More Convenient (Smaller) Than It Seems; Unknown Ounce Handling
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Best Sellers in Kitchen & Dining
when i received the scale i was pleasantly surprised the scale feels premium and is much smaller than photos convey the product’s photos skew the size by using small bowls and hands to throw off visual proportions in reality the scale is handsized granted i’m larger than most it’s small enough to throw into a drawer or keep it on a counter and not take up much space it can be easily accessible not necessary to put it away somewhere to be barely used it’s even  travel friendly just don’t pack heavy items on top of itultimately the size is much more convenient than the photos conveythe thoroughness of the experience is also great they didn’t create a product that just works with the bare minimum they actually care about the user experience and listen older reviews calling for additional features have been addressed barcode scanning is now available the database now contains over 270000 itemsin fact the database is so extensive it can be difficult to find items in some cases trying to merely weigh ground beef can become a daunting adventure there are listings from individual supermarkets lean or not lean types etc and each varies in nutritional value eg not all lean types have the same calories in such cases it ends up being a guesstimate rather than truly informative due to the overwhelming number of choicesunfortunately it’s not easy to refine such a database how would one know which item is most relevant or discern which data is more accurate that’s a downside of having a user driven database users entering product info aren’t prone to quality control myfitnesspal’s database reflects that well in fact i wouldn’t be surprised if they are using the same database but even if they are myfitnesspal integration has not yet been added maybe they are working on it or have their reasons not to ie competitor in any case the app and hardware have significantly grown since earlier reviews the experience is much more accommodating for new customers——————one thing i’d like to see changed is how ounces are handledwhen measuring in ounces the precision is only 004 ounces ie 1 gram that can’t be helped all scales have a measurement range and more precise scales only measure up to about one pound that’s the tradeoff of being able to weigh heavier items would be great to have a version of the scale that can measure lighter items some manufacturers sell multiple versions of the same scale with different resolution ranges unfortunately it creates situations where if you are measuring something that is actually 314oz  it would resolve it to 312oz or maybe even 316oz in the case of 312 mathematically it should round down to 31oz for 316 it should round up to 32oz i have personally seen the scale show 31 and 32 for the same item not knowing which is more true or if it’s even rounding what if in reality the scale is actually seeing 316 and dropping the last digit not rounding at all the problem is users have no idea which is happening  what the scale actually sees when something like food intake is a matter of personal preference and perceptionwouldn’t users like to know if they are slightly over or under which works out to being off by a few grams if over some would care to take a bit off to meet their goal so seeing they are slightly over would be good to knowin the app there should be an option to disable the auto rounding for ounces enable displaying the hundredths or thousandths position to allow users to know the true measurement and use their own judgement rather than the scale judge for them due to the scale making assumptions  not knowing the true ounces i took off one star the scale is truly designed to measure in grams and converts it to ounces via the software  firmware so it can be addressed through a software or firmware update until then if you really care to have a better idea of the ounces it’s best to measure in grams and manually convert it inconvenient but in some situations that might actually matter  ultimately the option to display another digit or two since one gram is really 0035 ounces not 004 can be very helpful even if not precise and should be optional disabled by defaultanother feature that would be nice perhaps for the next hardware update rechargeable battery with usbc connection the need to purchase additional batteries seems a bit backwards it makes the otherwise modern  futuristic product seem a bit retro the convenience of a rechargeable battery many users would appreciatein any case this is a welldesigned product accompanied by a welldesigned and developed app where other companies make half efforts etekcity hasn’t no other smart food scale has a better experience even the smart food scales that resolve 001g to 500g 0000352oz to 17637oz that seem more precise are actually inaccurate and the app experience isn’t as refined nor as extensive i tested them with items where i already knew the true weight only etekcity’s smart scale was very close to spec the others were all over the place with no option to calibrateetekcity has created a quality item and are putting a lot of work into their platform i look forward to seeing how things develop and highly recommend this product