Garmin Quebec

[Viola Mathenia]

Theother thing Garmin says they spent considerable time on was WiFi connectivity, seeming to acknowledge some of the problems people have had with the original Index scale. Though, it does seem like most of those problems have tapered out over the last 6-8 months.

You can select and save up to 7 WiFi networks within the Index S2 scale. I suppose that might be valuable for use cases where a coach/physician/staff/athlete is moving the scale between locations on different WiFi networks, perhaps having a hotspot one + a normal office/home location.

What is new with the S2 scale though is this little trendline chart seen on the scale. This is basically the pice de rsistance of the Index S2 scale, showing your weight over the last 30 days, as well as progress towards a goal line (in green).

As with all my scale reviews, whether or not you find value in the extended metrics beyond just simple weight is up to you. For straight baseline weight, I find most of these scales (even cheap department store scales), tend to be surprisingly consistent and accurate. Beyond that, for electrical impedance-based metrics like body fat, the accuracy varies quite a bit from model to model, and the value can also be a bit more questionable too.

So the older scale now will take multiple readings per day and not over write them in Garmin Connect? Based on your comments several years ago on this basis I had ruled this scale out but now am much more interested.

So we now have a Swim 2 and an Index 2!. Seems like reasonable refreshes of neglected products though I will not be replacing my original Index. All the upload hassles that lasted for years (I spent hours packet sniffing), though recently solved, mean they burnt their bridges with me on this product line.

My experience over years with the S1 is that its bodyfat % seems to be the product of measured weight * some black box multiplier or some simple lookup table. IE if my weight is X, my measured body fat % is always Y. Has that been your experience too, Ray (and others)? Is the experience with the S2 different?

The BF% has been completely worthless on mine. Unless by some strange miracle I have been able to hold 7% body fat for 19 straight months. Given that on some months I can see my abs, and no others, I am guessing my BF% has fluctuated a little.

Bryan, I came exactly to the same conclution. S1 can only measure weight. Everything else is calculated using weight and height. Got a replacement from Garmin, but same behavior.

I do not buy the S2 unless, unless I find a serious unbiased review showing that the S2 can measure more than just weight. Once the basics are working I care about the unboxing and stuff.

The original model had (has?) an issue where with my Activity Class in Garmin Connect set to 8 or 9, it would use a different algorithm for body fat% on the flawed assumption I was a world class athlete and tell me my BF% was about 5%. Changing my Activity Class to 7 (or lower) made the scale report 13-14% BF, which is a lot more credible. Do you know if this has been rectified, at least to give a more gradual phasing of algorithms between different Activity Levels?

Ray, did you test the scale with multiple users syncing to Garmin. I found that people who had partners that used the scale mucked up the Garmin health data. In fact, one of the measurements showed a 7kg weight increase in just 5 minutes (it was the weight of the pregnant girl friend!)

I own a Withings scale (with a NOKIA tag) for already 4 years. It is funny to see that between garmin and Withings the only major difference is the color screen. There are no other interesting feature on the S2 that I do not find on the Withings. Of course the Withings does not integrate with GARMIN connect, but at least I am able to have the weight. And the price is 1/3.

Cheers

There is no calculation. Only the last weight will be pushed to the devices. Only the last weight is used to plod your trend line as a graph. No average values per day are used for that.

Only thing: you can see the range of that day via the blobs as you call them.

Hello Ray.

Interesting review as usual.

I have a question regarding the weight trending chart.

On your app screenshot, it looks like it is based on the last weight-in (blue dot) recorded per day.

To me it is not really appropriate.

Indeed the trend should refer to measures taken in the conditions that is just after waking up (in the morning) therefore the first weight-in of the day.

As you mentioned a weight loss after a workout is quite artificial.

Could you precise the way the trending chart is computed (in case of multiple weight-ins of course)?

Many thanks

My main issue with Withings is that it cannot tell users apart if their weights are similar. My wife and I have crossed weights since the pandemic (I run all day, she is more stationary, leave it at that). You would think it would be easy to differentiate between users considering that the scale is taking or making multiple measurements, but it seems they only differentiate based on weight. This has led to mixups. I wonder if Garmin is any smarter about the way it handles users.

I still use an old Tanita BC-1000 circa 2011. I now use the android ANT+ Weight Scale Display app which pushes data to Garmin Connect and Training Peaks. I see nothing here to cause me to upgrade.

As long as the Tanita keep on going, and the app works, I stick with my current set up.

I think Garmin should have made a weight only scale with the wifi connect and sell that for like 50$. They would sell a ton of those. I align with you and think most of the other metrics are largely useless. I wrestled in highschool and the difference between calipers, bioimpedence, and hydrostatic testing is crazy. The structure of a person impacts it greatly.

For whatever reason I was enthusiastically waiting for this new version even though it is a scale. Not disappointed, but it did not instantly streak to the top of the buy-list either. It would be insanely awesome to someday have TrueUp Recovery Status, Training Status, distance-to-goal, and hydration status displayed in the widget rotation. Until then I would probably turn off all the widgets to get off the scale quicker.

I wonder for years why it is impossible to measure HRV with a scale. Feet should be a very good option to do this (far better than fingers because of its large surface). It would be a big improvement to take the daily readiness while standing a little bit longer on the scale. THIS would be a feature making me buying a smart scale!

Even Changing activity class can change readings as DesFit shows in his video: link to youtu.be so I would assume that changing age will have a huge impact. However, it makes sense because those scales are using some tables to look up your body fat based on resistance reading coming from scale. There is a lot of guess work there. For example if you have relatively skinny legs and most of your fat is stored in your upper body, home scales might be under reporting your body fat.

Thanks for the review! I own the earlier version, and the reason I was willing to pay more was the ease of mind and simplicity. If I had to spend just 1 manual minute every day to get my data somehow to the Garmin ecosystem, it would already be a bad investment to buy something else.

Just to confirm: Garmin Connect will not import my legacy weight measurements ((CSV file, etc.), correct? Also, does the scale itself connect to the cloud and post the measurements to the cloud? Or does the scale send the measurements to the GC app on the phone and the GC app sends the measurements to the cloud?

Why has Garmin opted for Wi-Fi upload only and not made it possible to upload data via Bluetooth too? It would be great to have a choice for example when the scale in a place without Wi-Fi for example on a training camp or on remote location. All my other Garmin devices (Fenix 6 and Edge 1030) sync with Bluetooth.

Regarding MyFitnessPal. I pretty much live within the Garmin ecosystem with bike computers/watches/lights etc. However, I do use MyFitnessPal for weight tracking. From the article I assume this is not recommended if I want reliable weight syncing with MyFitnessPal? If so what would be a good alternative?

This S2 scale seems to have the same body metrics as the previous version. My old Tanita BC1000 measures visceral fat, physique rating and metabolic age. As long as this data is still shown on the Garmin Connect website (not in the app), I have no reason to upgrade. Even if this means I have to hold on to an Android phone for the ANT+ Scale Display app and an ANT+ stick.

Thanks for the in-depth review as always. One problem I consistently have with the 1st generation Index is the weigh is consistency 2-3 pounds higher than any other digital scale that I compare with. Have you done any comparisons with weight with other scales?

thank you very much for another fantastic review.

You mentioned in an earlier post that getting Garmin API access should not be to hard as long as you have a website with a proper privacy statement.

Is this still the case in your opinion or has it in the meantime become harder to be granted Garmin (Health) API access? Any tipps on dos and donts along this way?

I am interested to know what other brand that has accuracy that is within 0.5lb. I have an old withing scale, it is a little frustrating that the weight could change by more than 0.5lb when making a few measurements in in a row. Maybe it is meaningless to fight over 0.5lb?

Thanks for part one. Conclusion is than that S2 is somehow trying to measure body fat in contrast to S1 which is just pretending to do so.

And it is really not required to get a group of people do come to a basic conclusion. It would be enough to find a friend who has same weight as you but different body fat. Then one at least know if the S2 can differentiate fat people from thin people. S1 could not.

I am still thinking that an in-depth-review of a body fat measuring device (and that is what differentiates it from just a scale) should address if and how the device can meet that basic claim.

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