The US-based technology company Wyze makes home security equipment and smart tech. The Scale X is the only scale it sells, and is itself an update to its original Wyze Scale. It’s budget-friendly, looks great and comes in black and white versions. However, can such an affordable scale perform as well as the best smart scales on the market?
Wyze Scale X: Price And Availability
The Wyze Scale X costs $33.99 in the US and is available from Wyze and Amazon. Wyze doesn’t sell the scale in the UK, and though British customers will find the scale on Amazon UK, the price is £79.
Design
A classy-looking 12in (30cm) square of tempered glass with rounded corners, the Scale X comes in black or white. It’s free of the metal electrodes that feature on many budget smart scales, but it does have a small raised plastic nub in the middle. The screen is sharp and clear, in the black version I tested at least, although white numbers on white glass might not be as easy to read.
The Scale X has some updates on the original: It now has luggage, pet and baby weighing modes, has a longer battery life and is compatible with more health apps, including Fitbit. The weight range is 11lb-400lb (5kg-180kg) and it can recognize up to eight users.
It takes four AAA batteries, which come with the scale. If you want to change the unit from lb to kg you need to open the battery cover and press a button inside it, which is fiddly.
What Does The Wyze Scale X Do?
The scale provides 13 metrics: weight, body fat percentage, muscle mass, muscle mass percentage, body water percentage, lean body mass, bone mass, protein percentage, visceral fat, BMR, metabolic age, BMI and heart rate.
Only weight and body fat percentage are displayed on the scale; the rest are shown in the app. Some of the data may not be of obvious interest (want to know your body’s protein content, anyone?) but some of it is useful. You’ll want to know how much visceral fat you have, for example—that’s the dangerous fat that builds up around your organs. The wide range of metrics helps build up a picture of how healthy you are, inside and out.
The scale connects to the app via Bluetooth, rather than Wi-Fi. Usually, I find Bluetooth scales more likely to have connection problems: They can fail to register data without the app open and take longer to register my data when I step on the scale. This wasn’t the case with the Wyze Scale X. It was remarkably quick to set up and pair, and was able to reliably register weigh-ins without needing to have my phone to hand or the app open.
The scale is compatible with Apple Health, Google Fit and Fitbit. As a Fitbit user I’m happy about this because most smart scales don’t share directly to Fitbit and you need to use a third-party app. The Renpho Body Fat Scale is the only other scale I’ve used that feeds data directly to Fitbit. Weight and body fat percentage are the only metrics that sync to Fitbit, while if you’re using Apple Health, you get weight, body fat percentage, BMI, lean body mass and heart rate.
Using The App
The Wyze app is easy to navigate and if you have any Wyze smart devices, like home security cameras, it’s all part of the same app. On the app, the scale has its own main page where each of your latest metrics is presented in a list. When you tap on an individual metric, you get your reading on a visual slider with an informative paragraph that explains what the measurement refers to. It’s simple and gives you a basic visual indication of where you could improve. I’d have liked more context and in-depth analysis here, along with tips on improving my score.
A section called Trends allows you to plot your data on a series of graphs. You can toggle between timeframes to see a week, a month, a year or all time. Again, there’s a lack of context, of healthy ranges and comparisons to others in your category, which results in a less-motivating experience than with other apps. I found the Renpho, Xiaomi and Withings apps more encouraging.
The app features baby, pet and luggage modes for easy weighing, and you can take a heart rate reading from here. This is done by placing your finger over the camera on your phone, rather than through your feet on the scale (unlike the Withings scale, which takes heart rate readings via your feet). This seems gimmicky—I’m not sure of the point of having a random spot heart rate reading.
Accuracy
I tested the scale with free weights and it was accurate, weighing in increments of 0.1kg, where other scale manufacturers (Renpho, Withings, Xiaomi) offer increments of 0.05kg.
While my weight tallied up closely with readings from other scales, there was more variation in the other data recorded. I compared metrics gathered at the same time on the same day from five smart scales including the Wyze. The other four comprised the mid-range Tanita BC-401 and Withings Body Smart Scale, and two budget options, the Renpho Smart Body Fat Scale and Xiaomi Mi Body Composition Scale 2.
The Wyze gave me a body fat percentage of 30%, which was at the higher end of the range from the other scales I was using. The Tanita put me at 24.1%, the Withings gave me 27.0%, the Renpho 29.7% and the ever-pessimistic Xiaomi put my reading at 32.9%.
The Wyze Scale put my bone mass at 2.5kg, compared with 2.2kg (Tanita), 3.7kg (Withings), 2.34kg (Renpho) and 2.05kg (Xiaomi). My visceral fat was logged at 3.0 compared with 3.0 (Tanita), 1.9 (Withings), 5 (Renpho) and 5 (Xiaomi), all on a scale of 0-20.
You can see there’s variation in these readings, and no real way of telling which of them is most accurate. None of the Wyze Scale’s readings struck me as way off, though.
Is the Wyze Scale X Worth It?
The Wyze Scale X is a good-looking smart scale that performs well considering its list price, and for a Bluetooth scale it’s remarkably free of lags and connection issues. The app is easy to use but lacking in context and advice compared with those of other scales. If you’re in the US, and you don’t much care about having extra info in the app, then it’s a no-brainer for this price, but those in the UK should look elsewhere for better value.
The Renpho Body Fat Scale performs well and is available for a similar price. It’s slightly smaller and lighter, and not quite as good-looking, but has more context in the accompanying app. If you’re willing to spend more, the Withings Body Smart is an excellent scale that performs smoothly and has lots of info in the easy-to-navigate app.
