Stelo vs. Lingo vs. Libre 2 & 3 CGM First Thoughts Review

tldr; Get the Stelo if you care about syncing your glucose data into Apple Health or want a less annoying app experience. Otherwise the Stelo and Lingo are very similar, but the Lingo might be a little bit more accurate.

Comparing the Stelo and Lingo at the same time

We have been trying out various CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitors) since they are consumable items. Now there are newer, cheaper consumer ones. We've tried using the Stelo and the Lingo simultaneously for half a day, and it's interesting to see the variation. We now know that the iPhone can continuously read multiple Bluetooth CGMs too!

CGMs are known to not be the most accurate on the first day. The Stelo CGM was also near the end of its lifespan during this time. So take all of this with a grain of salt.

After a few hours of having the Lingo CGM on, we did a blood reading with a KetoMojo device. CGMs read glucose from your interstitial fluid (IF), not your blood, so they are known to be 15-20m behind blood readings.

2:21pm: 88mg/dL blood, 103mg/dL lingo, 112 mg/dLstelo

2:41pm: 100mg/dL lingo, 103mg/dL stelo

The lowest readings were close to each other:

Stelo 2:56 pm 98mg/dL

Lingo 3:02 pm 93mg/dL

So even after 20m, the CGMs were still reading around 12mg/dL higher, and their lowest points only got into 10-5mg/dL within the blood reading.

All of these glucose reading devices have a built-in 'acceptable margin of error' according to FDA regulations, including the blood ones. They can be large, up to 20%. So still get lab tested to know how your glucose response is after fasting and don't solely use these to self-diagnose.

Device reviews

Dexcom Stelo

Dexcom Stelo ($22.50/week) is good beyond the update rate being every 5 minutes vs. the 1 minute that the Libre 3 has. The over patch gets somewhat gross over time but otherwise, there are no complaints about it after 2 weeks of usage from my partner.

Stelo App: Syncs with Apple Health and exports glucose into Apple Health, which none of the Abbott ones do as a first party. They let you make an account despite not purchasing it from them, unlike the Lingo. You are forced to create an account unlike the medical freestyle libre.

From my brief research, the medical version of the Stelo, the Dexcom G7, has similar apple health syncing features.

Abbott Lingo

Abbott Lingo ($22.50/week) is similar and looks identical to a Freestyle Libre 2 in size and casing, but it has automatic Bluetooth syncing unlike the Libre 2. The box it comes in is the fanciest, but doesn't come with an over patch. We have only used it for about 5 hours so far.

Lingo App: Abbott is more restrictive and has a worse app. You need to sign up with your purchase email, so a couple can't just make one multipack purchase to have 2 accounts. The app also does not export glucose into Apple Health, but it does import events from Apple Health like the Stelo app.  The app does not seem as nice as Stelo's and gets stuck in 'sync' mode for a few minutes sometimes. You can still see your glucose history and times for each reading easily, unlike the freestyle libre apps. It also seems to read about every 5 minutes.

Freestyle Libre 2 & 3

The Freestyle Libre 3 ($35/week) is a medical CGM and is a definite improvement over the 2. It's the smallest one out of all 3. It doesn't come with an over patch, but for the 2 weeks I had it stayed on with no problem. It reads every minute and is probably the most accurate device. When I used the Libre 2 several years ago, it was a bigger device. You had to manually scan data from the Libre 2 using NFC. It had a limited memory and you often lost data when you slept partly.

Freestyle Libre Apps: The app is more annoying to use and it doesn't let you read specific values off the graph like the new ones do. It also doesn't sync with Apple Health, so you need to manually double-enter your workouts and other events. The Libre 3 app forces you to put in 'critical alerts' or it refuses to function if you do not. It will wake you up in the middle of the night if it loses a connection or sees a high or low rating. The Libre 2 app does not do this since you need to manually scan. It is more targeted for the medical use case and lets you share your values with others like doctors and loved ones. You don't need an account with the Libre Apps although, which is a big bonus.

Recommendation so far

(for non diabetic people)

I would recommend the Stelo if you want to sync your glucose history into Apple Health and a better app. If you don't care about that, the Lingo is probably good enough might be a little bit more accurate. I would only get a Libre 3 if you want the higher accuracy and update rate if device size matters for you, or if you can't buy any of the other ones for other reasons.

This is early days for both of these new CGMs too, they've only been released to the public in the past few weeks. Maybe with enough reviews and complaints, Abbott will fix their Apple Health syncing issues and have a less annoying signup process. Maybe Android support will also come later. Abbott is also planning to release a series of these sensors for ketones, lactate and alcohol levels too under the Lingo brand. I hope one day we will get hydration biosensors too.