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Acaia lunar review
from memory this product retails for around USD220, something like that
i have a confession to make: i felt that no digital scales for coffee, however good, could justify that kind of price tag
Frans caught me off guard and sent me this as a gift, so that is the background as to how this review came about
In the week or so prior to that i purchased the Brewista scales which i think were around the GBP40 mark, which is about what i think this kind of product should cost
the Brewista scales didn't survive the first week: i suspect it was a direct result of me accidentally tidying up the kitchen in a hurry and dropping the protective plastic box over the top of them before they had completely dried out. they were sitting in direct morning sunlight and i expect the moisture vaporised and as it was trapped in the plastic box it was driven into the internals and that was that. my fault.
so how do i feel about the Acaia lunar scales?
the packaging gets a 10/10 from me. steve jobs would be proud. I'm not surprised at all as it is clear from a distance that acaia is a design led company
a lot more surprisingly i find myself awarding the acaia lunar 10/10 for the physical aspects. by this i mean how the product feels when you lift it out of the box for the first time (the entire casing is made from anodised aluminium which imbues it with a wonderful weighted sense of quality), the touch sensitive screen, the custom machined calibration weight (that costs - they could have easily used an off the shelf cast and chromed calibration weight), the responsiveness of the display when the scales are loaded, the responsiveness of the auto weigh and time functions, etc, etc. all lovely, hard to ask for more without being considered a chronic whinger
at this point in the review the acaia seemingly delivers perfection. the trouble is it doesnt, and after i have explained the issue perhaps it wont bother you at all and you will say no matter, and rush out and buy one, but it would be remiss of me not to cover it in the review
don't get me wrong i think this is a super product and the creators of it are justified in feeling very proud of it, although i might be a little less charitable if i had shelled out for the first set of scales that acaia released as i think the lunar is really the product that their first product needed to be
my issue is with the software and the instructions and the user interface in terms of altering the settings of the Acaia
the issues arise in a number of ways. bear in mind that i am someone who is willing to read the instruction manual cover to cover, try some settings, re-read the manual, try some more settings and so on. even so, i find it a bit tiresome. if you are not someone who likes reading instructions i foretell some cussing in your future if you buy this product
secondly the product suffers from the creators clearly wanting the scales to be able to be used with and without a bluetooth connection to a smartphone. while this is commendable, i think the product is compromised by trying to be all things to all people. i think the creators of the lunar need to nail their colours to the mast and say, how many people who can afford to drop USD220 on a set of coffee scales are not going to own a smart phone? answer: approximately zero. if this bullet was bitten then the user interface could be vastly superior as it could all be controlled from the smart phone app - the aspects that are controlled from the smart phone are mostly very good. instead we have a curious blend of the two approaches, with some functionality set and run from the smartphone app and other settings controlled from within the rather 'green screen' user interface of the scales themselves
finally i think the software suffers from trying too hard to appeal to the out and out coffee geek - their needs have been given undue prominence at the cost of the user experience for 'normal' users. i think the lunar should meet geek needs, but i don't think the very first menu option in the software needs to be sharing your sodding photo and parameters of your marvellous brew with other lunar groupies around the world. stick that self indulgent nonsense way down the bottom of the menu. you can see the aspiration is there to build some kind of social media coffee platform, but seriously, i would rather pull my fingernails out than engage in such asinine activity
i see the buyer profile being successful professionals in the 35-50 age bracket with significant disposable income, probably with a young family and not a lot of free time. they want a tool to brew coffee with more precision, simply & quickly, nothing else. against this backdrop i think all that indulgent crap overshadows what is an excellent product and needs to be eradicated
this is the bit that has somehow escaped the apple treatment. a key feature of apple products is that they basically don't come with an instruction manual as they are highly intuitive. if you think you will be able to do that with the lunar you are in for a bit of a shock
summary: now that i have one i can see why it costs USD220. i recommend you buy this product, but there is one feature missing: simplicity. I'm not unsympathetic, it takes several iterations to perfect any product. acaia tell us they have several ex-apple people on their team, so they seem well placed to make good on this product that is in all other respects a pleasure to own.
Comments
I have two of the Lunars and on one I have made all but three menu options invisible, so I don't have to skip them beeping through the list. I should do the same on the other one too but I know I would need to take out the manual and carefully follow the steps listed there and I keep postponing that.
You have enunciated the matters that concern me the most.
Thanks Frans for taking the time to "hide" a couple of menu items. You have challenged me to read the manual again to see how its done! I don't think that will be a straight forward task. I had hoped for a more "apple" like ease of use.
On Page 19 of the manual starts the description of the key sequence to "hide" the other modes.
The steps seem intimidating if you are impatient or in a hurry, but if followed literally, it's very straightforward.
I still have to hide the "square" mode which does auto-tare though so I'll go about that right away!
(It sees that's not possible so I will ask the support folks)
your post offers a good worked example of one shortcoming noted in my review, if owners have a go at following the instructions on page 19-20
the other major annoyance are the prominence that the preset 'brew recipes' for every brew known to man are given in the smartphone app. in my view they will not be used by 80% of owners beyond the first week of ownership when they are having a play
instead, all of the settings including those detailed on page 19-20 of the manual, could very easily be addressed with prominence and simplicity in the app, continuing the apple theme beyond just the packaging
reiss.
Thanks Frans for prompting me to sort through the settings.
As Reiss has pointed out, Once you set the thing up, you don't need to go back. It is a pain to go through the password process as well - very clumsy and when would anyone set it. Am I the only one who sees this as guarding some world secret or do users have employees or family members who will sabotage the settings?
Surely with bluetooth connectivity, you could save as many configurations as you could dream of and have any one of them restored in a flash - pun intended!
For whatever reason and although the price of entry does factor, OTOH relative to what I spent/spend on all things espresso it pales in compare, its the nagging negatives you , et al, have brought to light about the Lunar that leaves me continuing to use "the pain I know" regarding the Lunar...
Maybe Lunar v2.0 will get me off my rocking horse :D
I son't see the perceived shortcomings in the app. I rarely use the app and if I do, I never see the "sharing" social network things.
The Brewmaster app does not even *have* these social network and recipe options.
I think Reiss has just been looking at the Acaia Coffee app. The Brewmaster app is best for espresso guys like us.
there are no less than three apps in the App Store from Acaia, none of them clearly marked as to whether they belong to one or both of their products
at this price I expect it to be all rolled up in a single app for both products, or at worst one clearly named app for each acaia product, i.e. 'Acaia Pearl' and 'Acaia Lunar'
For example, I assumed it would be prudent to download their third app, called firmware updater, before doing anything else - just to ensure the firmware on my unit was up to date. Having done that it became apparent that it is was not necessary
At USD220 customer expectations are going to be high
Some readers may at this point be accusing me of looking a gift horse in the mouth, but this is a Londinium review and I'm not going to take any bullets for Acaia from my customer base
Don't confuse that with my gratitude to Frans for his unexpected generosity - it is a beautiful and well made pocket coffee scale, which I am grateful to receive
And I see Reiss' points of view completely.
The name of the first app is logical. Then people like Trevor wrote Acaia with suggestions and they immediately set out to create an app that would serve espresso makers especially, naming it, eventually, the Brewmaster app.
To change the name of the first app, or delete it from the app store and come up with another that incorporates this new one would be more disruptive for all the existing customers making filter coffee or aeropress and sharing pictures and recipes who never needed the app for espresso machine owners.
So that's a tough call, and any decision would cause confusion of some kind. At the same time, there's not a good moment to start over from scratch because many users are impatiently asking where the upcoming new app is in the pipeline...
I just read a similar discussion about managing price/performance expectations when I looked at pocket knives. The Chris Reeve pocket knives cost about 10-15 times as much as others and at the same time they look much simpler, just a cutting blade and two handle blades to hold it with. There are fans who can't be happier with it and others who think one must be an idiot to pay so much for something that looks too simple for words.
In the scales for espresso, there's not another product we could compare it to.
I do expect there will be improvements over time. They listen well to user suggestions but don't rush out a version that would have the chance to get everyone mad if it has a fatal glitch.
I also think that the app are rubbish. Actually, I didn't know there was a 3rd app until I read this review. I've since downloaded the "Brewmaster" app and it prompted me with a log in. More silliness! On the topic of apps, why can't one of these apps send me an alert when the battery level on the scale drops below 20%? That would be useful.
As for the bluetooth vs. silly screen commands, I agree that everyone that buys one of these would have a smartphone of some sort so all settings should be done via the app.
I still like the scale and keep expecting their app situation will dramatically improve soon.