Fitbit - Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale - Black

A few days ago, my wife and I purchased the Fitbit Aria as a tool to track our weight loss and to maintain our weight once we achieved our goals. We were on the fence about whether to purchase the Withings or the Aria. After a bit or research, we decided on the Aria for 2 reasons: first, the Aria was $30 cheaper and secondly, many of the reviews comparing the 2 scales preferred the Aria. The scale is fantastic. It integrates very well with the fitbit web site (setting up an account is free), it looks good, and it is pretty accurate (with 10 weigh-ins on both the Aria and the scale that I was using at the gym, the Aria is consistently less than a ½ pound off of the gym scale). The scale also determines your percent body fat as well as your BMI (once you create an account on the website, you enter age, height, etc.). I can’t speak to the accuracy of the body fat calculation because I have never had that calculated. It does fluctuate from time to time even though my weight may not (after doing a little research, I found that your percent body fat can change depending on how much water you have been drinking). I want to address an issue that I saw brought up in a few consumer reviews (an issue that I was worried about initially because I found the reviews after I had ordered the scale). A few of the reviews that I read mentioned that the set up of the scale was difficult. One of the reviews was written by an “IT guy” and he mentioned that the software set up for the scale was not written correctly (not quite sure how he knew that!). Anyway, I am pretty computer illiterate and I found the setup to be about as simple as it could be. The only issue that I had (and I probably should not call it an issue) was the initial linking of the scale to my wireless network. I had the scale in the same room as my computer and router and it would not link. I assumed that would have been close enough! After 2 unsuccessful attempts, I look at the instructions again and saw that the scale needed to be placed on a flat surface next to router. I placed the scale on the table right next to the router and it synced the next attempt. Once we synced the scale, we moved it into the bathroom and have had no issues. Setting up additional users is also a breeze by simply sending them an invite to the scale via their fitbit account email address. The information between multiple users can either be private or shared, depending on how that fitbit account is configured. I don’t usually write product reviews unless I find the product exceptional, and I found the Aria to be exceptional! Although the price point is a bit high, I would recommend this product to anyone who was on a weight loss journey or just wanted to maintain a healthy lifestyle!

This is an amazing scale that helps track weight and body fat. It's incredibly accurate as I have checked my weight at home and at work (Hospital) and it reads the same. The scale automatically updates my computer and online profile tracking my progress. My only worry is my electronic scale, K-Cup coffee system, refridgerator and microwave are all going to be online together and will start plotting against me and my eating habits. If that ever happens there goes my last chance of sneaking a little late night snack!

It decently does the great job of telling me how fat I am lol

Like many buyers of this scale, I've recently taken the Fitbit plunge and wanted to include this scale to track easily weight and body fat fluctuations. Visually, the scale is very impressive. I got the black version, and it is thin, sleek, and substantial (footprint, heft). The glass is perfectly smooth; edge beveled, and the weigh-in process (step on to step off) is done in less than 5 seconds. Aesthetically as well as fit, feel, and finish, this is a 5-star product. Functionally, there are a few problems. First, connecting the scale can be a challenge. The process includes broadcasting the ID of the scale, connecting to this "WiFi network" on the phone and then switching the network of the phone back to your personal WiFi network. It took me several tries but eventually it worked and had worked flawlessly since. Unfortunately, I've forgotten the exact problem I experienced but I do recall having to switch networks while my phone displayed a web page that was reading "connecting". Anyway - see this page: [...] if you run into trouble. In contrast to this setup process, all other scale settings (users and their profiles) are very easy to setup once the scale is working correctly with the network. Additionally, I have not had any issues with connectivity once the scale was set up correctly the first time. Secondly, the scale must be used on a hard surface. In our bathroom, a rug sometimes slips slightly under the edge of scale and can throw off the reading. If this happens, my reading can be confused with my wife's and the scale can start to get confused. Fortunately, all the readings are stored online, and the erroneous readings can be easily removed from the website. If the scale is free from the rug, it never confuses my wife and my readings. Finally, the body-fat reading is precise but probably not accurate. By default, the scale is set to regular for a user and read my body fat read ~12.5%. After I had switched to "slim" body type, the reading dropped to ~6%. Using a handheld body fat tester, I'm around 8-9%. The good thing is that this reading, like the weight, is very repeatable. Also, it is clearly independent of the weight measurement. For example if you drink a bunch of water and wait ten mins, your weight will be up but you body fat reading may fall. Of course, what's happening is that the scale is only measuring an electrical signal and then converting this to a % body fat. Ideally, the Fitbit site would let you input your exact body fat number (taken with a vibrational or displacement measurement) at a point in time and this number could be used to calibrate the electrical to % body fat conversion. To my knowledge, no consumer scale allows this calibration to be done today. To me, it's not a huge issue as the body fat is consistent and a useful metric as I increase my lifting and muscle mass. This leads to perhaps the greatest strength of this device; statistics. Many folks roll their eyes when you tell them that your scale uploads your weight to the cloud. However, body weight fluctuates throughout the day and week. With this scale, I've found myself weighing myself several times per day and looking at my data over a week or month, clear trend lines can be seen despite the daily fluctuations. Ultimately, this is the reason that I bought the scale and made me euphoric. I held off on rating this scale until I had used it for several weeks. Initially, (after the setup headaches) I would have leaned towards three stars. During the first 1-2 weeks, my frustrations with body fat settings and trouble with the rug in our bathroom, I would have probably gone with four stars. However, understanding these issues and more importantly, seeing the benefits of frequent weight measurements, I could not be happier with the purchase. I strongly recommend that anybody happy with their Fitbit and serious about achieving their weight loss goals, take a good look at this high-quality product. UPDATE: I still have the scale, and it is working great. I get about six months or so between battery changes, and it was pretty painless moving to a new place with a different network setup (even though I had completely forgotten the installation process). Overall, the Aria Scale is proving to be very easy to stick with. I cannot think of what else could obsolete this device anytime soon, so I anticipate many more years of use.

I've read through many other people's reviews, and I have to admit, the setup was a challenge. I first tried to set this up using a Windows 7 x64 PC; however, I didn't realize that the application that FitBit provides switches from your home wifi network to the Aria scale wifi and then back again. For Windows 7, this provides a challenge because you have to select the type of network before a network connection can be established. Let's just say I gave up on getting the PC application working. I ended up using my iPad2 to setup the connection. This was very easy by going to their URL, entering my existing Fitibit.com credentials, and confirming my profile. (This is an important step because if you have more than one person using the scale, the profile is what the scale uses to figure out who is on it and which profile it should sync to.) After setting up my profile, the webpage indicated I had to change my Wifi from my home to the Aira (ad-hoc connection). I did that in my settings, went back to the browser and clicked continue. I then was connected to the scales setup where I had to put my Wifi key in (my wifi uses WPA2-Personal with AES encryption so not sure why others were saying they have problems with this configuration) and hit next. The browser then pushes the settings and profiles to the scale and I was directed to switch back to my home wifi to complete the setup. As I said, this was the hardest part in the whole process. So I'd recommend anyone who is having problems with the Windows application, try it from a smartphone or a tablet as this worked great for me. Beyond that, setting it up so both my wife and I had separate profiles, we both took turns stepping on the scale and trying it out. By and large it was accurate (not sure on the BMI), and it sync'ed to fitibit.com so we can individually see changes. My only concern is that you have to wait a minute or so between people as the system will record the information, sync the profile, and then put itself into standby. Not a show stopper, you just have to realize that you have to wait for it to go back into standby before someone else steps on the scale.

I haven't had it long, so I can't comment on life, but so far this has been working great. Quickly sync's with my FitBit, and helps me keep track of my weight.

It is a requirement to have a wireless device to be able to get the scale connected to your wifi. If you have a smart phone or wireless laptop, that should work. Tracks your weight on fitbit website. No need to wait for scale to calibrate. Just step onto the scale and it measures your weight. After telling you your weight it then connects to your wifi and uploads your info to the fitbit website. Issue I had was the device got confused during inital setup between my wife and I. To fix it had to log into the website and specifiy which weight went to which person. After this initial irritation everything else has been smooth sailing. Also, If there are two people close to the same weight the scale will be unable to tell who is who. It will guess and then allow you to accept or choose next user. Have not had to use this feature so am unsure how well it works. Just some good information to have.

A bit expensive, but it works really well. Could I easily write down the measurements for less money? Yes. Am I as likely to do so? No. I felt the investment was worth it to complete the picture of my fitness goals, seeing the end result of weight and body fat % changes over time. Integrated perfectly with the Fitbit Ultra and the Fitbit website/app.