Knowing your weight can be a useful measurement when you're trying to reach a fitness goal. If you're trying to stay on track before the holidays, you might be weighing yourself daily.
Like most of the devices in our lives, the venerable bathroom scale has received a digital makeover and can now connect to your smartphone and tell you other metrics, such as your body mass index (BMI), body composition and even your heart rate. While you're adding other top smart-home gadgets to your house, why not upgrade your scale?
These smart scales can also instantly upload your data to the fitness app of your choice, where you can see how your workout and diet routines have affected your weight.
Overall, the Withings Body+ is the best smart scale. It looks good, gathers more information than any other scale and presents the data in an easy-to-understand app. For an upgrade, the $180 Withings Body Cardio offers heart health features, including a Pulse Wave Velocity measurement that is only available to users in the European Union. That data can be an indicator of hypertension, but the scale itself doesn't diagnose medical conditions.
If you don't need a scale with quite as many features, Withings' $59 Wi-Fi scale, Withings Body, delivers the basics in a stylish package. The scale measures your weight, of course, and does so accurately. I compared it to the $200 Body Cardio and a dumb (er, not Internet-connected) $20 digital scale, and the scale was within 0.2 pounds of both.
The Body, which comes in black or white, has a 2.4 x 1.6-inch display that flashes your weight, weight trend (up or down), BMI and the weather forecast. That's useful if you're weighing in at the beginning of the day before you head outside. The screen isn't the biggest, but it's easy to read and the numbers are big and bright.
The scale syncs with the Health Mate smartphone app, which is where its Wi-Fi connection comes in handy. There you can view your data as a dashboard and see how your weight and BMI fluctuate over time. You can also set goals and pair the scale with apps such as MyFitnessPal. And like Withings' higher-priced scales, the Body offers a pregnancy mode.
The Body doesn't measure your heart rate or your home's air quality, but those are bonus features you can do without to save some money. Plus, this scale works with both iOS and Android devices.
Eufy's BodySense is a solid, sleek, easy-to-use and affordable device that would be my top budget pick for best smart scale if I didn't love the Withings Body so much.
Eufy's Bluetooth scale, which pairs effortlessly with the EufyLife app for iOS and Android, displays your weight almost instantly on-screen. Of course, nailing the weigh-in is the most basic job for a smart scale. The BodySense scale then syncs that number, along with a host of other metrics, to the app. Those other data points include BMI, what percentage of your body fat is made of water, and how much of your weight is muscle mass, bone mass and body fat mass.
Some Amazon reviewers have noted that the measurements appear to be based on percentages rather than actual fluctuations. But the scale highlights trends and lets you know whether numbers are considered normal for your age, height and weight.
There are a few drawbacks, though, when you compare the Eufy BodySense to the Withings Body. Eufy's scale lacks a pregnancy mode, which makes it a no-go for women who are pregnant or who are planning to become pregnant. The scale also doesn't give you a weather report during your morning weigh-in the way Nokia's does.
But it does support up to 20 different users and offers detailed analysis for a $30 scale, which makes Eufy's BodySense an excellent budget pick.
The Fitbit Aria 2 is a refreshed version of the original Aria, though it doesn't look much different with its all-glass body and backlit LCD display. The next-generation smart scale is more accurate than the first Aria, Fitbit says, and that proved true in our testing.
The Aria 2 connects to your Wi-Fi network via the Fitbit app on your smartphone, so setup is easier than the first-gen version (which required you to connect the scale to Wi-Fi using a web browser).
The Aria 2 measures the weight, body fat percentage and BMI of up to eight users, which it then automatically syncs to the Fitbit app. If you use a Fitbit activity tracker, the app's dashboard syncs information about your weigh-ins with your daily workouts and the food intake you manually input for a true overview of your body on any given day.
The scale takes several seconds to display your weight, which is annoying. It also lacks support for pregnant women. If you're deeply embedded in the Fitbit ecosystem, the Aria 2 is worth a look. Otherwise, the Withings Body+ offers more features for less money.
The best smart scale for those who care about design, the new QardioBase is about an inch larger in diameter than its predecessor, which makes it more stable. This version is also rechargeable and lasts up to a year on a charge instead of needing all those batteries.
The QardioBase 2 is one of the most stylish scales around, if you care about what you're looking at when you weigh yourself. A scale takes up a not-small amount of space in your bathroom, so at least this one looks good.
Qardio is now integrated with third-party apps such as Apple Health and MyFitnessPal, a long-awaited move that we docked points from this scale initially.
However, one drawback to QardioBase 2 compared with other smart scales is the time it takes to display your weight on the display, which is located in the center of the device (where you stand). In my testing, it took about 12 seconds for a number to pop up, rather than the near-instantaneous readings I get from other smart scales and my dumb digital model.
QardioBase 2 has a couple of unique features, such as a smart-feedback mode that shows you smiley faces instead of numbers and a pregnancy mode you can customize according to your due date. You can choose a mode at setup or adjust it later in the Qardio app for iOS or Android. You can use the app to set goals and see charts of your progress over time, as is standard for a smart scale.
RolliBot is an unfamiliar name to most buyers, but the company's attractive Bluetooth $30 Rollifit F8 scale is attractively priced. Other scales are worth the extra money, but the F8 is a decent option that works with the biggest health apps: Apple Health for iPhones, Google Fit on Android and Fitbit’s cross-platform app.
The Rollifit F8 has a slightly smaller footprint than most, coming in under 12 inches, and both black and white models of the scale appear to lack a display until you step on the tempered glass. Four bioimpedance sensors take measurements in the background that are synced to the Rollifit app for iOS or Android after you weigh in. The display shows just one metric: your weight.
The additional stats, such as visceral fat and bone mass, are interesting to see in the app's dashboard, although I'm not convinced they're accurate.
My biggest issue with the Rollifit F8 is its Bluetooth-only connectivity. It took forever to pair the scale with my phone, despite the scale showing up as connected in my Bluetooth settings. The app disconnects itself from the scale when not in use, which makes sense to save power, but then it takes several attempts to reconnect the two.
The good news: You can use the scale as a basic digital scale, no app required. But for deeper metrics and easier use, the Withings Body+ is still our top pick.
