MobileTechTalk We’re always looking for something connected but niche here at MobileTechTalk. We’ve played around with some weird and wonderful units and some very conventional ones. We’ve dabbled in the fitness genre with wearables, fitness trackers and health aids, however the Terraillon Webcoach Easyview scale is an extension of them all. Connecting to a personal fitness and healthcare application, it can help to monitor all aspects of weight and body mass health. Let’s see how it operates.
The Terraillon Webcoach Easyview is essentially a Bluetooth enabled set of scales for measuring weight primarily. The main unit is a large glass-covered scale with a max weight limit of 160kg (just over 25 stone) and is powered by 3 AAA batteries (not included). Just under the glass are electrodes to measure various aspects when you’re standing on the device.
Accompanying the main unit is a smaller ‘satellite’ unit which can be positioned in an appropriate place with the included 3M tape-backed magnetic plate. For our testing we simply left the unit on a desk, but the idea would be, as the video shows, to put the unit at eye level close to the Scales to allow ease of readability. That’s crucial as the satellite unit is very difficult to read at an angle or indeed distance due to the blocky LCD display. At direct eye-level and 2-3 feet away it’s fine however.
Setting up the unit isn’t as hard as it’s made to appear. Pickup the satellite unit after putting batteries in both sections, and press the Mode button for 3 seconds to jump into the meat of the unit. Use the up and down arrows to alter the units as they appear, and hit SET to save them. The time and date, temperature unit, and weight units can all be set from here. Once the main unit is setup, it’s time to get going on the app. Download the app for iOS or Android and make sure Bluetooth is turned on on your device. open the Wellness Coach App, and create a new profile and ensure your details are correct. Press and hold SET on the satellite unit until a ‘spinny’ appears, then hit the menu button in the app and choose “Synchronise My Devices”. The unit and the device will be paired. Finally, assign a “profile” (up to 8 can be saved on the device) so that the unit knows which smartphone to update when passing measurement details. That’s about it, you’re good to go. If you’re like me, you didn’t read the manual and this took longer than it should, but follow the instructions word for word and you’re golden!
Staying with the App for a second, this has a lot of information to be gathered. Terraillon have a number of well-being devices and these can be used in combination in order to build up a repository of information about your body and health targets. The Terraillon Webcoach EasyView scales however measure the basics; weight. BMI and other health measurements are derived from those readings in conjunction with your personal profile, and are stored in the Wellness Coach App. Receiving readings in the app is, again, simplistic. Choose the relevant profile on the satellite unit, step on and get weighed, use your app to download the reading via Bluetooth. That’s it. You can just step in the unit to get a quick weigh in, but that data is not saved.
From the received data and an in-app questionnaire the Wellness Coach App can suggest how best to optimise your fitness plan or simply be a bit healthier. Recommendations that constantly get shown for me are ideas for a balanced sandwich, and the suggestion that skipping breakfast is a very bad idea. I do hang my head I shame to be fair.
The app isn’t the best and I’ve come to use the device a few times only for the App not to be allowing logins. Not ideal. The fact the app has a 1.6/5 star rating on Google Play as well as a similar rating on iTunes should tell you everything. I’ve not had that much of an issue as yet, but I certainly wouldn’t suggest it’s a clean and flawless app. It is a bit cluttered and the UI is all over the place. Once you learn where the readings are and the areas of interest for you and yours, you’ll be fine though.
The unit has been in test for around 2-3 weeks now and battery is going strong. Whilst my fitness regime hasn’t followed suit, the Terraillon unit has proved to be a success. It’s a sleek device which just works. Despite the glass feeling as though it’s rather brittle, it’s stood up to multiple people using it over that time period and shows no signs of any break, crack, or other issue with it. My only complaint is with the satellite unit. The display is rather poor at anything but a poerfect eye-line situation. It’s be nice to either get a better display or get real time push information to the App instead. Something perhaps the next iteration will bring.
Would I recommend this to anybody wanting a simple set of bathroom scales? No, it just wouldn’t be worth it. Those wanting a set of scales that links to a smartphone app to track their weight? Perhaps, although there are cheaper on the market. The key to this particular unit is buying into the eco-system of Connected devices that Terraillon offer. For those willing to do that I definitely would recommend it, yes.
The only slight caveat here is the cost. The device is currently £110.00 from Terraillon direct. Whilst that’s not hideously expensive, it is rather expensive for only part of the jigsaw. As previously mentioned Terraillon provide other devices that can deliver the further readings and vital statistics that all go towards providing a more comprehensive health overview than the Webcoach Easyview can provide on it’s own. To that end we’d have liked to have seen a bundle, or a slightly lower starting cost for this device. Furthermore, it lacks the integrated social network feed that the likes of FitBit now rely on for motivational triggers so time will tell if it actually provides any additional motivation for weight loss/fitness gain over the long term.
That said, I continue to use this unit regularly and it continues to provide weight metrics just fine. For £110 we’d expect a bit more however. What it does well it does well, and those looking for just that, won’t be disappointed. There’s surely more to come from their connected range in the future too.
Terraillon Webcoach Easyview
£110 Pros
- Flawless measurements
- Good battery life
- Relatively small
Cons
- Not cheap
- Poor satellite unit display
- App is quite poor
