Review – LifeScan OneTouch Ultra2
8:00 am in General reviews, Kit & equipment, Meter reviews by Tim
Lifescan’s OneTouch Ultra2 is my current meter of choice and I don’t really know why.
Like a long-term relationship between partners who don’t love each any more, yet can’t be bothered to go to the effort of breaking up, I’m almost completely ambivalent about it. My Ultra2 isn’t really too bad, certainly isn’t abusive and hasn’t been sleeping around with other meters, so I just trundle along with it every day. There’s just no need to get another meter.
On paper at least the Ultra2 is perfectly fine, at 5ul the sample size is okay, but not exactly market-leading. The test time of five seconds is bearable but, again, nothing spectacular. It has a back-light, the colour of which – through lots of association – I instantly associate with night-time hypos (very odd that – a colour being associated with a physiological action; I guess it’s like ersatz synesthesia . Possibly.)
Anyhoo, it’s quite nice to look at, is relatively small and is pretty simple to use. The infernal beeping can be turned off and it does pass the 4am hypo test pretty well. It’s got a pretty big memory for your readings and can be hooked up to the obligatory PC software for further analysis, which is nice, but something even I (as a dedicated computer geek) can never, ever be bothered to do.
So there we have it – the Ultra2 is a perfectly fine meter, it’ll never set the world alight but it does what it’s supposed to.
However, having written this review, I’ve realised it’s a relationship I no longer want to be in, so as soon as I’ve updated my prescription I’m leaving the Ultra2 forever and running off with the sexy, young thing that is the Abott Freestyle Lite – wish me luck!
Sample size – 3/5
0.5μL – fine, I guess.
Test time – 2/5
5 seconds – meh.
Test strip calibration – 0/5
Nope, no automatic calibration
Test strip slurpiness – 5/5
Equal with the best on the market
Memory – 4/5
500 readings – not too shabby
Sexiness – 3/5
A little plain-Jane but bearable
Beeping – 5/5
Can be turned off
4am test – 3/5
No worse than any other meter without a test strip light
Total – 30/40
Check out the manufacturer’s web site or read about our reviews.

I went to London for work yesterday. Not a major event really, I go a few times a month and it’s only a couple of hours by train. For some reason though the world was against me yesterday.




We’re just back from a fantastic fortnight sailing around the beautiful Aegean Sea. We were around the islands where 
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