I’ve been eyeing the Withings scale for a really long time. I finally had a chance to try it out this month, and although I found it very cool and useful, I don’t find it to be a game-changer when it comes to the way we measure and track our weight.

The idea of having a WiFi connected scale that automatically uploads your weight to a website is very appealing. One thing that I did find annoying over the years has been the fact that although I can be disciplined with weighing myself on a regular basis, keeping track of my long-term progress can be tricky. In principle, a scale that updates this information for you would be an ideal device. Indeed, when it comes to this very basic promise, the Withings scale more than delivers. Setting up the WiFi connection on my network was very straightforward, although you need to know a thing or two about wireless networking. The same holds for the online account: it’s easy to setup and use, and following your daily trends is straightforward. Once you’ve entered your basic information, as well as that of the other users of the scale, the scale automatically recognizes you when you step on it. This is really neat, but it probably only works this smoothly if there are only a few users of the same scale who are separated by significant weight. It also means that weighing random other objects may not work. This is unfortunate, as I often use my bathroom scale to weigh my luggage before going on a plane trip.

In addition to weight, this scale also measures your body fat percentage. For this option to work you need to stand on the scale barefooted. This adds an important measurement of your overall fitness, although I’d use this information with a grain of salt.

When it comes to the actual measurements, I have not been too impressed with them. The scale is VERY sensitive to the actual surface on which it’s placed. Even a small crack in the floor can alter your readings by a percentage point or two. The scale comes with the pads that are meant to help you use it on a carpeted floor, but I found them to be completely useless – my readings varied by 10% or more. In addition, I think that that Withings readings are lower to begin with as compared to most other scales that I’ve used. I had calibrated those scales against known weights (like dumbbells) and have a lot of trust in their readings. As mentioned before, I have not been able to perform the same test with the Withings scale, so I don’t have the objective measure of its accuracy, but at this point I am very skeptical. The same can be said for the measurement of the body fat percentage, although here I have not seen as dramatic of a difference as some other reviewers had suggested.

One thing that I really like about this scale is its design. It is really neat and cool looking, and definitely a nice addition to my bathroom. The online app, as well as the iOS apps that I’d tested on my iPhone and iPad, are all very slick and polished. Through the online service your results can be shared with many other apps and websites, so it’s easy to track your progress in multiple ways.

I have had an overall good experience with this scale, but I have decided that it’s ultimately not for me. The daily and even hourly fluctuations in your weight mean that you are much better off just making a couple of weigh-ins a week, and for such an infrequent use a WiFi scale is an overkill. If it were about half its current price of $160, then I would certainly consider it. As is, I think there are other much more affordable and as effective ways of keeping track of your weight.