Some Smart Scales
Renpho MorphoScan for $150: The Renpho MorphoScan full body scanner looks remarkably similar to the Runstar FG2015, including a nearly identical display attached to the handles. Well, spoiler alert, on average it does. They even use the same app to collect data (and you can use both scales at the same time). The only reason this scale isn’t our top pick in the category is that it costs $15 more. You can be sure that a price war is coming.
Arboleaf Body Fat Scale CS20W for $40: This affordable Bluetooth scale isn’t the most eye-catching I’ve tested, thanks to its large, silver electrodes and large display that come across as a bit clumsy. Although it is easy to make a weight, the six additional figures shown are difficult to read, all displayed at once. I like the Arboleaf app better than the scale, where five additional metrics can be accessed in addition to the seven above, each with a helpful explanation when you tap on it. It’s a solid deal at this price, but trading in for “smart interpretation reporting” for an extra $40 a year is probably safe to skip.
Hume Health Body Pod for $183: Hume Health’s Body Pod, another full-body scanner with handles, is heavily advertised—at least in the apps on my phone—and is being touted (by Hume) as the Next Big Thing in the body management world. While the app is really slick and inviting, I was shocked to find out how flimsy the hardware felt, that it didn’t have Wi-Fi, and that some features were locked behind the $100-a-year Hume Plus subscription plan. It works well enough, but you can get better results with a cheaper device.
Garmin Index S2 for $191: Five years after its release, the Index S2 is still Garmin’s current model, which is surprising for a company so obsessed with fitness. It’s still notable for its lovely color display, which takes you through its six body metrics (for up to 16 users) per weight. The display also provides your weight trend over time in graphical form and can even show the weather. The scale connects directly to Wi-Fi and Garmin’s cloud-based storage system, so you don’t need a phone nearby to track your progress, like Bluetooth-only scales. A phone running the Garmin Connect app (Android, iOS) works, so you can track everything over time. Unfortunately, as health apps go, Connect is a bit of a bear, so expect a learning curve—especially if you want to make changes to how the scale works. You can turn its various LCD screen widgets on or off in the app, but finding everything can be difficult due to the formidable breadth of Garmin’s ecosystem. The color screen is great at first, but ultimately adds little to the package.
Omron BCM-500 for $92: With its large LCD panel, quartet of onboard buttons, and over a hundred silver electrodes, the Omron BCM-500 is an eye-catching masterpiece of brutal design. If your bathroom is decorated with concrete and wrought iron, this scale will fit right in. The Bluetooth unit syncs with Omron’s HeartAdvisor app (Android, iOS), but provides all six of its body metrics directly on the scale, cycling between them with each weight (for up to four users). It can be difficult to read the label for each data point, in part because the LCD isn’t backlit, but the app is easy to follow, offering front-page graphs of weight, skeletal muscle, and body fat. On the other hand, the presentation is clinical, and the app is surprisingly slow to sync. On a scale that doesn’t have a Wi-Fi connection, it’s also expensive.
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