Wyze Scale X review: Budget scale, budget features

I was excited to start testing the Wyze Scale X. I’m a casual runner, cyclist, and yogi, but while I know the best smart scales can be a useful investment, I was intrigued how these budget Wyze scales would match up against premium models I’ve tested like the Withings Body Scan .

The brand is best-known for its great value range of smart home products, as it’s able to balance that fine line between affordability and features, and the Scale X doesn’t disappoint in that front as it can track weight, body composition, heart rate, metabolic rate, and protein.

I was most curious about the protein metric, as I’ve never seen that before. So, I spent a week weighing myself on this device for this Wyze Scale X review to help you decide whether this budget-friendly smart scale deserves a place in your bathroom.

Wyze Scale X review: Cheat sheet

• Who is it for? This is a budget smart scale for those just dipping their toe into the world of fitness metrics.
• What does it cost? $33
• What does it do well? It looks good and it provides a wide range of metrics.
• What are its weaknesses? The Wyze app is more like an advertisement for other Wyze products than a detailed analysis of your health metrics, the stats appear to be a little skewed, and the app doesn’t provide in-depth visual analytics or referenced studies.
• What should you use it for? To keep regular tabs on your health metrics, but not for athletic body composition analysis.

Wyze Scale X review: Specs

Wyze Scale X review: Price & availability

The Wyze Scale X is available for $39 at Amazon or $33 from the Wyze website . At time of writing, it is not directly available from Wyze for UK customers, but you can buy it from a reseller for £65 at Amazon .

Wyze Scale X review: Design & display

The Wyze Scale X comes in black or white and I tested the black version, my preferred color option. Unlike the full-color and enthusiastic ‘See You Soon!’ on the Withings Body Smart, the Scale X has a ‘Hello’ setting you have to turn on in the app. I would have liked to see something a little more friendly, given that scales can raise quite difficult feelings for many people.

The Scale X looks like many other scales; it’s a sleek, clever-looking little thing, with clean tempered glass, and an electrode glass. It feels sturdy enough for $30 but doesn’t look cheap. However, you may want to store it in a cupboard as the IPX3 rating means it can only withstand light splashes of water without damage.

Wyze Scale X review: Setup

After downloading the Wyze app (available for iOS and Android), I was prompted to make an account. After entering my email address I was redirected to a Wyze webpage, where I filled out my information and set up two-factor authentication.

The app covers all of Wyze’s products, so you need to select your model before you can continue the setup. It’s also an odd decision to house them all in one place — do you really need your weight and health metrics in the same app you use to set your home security floodlights?

It’s a trade-off that’s curious, but not disastrous. However, I would like to see more dedicated fitness settings and maybe an app where I don’t accidentally tap the ‘smart lights’ tab mid-BMI-analysis. But the more impactful thing I learnt during set up was that you can’t use the Scale X on soft floors.

So, don't make the same mistake I did — this scale does not work on any carpet. Not a thick pile, not a thin carpet, nothing. It only works on hard floors, like bathroom linoleum or hardwood. I was disappointed to see no carpet feet in the box, as that was something the Withings Body Smart ($99) impressed me with.

Wyze Scale X review: Weigh-in

I know it shouldn’t be surprising that cheap scales have fewer features than more mid-range models, but I was still thrown when I stepped onto the scales to weigh myself and didn’t see the results in the app. This is because the scales only support Bluetooth sync, and there’s no Wi-Fi option for automatic syncing, as you get with the Withings Body Smart.

So, when you go to weigh yourself, you need your phone with you, unlocked, and the app open. In theory, the scales can hold several measurements and then sync all in one go, but that didn’t work during my testing, and I could only get results to show in the app if I left it open while weighing myself.

And once the measurements started to appear, I found that they were a bit out compared to the metrics I saw on other scales. For instance, Withings puts my body fat percentage between 17-18%, and my gym’s advanced scales say 15.9%. But on the Scale X, it reads 23%.

Of course, these measurements vary (which is why you need to regularly weigh yourself to get accurate results), but it’s still a big discrepancy. Though, if I hadn’t recently been reviewing other smart scales, I wouldn’t have known this. In the end, consistency matters more than the numbers themselves and the Scale X was reliable in its measurements during testing.

But the numbers may matter more if you’re a serious athlete or are looking to enter competitions. In which case, I would recommend the higher-end Withings Body Smart ($99) or invest in the high-tech Withings Body Scan ($399).

Since I’ve never seen a ‘Protein’ section on a smart scale, I was keen to learn more about this, but the app is a bit light on detail. Unlike the Withings app, there are no articles or links to studies and journals to explain the data.

So, after a quick search, I found that the protein measurement is calculated by dividing your body mass by weight, and then subtracting body water percentage. It’s interesting, but not essential, and is, in theory, something you could work out yourself if you were inclined to.

Wyze Scale X review: App features

While the vast array of products under Wyze’s brand mean you could feasibly stock your entire house with one app, this means Wyze’s fitness capabilities are less developed than other manufacturers.

There’s less of a focus on health metrics and more of a thinly-spread analysis, with no statistics as deep, backed up by science, or accurate as I would like. I was deeply impressed by the scope of scientific journals quoted and referenced in the Withings app.

I didn’t have to Google any of the stats to figure out what they meant or how Withings got their calculation. But with the Wyze Scale X, I did. I understand that this is a cheap smart scale, but it appears that Wyze has skimped on even the most fundamental information.

And to round off my app-related concerns, it feels like the Wyze app is an interactive advert. You can’t go two seconds without seeing an advert for another Wyze product in the top banner. The tabs at the bottom of the app screen are for smart alarm systems and lights, which is good if you have those, but if you only have the Scale X like I did, 80% of the app is useless to you.

If Wyze wants to appear serious about the fitness market, they need to create a fitness-specific app with the depth of metric analysis and information you’d see on something like the Withings app. In its current form, the Wyze app is almost incomparable to the Withings app.

Wyze Scale X review: Compatibility

Wyze claims that the Scale X is compatible only with Apple Health and Google Fit, but has an option for Fitbit in the Wyze app. If your third-party app or smartwatch is compatible with Apple Health or Google Fit (and let’s be real, what smartwatches and fitness apps aren’t compatible with those two?) then you’ll be able to sync it up using your phone’s native software.

Should you buy the Wyze Scale X?

The Wyze Scale X does all the essentials (and a bit more) for an incredibly budget-friendly price. The fact that you can pick up a smart scale that’ll sync data to your phone for less than the cost of some regular scales is pretty impressive. But there are trade-offs.

The app is cluttered and doesn’t make your data easy to understand. If Wyze made a dedicated fitness app with referenced journals (like Withings do) and clearly organized metric tabs, this could be an excellent product.

And while I don’t think it’s as accurate as some others, it is reliable and consistent, which helps track your progress over time. Given that it’s only $33, it feels cruel to compare it to scales that cost three times as much. But if Wyze wants to compete with other brands, the app needs some major improvements and useful insights.