Posted by on Saturday, 12 September 2015





The worst of the Medtronic MiniMed 640G


  1. Pump lock
  2. Change of orientation
  3. Belt clip
  4. No small versions
  5. Sensor overtape irritation
  6. Sensor swap delays
  7. Occasional sensor lag
  8. Sensor Glucose Review
  9. Home screen without sensors

Watch the video


The best of the Medtronic MiniMed 640G


  1. Setting basals and temp basals

  2. No TBR 'chime'
  3. Different Alert Tones
  4. No lockout during bolus delivery
  5. Screen visibility in sunlight
  6. Remote boluses from BG meter
  7. Waterproof
  8. SmartGuard - overnight hypoglycaemia
  9. SmartGuard - results overall

Watch the video








Final verdict (with sensors and SmartGuard): 5/5
Final verdict (without sensors): 4/5




  1. Wow, wow, wow!!!
    To reduce your time in Hypo by 90% is seriously impressive!

    I had hoped that the Libre would solve 'all' my problems, but of course one is still trying to catch those lows, and it looks like the technology managed to do it. Do you think they were mostly overnight ones that you would never have caught?

  2. SmartGuard did save many, many daytime ones too, but I have realised that it's the night time ones that really stuff my efforts to reduce time sub-4 because they can just last for *ages*. There's a bit more detail in the Overnight Hypoglycaemia vid, including a few Libre reports showing exactly that. With SmartGuard almost all of that went away - and nothing below 3.5 for the whole 9 weeks. Comparing day to day how much SmartGuard was (and then wasn't) active from from one day/week to the next makes me realise now rapidly my basal requirement can fluctuate one way then another, often turning on a sixpence. Smart guard gave me the time to spot and fix things without the pesky lows.

  3. I must look at your video! Unfortunately I suspect basals are not my problem, more likely due to food spikes with even relatively small carbohydrate loads - but then perhaps I would have a better chance of preventing the inevitable hypo that I too often miss with the Libre. Added to the frequent inconsistent results caused by nothing in particular...! Encouraging report though - I wonder when there will be justification for us all getting this kit??

  4. Well they will need to be able to construct a solid, valid RCT showing 'statistically significant' benefit, preferably in HbA1c, but both A1c and hypo together would be even better. And then it would help if the cost came down. I'm not aware of any published MM640G research yet, though Medtronic must have done at least some small studies during development I think. Let's hope they have a corker of a trial in the pipeline. Shame it missed the boat for the NICE guideline update - as did the Libre.

    The currently available evidence for CGM is bewilderingly weak. It doesn't show anything like the benefit that all the people I know who self fund get from it. Which is weird, because you would think that the sort of people that get recruited for a trial would be *exactly* the right type to get a lot out of it. All very confusing.

  5. Hi, great review. The remote control (USB meter) is very valuable if you have kids with diabetes. It would be good if you looked into the functionality of the remote control a bit more. Cheers. /Christian - diabetes type 1 (with two diabetes type 1 kids).

  6. It was interesting to read your review, glad you found the pump helpful. I was surprised by the high rating for use without a sensor.
    I used the 640g for about 6 months without a CGM system upgrading from the previous medtronic paradigm minimed. I found the 640g had pretty much zero new useful features (might be different with a CGM), but many things that annoyed me (badly design, poor UI, slow to input, bulkier, annoying alerts especially for battery). It got so bad I now use my old pump, the 640g is now a $10,000 paperweight.

    1. Sorry that you had such a poor experience of the MM640G. Pumps and interface foibles are such a personal thing. I found several of the UX changes really useful - particularly that they removed some of the things (like the hourly TBR chime that *really* wound me up about the Veo). I agree that the site is a bit clunky and it's a bit of an ugly spud - but for me this is nothing all that unusual in diabetes device design which seems to lag waaaay behind other consumer products. I liked much of the home screen stuff, improved alarm tones and display, colour screen, and relatively easy access to several things I use often, plus the naming and copy-paste-edit of basal profiles. But if you are not a frequent basal tweaker I can see that that would not even register.

      Of course I would seriously like to take the UX team into a dark room and physically demonstrate the frustration of requiring so many completely unnecessary button presses (utterly illogical since easy bolus is still available by just accidentally leaning on a few buttons). I have no idea how much influence the FDA had over some of the excruciatingly poor UX decisions, but if it wasn't regulatory pressure there really is no excuse for it.

      On balance though, there is much I still like about the MM640G, albeit with many things that drive me nuts. My experience of the Veo was very similar.

      There's more of my moaning and gripes here: