Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Like many buyers of this scale, I've recently taken the fitbit plunge and wanted to include this scale to easily track weight and body fat fluctuations. Visually, the scale is very impressive. I got the black version and it is thin, sleek, and substantial (footprint, heft). The glass is perfectly smooth, edge beveled, and the weigh-in process (step on to step off) is done in less than 5 seconds. Aesthetically as well as fit, feel, and finish, this is a 5-star product. Functionally, there are a few problems. First, connecting the scale can be a challenge. The process includes broadcasting the ID of the scale, connecting to this "wifi network" on the phone, and then switching the network of the phone back to your personal wifi network. It took me several tries but eventually it worked and has worked flawlessly since. Unfortunately I've forgotten the exact problem I experienced but I do recall having to switch networks while my phone displayed a webpage that was reading "connecting". Anyway - see this page: [...] if you run into trouble. In contrast to this setup process, all other scale settings (users and their profiles) are very easy to setup once the scale is working correctly with the network. Additionally, I haven't had any issues with connectivity once the scale was setup correctly the first time. Secondly, the scale must be used on a hard surface. In our bathroom, a rug sometimes slips slightly under the edge of scale and can really throw off the reading. If this happens, my reading can be confused with my wife's and the scale can start to get confused. Fortunately, all the readings are stored online and the erroneous readings can be easily removed on the website. If the scale is free from the rug, it never confuses my wife and my readings. Finally, the body-fat reading is precise but probably not accurate. By default, the scale is set to regular for a user and read my body fat read ~12.5%. After I switched to "slim" body type, the reading dropped to ~6%. Using a handheld body fat tester I'm around 8-9% . The good thing is that this reading, like the weight, is very repeatable. Also, it's clearly independent from the weight measurement. For example if you drink a bunch of water and wait 10 mins, your weight will be up but you body fat reading may fall. Of course, what's happening is that the scale is simply measuring an electrical signal and then converting this to a % body fat. Ideally, the Fitbit site would let you input your exact body fat number (taken with a vibrational or displacement measurement) at a point in time and this number could be used to calibrate the electrical to % body fat conversion. To my knowledge, no consumer scale allows this calibration to be done today. To me it's not a huge issue as the body fat is consistent and a useful metric as I increase my lifting and muscle mass. This leads to perhaps the greatest strength of this device; statistics. Many folks roll their eyes when you tell them that your scale uploads your weight to the cloud. However, body weight fluctuates throughout the day and week. With this scale, I've found myself weighing myself several times per day and looking at my data over a week or month, clear trend lines can be seen despite the daily fluctuations. Ultimately, this is the reason that I bought the scale and makes me very happy. I held off on rating this scale until I had used it for several weeks. Initially, (after the setup headaches) I would have leaned towards 3 stars. During the first 1-2 weeks, my frustrations with body fat settings and trouble with the rug in our bathroom, I would have probably gone with 4 stars. However, understanding these issues and more importantly, seeing the benefits of frequent weight measurements, I couldn't be happier with the purchase. I strongly recommend that anybody happy with their Fitbit and serious about achieving their weight loss goals, take a good look at this high quality product. UPDATE: I still have the scale and it's working great. I get about 6 months or so between battery changes and it was pretty painless moving to a new place with a different network setup (even though I had completely forgotten the setup process). Overall, the Aria Scale is proving to be very easy to stick with. I can't think of what else could obsolete this device anytime soon so I anticipate many more years of use.