Withings ScanWatch 2 gets a 5-day battery boost
Withings has rolled out a new firmware (FW 2651) for the ScanWatch 2 and Nova. The main change is improved battery life, with users getting up to five additional days on a full charge.
Battery life gets a small but welcome boost
The watch had pretty good battery life as it is. But now the French outfit claims up to five extra days on a full charge, depending on how you use the device and your settings. So it’s a nice improvement for a watch that already ranked well in battery endurance.
The update also includes smarter inactivity reminders. Until now, the ScanWatch would nudge you if you’d been still for too long. Now it takes your recent workouts into account before issuing those reminders, which avoids the annoying “you should move more” nudge when you are recovering from a long run.
Another nice touch is the timer memory feature. If you use the same countdown regularly—say, for cooking, work intervals, or timed walks—the watch now remembers your last duration.
Hands mode settings have also returned. You can now choose how the physical hands behave when the screen is active, which gives you more control over visibility.
The company says it has fine-tuned sleep tracking or users with a low resting heart rate. The algorithm for sleep phase detection has been adjusted to better handle that scenario.
And there are some behind-the-scenes tweaks. Triggering a shortcut now makes the watch vibrate, which gives more feedback that something’s actually happened. Display brightness during ECG, SpO2, and workouts has been optimised, as well.
Still waiting on HRV
The one feature that’s been hovering just out of reach is HRV. Withings has promised this capability for the ScanWatch 2 since launch, but there’s still no sign of it being activated. That’s becoming increasingly frustrating, especially when competitors have already rolled it out as standard.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
In our full review of the watch, we note that it nails the basics with a stylish design, long battery life, and a clean interface. It doesn’t try to do everything, but what it does, it mostly does well.
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