Nokia Body Scale — Weighting for a Better Life

Saturday, 4 November 2017

This post is from a retired blog, hosted here as an archive. The original post date and content has been retained.

Picture of the Nokia (Withings) Body Scale

Focusing on your health can be a daunting task. There are so many different aspects that you need to focus on and it is difficult to decide which ones to pay the most attention to. Fortunately, technology has really been trying to make this easier for us. There are a lot of different applications and hardware solutions for this, but for this article, I want to talk about the Nokia Body Scale.

Nokia Health Background

The Nokia Health Suite, as I am going to call it, is actually a relatively new thing. In mid 2016, Nokia purchased a company called Withings. Withings was a company that focused on creating connected technology for a healthier lifestyle, one of those things being a WiFi connected scale.

I have, for some time now, desired a way to keep track of all of the aspects of my health. My goal was to know how I’m doing in my workout regiment and to know how my body is doing. I have various devices and apps that I use to keep track of how I am doing, but the Nokia Health Mate app is the newest addition. I will have a separate review that will talk about the app in more detail, later. For now I am going to just focus on the scale.

:sidenote: This app is relevant because Nokia Health Mate is required for syncing the scale to your phone.

Nokia Scale Options

There are three options that you have to choose from if you want to purchase a Nokia Scale. There is the Body, the Body+, and the Body Cardio. Each of the three have more features than the previous, respectively, and are priced at $60, $100, and $180.

Check out the image below to compare the scales.

Side-by-side comparison of the scale options

As you can see, there are advantages and disadvantages to stepping up in price. I decided to go with the Body Scale for many reasons. Firstly, the full body composition analysis, on the Body+, did not really appeal to me. I, personally, do not see a benefit to knowing what the breakdown of my body is, as long as I am within the BMI range that I should be – for a healthy weight. That, in and of itself, ruled out the Body+. Therefore, the only two remaining options were the Body and the Body Cardio.

I did – and still do – like the Body Cardio, A LOT! I still contemplate upgrading to the Body Cardio, but I can’t seem to justify the price with the other technology that I am already using. For example, I already have an Apple Watch that monitors my heart rate. So to me, there is no reason to have a scale, that does the same thing, for an extra $120. Now, yes, the Body Cardio does do other things as well, and those are really great, but the price difference isn’t really worth it – for me. That being said, if you have the money, or if you don’t have a device that monitors your heart rate, I think the Body Cardio may be worth it for you!

Body Scale Usability

I have really enjoyed using the Body Scale. I have had it for almost a month now and have been taking readings about twice a day. The readings, to my knowledge, have been extremely accurate and I have been enjoying how easy it is to use.

Setting Up the Scale

The set up process is a breeze. You can choose to either set it up with WiFi or Bluetooth, though WiFi is required for some of the features to work properly. More or less, you pair the device to your phone with Bluetooth, follow the set up instructions, and you’re done. From there, you just step on the scale and it outputs the data to your phone.

During my setup, I personally chose to use my scale with WiFi. I knew that I would be using the multi-user function, and WiFi is required for that to work properly. The multi-user function, so far, has worked great. I can step on the scale, and it knows it is me. It shows my name in the top left of the screen, and then writes the data to my phone. If for some reason it can not figure out who I am, then it still takes the measurement and lets me choose who it belongs to, in the app.

Using the Scale

Using the scale is simple… stand on it, wait a few seconds, get off. Yes, that was a rough way of describing it, so I will try again. When you step on the scale, it makes sure your weight is centered and then it takes a reading. This process takes a few seconds and once it is done, it shows your weight on the screen. From there, there are a few different screens that it shows for more information – then the scale turns off.

Now that the reading is done, it transfers the data to the app for you to view a graph of your weight change over time. This function is really quite cool and I will be doing an in depth review on the app at a later date. Stay tuned for that.

Multi-user Feature

The multi-user feature, to me, is a real selling point. When I go to step on the scale, in the morning, I do not want to have to click through a set of buttons to chose the right user. I just want to get on the scale and see the reading. This scale does just that. I do not know the exact technology behind this, but I am assuming that it takes your body weight and assumes that you will weigh about the same, with some room for fluctuation, the next time you step on the scale. The technology behind this really isn’t important, though. The fact that it works is what is important.

I have used this with two separate people; myself and my girl friend. The scale was able to differentiate our weights and know who’s app to write the data too. I look forward to testing this more as time goes on – if I notice any change in the promise of this feature, I will update the article.

Conclusion

I really enjoy the Nokia Body Scale. It does exactly what it is advertised to do and I have been really happy with the design and the usability, so far. The app that accompanies the scale is really well designed and I think it will be very interesting to see how it is improved over time. I would definitely recommend this piece of tech to everyone, it is not very expensive and it does exactly what it is meant to do – weigh the user that is standing on it.

tl;dr

Buy the Nokia Body Scale, I really enjoy it and I think it is a great addition to anyone’s bathroom. It is sleek, quick, and easy to use.