Hybrid smartwatches really feel like a dying race, making the Withings ScanWatch 2 a uncommon breed. Fossil is not within the recreation after exiting the smartwatch market in 2024. Apart from Garmin’s extra sporty hybrids, Withings stays the one firm value taking a look at within the hybrid area for traditional type.
Each Wearables lead Michael Hicks and I (Derrek Lee, Android Central’s managing editor) obtained ScanWatch 2 items months in the past, pairing with our respective Withings sensible scales. However a busy 2024 filled with extra thrilling smartwatch and ring tech made the delicate ScanWatch fall to the wayside.
As followers of Withings merchandise, although, we needed to present the ScanWatch 2 a good shake, so we lastly made some extent of testing the watch all through December and early January.
Does the Withings ScanWatch 2 have what it takes to maintain hybrid smartwatches related, or will shoppers transfer on to sensible rings for much more delicate well being monitoring? Based mostly on our time testing the ScanWatch 2, your impression of it would actually come down as to if you care extra about type or substance.
Withings ScanWatch 2: Value, availability, & fashions
The Withings ScanWatch 2 is available in 38mm and 42mm case sizes. Each ship in Black or Pearl White, whereas solely the 38mm has Blue and Sand shade choices. All of them ship with a fluoroelastomer band; Withings sells different Leather-based, Premium Sport, and Steel choices that price anyplace from $39 to $89 every.
All Withings ScanWatch 2 fashions price $349.95. It comes with a three-month subscription to Withings Plus, which reveals a Well being Enchancment Rating, Cardio Test-Up, and distinctive recipes and exercises. After the free trial, it prices $9.95/month or $99.95/yr.
Withings has additionally launched the ScanWatch Sensible and ScanWatch Nova for $599; each are basically classier siblings of the ScanWatch 2. They’ve the identical HealthSense Gen 3 sensor suite, stainless-steel 316L case, 0.63-inch OLED cutout show, extended battery life, and common well being, sleep, and exercise insights. The Nova has 10ATM resistance and a greater anti-reflective coating for water sports activities, whereas the Sensible has a Titanium bezel and particular metal arms.
Because you’re taking a look at a hybrid look ahead to type over smarts, chances are you’ll select the Sensible or Nova over the default ScanWatch 2, figuring out the expertise we define beneath would be the similar for you.
| Class | Withings ScanWatch 2 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 38 x 38 x 10mm; 42 x 42 x 10mm |
| Weight (w/out strap) | 38mm: 34.6g; 42mm: 52.6g |
| Show | 0.63-inch grayscale OLED, 14504 px (282ppi) |
| Supplies | Chrome steel case/ crown |
| Safety | 5ATM; sapphire glass |
| Battery | As much as 30 days |
| Sensors | Multi-wavelength PPG 16 channels, Excessive Dynamic Vary Accelerometer, TempTech24/7 Module, Altimeter |
| Connectivity | BLE |
| OS & apps | Android 9 / iOS 15; Apple Well being and Google Well being Join apps |
| Key stats | Every day HR, excessive/low HR warnings; ECG readings (AFib); Sleep high quality/ levels/ period/ regularity; blood oxygen, respiratory charge; Cycle phases/ size, interval log, signs and circulate tendencies |
| Exercise stats | HR zones, VO2 Max estimate, lively minutes, steps, burned energy, elevation, related GPS |
Withings ScanWatch 2: What we preferred
Off the bat, this can be a attractive watch. The round stainless-steel case and sapphire glass give the watch a timeless look, one which many smartwatches attempt to emulate with various success. After all, a giant a part of that is the truth that that is principally a normal watch with no contact display screen, bodily watch arms, and a rotating crown (extra on that later). Anybody trying on the ScanWatch 2 wouldn’t suppose that this does something however inform time.
I’ve really gotten fairly a couple of compliments on the watch, one thing that not often occurs once I put on my admittedly very handsome Pixel Watch 3 or perhaps a Galaxy Watch. And when Michael confirmed non-techy members of the family over a dozen smartwatches over the vacations, almost all of them picked the ScanWatch 2 as their favourite, with some saying it is the one one they’d ever put on.
In contrast to a “regular” watch, the ScanWatch 2 has a small round cutout on the prime for a fundamental, monocolor show. Given its small dimension, interactions are fairly restricted, however Withings does a reasonably good job of maintaining issues concise sufficient to discern particular person settings.
Watch arms cowl up the show relying on the time, however since there is not any always-on show setting, it does not matter; the arms robotically transfer apart in the event you work together with the crown to scroll via the menu.
Maybe the most effective half about utilizing the show is the haptic suggestions you get if you scroll to a different possibility. It’s fairly delicate, however it makes me take into consideration the haptics on the Pixel Watch 3 and jogs my memory simply how essential good haptics are.
Biking via the menu presents you with as much as 14 customizable choices, which might be modified within the app. This contains steps, physique temperature, ECG, SpO2, and extra. Given how small the show is, Withings makes it so that you just don’t must work together with varied ranges of submenus in every possibility, which works in its favor. Actually, only some choices have submenus, with most simply there to show information like steps or coronary heart charge with out you needing to do something.
You even have the choice to set a shortcut if you press and maintain the crown, which I prefer to set to exercises because it’s about the one factor I do with the ScanWatch 2 except for checking the time. Something particularly sophisticated is relegated to the app, with the additional display screen area and simpler controls.
This isn’t a health watch by any means. There are some exercise choices within the watch, which you may as well customise within the app, however the Withings ScanWatch 2 is extra of a passive well being watch than something, with automated exercise detection for a couple of mainstream actions and handbook exercise begins within the app. And it requires your telephone readily available for related GPS.
After a run, Withings will present an fascinating baseline of knowledge, together with distance, tempo, energy, elevation, coronary heart charge zones, physique temperature modifications, and temp zones. The final two are particularly uncommon, outdoors of costly physique temp sensors, providing you with a singular have a look at your degree of effort.
There’s loads of lacking information for athletes that we’ll talk about within the subsequent part, however on the very least, the guts charge common is pretty correct for regular exercises, coming inside 1 bpm of a coronary heart charge strap throughout a run. Throughout one other run, it randomly confirmed a coronary heart charge of 30 bpm above Michael’s precise charge for a few minutes firstly however then auto-corrected to the proper charge.
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The ScanWatch 2’s predominant perform — except for well being monitoring and fundamental health — is to point out telephone notifications. Withings enables you to customise which apps can buzz your wrist, which inserts with the hybrid smartwatch theme of limiting them to essential info. The show is activated by gesture and is adequately subtle that you’re going to look as in the event you’re simply checking the time.
Notifications present a tiny app icon with the textual content flowing rapidly beneath in a single-file line; the pace is essential so you are not caught standing there for too lengthy, ready for info that may all present immediately on a full-screen AMOLED. You possibly can see within the photographs above how the Slack notification “Derrek Lee: Certain factor, how’s this?” would require no less than three photographs to point out all of the textual content. Fortunately, notifications scroll previous a number of instances in case you miss something.
In the event you obtain a number of messages from the identical app, the ScanWatch 2 provides up and reveals the app icon and nothing else. Whilst you may want for extra info, it is form of an efficient method of telling the consumer they’ve already missed info and will pull out their telephone.
The Withings app expertise is about so simple as the watch itself. It makes use of the identical app as Withings’ different merchandise, that means you may handle all of your gadgets in a single area, one thing that is useful. I like that I can view my steps and actions in the identical place as the load measurement information from my Withings Physique Cardio scale, giving me a extra complete view of my well being from inside the similar household of gadgets. Any clean spots might be stuffed by different gadgets by way of Well being Join or particular person app connections to companion apps like Google Match, MyFitnessPal, Strava, and extra.
In the event you’re choosing up the ScanWatch 2, then you definately’ll love its battery life. Withings says the watch ought to last as long as 30 days on a single cost, which feels correct. I haven’t been in a position to attain that mark solely as a result of I observe a number of exercises per week whereas carrying the watch. Nonetheless, I common two or three weeks on a single cost, and I typically overlook that I even must cost the watch. Even when the battery reaches 0%, it’ll nonetheless be capable of observe your sleep and steps for a while, which is fairly nice.
Withings ScanWatch 2: What we did not like
The Withings ScanWatch 2 is making an attempt to be as passive as doable, which is comprehensible given its small show. Different hybrid watches just like the Garmin Vivomove Pattern offer you rather more show area for clearer info but in addition are typically a lot shorter-lived. Withings prioritizes battery life and subtlety, however it does restrict the smarts.
Whereas the watch retains menus fundamental, navigation can nonetheless be a little bit of a ache, particularly when you’ve a lot of the menu choices enabled. I typically discover myself scrolling for longer than I wish to get to a selected menu possibility, and if you wish to exit out of a submenu, you’ll must scroll all the way in which up and choose the again button, which simply feels cumbersome.
Moreover, in the event you’re in a submenu and go a brief interval with out interacting with the show, it’ll return to the clock face. You’ll want to make use of the app to chop some pointless choices and reduce scrolling.
Whilst you’re at it, you might also need to use this time to handle your notifications, because the ScanWatch 2 is fairly hit-or-miss in terms of displaying them. Generally, the watch misses them totally; different instances, it solely reveals them after I’ve already opened the message on my telephone, which defeats the aim.
Whereas I really like the delicate crown haptics, Withings cranked up the vibration for notifications and telephone calls to a moderately stunning degree. It is frankly annoying, to the purpose that I typically go away the watch in Do Not Disturb. Put on OS and Apple Watches allow you to alter the vibration energy, however Withings’ setting menu is a bit too barebones. Not less than you by no means have to fret about sleeping via an alarm!
As I stated beforehand, the ScanWatch 2 isn’t actually a health watch, which is fairly evident by its design. So, when you’ll get some exercise choices to select from, some that I might often use simply aren’t there, leaving me to have to decide on “Different” or “Health” once I’m doing one thing pretty frequent, like HIIT. There are nonetheless loads of exercise choices accessible, however that one is an annoying omission for me.
As for the extra frequent exercise choices like operating, you miss out on information that is frequent on different operating watches like operating kind, operating energy, and coaching load. Its coronary heart charge information lacks subtlety, too, lumping most of your effort into both “average” or “intense.”
I additionally don’t like that there isn’t a method to export my particular person exercise information, no less than not in any method that’s apparent to me. Certain, I can edit exercise information like the kind, depth, and period, however as soon as it’s logged, the one method I can share it’s by way of a picture, which is actually a screenshot of the exercise abstract. Syncing the app with Strava additionally does not assist, because it solely shares the exercise sort and period, whereas my Garmin Venu 3 will present coronary heart charge information, location, and nearly every part I might need to embody in a exercise abstract.
The Withings ScanWatch 2 has a reasonably complete listing of well being metrics that it tracks, from coronary heart well being and blood oxygen to menstrual cycle phases. It additionally has a couple of options — in a single day HRV, respiratory charge, and awake temperature zones — which are nonetheless “coming quickly,” though we delayed our overview for therefore lengthy.
Extra importantly, I’m not loopy in regards to the sleep monitoring. To start out, the ScanWatch 2 is not the lightest watch on the block, with the 42mm dimension weighing almost as a lot as a Galaxy Watch Extremely. This makes it moderately uncomfortable to put on to mattress, one thing we discover with most smartwatches however is especially troublesome with the ScanWatch 2.
Generally, the watch shall be fairly first rate, however oftentimes, it would omit massive parts of my sleep. I are inclined to get up in the midst of the night time, and I’ll stand up for a minute or two to make use of the restroom or seize a drink earlier than falling again asleep. Whereas my Oura Ring 4 will proceed to trace my sleep, the ScanWatch 2 will seemingly miss hours’ value of sleep monitoring, which puzzles me.
Moreover, the app seemingly prioritizes Well being Join sleep information over the ScanWatch information, which I discover odd. The plus facet is that the info is from my Oura Ring 4, so no less than it’s logging the extra correct information, however it’s nonetheless fascinating that Withings wouldn’t prioritize its personal machine over outdoors information.
Talking of the app, Withings actually desires you to purchase into its Withings Plus subscription, which can present issues like a Well being enchancment rating, a library of exercises and recipes with really helpful each day missions, and well being insights that allow you to view your tendencies. Whereas I’m not totally in opposition to subscriptions, Withings Plus simply doesn’t really feel fairly well worth the $9.95 month-to-month price ticket, particularly when Oura’s is barely $5.99 per thirty days and different smartwatch OEMs don’t require a subscription in any respect for this information. Make it make sense, Withings!
It’s additionally factor the ScanWatch 2 has such a protracted battery life as a result of the moderately cumbersome charger takes about two hours to totally recharge the watch.
Withings ScanWatch 2: Competitors
Selecting a hybrid watch comes right down to your private preferences on type and the way a lot well being data or health tech you need out of your watch.
In the event you actually solely want the fundamentals of well being information to go along with your notifications, the Withings ScanWatch Mild will prevent $100 in comparison with the ScanWatch 2. In change, you lose ECGs, pores and skin temperature, elevation monitoring, and blood oxygen, whereas maintaining an analogous metal design and reliable battery life.
Garmin makes well-liked hybrid or style fashions just like the Vivomove Pattern, Intuition Crossover, and Lily 2 that offer you information like coronary heart charge, stress, and blood oxygen, together with related GPS and helpful coaching insights and not using a subscription. Solely the Vivomove collection is actually “trendy” in our books, and it has a lot shorter battery life than the ScanWatch 2, plus no ECG or pores and skin temperature; we do respect that its grayscale display screen is somewhat bigger, so it shows extra info. The Intuition Crossover will enchantment to followers of rugged Casio-type watches, not basic watches.
Sadly, it is arduous to search out any smarter hybrid watches with higher notifications or apps than Withings or Garmin. Fossil made first rate hybrid fashions just like the Gen 6 Hybrid Wellness Version, however Fossil has deserted the platform. Citizen nonetheless sells the CZ Sensible Hybrid with Put on OS 3, however we’ve not examined it for ourselves and it is unlikely Citizen will ever replace to the later variations.
Withings ScanWatch 2: Do you have to purchase it?
You should purchase this if…
- You desire a classy-looking “smartwatch.”
- You desire a “smartwatch” with minimal distractions.
- You need fundamental well being and health monitoring.
- You personal a Withings scale and love the app already.
You should not purchase this if…
- You need complete health monitoring.
- You are on the lookout for a extra conventional smartwatch expertise with a touchscreen and full-screen interactions.
- You do not personal some other Withings merchandise.
There isn’t any doubt that the ScanWatch 2 is a wonderful piece of {hardware}. Whereas I just like the look of the Pixel Watch 3, the ScanWatch 2 has a basic but understated design that goes effectively with most outfits. Plus, with such a protracted battery life, it feels extra like an everyday watch with some sensible methods to maintain you on prime of your well being and wellness.
Nevertheless, as a hybrid smartwatch, I am unsure the ScanWatch 2 fairly hits the mark, feeling extra “watch” than “sensible.” The minimal show retains issues moderately passive, which patrons might favor, however interacting with the watch might be cumbersome at worst and unreliable at finest. Except you’re subscribed to Withings Plus or personal some other Withings gadgets, the watch might go away you wanting extra out of your information, together with the kind of insights you could find on different gadgets for much less cash and even free.
If the ScanWatch 2 was priced about $50-$100 much less, I might possibly suggest getting one. However proper now, it does not actually do a lot to maneuver hybrid smartwatches ahead in any significant method, and you would be higher off spending your $349 on the newest Pixel Watch or perhaps a sensible ring if you’d like passive monitoring.
That stated, each Michael and I skew rather more in direction of the “tech” and “health” facet of smartwatches, which skews our perspective on what we wish. In case your predominant precedence is basic type, with well being monitoring and notifications as secondary issues, then the ScanWatch 2 may be proper up your alley.
Type over substance
The Withings ScanWatch 2 (or its Nova and Sensible variants) offer you a basic, trendy design that masks some helpful well being insights, rudimentary health instruments, and handy notifications in an invisible OLED show. It has areas the place Withings may enhance, however the core app expertise (paired with a Withings scale) will hold you targeted in your well being and wellness.
