I've been doing a lot of bathroom scale research and as far as I tell, this is the most advanced consumer model available at any price. There's so many patented features on this scale that comparing this to anything else wouldn't be fair.
When buying a product like this, keep in mind that you're getting more than just the scale. You're also going enjoy using their free smart phone app and their free website. If you're like me, you'll also want to use this scale with many other smart phone apps and websites. At the time of this writing, this product is compatible with more than 60 different apps and websites!
I just received my scale a few hours ago and I am already VERY impressed with both the scale and the smart-phone app. The first step I performed was to download the free Withings app to my Android phone from the Google play store. If you have an Apple product, you can download the app just like any other Apple application. Next I removed the plastic tab from the battery compartment placed there to keep the batteries from draining during shipment. Then I linked my scale with my smart-phone with the bluetooth feature. The Bluetooth pairing was very simple after I pressed the "pairing" button on the bottom of the scale. Next I setup the Wi-Fi feature by selecting my wireless router with the Withings phone-app. When that was done, all I had to do was sign up for a Withings account by providing my email address and a password for the Withings account. Setting up the account only takes about a minute. You will be asked to provide your name (for tracking your account), 3 characters for your initials (which will be visible when you weigh yourself), your height (for BMI calculations), your gender (for accurate bodyfat % calculations), Your age (presumably for bodyfat calculations), and Body Composition Model (I kept the default value, but I will need to learn morea about this setting). That's it. I've literally spent more time typing this paragraph than the time it took to set everything up.
Next I setup my Withings account to automatically share data with my MyFitnessPal account and my FitBit account. The Fitbit compatibility most surprised me because they also sell their own wi-fi bathroom scale. A simple google search was all it took to learn how to link my accounts together and it only took a few minutes from start to finish! Now I'll never have to worry about writing down my weight every morning and typing it on my computer located at the other side of the house! It just works!
Other things worth mentioning.
- If you're not standing on the center of the scale, arrows on the corners of the display will tell you which direction to shift your weight for a more accurate reading.
- The scale uses 4 AAA batteries and they come pre-installed. Just be sure to remove the plastic tab covering one of the batteries before use or the batteries won't make contact.
- The build quality is great and the design is stylish and sleek. The glass-like surface may need to be cleaned often but I'll learn more as I start using it.
- The 4 legs are on ball&socket sytle legs to help evenly distribute the load to the floor evenly. As a mechanical design engineer, I really like their design.
- The display is very nice white-letter on a dark background design.
- This model not only measures your weight and bodyfat percentage, but it also measures your heart rate, room temperature, and airborne carbon dioxide levels. I'm not yet sure what I need carbon dioxide level information for, but at least it sounds cool.
- Up to 8 users can use the same scale. Somehow the scale is smart enough to identify each unique user and automatically track their information separately.
- The scale is packaged in a nice resealable cardboard box with a plastic lifting handle. This is important to me because I travel a lot and plan on taking my scale with me. The box features cutouts to protect the legs and protection in all of the right places. They put some serious thought into the design of their box and I appreciate it!
So far my only two very minor complaints are related to the Android phone app, and they're probably not even problems. When you first start the app, the screen looks blank. I thought it was acting like it was slow to load, but it turns out that I only needed to tap the screen to get to the main "dashboard". My second gripe is about the comment field below each weigh-in. The app allows you to type out a message on your phone app below each weight entry, but as far as I can tell (as a novice user) each time you enter a comment it seems to be assigned to EVERY weight entry when you only intend to assign it to one particular weight entry. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Anyway, I'm not very worried about it because if there's a problem I'm sure it will be fixed in the next smart-phone software upgrade.
I've been very excited about this product ever since I pre-ordered it before the official release date and overall I am VERY pleased. You should buy this product too.
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Reliably does what it is supposed to.
I had a little difficulty setting this up to begin with because you need to remember that *setup* uses bluetooth, while operation uses your local wifi. Ooops my bad. Otherwise, I've had this for a little over a year and it has reliably performed as expected (the reliability is what bumps it up to 5 stars from an 'as expected' of 3 stars).The readout on the scale gives your weight, fat%, temperature measured at the scale, temperature forecast for the day (from the web), and heart-rate, followed by a graphic for CO2 (not to be confused with CO) levels measured at the scale. Modern houses are semi-air-tight to be energy efficient and the CO2 monitor is a good prompt to open your windows when weather allows and refresh your air supply. You have your choice of units--kilos vs lbs, °F vs °C via buttons on the bottom of the scale.Your data is archived online, where you can also manually add or delete data-points. You can also download the data if you want to play with it in a spreadsheet or whatever. The website offers some nice graphing features and allows you to view weight, BMI, fat mass and lean mass, fat % and lean %, measured ambient temperatures and CO2 levels, heart rate. Probably a couple of other things I'm forgetting. The phone app displays a subset of these (notably % not mass for fat and lean). Both also talk to other Withings products such as their high-end activity-monitoring sports watches (that look like a mechanical watch), their wi-fi blood pressure cuff, their sleep monitor system...I don't have those products though so I can't comment on them. At present you can manually add data for blood pressure and heart rate but not for sleep or step tracking from non-Withings devices.You can set up different user-id's within the account for different family members to track their weight independently. If two family members have similar weights, the scale itself will offer you a choice by initials as to which family member the data should be stored under--you select by leaning left or right on the scale foot-pad. You can also reassign measurements to different users while on the website in case of any errors. I have used this feature to set up a dummy user where I can dump weights measured out of curiosity after a meal, for example, that are not part of my "official" weight-loss tracking that I measure each morning (my weight can vary by a kg between morning and afternoon just by water and food intake, so I try to always measure around the same time of day).Some have commented on slow customer service email replies but I have not had this problem with them. Most of my customer service questions have been regarding website use. I have been able to find the answers to most questions in the online help.The fat % measurements may seem a bit squirrel-y at first; if you read in the help section online you find this is because it can be mislead by the distribution of water in your body if you measure yourself shortly after getting out of bed or directly after exercising. These factors effect all impedence-based body-composition measurement tools. To get more consistent readings from this or any similar product you need to be consistent about when you take the measurement.The Withings site does not have calorie tracking itself but it does talk to MyFitnessPal, so I'm guessing it probably interacts with other calorie-tracking apps as well.Here is an example of the graphing feature on the website, in this case displaying estimated fat mass from my recent dieting efforts (I'm about 5 lbs from leaving "obese" and becoming merely "overweight"):
Top reviews from other countries
Locky
Good scales and arrived earlier than expected.
Reviewed in Australia on October 14, 2020
Sian M.
I can not say enough about how fantastic this scale (and Withings) is. But I'll try.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2014smile3
Fantastica - molto piu di una bilancia
Reviewed in Italy on September 21, 2014