A hybrid smartwatch with 30 days of battery life

There are plenty of options available when looking for a new smartwatch and while the easiest option is always to go with the Apple Watch to connect to your Apple phone or the Galaxy Watch to connect to your Samsung, there are other options that aren’t talked about enough and to be honest, they’re probably better suited to your needs.

One option that made a huge difference for me is the Withings “ScanWatch 2.”

The latest incarnation of the device is known as a hybrid smartwatch, because it looks like a more traditional watch and simultaneously offers 24/7 body temperature tracking, heart rate monitoring, on-demand ECG heart tests, blood oxygen levels, and other advanced respiratory information. It’s perfect for workouts, and I’m seeing it on my wrist more and more often during ski season, as it’s used by skiers who want to track their health at high altitudes.

The smartwatch is connected to the impressive Withings app, available on all phones, which allows you not to be locked into an ecosystem. The connection is very simple to establish and gives you up-to-date access to all your personal statistics like your steps, your average heart rate and a detailed overview of the quality of your sleep.

One of the biggest complaints about smartwatches is battery life. The Withings ScanWatch 2 is a perfect answer to other brands that boast about “all-day battery life.” The SanWatch 2 gives you 30 days of battery life! Yes, I didn’t make a typo and you didn’t misread, that’s 30 days before you need to recharge it.

The game changer for me is the sleep tracking. I’ve owned an Apple Watch and a Samsung Galaxy Watch and both devices would charge next to my bed overnight. This means I found the sleep tracking features to be useless. With the ScanWatch 2, I get a perfect readout of my sleep data when I wake up, and it still takes me a month before I need to charge it. The sleep stats give you a sleep quality score for when you’re in REM or light sleep and for breathing disorders, among other things.

Another interesting feature to note is the display. It’s a traditional watch face with a small circular screen that you might think would be hard to read, but it’s not, it’s simple, clear and bright, even for glancing at incoming text messages. If the hands cover the digital portion of the display, just quickly press the crown on the side and the analog hands will automatically move out of the way and then return to the correct time when you’re done looking. It’s an amazing feature to highlight.

As for watches, I like the different designs of the ScanWatch 2, they have a classic and modern look and the digital display blends in perfectly until you activate it. The silver and black version fits perfectly with everything and is the one I used for the review. The sleek white and gold is also quite striking, but the digital display stands out a bit more on this model.

I’m ashamed to admit that it took me a while to get used to telling the time by just glancing at the hands without numbers, I had clearly been wearing fully digital watches for far too long and smartwatches make you stupid.

The premium watch design is also a great size for my tastes, I don’t like them too big and bulky and it’s a sleeker look with a comfortable strap.

When you finally need to recharge the device, a USB charger is included in the box and attaches by clipping it around the watch, covering the crown. This component is unique to the watch, so don’t lose it.

The Withings SmartWatch 2 is a sleek hybrid smartwatch that reminded me a lot of what I value in a watch and how easy it is to get sucked into other tech ecosystems that don’t necessarily meet my expectations. It has all the features you could want without feeling like a cheap toy.

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