Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale Review (2024)

The Etekcity Heart Rate Smart Fitness Scale measures much more than just your weight. For $79.99, this health and fitness tool tracks 14 metrics including body fat percentage, body mass index, heart rate, subcutaneous and visceral fat, and muscle mass. You can find every metric tracked in its companion app in informative charts that clearly contextualize your data, and that data proved accurate in our testing. Given that it also has built-in Wi-Fi and a rechargeable battery, the Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale compares well with models that cost much more and earns our Editors’ Choice for smart scales.

Pricing and Features: A Lot for Your Money

Smart scale prices range from around $25 to more than $150. The Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale sits around the middle of the pack at $79.99, but it distinguishes itself with a solid feature set and excellent performance.

Like other smart scales, the Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale uses bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to take in-depth readings of your body’s composition. Through sensors and BIA, it measures 14 metrics as long as you have bare feet when you step on for a reading. This includes your basal metabolic rate (BMR, the minimum necessary energy needed in an inactive state), body fat percentage, body mass index (BMI, a measure of your body weight in relation to your height), body water, bone mass, fat-free body weight, heart rate, metabolic age, muscle mass, protein percent, skeletal mass, subcutaneous fat (the fat just under your skin), visceral fat (the deeper fat by your organs), and of course, weight (up to 400 pounds). For safety, it gives you the option to disable the BIA current for a weight-only measurement if you’re pregnant.

For comparison, its list of supported metrics matches that of the more expensive QardioBase X smart scale ($129.99). The similarly priced Arboleaf Smart Fitness Scale ($79.99) also tracks 14 metrics, but heart rate is not one of them. Smart home device maker Wyze sells ultra-affordable smart scales with similar features as more expensive models, but we no longer recommend any products from the brand following a series of security breaches affecting its home security cameras.

The HR Smart Fitness Scale shares other advantages with the QardioBase X, including a built-in rechargeable battery. Its 500mAh battery takes three hours to charge. Etekcity doesn't specify how long it should last between charges, but it still appears full after a week of testing.

As another perk, the scale connects directly to both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, whereas many budget models only support the latter. Arboleaf’s scale also has Wi-Fi, but it's powered by four AAA batteries instead of a rechargeable one, and it lacks a pregnancy mode.

Words of encouragement after a weekend of indulgence (Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

Etekcity’s HR Smart Fitness Scale also stands out from most competitors for its surprisingly useful color display. The colorful high-resolution LCD display sits in the upper middle of the top of the scale and is easy to read from a variety of angles. You can customize which metrics the scale shows during your weigh-ins and even change the order in which it displays them. Plus, it provides context, briefly showing whether your weight is closer to or further from your goal.

The HR Smart Fitness Scale supports an unlimited number of user profiles, which probably won't be a differentiating factor for most households since the eight users offered by most of the competition is already plenty. You can change the weight measurements to pounds, kilograms, or stones, and the scale promises accuracy to within 0.1 pound or 0.05 kg. It even has a baby mode where you can hold your child and get a separate measurement.

(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

In terms of design, the Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale has an ordinary square shape. It's relatively compact, measuring 11.8 by 11.8 by 1.1 inches (LWH), especially compared with the QardioBase X (12.6 by 12.6 by 0.8 inches). The entire top of the scale is covered in reflective, Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)-coated tempered class. Black stripes break up the mostly dark blue surface with a company logo jutting from the lower middle and subtly helping to guide your foot placement. The thin body sits on four plastic feet with anti-skid padding on the bottom.

Setting Up the Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale

The Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale box includes a quick-start guide and a charging cord that attaches to the USB port on top of the scale. To set up the scale, you need to download its companion VeSync app for Android or iOS and create an account if you don’t already have one. Tap the plus icon in the upper-right corner, select Health as the category, and then select the Etekcity Smart Fitness Scale EFS-A591S Series.

You need to give the app permission to find nearby devices. The app will then prompt you for your Wi-Fi info and ask if you want to sync to any third-party fitness services. Etekcity’s scale works with all the usual suspects, including Apple Health, Fitbit, Google Fit, MyFitnessPal, and Samsung Health. You can optionally skip this step during the initial setup process and find this option later under the More tab of the main app page.

The app will then ask you for your gender (female or male), birthdate, height, and weight. Then, you set an avatar for yourself (I was tempted by the cat but went with a football) and toggle on athlete mode if you’re particularly fit. Most of this info helps the scale tailor its readings to your body type.

The app then walks you through how to use the scale and gives you the option to customize the display on the scale itself. Weight always shows first, but you can swap or rearrange any of the other metrics it measures, and even some extras like weather. You can add up to nine items in total to the screen’s display list. Should you choose to skip this step during setup, the display customization option is always available in the settings menu of the device’s page within the app.

Using the scale is mostly intuitive, as you’d expect, but I appreciated the app taking a second to make sure I understood the nuances.

(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

Etekcity recommends using the scale on hard floors but notes that low-pile carpet should be OK if hard floors aren't an option. Find a spot, then step on with bare feet and center them in the blue area. The display will show little red arrows in the corners if you’re too close to an edge. Wait for the green bar to fill, then the display will show you your measurements and say “bye.” If you move the scale, be sure to calibrate it before you step on by lightly pressing it with your foot, giving it a second to return to zero, and then waiting three seconds.

During setup, you can set weight and body fat goals and tell the app how often you work out and your usual daily activity level. Overall, the setup process took longer than I expected, but mostly because the app walks you through usage and asks a lot of questions in an effort to serve as a holistic lifestyle management resource.

The VeSync App: Wellness Insights and More

Etekcity offers numerous other smart home devices, including fans, light strips, locks, and plugs, and the default home tab of the VeSync app serves as a control center for your various gadgets, letting you set scenes and organize your devices into rooms. The main section of the app also has a store and a forum. Inside the app's wellness tab, you can set a diet plan, track calorie intake, log exercise, check recipes, and talk with a community. Everything feels overwhelming at a glance, and the app is clearly trying to do too much.

Once you scroll down in the home tab and tap on the scale, the actual device page is more refined. At the top, it shows your weight change over time compared with your goal weight. You can tap a button at the bottom of this chart to see every metric graphed over time and change the time frame of each graph to days, weeks, or months. Another button lets you see and edit your goals for weight and body fat.

Below the graph on the main device page, it shows your most recent measurements for weight, BMI, body fat, and visceral fat. Tap Show More to see the rest. Each offers a quick assessment of where the metric lies on a typical scale. Tap on any number to see your measurement graphed on this scale. This page also includes an explanation of what each metric means and what you can do if you’re trying to improve on this front.

(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

Some of the guidance is simplistic, such as consuming fewer calories than you burn if trying to lose weight, but the app provides a lot of details for those who want them and makes this information easy to find. Otherwise, you can scroll down to get a weekly wellness report and create a meal plan.

To add additional members, tap on your profile icon in the device page. A small arrow icon at the bottom of the device page offers two additional options for other users: One lets you quickly enter information for a guest measurement without creating a whole profile, and the other lets you measure a baby.

At the top of the device page, you can tap a button to share your progress or hit the gear icon to access settings. Under settings, you can change the scale’s unit of measurement, see the remaining battery life, factory reset it, add members, turn on zero-current mode, customize the display screen, and more.

High-End Accuracy

I stuck with the default settings for my display screen, which showed my weight, weight trend, body fat, progress, and heart rate, in that order. After taking a couple of seconds to calculate my measurements, the screen also showed my name and the football avatar I selected to indicate it recognized me. The weight trend reading made it easy to see if I was up or down for the day, and the progress screen showed my weight and body fat change on a wheel graph as compared with the goal I set in the app.

(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

It’s a helpful amount of info, relayed quickly, and because the scale has Wi-Fi, I didn’t need to worry about opening the app right after a measurement. My data synced within a couple of seconds the next time I opened the app, regardless of my phone's proximity to the scale.

Most importantly, the scale's measurements proved highly accurate. It wasn’t precise enough to change its reading based on whether or not I was holding my 6.8-ounce Google Pixel 7a, but it did show a higher weight when I added articles of clothing and updated according to my anecdotal expectations from day to day depending on my diet from the previous night.

Generally, every number gathered by the scale was within a couple of points of measurement from the accurate QardioBase X. In fact, the numbers from the Etekcity Scale aligned even closer to those from the expensive handheld Omron HBF-306C body fat monitoring device used at many gyms. Etekcity's body fat reading matched Omron’s exactly, and the BMI reading only deviated by tenths of a percentage point. Overall, I came away thoroughly impressed with the accuracy of the Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale.

The $79.99 Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale is just as accurate as more expensive models. Add in a helpful and customizable display, a rechargeable battery, Wi-Fi connectivity, and an abundance of contextualizing information, and it becomes a truly terrific value. Ultimately, the Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale is one of the best smart scales you can buy at any price and a clear Editors’ Choice winner in the category.