I use scales a LOT. I got this scale for ALL kinds of home nerdery: baking, molecular gastronomy, soapmaking, DIY beauty/skincare, science experiments and so on. My other scale was only accurate to 0.5g, which is already better than most scales, but wasn't cutting it. I wanted to measure a fraction of a drop of jasmine essential oil because that stuff is so strong, a whole drop would overpower my tea. I wanted to measure tiny blobs of gel food coloring so I could duplicate precise shades in multiple batches of cake frosting, and tiny pinches of mica powder so I could duplicate precise shades in multiple batches of soap (to say nothing of the many, many additives one adds to soap in tiny amounts, like sodium lactate and fragrance oils). And I learned the hard way that when one performs liquid spherification (i.e. making popping boba pearls), 0.3% and 0.5% sodium alginate produce very different liquid viscosities - one is pleasant to ingest and one is not. Finally, with more precision, I'm able to scale *everything* down when testing to avoid waste, e.g. testing new fragrance oils in tiny 50g batches of soap, whereas with my other scale, the amount of oil can vary by 24% (1.51g vs 1.99g) and still wouldn't register as different amounts.Enter this scale. There's a lot I like about it:* Accurate to 0.05g reliably (more on that below), not quite the 0.01g advertised, but a huge upgrade from my other scale, and more than good enough for my needs* Has a power cord. This was my #1 requirement for my previous scale. I weigh stuff so often all day long that I wanted my scale to be on all the time, so I can just walk by the kitchen counter and quickly plop something on it to check its weight. Most scales for mere mortals run on batteries. My other scale (Jennings CJ-4000 from Amazon - a Wirecutter best pick) has a power adapter, albeit a weird plug and voltage that didn't match any of my other devices. This one not only has a power adapter, but it runs on USB, so I can plug it into a power bank to take into the shop or on the road. And it also takes batteries, though it remains to be seen whether it's smart enough not to run down the batteries when it's plugged in. My CJ-4000 isn't, so I keep unplugging it for quick on-site weighings outside the kitchen, only to find the batteries dead.* The max weight is low (typical for high-precision scales - you can have high capacity or high precision but not both, apparently), but higher than other scales - 600g instead of the typical 500g. Still, it's not a general-purpose scale, such as you'd use to weigh packages for shipping. This probably means I have to measure things like fragrance oils and colorants in a separate vessel instead of plopping my mixing bowl directly on the scale and zeroing it out, which is a hassle, but I understand there's only so much a $24 scale can do.* There are leveling feet included, which also keep it raised above the counter, which will come in handy in a spill (ask how I know)* There are exotic units like carats and tael troy, although it also means you have to push the mode button 6 times to get back to a previous one, instead of 2 for a scale that's just ounces and grams.* The display is bright and huge, even compared to the CJ-4000, which already had a big display itself* There's a built-in level, because apparently when you get down to 0.01g, levelness matters.SOme issues and caveats:* The tolerance appears to be 0.03 - 0.05g, because when I weigh the same object repeatedly, the displayed weights vary within 0.03 - 0.05g of each other. That's after my attempts to level it until the bubble level looked centered, and I know my counter is level.* The minimum weight it can detect is about 0.05g, meaning if you start from 0 and slowly add stuff, it'll stay at 0 for a while even with stuff on the scale, and finally jump to 0.05g when you add enough, without ever displaying 0.02 through 0.04.I'm guessing that level of error isn't good enough for lab equipment, but for a kitchen scientist like me, a $24 scale that brings my max precision from 0.5g to 0.05g is more than good enough. I'm looking forward to vastly improvedOverall, for my needs, this scale provides fantastic value. But if you're a lab manager shopping for precision equipment (in which case, surely you already have trusted industrial suppliers?), you may decide you need more reliability.

This is insanely sensitive!I put some small plastic bags on top of it, and I measured down to 0.15g.I really liked that every measurement was repeatable!In terms of installation, there are 4 screw-in feet that must be installed so that the scale is level. There is a small bubble level that will help with leveling. This is important to ensure proper and repeatable measurements.In terms of power, you can either use non-provided AA batteries, or, the provided USB adapter. One weird thing, the USB adapter provided uses 6 volts! So be careful not to use anything else with it. Weird choice, but it works.There is a white backlight on the display, which makes it very well readable in a variety of environmental conditions.The operation is very simple with the expected functions - TARE, unit selection and a CAL button. The CAL function is a bit limited because this scale does not come with any calibration weight. That said, for the price, it is completely expected, and I'd say, most users won't care.It also has a counting function, where you can put a certain number of whatever (for instance 25 beads), you tell it you have 25 of it, then it will count for you based on the weight. It can accept 25 50 75 or 100 pcs as a reference.Still, I wanted to check the scale, so I used a set of calibration weight that I bought from Amazon (not provided with this scale), here are the results:100mg --> 0.10g500mg --> 0.49g1.00g --> 1.00g20g --> 20.00g50g --> 50.00g100g --> 100.00g200g combining several weight so possibly increasing their errors --> 200.01gI'd say this is very very good for a scale of this price, and I did not do any calibration whatsoever, this is straight out of the box, it's not even fully level. It's not a NIST calibration by any means but it shows that this scale is certainly worth something.The CAL function requires a 200g reference weight and unless you have one available I would suggest not messing with it since it seems like the factory calibration is pretty good.Based on this result I'm happy to give 5 stars to this product.

I'm loving this scale. The only complaint I have is that it doesn't go higher. I can't weigh anything past, say, two pounds or so. I feel like it should weigh more than that, even for cooking. But it's rare, I guess, that I would need it to weigh that much. So it's still very useful to have. And it's very precise. That's what I'm most impressed with. It's simple to use and very precise. That's really all I can ask for. Well, I guess I could also ask for it to weigh heavier items, but I digress.

I love to bake, and have learned (sometimes the hard way) that the better way to measure my ingredients is by weight, rather than by volume. I had a kitchen scale for a long time that did the job, but it was commandeered into animal care so I ordered this shiny new one for my kitchen. I love, first of all, that I can weight as small as carats if I want to. While I never need that for cooking, I do play around with rocks and stones as a hobby so it's nice to be able to weigh those up if I want to. While I haven't needed the counting function yet, I'm happy that it's there, and can definitely see myself making use of it in the future.You can power this 3 different ways. It has a power cord, a usb option, or batteries. So you should never be without an option to weigh stuff. It's pretty sturdy and seems to be built to tolerate a lot of use. It reminds me of the scales in science labs. I love that it can do so may things. I tested it with some known-weight items like stones and sticks of butter, and it seems to have pretty good accuracy and tight tolerances. I haven't figured out how to use the count setting yet, but everything else has been pretty simple to figure out so far. It's been very useful in my kitchen!