Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2021
This is a hard review to write, on one hand it has some advantages over what I used before it, but on the other hand, it's not so much better to justify a 60$ higher price tag in my eyes. So to be as fair as possible, I'm breaking this review into what I like, what I don't, and what I use this scale for specifically to fit my needs, in case it doesn't fit mine but may fit yours.
Likes:
-I like how it's rechargeable. Tiny little feature that's so very handy. I don't like keeping batteries handy, especially not AAA which is what many scales I've used take. That's not handy, I have nothing that uses them outside of it, so having the ability to recharge it by a very standard micro-USB cable is a great feature. But it's a very basic and standard feature on good scales though.
-I like that it's small, it fits easily anywhere in my coffee setup without being a hassle like my old scale was. It does all the same things as my old scale, but with a far smaller form, which makes my setup less crowded. Always a good thing in this hobby. It will fit many nice espresso drip trays, maybe not cheap espresso drip trays that barely fit a cup, but nice ones for sure.
Dislikes:
-It's...small. As good as form factor is, it also makes drip makers potentially difficult to use due to some being reasonably large. I use a Chemex daily, and mine is about as big as the scale can handle before it starts to be difficult to work the buttons. I use a 6 cup Chemex, so it's potentially a bit too small actually.
-It doesn't have that great a response time. It takes a second for it to register changes in measurements, and when you hit the time button, the entire screen blanks out for a solid second. That's peculiar, as my other scale that's way cheaper had no delay between pressing the button and time starting.
Neutral:
-The accuracy is fine. Not exceptional, it does measure grams to the 0.1 point, but with it's mediocre response time, it's hard to tell how accurate it is to the exact point at any given time. When I take something off of it then back on, it does still read the same measurement or extremely close to it usually, so I have no reason to doubt it's inaccurate, I just don't really know. It's no more accurate than my last scale though, so make of that what you will.
My usage: (you can skip this if you're not interested, this is just to state what I base my review off of.)
I make drip coffee 99.9% of the time, so maybe my usage isn't what this scale is intended for. Even so though, it works for it plenty fine. My equipment all fits on it more than easily, french press, chemex, moka pot, anything I need to weigh works fine on the scale. I very regularly will just put a grinder on the scale and weigh the beans in the grinder rather than in a separate vessel. The scale works more than easily. I do always use any scale's timer for my bloom phase, I bloom usually for 30 seconds, sometimes up to 45. Depends on the coffee's freshness really, but that's why the timer is important to me to be responsive, with no delays. I don't have to have a scale be super responsive as I pour in stages, specifically to reach a certain end water weight. I also measure my coffee making by coffee to water ratios, normally 1:15, so I do regularly use a calculator or an app to see what my water weight needs to be. That's about all my usage. I use scales to see my coffee weight, my water weight, and to time my brew. That's pretty standard usage. I do not use any scales right now for espresso brewing, as I do not own a nice enough espresso machine to make espresso the way I want to.
Overall thoughts:
I wish I liked this scale more, it definitely replaces my old scale (which does still work), but it's over 60$ more expensive than that one. I paid 20$ for a scale that I couldn't even tell you the brand name, that has a timer with no delays, about the same response time and accuracy out of the measurement display, it's just a bit bigger and takes AAA batteries. For 89$, I could just save 10$ more and get Brewista's ratio scale that really is more of what I want out of a high end scale. That's alot of money on something that isn't going to really dramatically improve your brew over a cheap scale. The fact this has no coffee ratio calculator built in, isn't super fast in responsiveness, has a timer that takes a moment to even work, really makes me doubt the actual value of this scale outside of it's form factor. If form factor is what you're looking for, it's a very small scale. That's about as much as I can say about it. It's not fantastic at anything I've used it for, and nothing blew me away. It's still made of mostly plastic, and really doesn't look that much nicer than my 20$ scale. I also don't have a clue how long this will last, hopefully a good long while, especially for the price it really needs to. If it doesn't last minimum 3 years, it's not worth it even slightly. I hate to be this critical of something I was so excited to get to use. It took me alot of time to write this jus because I was wondering if I was missing something. Maybe I am, but whatever I'm missing, it can't make up that price difference.
