Garmin Index S2 Smart Scale - Black

Product Information

The scale proved very popular at launch, and at the time of writing (April 2021), there’s a wait of between five and eight weeks for delivery. Design This is usually done via a process called biometric impedance analysis, or BIA. Smart scales utilize BIA by sending a current of electricity from your feet through to your body. The electrical current travels through your fat, muscle, and bone at different speeds due to the different tissue densities, and because the current records the speed at which it travels, it can tell you how much of each you have in your body. Unlike most smart scales we’ve tested, the Renpho refreshingly comes with a rechargeable lithium battery and USB charger (included) rather than triple AAAs. It also has unlimited users and baby and pet modes. The electrical charge is safe for most people, but if you have a pacemaker, medical implant or are pregnant, it’s best to speak to your doctor before you use one. Are smart scales accurate?

I didn’t specifically test that each user’s screen preferences are separately saved, I assume they are. Garmin Index Scale 2 – Getting your data elsewhere From here the scales can indicate things like body mass index (BMI), muscle mass, body fat percentage and bone density. They can even tell you how much visceral fat you have - the kind of dangerous fat that clings to vital organs and puts you more at risk of chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes and obesity. And they’ll reveal if you need to eat more protein or up your water levels. Minimalist and budget-friendly, the Xiaomi Mi Smart Scale 2 wouldn’t be out of place in the Apple store with its hidden LED screen and smooth, rounded edges. Ultimately, if you’ve got a Garmin device and want weight automatically updated on your account/devices, there are not many clean options. There are some 3rd party integrations that have half-heartedly worked over the years (like MyFitnessPal syncing), but usually they eventually break. This one tends to just work with minimal fuss, even if it’s at a substantial premium compared to competitor offerings. Now, how do I get YouTube running on that display? What we like about these scales is they are fully customizable, so you can change which widgets you want to display during weigh-ins. You can see lots of stats on the scale itself – including skeletal muscle mass, body water, BMI and bone mass. Each metric has a color icon above it on the scale, which you soon recognise after multiple uses. Open the app and you can see changes in these stats over the course of a day, a week, four weeks and a year.The Garmin Index S2 smart scales are a product that we’d like to love. They do everything you’d expect body composition scales to do, and they do it competently. It isn’t a terrible product. But it feels like almost everything could have been done better. And at this price point, we’d really hope to see more. And yup, even the weather, showing the slated high/low for the day as well as the current temperature. The idea here simply being that if you’re getting ready in the morning and just going in or out of the shower, this could guide your clothing choices for the day. On the plus side, the Body scale is super simple to use, teams with the decent Health Mate app and works with a lot of the other main health and fitness apps too. It’s also bigger than a lot of smart scales, making it a good choice for anyone with big feet or who struggles with balance. However, there's a couple of small design issues here that stop it from being a must-buy. For one thing, the in-app presentation of these metrics can get a bit confusing. There's only a couple of ways the information is presented, and most of these use a green sliding scale without offering too much information about your results. Are they good? Bad? Average for your sex, height and weight? Sometimes, it's hard to tell, especially with the more esoteric metrics. There are 2 ways to pair the S2 Scales to your Connect account; one is to the app and the other is to use an ANT+ dongle to link your Garmin Express on your desktop computer to the scales. I tried the ANT+ dongle first and half got it to work and then gave up. So use the app.

The scales are very expensive if you have to have some other scales for (2) and (3), not to mention space in the bathroom. I bought scales with features that are not delivered unless Garmin hold all the data. Not keen on that but I wanted the other metrics for a project. But they can’t help feeling a little bit like an afterthought on Garmin’s behalf. The app support for them is limited, and simply getting them to work was a frustrating experience. These could, perhaps should, be better than they are.

Weigh-in details and Garmin Connect

In general, Ramsay said, smart scales provide relatively accurate body fat percentage and lean muscle mass results. Some even record your resting heart rate, which can be a good indicator of fitness. This is a premium scale, and has a price tag to match, but if you're interested in making long-term changes and improving your fitness rather than just losing weight, it could be well worth the investment.

It suggests a “body age” and gives a body score out of 100, giving users a label (e.g. “good” or “poor”). It’s a fairly simple ranking but could be helpful to some people. Like most smart scales, you can view a section on how your weight and body fat has changed over time, but it doesn’t show info for the other metrics, which feels like an oversight.

…but the accuracy is questionable

And believe us when we say, there's nothing quite like taking a look at your BMI and body fitness age to motivate you to work harder in the iron jungle. These smart scales are an underrated and versatile tool in any fitness fiend's arsenal, so long as you take advantage of the stats they give you.