I am a big fan of smart scales since their introduction in early 2010’s.
In my opinion, they are one of the greatest tools to help keep your weight under control with the powers of the Fitbit app and cloud data storage.
In this article, I will be comparing the Fitbit Aria vs Aria 2; discussing the major upgrades to the Aria 2 smart scale, and finally conclude with if it’s worth the upgrade from original Aria or not.
Although both scales have some unique value offerings, there are a few things which could be a deal breaker for some people, including me.
With the first version of Aria, Fitbit had some difficulties with accurate weight measurements – which is indeed the single most important thing most consumers look into.
With the new edition of the Aria 2, many Fitbit users hoped that in this upgraded wifi smart scale, Fitbit would address the issue and would deliver a significant quality upgrade.
And, yes, they had indeed. The improvement to weight accuracy is significant and justifies buying the Fitbit Aria 2 versus Aria, the original version.
Read on to find out the differences between Fitbit Aria and Aria 2.
Contents
1. Features Comparison
2. Pros & Cons
3. Fitbit Aria 2 vs Aria Conclusion
Fitbit Aria vs Aria 2 Features Compared
Product Features
I personally see the Fitbit family of devices as some of the nicest looking smartwatches and scales around.
Fitbit Aria 2, announced in August 2017, looks almost identical to the original Fitbit Aria (introduced as early as April 2012). Despite the time gap between release dates of these models, both look decent with well thought out user interfaces, and intuitive applications to work with the devices.
So what’s the difference in terms of product features between the Fitbit Aria 2 vs Aria?
The most important thing of note is the weight accuracy.
First of all – the greatest strength of Aria 2 is its weight accuracy. The first version of this smart scale (as many other brands/models of the initial smart scale wave) was 1-2 pounds off for the majority of its users. Now with Aria 2, this seems to be fixed to be inline with traditional scales, and it’s safe to say 99.99% weight accuracy is achieved in this model.
Weight limit tolerance has increased to 400 pounds.
There is also increased weight limit tolerance compared to the original version which had an upper limit of 350 pounds, and with the Aria 2, the weight tolerance limit increases to 400 pounds. The increments are tenths of a pound (.1) for both weight and body fat.
All other features, including the number of users it recognizes (which is 8) is pretty much the same.
Aria will measure your weight and body fat percentage and thus can distinguish different users based on several data points. If you have enough of a weight and body composition difference within your house members, you won’t experience any difficulties.
Say, your brother and you are pretty much the same weight but your body fat is less – as such, two users can use the scale without encountering any problems.
When you step on, it will measure you and then show on the digital screen, the personalized icon of the user it assumes that is on the scale.
The scale measures body fat percentage using bioimpedance analysis. ITO electrodes on the scale send safe signals to the body to calculate impedance.
As is the case with many other digital scales, the body fat is way off, so don’t hold your breath for medical accuracy there.
You don’t need to have another Fitbit device prior to owning an Aria or Aria 2. However, both models are very strong with data collection and data synch, so if you send your data to your Fitbit account (you can open and maintain one for free), you can track your progress over time, and versus general population data.
If you already have a Fitbit account, you can send an invite from your scale account and combine both accounts under one. Here is how you can do it…
Different users of the scale, with different Fitbit accounts, will be able to use this device as well, and you can even set your privacy settings for your Aria user. The setup for multiple accounts is pretty easy, so for those that hate dealing with the technicalities, the challenge bar here with the initial setup of the device is pretty low.
In this video, around the 0.50 second mark, you can see how the Fitbit Aria 2 interface looks like and also get an idea about how easy it is to setup different users on your smart scale.
Fitbit Aria 2 vs Aria Conclusion
If I was going to purchase either of these smart scales, I would hands down choose Aria 2.
The weight accuracy upgrade is really just too significant to ignore.
Since the most important issues people had with Fitbit Aria have been solved, spending the extra $$$ or so to have a more accurate, better running, higher-quality wifi smart scale is a no brainer.