With the many technological marvels of the modern world, it’s easy to turn into a lump on the sofa. I personally eschew such foolishness, instead preferring to become a lump in an overpriced gamer chair.
To save myself, I have visited alcohol rehab west hollywood to get rid off addiction and to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I’m also turning to technology — in this case, a smart scale that’ll allow me to see exactly how corpulent I’ve become, and hopefully persuade me to make a change for the better. You can pop over to these guys to know more about it in detail. The smart scale is the Koogeek S1, and it’s the subject of our review today.
Specs & Features
- Body tracking (8 precision measurements)
- Weight, body fat, BMI, body water
- BMR, bone mass, visceral fat, lean mass
- Manage multiple users (up to 16)
- Free app (available on iOS + Android)
- Dual connectivity (Bluetooth or Wi-Fi)
- Baby weighing function
- Durable tempered glass + ABS construction
- Runs on 4 AA batteries
- 315 x 315 x 29mm
- 1.75 kilograms
Design
The S1 has a simple but attractive design in white and silver. The scale is squircle-shaped with a circular wordmark in the centre and a simple blue LED display near the top. The numbers here are big and bright, making them easy to read even if your eyesight isn’t perfect.
Beneath the surface, the S1 is a little more complex as you can see in this expanded view. You can see the sensor in the centre, feet on all four corners and the AA battery chest on the bottom.
The scale is 315 millimetres square and 29 millimetres deep; that’s a little bigger than most scales but not enough to be an issue.
Testing
Out of the box and without a smartphone, the S1 scale doesn’t do much — you can step on it to learn your weight, and use a little switch hidden in the battery compartment to switch the units from imperial to metric. Download the Koogeek app on iOS or Android, and you get the full picture. The scale will differentiate between different users automatically, recording a host of statistics including weight, body fat percentage and other interesting metrics.
In our testing, we couldn’t fool the automatic user recognition and the scale dutifully recorded our weight each time we stepped on it. In the app, you get a nice graph of your trends over time.
Having the ability to see body-fat percentage is quite nice, as it allows you to see a meaningful difference from going to gym and weight training even if your weight has remained the same.
Of course, using the scale in your slippers doesn’t provide much more than your weight — you’ll need to take off your warm fuzzies to get stats like your body fat percentage and base metabolic rate. That’s annoying when it’s cold (even at home), but it’s well worth the annoyance of having to take your socks off. It’s also worth noting that these readings aren’t as accurate as some other methods, but they’re better than nothing.
While you get a nice graph of your metrics, there’s little else added on. It would have been nice to see some more advanced statistics that could chart how your step count affected your weight a few days on. This requires buying into the entire Koogeek ecosystem, which includes heart monitors, fitness trackers and all sorts of other bits and bobs. For a brand that lacks the mainstream appeal of Apple, Nokia or Samsung, it’s hard to see many people investing fully and getting the most out of the system. Thankfully, you can at least export your stats to Apple’s Health app and Google Fit, and from there you can get more advanced analysis and combine it with other smart health appliances.
Wrapping up
The Koogeek S1 Smart Scale is an interesting product. On the one hand, it looks stylish and it definitely does what it says on the tin. On the other, it’s a little expensive at £50 compared to competing scales from other small brands, and its software package isn’t as impressive as we hoped. Ultimately, I think you’re paying largely for good looks and solid construction.
I can see the S1 being a popular choice at its price point, but it’s difficult to tread the line between truly bargain basement stuff at the £25 mark and high-end models with fuller ecosystems from well-known technology brands like Xiaomi, Nokia (previously Withings) and Samsung. Still, if the software is polished a little bit and the price comes down, you could snap up a bargain.
🛒 See for £49.99 / $49.99 on Amazon
