Withings Body Scan review: Professional measurements for personal use (2024)

How important is monitoring and managing your health? If you’re like me and you have numerous chronic health conditions, you may be looking for something that can help you monitor those conditions outside of a doctor’s office. The Withings Body Scan scale is designed to help people with heart disease, diabetes, or other chronic conditions. It is more than just your average bathroom scale; it is the most advanced bathroom scale ever made and provides professional-level measurements in the comfort of your own home.

This scale does a lot more, but it isn’t for everyone. The high price and vast feature set will be excessive for many people, but there's no better bathroom scale if you’re in the subset of people it is made for. This is why the Withings Body Scan is an extravagant bathroom scale that anyone with heart disease or diabetes needs in their bathroom.

Staff pick

Withings Body Scan

8/ 10

The Withings Body Scan offers advanced medical features for those with chronic medical conditions. The scale mostly delivers on its promise, but there are also flaws in the measurements it records. Although it's not perfect, it's a scale that will forever remain in my home because of the value it offers someone like me with heart disease and diabetes.

Pros

• Wide range of health metrics
• First scale to offer ECG and nerve checks
• Supports multiple users
• Customizable to only measure what you want

Cons

• Fluctuation in measurement results
• Takes several minutes to conduct a full test
• Too much money for most people

$400 at Amazon$400 at Best Buy$400 at Withings

Price and Availability

The average bathroom scale is under $50, whereas the average smart scale with an app is under $100. The Withings Body Scan does not fit these categories. Much like the Apple Watch Ultra — which is in a class of its own compared to the other Apple Watches — the Body Scan creates a new category of professional bathroom scales. However, these features will cost you $400, which is expensive for many but could prove worth it for others.

What’s good about the Withings Body Scan?

Fantastic for those with chronic health conditions

There are three classes of bathroom scales. The basic ones measure your weight and possibly display your Body Mass Index (BMI), a widely accepted measure of obesity. Smart scales are the most common bathroom scales now, and all come with an app and additional health metrics such as weight, visceral fat, heart rate, and much more.

The Withings Body Scan launches the category of professional bathroom scales designed to offer professional-grade health measurements from the comfort of your home. The health measurements go beyond the basic or advanced, including expert measurements such as a 6-lead ECG, nerve health, standing heart rate, Pulse Wave Velocity, and Vascular Age. All of these metrics offer incredible amounts of data for someone with cardiac disease and diabetes.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating the Withings Body Scan. It’s not just a scale; it's the first tool that tests all the health markers that matter to me. The 6-lead ECG feature is particularly beneficial for early morning checks, as most adverse cardiac events occur overnight. And the ability to monitor for diabetic neuropathy daily, rather than waiting for quarterly doctor’s visits, is a game-changer.

The Withings Body Scan isn’t just for those with chronic conditions. The information gleaned from the above tests is super useful for doctors to see when trying to evaluate conditions, and the ultra-precise body composition allows you to understand the fat and muscle mass of each part of your body independently. The latter feature, in particular, is useful when working on your overall health.

The Withings Body Scan syncs into the full Withings ecosystem — including the Withings ScanWatch 2 — and works closely with the company’s wearables to provide an even more comprehensive view of your health.

It also syncs with Apple Health, and I love having my blood sugar measurements, step counts, and heart rate alongside the measurements from the scale. This holistic view of the health markers that matter to me is one of the best parts of the Withings Body Scan experience.

Like much of the Withings ecosystem, there are many customization options. Although the Withings Body Scan has a range of possible health measurements, you can turn on or off the ones that matter most to you. Adding more options will increase the time taken for each complete measurement, but this customization allows you to make the Withings Body Scan truly yours.

If you live with others, you can also link up to eight profiles to the scale. When the profiles are displayed on-screen during the measurement, changing between profiles is as simple as adjusting your feet left or right.

What’s bad about the Withings Body Scan?

Questionable results make for some large flaws

The biggest downside to the Withings Body Scan is the price. At $400, it’s the most expensive bathroom scale I’ve encountered, but frankly, I find it worth every cent. I derive value from it only because I have chronic health conditions, and the scale helps me quantify the things I haven’t been able to quantify yet.

Beyond the price, there’s little to dislike about the Withings Body Scan. For many people, the time taken to conduct a full test — it averages around two minutes for a comprehensive measurement of every metric — will be problematic. As you need to hold the handlebars for these tests and ensure that your arms are not touching your body, some core strength is required to hold this in place without moving.

Looking at the customer reviews, it’s clear that there is also a consistency issue. Several reviews suggest wildly fluctuating numbers in body composition and weight.

Personally, fluctuations in weight are normal, although I’ve particularly noticed that my weight fluctuates far more when measured using the Withings Body Scan. It hasn’t been particularly egregious, but two measurements within a few minutes can yield different results that make you question the validity of the results.

On the last day of testing before writing this review, I started having Wi-Fi issues, whereby my scale stopped connecting to my wireless network. I’ve had this issue with smart scales before, and while I haven’t had the time to resolve this, I don’t expect it to be a major problem. For the times when the Withings Body Scan can’t sync wirelessly, it can save up to 16 readings, although it’s unclear if these are just the weight readings or the full suite of measurement data.

Should you buy the Withings Body Scan?

Despite some issues, I firmly believe the value you derive from the Withings Body Scan is greater than the trade-offs. The ECG and the nerve health checks are unique to the Withings Body Scan and provide welcome mental reassurance that my health is on track.

That said, the value in these measurements is less for myself and more to provide to my doctor at various check-ups. Like the best smartwatches, an ECG won’t check for a heart attack; rather, it focuses on things like atrial defibrillation and tachycardia. Similarly, I’m not sure how accurate the vascular age is, as it doesn’t take into account my pre-existing heart conditions and medical history.

The Withings Body Scan isn’t perfect, but it offers at-home monitoring in a way that hasn’t been possible before. It allows me to run a series of checks every morning and then provide that data to my doctor. Despite the flaws, this ability is unrivaled by any other bathroom scale and makes this a must-have if you have chronic health problems. It’s not cheap, but it offers enough value to be worthwhile for a small set of patients.

Staff pick

Withings Body Scan

This scale will be excessive for most people, but for me, it's a must-have. Despite its flaws, the Withings Body Scan offers enough value to recommend it to anyone with chronic health conditions who wants to quantify or track them daily.

$400 at Amazon$400 at Best Buy$400 at Withings

Nirave is a creator, evangelist, and founder of House of Tech. A heart attack at 33 inspired him to publish the Impact of Tech newsletter, which covers the best technology and focuses on its impact on mental, physical, and emotional health. Follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more.