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133 of 134 people found the following review helpful.
Top quality scale... with some initial shortcomings
By Scott
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. Iniitally, (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.
186 of 195 people found the following review helpful.
Integrates nicely with the Fitbit.com website and lifestyle!
By dhinmn
I bought the Fitbit Aria scale since I had already been using a Fitbit Ultra and have been tracking steps, distance, calories burned, flights of stairs climbed, active score, and sleep stats with my Fitbit Ultra already. This Aria scale integrates in nicely on the Fitbit.com site, and the weight and Body Fat% stats show up in the dashboard right below the steps and other stats. You can then drill down further to get the individual measurements over time and see some charts over time too.One thing to note: setup was very easy, but you do need to use a WIFI connection to do the setup (i.e. if you try to do the setup over a Ethernet wired computer that does not also support WIFI, the setup won't work). I brought a laptop that was running over WIFI into my bathroom to do the setup and that worked great. I already had an account on Fitbit.com so that made setup even easier. Setup only took a minute or two - you just need to know your password for your network since you will enter it during the setup procedure. My network uses mixed mode 802.11 b/g/n and WPA2 encryption, and the scale connected no problem.The thing I really like about the scale is that you can earn weight badges for every 5 pounds lost, so that is motivating to see on the Fitbit site and in your email inbox. These show up under your accomplishments section on the site, in the same place that your steps and flights badges are if you have a Fitbit step tracker too.As far as accuracy is concerned - I do see a very slight fluctuation in the weight and BF% numbers when I take repeated measurements. I have found that when I stand in a certain way, I can get consistent readings though. Otherwise the weight may fluctuate by .2 pounds or so, and the BF% by .2% or so. The important part is tracking the rate of change, and that works great on the website.I added my family members and that was easy to do (and you can have a total of 8 people registered to the scale), you just need to send them an invite and then they log in to their Fitbit accounts and accept and then they can use the scale too (they need Fitbit.com accounts too see their results online). You can set privacy so that others can't see your weight and BF% results, and you can specify privacy by groups (i.e. friends Vs public). You also assign a 3-character name to each person (MOM, DAD, initials, etc) and then the scale will send the data to the right account for each measurement.The scale also has a guest mode, so if somebody that is not registered to the scale weighs themselves on it, the data will post to your account under GUEST. That is a little stealthy I think.... the people won't know their weight was just recorded. And note that you can delete measurements from the website too, for those guests if you want or even your own if you maybe take a measurement at night right after eating and it is several pounds higher than your morning measurement. I typically only keep my morning measurements and delete any I take later in the day.As for value - I do think it is a little overpriced. At maybe $99 or $79 it would be a great deal I think, but if this allows me (along with the Fitbit Ultra) to finally achieve my weight loss goals then I guess I'd have to say that the price was worth it!There is not much for a printed 'owners manual' included so that my offset some people, but you really don't need one since the first step is to go to the [...] site and you will get all the info you need there.All in all, I am really pleased with this scale. It sure is keeping me honest with my weight loss goals since I have my account opened to my family members to see so it offers built in accountability. Thanks for reading.(Note that I do not own the Withings scale so I can not make any comparisons of this scale against that one)Update: since people were asking - I bought the scale at a local store since they became available in stores prior to Amazon having them available online. Amazon started selling them on 4/30/12, but I bought mine locally on 4/24/12 and have been using it since. I am an avid Amazon shopper but in this case I didn't want to wait!
101 of 105 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent Scale!!
By R. Hernandez
*Packaging & Contents-The scale comes in a small box within the retail box. The scale comes ready to be put on the floor, just take a plastic tab from the battery compartment. Inside there is a flier that gives you the website to do the setup.*Setup-EASY!! I see many reviews complaining about the setup. Not my case. This are the steps I took.-Took scale out of the box and placed it in the floor without turning it on.-Downloaded the setup software from the fitbit website to my macbook and run it.-Logged into my previously created fitbit account.-I turned on the scale by quickly stepping on it and steeping off.-Then the software on the computer asks you if you want to use the wifi network you computer is using, and that's it. It will automatically find the scale and use your previously stored password to set it up. (if you have other wi-fi networks close to you, remember to put the scale as close to your router as possible. Your router has to be b/g compatible.)*Scale-I ordered the black glass scale and it looks good. When you step up, it weights you and recognizes the user to give you a fat %. Online you can look at your BMI and fat vs. lean mass.Guests users will only see their weight because there is no height to calculate a fat%.I think it is very accurate when it comes to fat% by "bio-electrical impedance analysis" versus my skin fold calculations.*Important note:It's important that you weight yourself at the same time everyday. I would recommend as soon as you wake up as a good daily reference. The Bio-electrical analysis depends on the electrical conductivity of your body (fat is not a good conductor). So remember that if you are dehydrated your conductivity is less (increasing your fat%), or if you have to much water in your system it will increase your conductivity (decreasing your fat%).This is not a medical equipment, don't expect an exact result.
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