DO NOT buy an expensive smart scale! Review: This CHEAP Renpho smart scale slays them all!

The smart scale marketplace might look a bit overwhelming and unnecessarily complicated at first glance. Just try searching in Amazon for one and you’ll end up with hundreds of results mostly in triple-digit prices. Even when you factor in customer reviews and popularity, narrowing down your choice is tricky because we all have different needs. Plus if you don’t have another smart scale to compare to, it’s hard to figure out which ones are truly superior. On the surface, you would expect the smart scale to track your weight accurately and consistently and log the results, but from my experience, things can range from going well to just flat-out falling apart. So I’m excited to review a Renpho smart scale to see how it stacks up. The Renpho smart scale, also known as Renpho Elis sells for a meagre $35, and before you start thinking it’s too cheap to be good, read the full review.

How to choose a smart scale

For a smart scale to be good, there are a few conditions that need to be met. First, the design and materials should be good enough to withstand long-term use across different body weights and sizes. Second, the technologies powering the scale should be competitive offering some other means of accurate metrics and finally, the companion mobile app should be intuitive, stable, and reliable in keeping a good history of said metrics. Getting both the hardware and software to work in harmony is the trickiest part and many companies like Renpho are gunning for that lucrative top marketshare position all for the mutual goal of improved well-being for all. I will review one of Renpho’s most popular offerings – the Renpho Elis 1 Smart Scale to see if it ticks all those boxes.

What you get with Renpho Elis 1 Smart Scale

Being positioned as a value product, you won’t find an overwhelming amount of features in the Renpho Elis 1 package. Aside from the black smart scale itself, you will find a trio of AAA batteries along with a user’s manual. Be sure to check the packaging or product description before you buy because some units come with a non-removable battery that you can only charge via USB. USB charging is convenient but all batteries, rechargeable or not, have a lifespan. For a product that doesn’t sip a lot of power daily, using AAA batteries is just more practical and you can always opt for rechargeable AAA batteries if you wish to save some money.

Renpho Health App

One clever way to check how dedicated a company developing smart products is in serving their customers is to check when they updated their mobile app. At the time of writing, the official Renpho Health app for Android page says that the app was last updated on March 9, 2023. I also checked the ratings and reviews section and noticed how the company also tries to respond to any recent negative reviews highlighting the company’s commitment to solving user concerns. Seeing these positive signs gives me a good first impression of Renpho, at least as a company.
For the best app experience, Renpho recommends you sign up for a Renpho account. If you aren’t comfortable doing that immediately, you can choose the “Guest Mode” option on the app to enjoy most of the Renpho Elis 1 Smart Scale features minus the ability to sync the data to the cloud. I commend Renpho for offering this option to those privacy-conscious folks.

Set up

Whether you decided to sign up to the app or not, you need to provide your gender, name, birthday, height, and weight as the app will factor in these details when generating the smart scale outputs. Finally, the app also provides an “Athlete Mode” option which you can enable if you frequently work out so the scale can properly calibrate itself for more accurate body fat and muscle mass measurements.
Once you finished that part, Renpho will guide you through a short three-question survey with an option to skip it. The app offers a short tour of the things you can do and teaches you how to add and pair your device with the Renpho Elis 1 Smart Scale. The entire setup process was pretty straightforward and the same app provides easy access to a customer service bot which you can contact whenever you have issues or concerns with the app or any Renpho product.
If multiple family members and guests plan on using the smart scale, you can proceed to adding individual profiles for these people so the app can separately track the data of each person.

Renpho Elis 1 Smart Scale Metrics & Features

The Renpho Elis 1 Smart Scale quickly calculates and logs your body weight along with 12 other essential body measurements including BMI (Body Mass Index), BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), body fat percentage, body water percentage, visceral fat, muscle mass, bone mass, skeletal muscle, fat-free body weight, protein, metabolic age, and subcutaneous fat.
In order for the scale to provide a good assessment of your body, you must use the scale barefoot and make sure your feet cover all four silver discs on the scale. These contact points will then generate a tiny (undetectable) electrical current and the scale will compute all the body measurements I mentioned earlier based on how your body resists the current. This is pretty much how all smart scales. The neat extra the Renpho Elis 1 brings to the table is integration with all the major health services including Apple Health, Samsung Health, Google Fit, and FitBit.

Taking weight with Renpho smart scale

Getting my daily or weekly body measurements was a snap. Step on, and your weight is visible right on the scale for folks who don’t want to bother digging for the phone. Wait for the display to stop blinking and step off. The scale displays your weight only on the scale; for the rest of it, you need to open up the app. Your weight is shown in the dashboard, and tapping it takes you to a secondary screen where you can view the rest at a glance. Tapping on some of the metrics will bring you to screens where you can see how your weights and measurements compare with healthy normals, by using a colour bar.
In short the scale shares simple, easy to interpret data, and the syncing process from the scale to the app is seamless and immediate.

How does Renpho scale compare to other smart scales?

I’ve reviewed plenty of smart scales, as noted earlier. Some have terrible user interfaces and they’re buggy and prone to not working (Withings Body Cardio and Withings Body +, ugghhh – click to see those reviews) while others work seamlessly but overdo it with data, clutter and extra features no one actually wants in their app (Fitbit Aria).

No monthly fees

Renpho doesn’t give you guided workouts, or let you challenge your pals, but what you do get is all the basic data anyone needs, and no subscription fees to access or analyse it.

Battery life

Renpho doesn’t say how long the replaceable batteries should last, but in my experience with similar scales, it can be years, depending how often the scale is being used.

Overall review: Renpho Elis 1 Smart Scale

I’m blown away by how well the Renpho scale works, particularity when compared against other expensive and flashy smart scales. Renpho Elis 1 is far and away better than a Withings Body + and a sleeper hit you should absolutely consider. It’s simple to set up, pair, goes straight to logging the weight and those body metrics, and works seamlessly. With a $29.99 USD asking price and free app and tracking, the Elis 1 is an absolute steal. Run, don’t walk to your online retailer of choice and add it to your cart now. You can also learn more from Renpho’s website.

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