Wyze is back at it again with a new smart scale: the Wyze Scale S. This budget scale offers a lot of bang for the buck, but whether or not it surpasses the original Wyze Scale remains to be seen ---let's find out.

Early 2020 saw Wyze release the original Wyze Scale, and we praised it then for offering a lot of features in such an inexpensive package. Now the Scale S is here, and just looking at the specs and marketing not much has seemed to change. It tracks the same metrics, uses the same app (Android/iOS), and is just slightly cheaper than the original at $18.99. But let's dive deeper and see how it stands on its own, and how it stacks up to the original.

What to Expect

You'd be forgiven for assuming the Scale S is a normal bathroom scale because nothing about it screams "Smart". The Scale S is a square, reflective piece of metal and plastic that could fit into any room of your house, and it's probably better for it.

Related: Wyze Scale Review: The Best $20 You Can Spend on Your Fitness

A no-frills design will never get in the way of functionality, and that's the most important thing here. Because a smart scale is more than just a normal scale with Bluetooth installed. Thanks to its advanced sensors, the Scale S can measure more than just your weight, turning it into a far more useful health companion for everything from losing weight to building muscle.

But that's for later, for now, the Scale S is a physically minimalist product that will barely make an impact in any room it's in. If I had any complaints it's that the finish on top of the scale is a fingerprint magnet. The shiny exterior will be ruined after your first use, and it just makes the Scale S look junky. You can wipe it off fairly easily, but at the end of the day, if a device that gets dirty easily is going to annoy you, the Scale S is going to be a bother.

Measuring Up

The Scale S is a smart scale, so its biggest attraction are the additional metrics it tracks besides your weight. Including bodyweight, the Scale S measures 12 different metrics such as muscle mass and body water percentage. It's a comprehensive outlook on your body for such a simple scale, but it wouldn't be worth much without the Wyze app.

This is your central database for everything the scale measures. You can see your progress over time, your most recent weigh-ins, and track a goal weight. You can't see any of this without the app, the only metrics the scale's display tells you are your weight and then your body fat percentage. Your phone needs to be nearby with the app open for anything besides weight and body fat percentage to be measured as well.

You're measured in two stages: weight and everything else. The Scale S is just as quick to display your weight as any normal bathroom scale is, but you'll have to stay on it for an extra 5 - 10 seconds in order for everything to be measured. Not a huge deal (and fairly standard among smart scales), but it can get a bit annoying if you're just trying to weigh yourself quickly as you're getting ready in the morning. At least your first time using the scale is simple though---setting up the Scale S takes less than a minute once you have the Wyze app installed.

At the end of the day though, the Scale S is offering a great look into your body while costing a fraction of what you would expect. While the Scale S isn't the only smart scale around this price point, that doesn't lessen the extraordinary value here---for about as much as you would spend on a normal bathroom scale, you could get the Scale S and get a lot more utility out of it.

The Original

Comparing the Scale S to the original is very straightforward---they're largely the same. I've had the original since early last year and comparing the two scales over the past month reveals that the S isn't a huge upgrade. They offer the same measurements, with the same buffer times, and reports from the same app. The Scale S did change how measurements are done, as it uses four smaller contact plates instead of the entire surface being a contact plate like the original. Visually, it's easy to notice as you can see above, but I haven't noticed any impact to performance or function.

I never had to think about making sure my feet were on the plates, and comparing the measurements from both scales for a few weeks revealed they were outputting the same info. From features to function, the Scale S is practically the same as its predecessor just with a new look.

It's a Good Scale for New Customers

Just like the original, the Wyze Scale S is easily one of the best smart scales for the money. Measurements are accurate, it tracks plenty of statistics for every level of health enthusiast, and the design is kept simple if you don't want to mess with any of the smart features. If you're looking for a new bathroom scale, smart or not, it's an extremely obvious choice.

That being said, if you have the original Wyze Scale the Scale S is not worth it. As I've touched on, the Scale S offers pretty much the same performance in a slightly different package. The Wyze Scale S is still an incredibly impressive smart scale for the money, just one that treads the same ground as its predecessor. Not bad per se for new customers, just nothing super exciting.