Withings ScanWatch Nova Brilliant Review: Beauty and the Heartbeat

Value When Reviewed

$599.95

Finest Costs Right now: Withings Scanwatch Nova Good

There are smartwatches and there are sensiblewatches. The Withings ScanWatch Nova Good is a hybrid that appears each inch a luxurious wristwatch.

It’s the ladies’s model of the ScanWatch Nova, a hybrid within the fashion of a diving watch, which my colleague Chris reviewed final 12 months. The workings, software program and options are the identical – however the design is totally different and so is my expertise of it.  

One motive for that is that I’ve been utilizing the Good with a Withings sensible scale and, as a well being and health ecosystem, Withings is among the many finest for all-round well being monitoring.

My scale is the Physique Good, probably the most budget-friendly in Withings’ newest line of sensible scales. However by any customary, it’s a complete sensible scale, and in the event you use it with the Nova Good, the smartwatch fills within the lacking options, resembling an ECG, that you just’d solely get on a pricier mannequin.

You’ll be able to try our comparability of the three newest fashions in our information on which Withings sensible scale to purchase.

Design & Construct

• Excessive-quality stainless-steel construct
• Appropriate for swimming and showering
• As much as 30-day battery life

In the event you don’t just like the screen-on-a-strap look of a typical smartwatch, the design of the Nova Good is likely one of the key causes to purchase it. It’s the one watch I’ve ever worn that folks have identified and complimented, and every time, the individual was stunned once I stated it was a smartwatch.

It’s a hybrid, which suggests it has a conventional analogue watch face, together with sensible options. You work together with these utilizing the crown to scroll via choices that seem on an inset high-res grayscale OLED show.

The ScanWatch Nova Good is available in two color choices: Titanium Gray (which I’m testing) and Gold. Each fashions have a silver-coloured stainless-steel case, crown and band, however the Gold mannequin has a contrasting gold-coloured fluted bezel, crown and central hyperlinks. Its watch face is white, whereas the Titanium mannequin’s is a pearly gray.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

I’ve fairly slim, bony wrists and many watches appear to be I’ve strapped a plate to my arm. The Good doesn’t. It’s 39mm vast (the common Nova is 42mm) and appears good, in a luxe, chunky approach, on even my weak and bird-like wrists.

The watch glass is anti-reflective, box-shaped sapphire glass. The arms and indexes have a Tremendous-LumiNova end, which suggests they actually glow at nighttime. Bear in mind this in the event you determine to put on it to mattress for sleep monitoring – its ghostly glow underneath the covers can in any other case be a little bit of a terrifying shock.

It has a 5ATM water resistance ranking, so it may well face up to water stress all the way down to 50 metres, which suggests you’ll be able to put on it within the bathe or to trace your swimming, however I’ll freely admit I used to be too nervous to do this out throughout testing. Nonetheless, my colleague Chris’s Nova has withstood many a shower time and water play session together with his daughter.

The stainless-steel bracelet strap is the default, however within the field you’ll additionally get a FKM (fluoroelastomer) wristband in the identical color as your watch face, with a stainless-steel buckle. You should purchase leather-based, steel or cloth straps as a substitute – and see how they appear on the watch on the Withings web site.

The wristbands are pretty simple to modify out and the FKM band is clearly a lot lighter and will give extra correct readings, though I didn’t discover an considerable distinction between the 2 whereas testing.

Because the bracelet strap was so comfy, and is actually extra fashionable, I ended up utilizing it on a regular basis and barely seen I had it on, even in mattress.  

Additionally within the field, you’ll get a cradle-style charger and wristband toolkit, which has every little thing it is advisable add or take away hyperlinks your self.

The charger is the one little bit of package that doesn’t dwell as much as the high-quality nature of the watch itself. It’s a cheap-looking piece of plastic, whose solely benefit is being small and lightweight, which makes it simple to pack for journey.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Nonetheless, because the watch claims a beneficiant 30-day battery life (though three weeks is extra doubtless, if my testing was something to go by), you received’t want to make use of it usually. And while you do, it expenses in a decent two hours.

Well being & Health Monitoring and App

• ECG
• Sleep monitoring
• No inbuilt GPS

The Nova Good is actually a luxe model of the ScanWatch 2, with the identical workings, function set – and the identical limitations.

The watch has 4 sensors: an accelerometer, an altimeter, a temperature sensor, and a multi-wavelength PPG (to measure blood oxygen saturation).

These enable the Good to offer a variety of well being and health measurements. Usually, I discovered the well being options to be a lot stronger than the exercise suggestions.

One of the spectacular options is its coronary heart well being monitoring. Choose the ECG setting and place your hand across the watch as proven on the display screen and also you’ll get a studying in 30 seconds. It took me just a few tries to get this function to work and when it does, for most individuals, more often than not, the one studying you’ll get is: regular.

However for individuals who don’t, the knowledge could possibly be invaluable. You can too see your present coronary heart charge on the watch, get a day by day coronary heart charge, in a single day coronary heart charge and notifications of any worrying patterns.

You’ll be able to entry respiratory insights in the identical approach and get a blood oxygen studying, which seems as a share.

Put on your watch at night time and also you’ll additionally get complete sleep evaluation – though there’s no differentiation between deep and REM sleep. I discovered the sleep monitoring to be fairly correct, though I had the other downside to the one skilled by my colleague Chris with the common Nova, the place he felt that the tracker was giving him an excessively rosy view of his sleep schedule.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

I consider myself as a very good sleeper and have a tendency to miss or swiftly overlook the instances I get up within the night time or have issues going again to sleep, all of which the tracker mercilessly uncovered. In consequence, I began being extra conscious of tiredness within the mornings and worrying about getting sufficient sleep, so I finished wanting on the evaluation besides on weekend mornings, once I might keep in mattress longer.

There’s additionally menstrual monitoring however this isn’t a function that I’d use and, given the world’s present political local weather, I wouldn’t advocate that folks share this sort of knowledge with an organization.

You can too calm down with a guided respiration session, however I discovered this extra perplexing than helpful.

There’s additionally exercise monitoring, which is much less complete. Some types of train, together with strolling, operating and biking, are routinely tracked. Others, resembling Pilates, you’ll want to select from the exercise menu and let it know while you full the session.

In comparison with the Fitbit I’d been utilizing beforehand, each the step counting and estimated energy burned are much more precisely rendered. The Good doesn’t function built-in GPS – which ought to be a given at this value level – however if in case you have location providers turned in your telephone, you will get extra detailed suggestions.

Foundry

However there are some inaccuracies to take care of. For instance, I’d recurrently see biking classes routinely entered within the app and it took me some time to grasp that they coincided with tube journeys. It appears odd that the software program didn’t twig that my coronary heart charge didn’t enhance throughout these sudden and speedy biking classes. It should have been judging from the movement alone – however maybe I discover the tube extra thrilling than I believed.

Talking of the app, this is likely one of the large advantages of the Nova Good. All through the testing interval, the watch and app synced seamlessly, one thing that was noticeable and pleasing after coming from the more and more buggy iOS Fitbit app.

The app can be very high-quality. It contains a wealth of information, however it’s all properly laid out and comes full with explanations for every metric.

Even higher, in the event you use it along with a Withings sensible scale, all of your measurements seem on the identical dashboard.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

As a pairing, it’s a superb approach of retaining on prime of your general health because it exhibits every little thing from physique composition tendencies, to sleep high quality, to coronary heart charge and day by day steps multi functional place.

There’s additionally the choice to subscribe to Withings+, via which you’ll entry exercise movies, be a part of a health programme, get a coronary heart well being check-up (relying on the place you reside) and extra, though at £8.95 per thirty days or £89.50 per 12 months (US: $9.95/$99.50; EU €9.95/€99.50) it’s yet one more subscription to have the funds for and I don’t suppose it’s obligatory.

People who find themselves significantly into sports activities and don’t need to spend money on a wise scale or Withings+ will discover that there are far cheaper smartwatches that may give them extra granular element about their exercises.

Smartwatch Options, Battery Life & Charging

• 30-day battery life
• 2-hour charging
• Watch notification alerts

The most effective issues concerning the Good is its battery life, which in my expertise, lasts a snug three weeks. It makes an enormous distinction to have a smartwatch that you just don’t have to cost each few days or each night time, and which you can depend on to not conk out in the course of the day.

However in order for you a fully-featured smartwatch, this isn’t it. What you will get is a vibration alert while you get a name, message or app notification (you’ll be able to toggle permissions within the app) and you’ll see who’s calling in addition to the caller’s title scrolls throughout the OLED display screen.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

That’s fairly cool and it’s useful for screening calls. There’s probably not house to learn a message, nonetheless, so that you’re higher off utilizing the watch as an alert and selecting up your telephone to search out out extra.  

You can too set a vibration alarm – however that’s it the place sensible options are involved. Once more, in order for you a full suite of sensible options, a hybrid like this isn’t for you.

Value & Availability

Value is the massive sticking level the place the ScanWatch Nova Good is anxious. It’s £549.95 within the UK and $599.95 within the US. By way of devoted smartwatches, you will get extra sensible options for a lot much less.

You’ll be able to see the way it stacks up in opposition to the competitors in our round-up of the most effective health trackers, or try our prime suggestions for fully-featured smartwatches.

Nonetheless, in the event you’re into luxurious watches and also you have a look at it from that perspective, it’s not outrageously priced for the bundle it gives.

Within the UK, you should buy it from Withings, amongst different retailers. As we are able to’t discover any significant reductions elsewhere, we’d advocate shopping for from Withings in case of any points, as its customer support tends to be good.

It’s an identical story within the US, the place we’d once more advocate shopping for straight from Withings.

Do you have to purchase the Withings ScanWatch Nova Good?

In the event you’re searching for general well being monitoring, with info on sleep monitoring, coronary heart well being and step counting all in one of many best-looking smartwatches we’ve ever examined – and you’ve got deep pockets – the Withings ScanWatch Nova Good gives a high-quality expertise.

Its good app syncing, data-rich app and lengthy battery life make utilizing it seamless and easy. Throw in a Withings sensible scale, and also you’ll get all-round well being monitoring, which is good in the event you’re embarking on a health journey.

Nonetheless, it’s a very costly piece of package and for a similar cash, you may get a full-featured smartwatch with third-party app assist. And for a lot much less, you may get a health tracker that does most of what the Nova Good does – with the addition of GPS, granular exercise knowledge and extra.

The important thing alternative right here is fashion or substance.