Withings Body Scan now available to buy in the UK and EU
The Withings Body Scan scale is available to buy in the UK and EU from today. Originally announced nearly a year ago at CES 2022, the device can assess nerve activity, detect Afib and monitor segmental body composition.
Also worthy of note is that the 6-Lead Electrocardiogram will not be available early on. The feature will be unlocked via a free firmware update pending the European regulatory approval process that is expected to be completed at the end of 2022.
The scale is expected to be made available more widely in early 2023. Here we are mainly thinking about the US. Our guess is that it is taking a bit longer to get the necessary regulatory approvals in that country.
The company is one of the best known smart scale manufacturers in the world. In fact Withings is credited with inventing the first such device back in 2009.
The company next broke ground with its Body Cardio scale. It has the ability to monitor your standing heart rate and an exclusive new measurement – your Pulse Wave Velocity. Thanks to its sensors, Body Cardio detects slight weight variations caused by heartbeats. With this information, the scale can sense the moment when blood is ejected from the aorta and the moment when it reaches blood vessels in the feet. This essentially provides users with a mini heart health assessment.
Withings Body Scan – three breakthrough new features
Body Scan also measures much more than just your weight. Its big selling point is that it has a 6-lead ECG built into the thing.
This is utilized to apply a small direct current to your body (through the feet and hands) which is used to spit out a daily assessment of nerve activity from sweat glands. Nerve activity analysis can potentially flag up certain conditions such as diabetes. This type of analysis is something that can currently only be done by neurologists and endocrinologists in a medical setting. The ECG is also used to look for heart arrhythmias like Afib, and it can detect heart rate and vascular age.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
Other metrics that are tracked by the scale include water percentage, visceral fat, muscle mass, bone mass and extra cellular and intracellular water. The weight measurements are said to be ultra-precise. But there’s more.
The third novel feature of the scale is to do with body composition. This goes beyond the metrics so many of us with smart scales have learned to ignore. Body Scan introduces something not seen before on such a device – segmental body composition. This allows for individual body part body scan measurements for the arms, legs and torso.
At the top of the scale is a retractable handle. You are meant to hold on to this when you are standing on the scale. Inside the handle are two electrodes, in addition to two more electrodes in the main body of the scale, four weight sensors and 14 ITP electrodes.
The build is a tempered glass platform coupled with a 3.2 inch full color LCD screen. Battery life is about a year on a full charge and the scale has full WiFi connectivity.
All of this sounds very exciting. The caveat is, the scale is expensive. In the UK it costs £399.95, in the EU 399.95 euros.
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