Withings Scanwatch – Opinion
More: Withings
In the world of wrist tech, the Withings Scanwatch is a thing of beauty. It’s not quite sporty enough for ME but it is very pleasing to the eye and should I don that work shirt that I’ve not had to wear for a long time, I would definitely feel comfortable wearing a Withings.
I don’t want to dwell on the sports profiles that the Scanwatch supports nor the connected GPS that underpins them. I’d rather take a quick look at how Scanwatch’s marketing is placing it very sweetly in the realm of health, perhaps even more particularly in the realm of ‘people who are concerned or interested in their health’. Sure other watches do the same thing as Withings BUT I would contend the competition is trying to market multi-purpose smartwatches that can show your WhatsApp notifications, take voice instructions and connect to weird and wonderful stuff on the net. Withings doesn’t do that…they’re focused. They don’t claim to do everything for everybody and that’s why the Scanwatch might do well.
Normally I’d scoff at a GBP250 Hybrid Smartwatch. Not this time. The hybrid design probably works well with the target market. Maybe people that are more concerned about their health are older than the usual smartwatch buyer and maybe such people appreciate a more classic aesthetic design. Maybe. I’d certainly buy that line of thinking.
Withings hits all the right buttons with an impressive health-related features list…:
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Seems like Polar also will have ECG readings on their watch
They actually already do to a degree, with some of their heart-strap based tests in the past. Not billed as such but the metrics they gather for their recovery tests and such on the strap-based tests, are effectively ECG readings that he watch interprets for the user into “status” of their conditioning,) but they are doing it effectively (and with custom API development, one could certainly gain a more precise ECG off an HR strap than any wrist-based sensor would provide, and is being used in that way for general research studies in labs already and have for years,) the difference of course being the “convenience” of the wrist form-factor, as you mentioned, “coming soon???” from Polar’s registrations…
The problem with this fitness tracker is that the heart rate measurements are not every second like most of the sportwatches but every “x” minutes. Is kind of a companion device not a watch to track your fitness status like garmin or polar. What thing I like is their data information clarity
yes, they are very much more health-focussed than sport. In THIS case, I think that’s a plus for them
The sports watches are also not every second for standard daily recordings, they only do that when in “training/recording” modes. Otherwise most are anywhere from once every 1-10 minute intervals typically (depending on brand/model). Granted, if you wanted to record a specific period of time with a sport watch, you can, versus the Withings, but I’d imagine that’s exctly what the “on-demand ECG” function does however, probably turns it into a constant recording for “x” amount of minutes, thus actually just like a sports watch in that regard.
Not promoting Withings, but they do make nice “daily wear” watches that I’ve considered in the past (Polar user here, for now at least, Coros is doing some great stuff though to tempt me…)
Everything I’ve seen the past few years, seems that Withings really nails the “health-focused metrics” market with the features, and accuracy, I’ve never seen a review say they are “wrong” in their results, and that’s saying something that no “sports-watch” brand can really say. But they are simpler, so they should be better at what they do, IMO, and they seem to be.
I have reaad a feww just right stuff here. Certainly price bookmarking for revisiting.
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