Withings Scanwatch Review: Smartwatch Battery Life For Days, But At What Cost?
© Adam Dowd / SlashGear Withings ScanWatchPublisher's rating: 6/10
Depending on the smartwatch you're wearing, your wrist device may fall into one of two categories. The first is real smartwatches like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, Pixel Watch, or Apple Watch. These watches run operating systems designed to work with their parent phones: WearOS or WatchOS, respectively. They have a lot of health features and a fair amount of app support, with the main downside being battery life. Even the Apple Watch Ultra only lasts 36 hours, or just a day and a half. Not cool
Then there are fitness trackers, like the Fitbit line of trackers and the Garmin Venu SQ2, that have less app support, focus on health, don't support a lot of apps, and last for days on a single charge.
Finally, you have a hybrid smartwatch that cuts further in functionality but relies on a simple dial and hands rather than a full OLED screen. Withings ScanWatch falls into this third category, and if there's one thing you value, it's battery life. I've been using Withings's Withings ScanWatch for eight weeks now, and now that I've charged it for the third time, it's time for my full review. I provided Wings ScanWatch as part of this review.
Use a hybrid approach
© Adam Dowd / SlashGear Withings ScanWatchPart of the reason for this watch's low battery is its small screen. It's a hybrid smartwatch, which means it has a simple watch face with a 13mm PMOLED display for notifications and other health information. The watch face has an additional watch face that follows your steps. The needle is battery operated; It's not mechanical, allowing hands to move away from the dial when you're reading on the small screen.
This screen is responsible for displaying notifications, navigating the watch list, and displaying the time and date in the default state. The watch can be set to wake up like other smartwatches, or you can choose to light up the screen when you press the crown.
Speaking of the Digital Crown, this is the only button on the side of the watch, so you can turn it to scroll through menus and press to select them. You can long press to activate the workout. In general, the navigation on the watch is unimpressive and not very intuitive. It is difficult to perform actions such as turning off or restarting the watch because you only have one button to operate. When using the Crown to navigate, the haptic feedback is pleasant, but the lack of feedback when turning the Crown without first opening the menu can be a bit annoying.
For limited use cases
© Adam Dowd / SlashGear Withings ScanWatchThe sub-dial on the watch face is a bit disappointing because all it can do is count your steps. As you go about your business, the sub-dial displays your steps in thousands. Given that the watch face goes from 0 to 100, it would be nice to see other possibilities dedicated to this watch face. Maybe you want to display the seconds or the battery level, or use the watch face as a stopwatch. The possibilities are endless, but Withings doesn't let you pick just one. But you can count your steps, so you get it.
The hands on the main dial are powered by the smartwatch, unlike any other mechanical movement, and each hand has a glow-in-the-dark coating so you can see the dials at night. Unfortunately, this glow-in-the-dark head needs sunlight to "charge" it, so if you've been outside for a while, your hand will glow in the dark, but the effect only lasts for 30-60 minutes once you're done. Refer to the .
This means that you cannot read the dial at night. Admittedly, this review unit is a black model, so if you opt for the white model, your mileage may vary. But maybe it's a good idea to have the hands glow with LEDs instead of glow-in-the-dark paint, so it's an improvement that should be in the next generation.
Winning battery life
© Adam Dowd / SlashGear Withings ScanWatchHaving a battery draining smartwatch like the Withings ScanWatch is life changing. If you're particularly interested in sleep tracking, smartwatches often run out of battery faster than expected. This is not the case here. Withings suggests that this watch can last up to a month on a single charge, which seems like a good idea. If you turn off features like the oxygen sensor and turn it on to wake up, it's easy to see how this watch will perform after a month's charge. The device only needed to be charged three times during our review, so it's easy to run down battery life here.
Plus, you won't miss out on many of the features you would expect from a fitness tracker. I'll talk a little more about its features, but when all you need is your hand, a Bluetooth connection, and a small screen, it's almost easy to forget about charging. See first. About three weeks later, you get a warning that it's time to charge, hopefully you can find the charger, you know you haven't seen it for about three weeks.
Speaking of charging, the watch uses a proprietary charger that attaches magnetically, but not very securely. A full charge takes about two hours from start to finish, which isn't great, but it's an easy compromise considering how often you need to charge it.
connection problem
© Adam Dowd / SlashGear Withings ScanWatchThere are two main problems with this watch that make it really hard to recommend. The first is communication. Simply put, keeping this watch connected to your smartphone can be crazy. At the beginning of the review period for this device, I also reviewed Honor Magic Vs and Honor Magic Pro 5 and the Chinese manufacturer has been known to kill background processes. This made connecting to the smartwatch and sending notifications very unreliable, even after setting the app to run in the background. Connectivity to US phones like the OnePlus 11 and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is much better, but it's still not bulletproof. Just to cover all the basics, I also tested the connected watch on an iPhone 14 Pro for a few days, and while the connection seems to be better than Samsung and OnePlus phones, it's hard to recommend anything other than the Apple Watch if you're using it.
It's a shame, because changing this watch inside the phone is not difficult. Unlike other smartwatches that essentially require you to reset the watch in order to pair it with a new phone, Withings ScanWatch requires you to open the app so it can detect the watch. It's very handy, especially for those who change phones frequently.
But calling a new phone and staying in touch are two completely different things. While the first is great, the second is not so good. It's not great, but at least you'll get better results with US phones.
Health tracking is poor
© Adam Dowd / SlashGear Withings ScanWatchThe Withings smartwatch can handle plenty of tracking data including sleep, steps, blood/oxygen levels, and heart rate, and it can even do an ECG. All of this is valuable data for your overall health. But it all comes with a very big caveat.
During testing, I compared health data from the Apple Watch SE and Garmin Venu 2 Plus. In either case, the data returned by Withings ScanWatch is still missing. From sleep tracking to heart rate, the stats were consistently 20% lower than the devices it was compared to. For the most part, what I actually experienced was reflected more accurately on the Garmin Venu 2 plus Apple Watch.
However, this does not mean that the data is not necessarily useful. Status tracking is more important to trend than individual performance on any given day. In this case, the data was consistently lower than its peers, which means you can use the data to paint a picture of your overall health and fitness. It's certainly not perfect, but it's not disposable data either. More specific data is always good, but if you're looking for a general basis and want to know where you stand, this might help.
The final verdict of Withings Scanwatch
© Adam Dowd / SlashGear Withings ScanWatchThis is a beautiful watch that is suitable for all occasions. I personally prefer the black option because the white one will be easier to read in the dark, and the black circle in the top half of the screen is offset by the white dial. The build quality is very good, and the straps are easy to change.
Overall, the battery is exceptional and blew me away. Wearing the watch for literally a few weeks is a game changer in the smartwatch world and I would be reluctant to give it up. But connectivity issues are hard to ignore. One of the main functions of a smartwatch is to send notifications, and this watch is often overlooked to be taken seriously. There are times when the watch runs like a champ, but there are times when it doesn't and it's frustrating.
Add that to the data lockout, and surprisingly given Withings is a healthy data company at its core, it's hard to recommend this watch. The battery life is amazing and the watch itself looks good, but $299.99 (on Amazon) is too expensive for a good watch. While watch collectors may consider them cheap, they are quite expensive in the smartwatch world and you can find something more reliable for that price. You need to recharge it often.
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