Hybrid smartwatches really feel like a dying race, making the Withings ScanWatch 2 a uncommon breed. Fossil is not within the sport after exiting the smartwatch market in 2024. Aside from Garmin’s extra sporty hybrids, Withings stays the one firm value taking a look at within the hybrid house for traditional model.
Both Wearables lead Michael Hicks and I (Derrek Lee, Android Central’s managing editor) acquired ScanWatch 2 items months in the past, pairing with our respective Withings good scales. But a busy 2024 filled with extra thrilling smartwatch and ring tech made the refined ScanWatch fall to the wayside.
As followers of Withings merchandise, although, we wished to offer the ScanWatch 2 a good shake, so we lastly made a degree 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 customers transfer on to good rings for much more refined well being monitoring? Based on our time testing the ScanWatch 2, your impression of it’s going to actually come down as to whether you care extra about model or substance.
Withings ScanWatch 2: Price, availability, & fashions
The Withings ScanWatch 2 is available in 38mm and 42mm case sizes. Both ship in Black or Pearl White, whereas solely the 38mm has Blue and Sand coloration choices. All of them ship with a fluoroelastomer band; Withings sells different Leather, Premium Sport, and Metal 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 Health Improvement Score, Cardio Check-Up, and distinctive recipes and exercises. After the free trial, it prices $9.95/month or $99.95/12 months.
Withings has additionally launched the ScanWatch Brilliant and ScanWatch Nova for $599; each are primarily classier siblings of the ScanWatch 2. They have the identical HealthSense Gen 3 sensor suite, stainless-steel 316L case, 0.63-inch OLED cutout show, extended battery life, and normal well being, sleep, and exercise insights. The Nova has 10ATM resistance and a greater anti-reflective coating for water sports activities, whereas the Brilliant has a Titanium bezel and particular metal fingers.
Since you are taking a look at a hybrid look ahead to model over smarts, chances are you’ll select the Brilliant or Nova over the default ScanWatch 2, figuring out the expertise we define beneath would be the similar for you.
| Category | Withings ScanWatch 2 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 38 x 38 x 10mm; 42 x 42 x 10mm |
| Weight (w/out strap) | 38mm: 34.6g; 42mm: 52.6g |
| Display | 0.63-inch grayscale OLED, 14504 px (282ppi) |
| Materials | Stainless metal case/ crown |
| Protection | 5ATM; sapphire glass |
| Battery | Up to 30 days |
| Sensors | Multi-wavelength PPG 16 channels, High Dynamic Range Accelerometer, TempTech24/7 Module, Altimeter |
| Connectivity | BLE |
| OS & apps | Android 9 / iOS 15; Apple Health and Google Health Connect apps |
| Key stats | Daily HR, excessive/low HR warnings; ECG readings (AFib); Sleep high quality/ levels/ period/ regularity; blood oxygen, respiratory fee; Cycle phases/ size, interval log, signs and move tendencies |
| Workout stats | HR zones, VO2 Max estimate, lively minutes, steps, burned energy, elevation, linked Global Positioning System |
Withings ScanWatch 2: What we appreciated
Off the bat, it is 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. Of course, an enormous a part of that is the truth that that is largely an ordinary watch with no contact display, bodily watch fingers, and a rotating crown (extra on that later). Anyone wanting on the ScanWatch 2 wouldn’t assume 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.
Unlike a “regular” watch, the ScanWatch 2 has a small round cutout on the prime for a primary, monocolor show. Given its small measurement, interactions are fairly restricted, however Withings does a reasonably good job of holding issues concise sufficient to discern particular person settings.
Watch fingers cowl up the show relying on the time, however since there isn’t any always-on show setting, it does not matter; the fingers robotically transfer apart for those who work together with the crown to scroll by means of the menu.
Perhaps the perfect half about utilizing the show is the haptic suggestions you get whenever you scroll to a different possibility. It’s fairly refined, however it makes me take into consideration the haptics on the Pixel Watch 3 and jogs my memory simply how essential good haptics are.
Cycling by means of 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 simply don’t need to work together with numerous ranges of submenus in every possibility, which works in its favor. In reality, just a few choices have submenus, with most simply there to show information like steps or coronary heart fee with out you needing to do something.
You even have the choice to set a shortcut whenever you press and maintain the crown, which I wish to set to exercises because it’s about the one factor I do with the ScanWatch 2 other than checking the time. Anything particularly difficult is relegated to the app, with the additional display house and simpler controls.
This is just not a health watch by any means. There are some exercise choices within the watch, which you may also customise within the app, however the Withings ScanWatch 2 is extra of a passive well being watch than something, with computerized exercise detection for a couple of mainstream actions and guide exercise begins within the app. And it requires your cellphone readily available for linked Global Positioning System.
After a run, Withings will present an fascinating baseline of knowledge, together with distance, tempo, energy, elevation, coronary heart fee zones, physique temperature modifications, and temp zones. The final two are particularly uncommon, outdoors of pricy physique temp sensors, supplying you with a novel take a look at your degree of effort.
There’s a whole lot of lacking information for athletes that we’ll talk about within the subsequent part, however on the very least, the guts fee common is pretty correct for regular exercises, coming inside 1 bpm of a coronary heart fee strap throughout a run. During one other run, it randomly confirmed a coronary heart fee of 30 bpm above Michael’s precise fee for a few minutes in the beginning however then auto-corrected to the right fee.
Image 1 of 2
The ScanWatch 2’s important operate — other than well being monitoring and primary health — is to indicate cellphone notifications. Withings helps 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 sufficiently subtle that you will look as for those who’re simply checking the time.
Notifications present a tiny app icon with the textual content flowing rapidly beneath in a single-file line; the velocity 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 can see within the images above how the Slack notification “Derrek Lee: Sure factor, how’s this?” would require at the least three images to indicate all of the textual content. Thankfully, notifications scroll previous a number of instances in case you miss something.
If you obtain a number of messages from the identical app, the ScanWatch 2 provides up and reveals the app icon and nothing else. While you may want for extra info, it is sort of an efficient manner of telling the consumer they’ve already missed info and may pull out their cellphone.
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 possibly can handle all of your gadgets in a single house, one thing that is useful. I like that I can view my steps and actions in the identical place as the burden measurement information from my Withings Body Cardio scale, giving me a extra complete view of my well being from throughout the similar household of gadgets. Any clean spots might be stuffed by different gadgets through Health Connect or particular person app connections to companion apps like Google Fit, MyFitnessPal, Strava, and extra.
If you are choosing up the ScanWatch 2, you then’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 sporting the watch. Still, I common two or three weeks on a single cost, and I typically neglect that I even must cost the watch. Even when the battery reaches 0%, it’ll nonetheless have the ability to 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 attainable, which is comprehensible given its small show. Other hybrid watches just like the Garmin Vivomove Trend provide you with far more show house for clearer info but in addition are usually a lot shorter-lived. Withings prioritizes battery life and subtlety, however it does restrict the smarts.
While the watch retains menus primary, navigation can nonetheless be a little bit of a ache, particularly when you may have many of the menu choices enabled. I typically discover myself scrolling for longer than I want to get to a selected menu possibility, and if you wish to exit out of a submenu, you’ll need to scroll all the way in which up and choose the again button, which simply feels cumbersome.
Additionally, for those who’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.
While you are at it, you might also need to use this time to handle your notifications, because the ScanWatch 2 is fairly hit-or-miss in relation to displaying them. Sometimes, the watch misses them completely; different instances, it solely reveals them after I’ve already opened the message on my cellphone, which defeats the aim.
While I really like the refined crown haptics, Withings cranked up the vibration for notifications and cellphone calls to a moderately surprising degree. It’s frankly annoying, to the purpose that I typically go away the watch in Do Not Disturb. Wear OS and Apple Watches allow you to modify the vibration energy, however Withings’ setting menu is a bit too barebones. At least you by no means have to fret about sleeping by means of 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’d steadily use simply aren’t there, leaving me to have to decide on “Other” or “Fitness” once I’m doing one thing pretty widespread, like HIIT. There are nonetheless loads of exercise choices obtainable, however that one is an annoying omission for me.
As for the extra widespread exercise choices like working, you miss out on information that is widespread on different working watches like working kind, working energy, and coaching load. Its coronary heart fee information lacks subtlety, too, lumping most of your effort into both “reasonable” or “intense.”
I additionally don’t like that there isn’t a method to export my particular person exercise information, at the least not in any manner that’s apparent to me. Sure, I can edit exercise information like the sort, depth, and period, however as soon as it’s logged, the one manner I can share it’s through 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 kind and period, whereas my Garmin Venu 3 will present coronary heart fee information, location, and nearly the whole lot I’d need to embrace in a exercise abstract.
The Withings ScanWatch 2 has a reasonably complete checklist 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 fee, and awake temperature zones — which might be nonetheless “coming quickly,” although we delayed our assessment for therefore lengthy.
More importantly, I’m not loopy in regards to the sleep monitoring. To begin, the ScanWatch 2 is not the lightest watch on the block, with the 42mm measurement weighing almost as a lot as a Galaxy Watch Ultra. 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.
Sometimes, the watch will likely be fairly first rate, however oftentimes, it’s going to omit giant parts of my sleep. I are inclined to get up in the midst of the evening, and I’ll rise up for a minute or two to make use of the restroom or seize a drink earlier than falling again asleep. While my Oura Ring 4 will proceed to trace my sleep, the ScanWatch 2 will seemingly miss hours’ value of sleep monitoring, which puzzles me.
Furthermore, the app seemingly prioritizes Health Connect sleep information over the ScanWatch information, which I discover odd. The plus aspect is that the information is from my Oura Ring 4, so at the least it’s logging the extra correct information, however it’s nonetheless fascinating that Withings wouldn’t prioritize its personal gadget over outdoors information.
Speaking of the app, Withings actually needs you to purchase into its Withings Plus subscription, which can present issues like a Health enchancment rating, a library of exercises and recipes with really useful day by day missions, and well being insights that allow you to view your tendencies. While I’m not totally towards 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 a superb 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: Competition
Choosing a hybrid watch comes all the way down to your private preferences on model and the way a lot well being data or health tech you need out of your watch.
If you actually solely want the fundamentals of well being information to go along with your notifications, the Withings ScanWatch Light will prevent $100 in comparison with the ScanWatch 2. In change, you lose ECGs, pores and skin temperature, elevation monitoring, and blood oxygen, whereas holding an analogous metal design and reliable battery life.
Garmin makes fashionable hybrid or trend fashions just like the Vivomove Trend, Instinct Crossover, and Lily 2 that provide you with information like coronary heart fee, stress, and blood oxygen, together with linked Global Positioning System and helpful coaching insights with no subscription. Only the Vivomove collection is actually “fashionable” 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 is a bit of bigger, so it shows extra info. The Instinct Crossover will attraction to followers of rugged Casio-type watches, not traditional watches.
Unfortunately, it is exhausting 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 Edition, however Fossil has deserted the platform. Citizen nonetheless sells the CZ Smart Hybrid with Wear OS 3, however we have not examined it for ourselves and it is unlikely Citizen will ever replace to the later variations.
Withings ScanWatch 2: Should you purchase it?
You can purchase this if…
- You need a classy-looking “smartwatch.”
- You need a “smartwatch” with minimal distractions.
- You need primary 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’re 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’s little doubt that the ScanWatch 2 is an exquisite piece of {hardware}. While I just like the look of the Pixel Watch 3, the ScanWatch 2 has a traditional but understated design that goes properly with most outfits. Plus, with such a protracted battery life, it feels extra like a daily watch with some good methods to maintain you on prime of your well being and wellness.
However, as a hybrid smartwatch, I’m unsure the ScanWatch 2 fairly hits the mark, feeling extra “watch” than “good.” The minimal show retains issues moderately passive, which consumers might choose, however interacting with the watch might be cumbersome at worst and unreliable at greatest. Unless you might be 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’d possibly advocate getting one. But proper now, it does not actually do a lot to maneuver hybrid smartwatches ahead in any significant manner, and you would be higher off spending your $349 on the most recent Pixel Watch or perhaps a good ring in order for you passive monitoring.
That stated, each Michael and I skew far more in the direction of the “tech” and “health” aspect of smartwatches, which skews our perspective on what we wish. If your important precedence is traditional model, with well being monitoring and notifications as secondary considerations, then the ScanWatch 2 could be proper up your alley.
Style over substance
The Withings ScanWatch 2 (or its Nova and Brilliant variants) provide you with a traditional, fashionable 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 might enhance, however the core app expertise (paired with a Withings scale) will hold you targeted in your well being and wellness.
