our opinion on the connected scale
The health and well-being specialist pushes the concept of connected scales even further with its new and very complete Withings Body Scan. A product that is closer to a connected health station than a simple bathroom scale, additionally measuring your heart rate, analyzing your body composition and even monitoring your nerve health.
Withings is one of the world’s leading players in connected health. From watches, to blood pressure monitors, to the quality of your sleep, the French manufacturer strives to be the best possible ally in monitoring your health. With its new Withings Body Scan connected scale, it offers much more than just a connected bathroom scale.
So, in addition to taking your weight, the Body Scan offers a comprehensive analysis of your body composition, heart activity (with a six-lead EKG), nerve activity, and even estimates the age of your insides, forgives your vascular age. A concentrate of technology at the service of your health, but which is expensive: 399.99 euros. We have therefore tested all the possibilities offered by this very high-tech scale to find out if it deserves to invest so much money and above all to understand who it is made for.
This test was carried out using a product lent by the manufacturer.
Design: elegant and futuristic
If this scale is a concentrate of technology, it is also a very beautiful object with its design of glass, black and blue. The manufacturing quality is of a very good level, with a plastic shell covered with a thick glass plate.
At the top of the device we have a 3.2-inch color screen and just above it a kind of cylinder placed on a base. It is a handle, connected to the scale by a braided cable and which must be held in hand during the measurement process. Note that it is possible to hang it on a wall so you don’t have to bend down when you use it.
We are facing a beautiful baby of 32.7 x 32.7 x 2.8 cm. It is therefore a little larger than average and this allows all feet, and especially the tallest, to find their place. Note that it supports a maximum weight of 200 kg. A stylish scale that should easily find its place in a bathroom. However, its glass plate, as beautiful as it is, irresistibly attracts dust and footprints. A good wipe with a dry cloth will be enough to correct this, but you will do it regularly.
Application: Lots of information without losing us
The entire Withings connected ecosystem is controlled via a single Whitings Health Mate application. Once you have configured your profile, you can add the balance through the tab Devices. Then simply select it from the list of Withings products offered by the application, then turn on the scale.
The pairing process then begins and begins with a Bluetooth connection. Then you will only have to enter the code of your Wi-F network which must then be in 2.4 GHz. In total the operation will not take more than five minutes.
When the installation is complete, the application offers you to take ownership of the Body Scan by discovering its possibilities and uses with the help of a tutorial that will help you better understand the measurements, body composition by segmentation or the score of nervous health. It is also suggested that you set a goal weight.
The home page is a dashboard that summarizes your latest measurements, the main trends that emerge. The app even offers tips for achieving your goals, like improving your daily life. A Withings+ subscription at 9.95 euros/month promises more personalized advice and a kind of real digital coaching, which we have not tested.
This page can quickly become very (too) busy, especially if you have several brand products.
The Measure tab gathers all the measurements made by the scale and other Withings objects. For each section, a more complete display is offered by simply pressing on it. You will have access via the scale to your weight, your body composition, your vascular age and your heart rate. Note that this is a six-lead electrocardiogram, the level just below the 12-lead electrocardiogram used in the medical setting.
Body composition is accessible in the form of figures, graphs and above all visually with a representation of the distribution of fats and muscles in your body. Always with a reference to the average person of your age, build and weight. This makes it possible to know the areas to be worked on and their evolution.
The last two tabs are Devices which brings together all of your Withings products and Profile which displays, among other things, your achievements such as your total number of steps and the equivalent distance in kilometers.
Usage: Effective, complete and reliable
First, grab the handle with your thumbs well placed on the two metal areas. Then step on the scale and the measuring process begins.
Make sure your feet are on the striped surfaces and if you’re in the wrong position the scale will tell you how to do it right with arrows in the corners of the screen. Once the weighing is over comes the registration phase on your profile. If the name that appears on the screen is not yours, you can switch between profiles with your feet. A small graph on your weight trend closes the weigh-in.
Next come measurements of body composition by bioelectrical impedance and by segmentation. The information obtained is the fat mass rate, that of muscle mass and visceral fat.
Finally, the scale performs a six-lead electrocardiogram and estimates your vascular age and level of nerve health.
Withings then displays the day’s weather, then the air quality level before displaying a small “See you soon” and turning off.
A process that ultimately lasts almost a minute and twenty seconds. A little long time to know only its weight, but very fast if we take into account all the measurements taken.
We carried out a hundred complete measurements in two times. Weighing is accurate, showing the same result in 95% to 98% of cases. Please note that this is only valid if you can really stand still on the scale. We find this reliability at all levels, except for body composition measurements, which were only identical in 80% of cases.
However, it must be taken into account that the body mass and its composition varies every day, if not every hour. We must therefore not stop at the figures alone, we must observe the trends. This is where the app will come in very handy. Attention, it is necessary to consider all this information on the duration, to set objectives and especially not to concentrate on the only daily measurements. Healthy progression is not linear.
Price and release date of the Withings Body Scan
The Whitings Body Scan is available in black and blue. It is marketed alone at a price of 399.99 euros on the manufacturer’s website and from partner resellers.
