Review: Withings Wi-Fi Scale

Beyond calorie counting, regular exercise or counter-intuitive strategies like the “Cookie Diet,” one of the easiest ways to boost your chances of losing and maintaining weight is … a scale (duh). Self-tracking can be tedious, though, especially if you’re keeping tabs on a number of metrics. Hence, automation is as good as it gets.

The Wi-Fi Scale from Withings isn’t the only web-connected digital scale on the market, but for now, it’s the best we’ve stepped on. Aside from weight (to a tenth of a pound), the scale immediately calculates Body Mass Index and fat/lean mass (based on measurements like height, Nice part is that if your computer’s not on, the scale will save data and upload it— in a matter of seconds — next time you log on. Better part is that multiple people (read: your roommate who borrows everything) can use the scale, too. If your weights are very similar and the scale isn’t sure who’s who, the data will be attributed separately to an “unknown” user for you to claim and add to your user name. (Our account tracked three separate people, and only one weigh-in was unclear).

Even if you don’t use all of the Wi-Fi features it’s still a nice scale for $159. Sure it can Tweet your weight and it also works with Google Health. It may be a great idea for a personal trainer with multiple clients. By sharing readings with a group or individual you can work more closely with that person on your regimen.

I’ve been using this thing for about two weeks and its fun to see the weight sort of fluctuate but inexorably tend towards pulchritude and obesity. Thanks, Internet! And thanks beer!

Features

Built-in Wi-Fi

Backlit screen

Battery powered

Body mass sensor

$159 MSRP

Pros

Multiple users with automatic user detection based on weight

Slim design

Quick readings

Lots of reporting options

Cons

Potentially fragile

Seemingly low battery life

Who wants to Tweet their weight?

I’m just gonna say it upfront – this is perhaps the most well put together and thought out device and set of services I’ve reviewed yet. I know, it sounds funny given it’s ‘just a scale’, but – it’s a really well thought through scale. But before we get to the deets, let’s talk about exactly what product I’m referring to.