Review: FitBit Aria

The Aria is a scale with no cables - a plain white device with a little moulding on the base, four AA batteries, and a small LED readout. It can keep track of up to eight people – as long as they are at least slightly different in weight and body fat percentage. Setup, annoyingly, requires a Wi-Fi connection; my desktop doesn’t have Wi-Fi, so I had to resort to setting it up via smartphone.

The first time I stood on the scale, it measured my weight in stones and pounds. That wasn’t particularly useful. However, at the next attempt it recognised me by name, measured my weight in kilograms, and then gave me a body fat percentage to top it off. The body fat percentage in my case it was very inaccurate – out by around 10 percentage points – but it’s designed only as an estimate. Once weighing and calculations were complete, it showed a big tick, so I knew I could dismount.

A friend inveigled into stepping on board got just his weight, a “guest” label and the tick – this is because it didn’t know his height or gender to provide the body fat data. If you’re on FitBit, it will record the data against your profile there.

It’s useful, and I’m slightly more inclined to use it than any other scale, but ensuring that the scale is in range of your Wi-Fi network could prove tricky for some.