a $60/£45/AU$80 16-ounce Bluetooth-enabled cup available worldwide (also called Ozmo). Of course, you can put any drink under 176°F (80°C) in this sturdy-lidded drink holder, but it's specifically designed to auto-log your water and coffee consumption via built-in sensors. Initial question: Do we really need this much help remembering to drink water?
The Ozmo app walks you through the simple initial configuration then asks for some basic information -- your age, your height and weight, and your activity level (from low to extreme). From there, it arrives at an optimal amount of water you should drink every day. Mine was 108 ounces or 13.5 cups. That seemed high, but it's probably because I grew up with the ol' 8 cups of water a day adage and never really questioned it.
The software also decides on a maximum daily caffeine intake for you, 21 ounces in my case -- just over 2.5 cups.
The Ozmo iPhone app tracks your daily water and coffee intake.
Ozmo's durable Active Smart Cups weigh 12.7 ounces and are made of ABS plastic with a "Tritan BPA-free" inner coating. They come in blue, purple, red and gray finishes, along with compatible lids and USB adapters. (The lid has to be on tight for the cup to correctly log what you drink.) There's a removable rubberized tab at the bottom of each Active Smart Cup that conceals the reset button (needed for the initial configuration) and the Micro-USB charging port.
The cup is also outfitted with LED lights; it's fully charged when all three are illuminated. Charging from 0 to full took me roughly an hour -- a definite inconvenience when you're thirsty. It's supposed to last for up to three weeks on a single charge, but the user manual says that, "Battery life may deteriorate over time with frequent use."
You can follow the app to track your progress, but the LED alerts can also clue you in. When the first, second or third LED blinks on its own it means you've reached 20, 50 or 90 percent of your daily goal. When all three LEDs blink, you've reached your daily goal. Ozmo has various vibration-based alerts as well -- it buzzes once when you connect the cup to its power adapter and it buzzes six times when you haven't had anything to drink in over an hour. I got that alert at least twice today. Must. Drink. More. Water.
So yes, apparently I do need help remembering to drink water and Ozmo was kind of useful in that regard, but the cup's actual water- and coffee-tracking abilities weren't always on point. Occasionally, the app didn't log the water or coffee I was drinking at all, making me wonder why I was using it.
Other times, it nailed it -- even when I tried to confuse it with warm water and iced coffee. But that lack of consistency makes Ozmo questionable as a serious hydration tracker. And if you're really trying to limit your caffeine intake, you'd likely need something that can also track sodas, teas and other no-nos. Given its $60/£45/AU$80 price tag, it's hard to get past these flaws; I'd look elsewhere for a solution.