When we first covered Garmin’s HbA1c patent, the idea was pretty easy to understand. The watch would shine several different wavelengths of light into the wrist, read the PPG signals and use that to estimate glycated haemoglobin. So this would not be live glucose tracking like a CGM, but more of a longer-term view of where your glucose levels have been.

This goes beyond one glucose patent

There has been some movement since February. Garmin’s HbA1c patent application remains pending and received a non-final USPTO Office Action in March, meaning the examination process is now underway.

That is not an endorsement of the technology, and an Office Action can include objections or rejected claims. What is more interesting is what shows up when Garmin’s other optical-sensing patents are viewed alongside it.

A separate Garmin filing called Pressure compensation for wrist-based pulse spectrometry explicitly discusses HbA1c measurement. It describes compensating for the pressure a watch applies to the wrist, because compressing blood vessels and tissue can alter the optical signals used to calculate physiological measurements.

The filing goes into considerable detail, including pressure compensation across multiple optical wavelengths between roughly 600 and 1,000nm. It also describes calculating glycated haemoglobin from three PPG signals at different wavelengths, and two of its inventors, Paul MacDonald and Christopher Kulach, also appear on Garmin’s dedicated HbA1c patent.

That is a more interesting clue than another generic mention of glucose in a patent. Garmin appears to have been working not only on how to calculate HbA1c, but on one of the practical problems that could make those calculations unreliable on an actual wrist.

There is another piece of the puzzle. Garmin’s wrist-worn optical cardiac monitor patent describes sensor arrangements using three optical transmitters with different wavelengths, as well as configurations operating across several red and infrared wavelength bands.

The HbA1c patent also requires three separate wavelengths travelling along substantially the same optical path. That does not prove these filings describe parts of one future Garmin sensor, but the overlap is difficult to ignore.

And then there is Fenix 9

The timing makes Fenix 9 particularly interesting. Garmin’s HbA1c work claims priority back to June 2023, the pressure-compensation filing dates to October 2023, and the optical-monitor work goes back to 2022, so these projects have been underway long enough to influence a 2026 hardware generation.

We already know Garmin is preparing new high-end watches. Our Garmin Connect 5.27 teardown uncovered six coordinated outdoor-watch records that could belong to a future Fenix 9 family, although Garmin has not confirmed their identity.

There is also Garmin model A05170, an unannounced premium wrist-worn device that recently appeared at the FCC with LTE and satellite connectivity. Fenix 9 or Pro version of the same is one possible identity for that watch. But the filing keeps its external and internal photographs confidential, so it tells us nothing about the optical sensor on the back.

And that sensor is now the bit worth watching. If Fenix 9 arrives with a substantially redesigned optical module, particularly one with additional red and infrared emitters, the connection with Garmin’s spectroscopy work becomes much more interesting.

Why Fenix 9 is still a long shot

There is still a big gap between Garmin researching wrist-based HbA1c estimation and putting the feature into a shipping watch. So far, we have found no public evidence of clinical validation, regulatory work or anything else that ties the technology directly to Fenix 9.

Garmin’s wider interest in metabolic health is clearly growing. In May, Garmin Health published a Diabetes Insight Report looking at Garmin wearable data alongside CGMs, AI platforms and third-party diabetes programmes, but that is separate from Garmin measuring glucose or HbA1c itself.

Even if Fenix 9 introduces a new optical sensor, that alone would tell us very little. Garmin could redesign the sensor for better heart-rate accuracy, Pulse Ox, ECG performance, power efficiency or entirely different health metrics.

What would make the HbA1c connection more interesting is evidence that a new sensor uses the sort of multi-wavelength optical setup described in Garmin’s patents. Until we see something like that, linking Fenix 9 directly to glucose tracking would be mostly guesswork.

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You no longer need the WHOOP band

Until now, Advanced Labs has very much been part of the wider WHOOP package. The feature launched in the US last year, combining blood test results with the health and fitness information collected by WHOOP 5.0 and WHOOP MG.

That restriction has now gone. WHOOP says Advanced Labs is available without a wearable membership, so someone using a Garmin, Apple Watch, Oura Ring, Pixel Watch or something completely different can pay for the testing without also maintaining a WHOOP subscription.

Now make no mistake, WHOOP isn’t suddenly pulling Garmin or Apple Watch data into its platform. Instead, it is separating the lab-testing side of WHOOP from the requirement to use its own wearable.

That makes Advanced Labs a much more standalone product than it was when it first rolled out in the US last year. At the time, the attraction was the combination of lab results with WHOOP’s sleep, strain and recovery data. Now WHOOP is effectively saying the laboratory side has value even if you get your everyday wearable data somewhere else.

Testing starts at around $150

Advanced Labs uses Quest Diagnostics in the US and offers blood panels covering areas such as cardiovascular, metabolic, hormonal and inflammatory health. Tests are ordered and reviewed by licensed healthcare providers, while the resulting reports include explanations and recommendations.

Pricing starts at approximately $150. WHOOP hasn’t turned Advanced Labs into a subscription-free replacement for the regular WHOOP experience, but it has removed the annual wearable membership as an entry ticket to the service.

It’s quite a shift from where WHOOP started. The company has spent years building around the idea that the hardware and membership belong together. Even when it introduced support for bringing blood test results into WHOOP, the idea was still centred around enriching the experience of existing members.

Advanced Labs can now bring someone into the WHOOP app before they ever consider wearing the device itself. Whether that eventually becomes another route for converting people into wearable subscribers is an interesting question.

WHOOP is also adding the Galleri cancer test

There is another addition worth mentioning. WHOOP is adding GRAIL’s Galleri multi-cancer early detection test to Advanced Labs, with results delivered through the WHOOP app

Galleri uses a single blood draw to look for signals associated with more than 50 types of cancer. WHOOP says it will be available through nearly 2,000 Quest Diagnostics locations in the US, with the actual analysis carried out by GRAIL at its North Carolina laboratory.

That’s a very different proposition from the recovery scores and training guidance WHOOP built its name around. The company has gradually pushed further into broader health with features such as Healthspan, ECG, Blood Pressure Insights and Advanced Labs, and this latest change pushes the platform another step away from being solely about the tracker on your wrist.

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Google introduced the feature alongside Health Guardian this week. We now have a better idea of when it will arrive, which devices support it and what users will actually see.

It is coming in September

Google’s wearable comparison pages now list Insulin Resistance Trends as coming next month. That is more specific than the broader fall timeframe given during the original announcement.

The feature will not produce a result straight away. Google says Health Guardian needs around 30 days of wear before delivering its first detailed summary, because it is looking for a longer-term pattern rather than reacting to individual readings.

The screenshots Google has released gives us a good idea of how this works. The Health Guardian summary shows Insulin Resistance Trends marked as “High”, alongside blood pressure and sleep breathing information. Google Health Coach can then explain the trend and suggest possible next steps. You can view daily info, or monthly overviews.

Your watch is not measuring glucose

There is an important distinction to clarify. Pixel Watch does not have a hidden glucose sensor, and neither does Fitbit Air.

Instead, Google analyses signals the wearable already collects, including heart rate, movement and sleep. Its SensorFM model was trained using more than one trillion minutes of wearable data from five million consenting users across more than 20 Fitbit and Pixel Watch models.

Google has also published research looking specifically at insulin resistance prediction from wearable data. Its WEAR-ME study involved 1,165 participants and compared wearable-based predictions against conventional fasting glucose and insulin measurements.

The basic idea is fairly simple. One heart-rate reading tells you very little, but several weeks of heart rate, sleep and activity data may reveal a broader physiological pattern associated with changing insulin sensitivity.

That does not turn the watch into a laboratory test. It means Google is trying to recognise the footprint insulin resistance leaves elsewhere in the body.

Pixel Watch 3 is included

The feature is expected on Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 4, Pixel Watch 5 and Fitbit Air. That makes this more of a software upgrade than a Pixel Watch 5 exclusive.

It is worth keeping in mind when looking at our Pixel Watch 5 vs Pixel Watch 4 comparison. Some of Google’s most interesting new health features are heading to older hardware as well.

Fitbit Air is perhaps the more interesting inclusion. It has a simpler sensor setup than Pixel Watch, yet Google still plans to offer insulin resistance tracking on the screenless device.

There is one catch, however. Insulin Resistance Trends sits behind Google Health Premium, so having a compatible device is not enough on its own.

Think of it as a warning light

Google is not giving users an insulin resistance score or a glucose reading. Health Guardian is looking for sustained changes and can flag a trend when something appears unusual.

That makes the “High” status shown in Google’s screenshot closer to a warning light than a diagnosis. Health Coach can explain what the system has noticed and provide suggestions around things such as activity, sleep and nutrition.

The open question is how well it works in everyday use. Google has published plenty about the research behind the feature, but we still do not know how often the finished consumer version will produce false alerts or miss meaningful changes.

Sources: Google Health Guardian announcement | Google SensorFM research | Google insulin resistance research

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The new features sit under Google’s Health Guardian umbrella, which arrived alongside the Pixel Watch 5. And they are due to arrive this Fall.

Your watch does not need a glucose sensor

Insulin Resistance Trends is probably the one worth flagging up first. No, there is no glucose sensor hidden inside Pixel Watch 5. And Google is not claiming that the watch can suddenly measure blood sugar.

Instead, the system looks across several weeks of existing health data and searches for patterns associated with insulin resistance. That includes signals such as heart rate, HRV, SpO2, movement, sleep and skin temperature, giving Google a wider picture than it could get from one metric alone.

The technology behind that is Google’s SensorFM foundation model, which was trained using more than one trillion minutes of wearable data from five million consenting users across more than 100 countries. It has learned from data collected across more than 20 Fitbit and Pixel Watch models, which gives Google a fairly enormous base to work from.

There is also proper research behind the idea rather than this appearing out of nowhere at the Pixel Watch 5 launch. A Google-led study involving 1,165 people found that wearable data could improve machine-learning models designed to identify insulin resistance, although the research model and the consumer Health Guardian feature are not exactly the same thing.

Now make no mistake. Insulin Resistance Trends will not diagnose diabetes or tell you your glucose level. Think of it more as a warning light that something in your longer-term physiological pattern may have shifted enough to deserve a closer look.

Blood pressure takes a similar route

Blood Pressure Trends follows much the same philosophy. There is no inflatable cuff, and the watch does not suddenly produce a conventional systolic and diastolic reading such as 120/80.

Instead, Google analyses pulse and movement patterns over time and looks for signs that cardiovascular stress appears to be running persistently higher. If it notices a meaningful change, the idea is to encourage you to check your blood pressure properly.

That approach is quite different from the race to produce cuffless blood-pressure numbers that we have seen elsewhere in wearables. Google is asking a simpler question, which is whether the pattern has changed enough that you might want to investigate it.

The underlying research has already involved Pixel Watch hardware as well. One study used seven days of PPG and accelerometer data from Pixel Watch 3 devices and compared the resulting model against 24-hour ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring, so there is quite a bit going on behind what will look like a relatively simple trend inside the app.

Sleep breathing adds another piece

Sleep Breathing Quality brings the same longer-term thinking to overnight data. Google looks at how much of your sleep is spent with what it considers optimal breathing, then uses repeated nights to build a monthly picture rather than putting too much weight on one result.

This is not sleep-apnoea detection, and Google is not presenting it as a diagnostic tool. Once again, the point is to notice changes in your normal pattern that might otherwise disappear among dozens of nightly health metrics.

Health Guardian also includes Breathing Emergency Detection on supported Pixel Watches, although that feature works rather differently. It looks for a persistent and critical drop in oxygen saturation and can contact emergency services if the wearer becomes unresponsive in supported markets.

This goes well beyond Pixel Watch 5

Google says the technology is coming to other Pixel Watch and Fitbit Air devices rather than being locked to Pixel Watch 5. More specifically, Blood Pressure Trends is coming to Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Watch 5 this fall, while Insulin Resistance Trends is coming more widely across Pixel Watch and Fitbit devices. Both are app-based features.

That fits particularly well with what Google has been doing with Fitbit Air. The hardware itself is deliberately simple, while more of the interesting work happens inside Google Health where data from several sensors gets combined and interpreted in the background.

We have already seen a version of that philosophy with Fitbit Air’s AFib detection. Health Guardian pushes the idea further because Google is now trying to infer health changes that the wearable does not directly measure at all.

The next health upgrade may be software

For years, adding a new health feature to a wearable usually meant adding another sensor. Google is showing another route, where better models squeeze more information from heart rate, HRV, sleep, SpO2, temperature and movement data that millions of devices are already collecting.

There are obvious limits to that approach, because software cannot magically turn a Pixel Watch into a glucose monitor or a proper blood-pressure cuff. But if the models can reliably identify when something has changed, that information could still be useful even without producing a traditional measurement.

Sources: Google Health, Google Research, Nature, DC Rainmaker

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The hearing test tunes each ear separately

The Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features are accessed through the Galaxy Buds menu in Settings, so there is no separate app to install. The test uses pure-tone audiometry, playing sounds at different frequencies to measure the hearing level of each ear.

Samsung’s screenshots show the results split into left and right ears, complete with average decibel figures and an audiogram covering frequencies from 250Hz to 8kHz. The software then places the result into one of five categories ranging from normal hearing to profound hearing loss.

Once the test is complete, the user can move straight into the Hearing Aid setup. The interface allows volume to be controlled for both earbuds together or adjusted separately, while sound can be picked up from all around or focused towards the front.

There is also a background noise reduction slider. That should be useful in places such as restaurants and busy rooms, where making out a conversation is often harder than simply hearing that someone is speaking.

Samsung says its software uses the NAL-NL2 fitting formula, which is widely used when configuring prescription hearing aids. Noise reduction and beamforming are also used to bring voices into focus while reducing some of the surrounding sound.

Galaxy Buds3 Pro owners are included

Perhaps the best part of the announcement is that Samsung is not keeping the feature exclusive to its newest earbuds. Galaxy Buds3 Pro owners are included alongside the Galaxy Buds4 Pro, potentially adding a substantial new use without requiring another hardware purchase.

The standard Galaxy Buds3 and Galaxy Buds4 are not supported. Samsung also says full functionality requires a compatible Galaxy device running One UI 8 or later, so buyers should not assume the hearing aid mode will work fully when the earbuds are paired with any Bluetooth phone.

The company has offered forms of hearing assistance for several years. A Personal Sound Amplification Product mode arrived on Galaxy Buds+ in 2020, with a later study suggesting the earbuds could help people follow conversations more easily.

A personal sound amplifier is intended to make environmental sounds louder for someone with normal hearing, while an OTC hearing aid is a medical device intended to compensate for hearing loss. We explored that difference in our Olive Smart Ear review, where personalised amplification was already beginning to blur the line between earbuds and dedicated hearing products.

Samsung is not the first major earbud maker to take this step. Apple rSamsung is not the first major earbud maker to take this step. Apple received FDA authorisation for its AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid software in 2024. That makes Samsung’s announcement partly a catch-up move. Still, bringing a comparable option to Galaxy owners matters, particularly because the existing Buds3 Pro will receive it as well.

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I recently tested the original model, and comfort was easily its strongest feature. They sit almost flush inside the ear and work particularly well for side sleeping, although the dependence on the app and Smart Case adds more complexity than you get from ordinary earbuds.

The overall concept with this new version has not changed much. These remain tiny earbuds built specifically for overnight use, combining passive isolation with masking sounds rather than active noise cancellation.

Longer battery life and better controls

The headline improvement is battery life, which rises from around 10 hours on the original model to as much as 14 hours on Sleepbuds 2. The Smart Case stores enough power for another two or three nights, making the new version a little easier to use while travelling.

The original Sleepbuds already lasted through a normal night during my testing, so the extra four hours may not change much for lighter users. It should provide more breathing room when streaming podcasts or audiobooks before switching to an overnight masking sound.

Ozlo also says Bluetooth reliability and range have improved, while new pairing controls should make connecting the buds less troublesome. The Smart Case now has a physical button that can start a stored Sleep Sound or snooze the private in-ear alarm without opening the app.

The Ozlo app gets a substantial update

The accompanying smartphone app now has a redesigned interface with new colours, updated branding and simpler navigation. It also introduces five Sleep Modes that control how audio behaves as the night progresses. Users of both the new and old version of the device will benefit from this.

You are able to stream music, podcasts or audiobooks before automatically moving to a masking sound after falling asleep, when a timer expires or when streaming stops. A simpler mode can begin playing a stored Sleep Sound immediately, without maintaining an active Bluetooth connection.

Sleep Shield blocks calls, notifications, alerts and unexpected Bluetooth audio from interrupting playback. The update also adds four alarm sounds, more than 60 Sleep Sounds and a new Nocturnes collection built around softer musical tracks.

Sleep Patterns has now officially left beta. The earbuds monitor movement and breathing, while sensors in the Smart Case track bedroom noise, light and temperature, giving users a broader view of what may have affected a particular night.

Sound masking remains the main approach

Sleepbuds 2 still do not include active noise cancellation. Instead, the silicone tips reduce some outside noise before masking sounds help cover disturbances such as snoring, traffic or noisy neighbours.

Ozlo has redesigned the audio system with a built-in amplifier, promising higher volume and stronger masking performance. There are also Balanced, Focus, Spoken Word and Airplane presets for different types of audio and surroundings.

This remains a very different approach from ANC sleep earbuds or products designed to create silence. The choice largely comes down to masking unwanted sound or trying to remove it. This device is trying to mask it.

Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 are available in the US for $279, including four ear-tip sizes, the Smart Charging Case and a USB-C cable. Existing owners who already have stable connectivity may not find enough here to justify replacing the original model, but new buyers are getting longer battery life, better controls and a considerably more flexible app.

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Consistency counted more than total practice

The research looked at how regularly people completed biofeedback training with a Muse headband over one year. It compared those habits with results from 1,228 completions of a Stroop attention test.

The Stroop test shows users a colour word printed in a different colour. Someone might see the word red written in blue ink, for example, and must identify the ink colour rather than automatically reading the word.

That conflict creates a small delay in response time. Muse used this delay as a measure of cognitive control, which generally becomes slower as people get older.

Across every age group, people who trained in most weeks dealt with the conflicting information around 40 to 50 milliseconds faster than sporadic users. The amount of time spent training mattered less than how regularly they returned.

The most consistent users in their 60s and 70s recorded an average interference time of 192 milliseconds. Sporadic users in their 30s and 40s averaged 219 milliseconds.

That does not mean the older group had younger brains in a medical sense. It does suggest that regular users performed better on this particular task than much younger people who trained less consistently.

This does not prove Muse caused the difference

Muse describes the finding as an association rather than evidence that its headbands improve attention. People who stick to regular brain training may also sleep better, exercise more or have other habits that support cognitive performance.

Frequent users may also become more comfortable with the test itself. The analysis cannot fully separate those factors from the effects of using Muse.

Still, the scale of the at-home dataset makes the pattern interesting. The consistency advantage appeared across all of the age groups studied rather than emerging from a single small subgroup.

Brain age tracking is coming to the Muse app

The company also confirmed that it is bringing brain age tracking into its app. The feature uses resting EEG signals to estimate how old a person’s brain activity appears compared with their chronological age.

Muse says its estimates typically land within around seven years of a person’s actual age. Earlier peer-reviewed research using Muse recordings found that the measurement can also move over time depending on factors such as sleep and recent rest.

In my review, I found the Muse S Athena to be an interesting option for people who want to go beyond basic meditation feedback. It adds detailed cognitive tracking and is the most logical home for features such as brain age.

The older Muse 2 remains the cheaper way into Muse’s EEG-guided meditation system. It lacks Athena’s broader cognitive features, but it still offers the core experience that produced the training data used in this analysis.

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When we covered BodyFit back in early June, the interesting bit was not just another connected scale appearing on the market. It was the way Withings had taken one of the more useful ideas from its higher-end Body Scan line and pushed it into a more fitness-focused product.

The handle is the point

Most smart scales still suffer from the same problem. You stand on them, they send a signal through the lower body and then the software estimates what is going on elsewhere. That can be useful for trends, but it is still a fairly blunt way to look at body composition.

BodyFit does things differently because of the retractable handle. Hold it during a weigh-in and the scale can send the signal through the upper and lower body, rather than relying mostly on foot-to-foot readings. That allows it to break results into six zones, covering the arms, legs and trunk.

That is the feature Withings is leaning on for the UK launch. The company says the scan is up to three times faster than most segmental analysis smart scales, while still delivering data that would usually require more specialist equipment.

Of course, we would still not put it up there with DEXA. But home scales still live in the real world of hydration, timing and user consistency. As a daily trend tool, this is a far more interesting setup than a basic weight and body fat reading.

The GLP-1 angle

The timing is not accidental. With GLP-1 weight loss drugs now a much bigger part of the conversation, people are paying more attention to what they are losing, not just how much. Dropping weight quickly can look great on a graph, but the useful question is whether that reduction is mostly fat or whether muscle mass is also sliding.

That is where BodyFit has a more obvious role. Withings is positioning it as a way to see whether fat loss is happening while muscle is being protected. The app shows an animated zone-by-zone body scan and classifies the muscle-to-fat balance across the body.

This will not replace clinical testing for people who need medical precision. But for someone training, dieting or using GLP-1 medication, it could provide a clearer home signal than ordinary weight tracking.

More coaching, less spreadsheet work

Withings is also pushing BodyFit as a coaching product, not just a measurement tool. The scale works with the Withings app to track calorie balance and generate habit-based recommendations between weigh-ins.

That sounds useful, as long as the advice stays grounded and does not overreach. The best version of this product would be one that spots direction of travel and nudges users accordingly. Gaining muscle in the legs but losing too much mass in the arms? That is actionable. Losing weight but seeing muscle trend down across several zones? That is also actionable. Generic motivational chatter would be less useful.

Withings says BodyFit uses Bioelectrical Impedance Spectroscopy with 13 frequencies up to 800 kHz. It also says the technology has been validated against DEXA, with up to 99% correlation for fat mass and up to 98% for muscle mass. Those are big claims, and the usual caveat applies. Correlation in validation testing does not mean every home reading will be perfect. Still, multi-frequency BIS with a handle puts this above the simpler smart scales that mostly guess from the feet.

A more focused Withings scale

BodyFit now sits in an interesting place in the Withings range. It is not trying to be the full bathroom health station that Body Scan aims to be. So it occupies a middle-ground.

That makes the £229.95 UK price easier to understand. It is still a premium scale, but not priced like the top Withings models. If you are someone trying to understand the difference between weight loss and body recomposition, this scale may be of interest. Check it out on the Withings website.

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If you are thinking about buying a smart scale, it doesn’t get any better than Withings scales. The company has made a name for itself in this product category, and other brands have some catching up to do. This site has published a number of reviews of its products, most recently the Body Scan. So make sure to check these out.

The range now has five clear steps

The range now spans a number of different scales, at different price points.

Body Smart remains the entry point. It covers more than 20 biomarkers, uses two bioimpedance frequencies up to 100 kHz and sticks to single-zone body composition. That means fat and muscle mass, hydration level, visceral fat, BMI, basal metabolic rate and standing heart rate. For most people who want a smarter version of a normal scale, this is the basic Withings pitch.

Body Comp moves things along without adding a handle. It raises the count to more than 30 biomarkers and adds vascular age plus a Nerve Health Score. Withings describes this as detecting early signs of diabetes-related complications, so this model sits closer to a health check-up than a fitness scale. It still uses two frequencies up to 100 kHz and single-zone body composition, so the upgrade is more about health signals than body mapping.

BodyFit is the interesting middle option

BodyFit is the new model that could cause the most confusion. It costs $279.95 in the US and jumps to more than 40 biomarkers, but the real shift is the retractable handle. That enables 6-zone analysis across the body rather than one averaged reading from the feet.

It also uses 13 bioimpedance frequencies up to 800 kHz, which puts it ahead of the original Body Scan on that specific line in the table. But BodyFit does not have ECG, atrial fibrillation detection or Nerve Response Score, so it is not a full health station. It might fit in the sweet spot for someone mainly interested in body composition, fat and muscle distribution, visceral fat and vascular age.

Body Scan still has a role

The original Body Scan remains the first proper health station in the lineup. It includes more than 40 biomarkers, 6-zone body composition, a retractable handle, standing heart rate, vascular age, 6-lead ECG and atrial fibrillation detection. It also adds Nerve Response Score, with stress response and recovery insights.

That makes Body Scan a different product from BodyFit, even though BodyFit looks strong on body composition. Body Scan leans harder into cardiovascular and nerve health. The comparison sheet also shows Glucose Resilience as a new metabolic feature for Body Scan, though this is one of those areas where buyers should watch the app rollout and Withings+ requirements closely.

BodyScan 2 is the top model, but not a simple upgrade for everyone

BodyScan 2 pushes the range to more than 60 biomarkers. It uses 13 bioimpedance frequencies up to 800 kHz, keeps 6-zone analysis and adds improved segmental measurements. The handle also gets touch-sensor electrodes, a built-in display and improved readability, which should make daily use less awkward than reading everything from the scale platform.

The extra health features are the bigger story. BodyScan 2 adds blood pressure insights, Heart Age and blood oxygen levels. It also keeps vascular age, 6-lead ECG, atrial fibrillation detection and Nerve Response Score. On paper, all of this sounds great – if you’re into that level of detail.

The subscription piece needs watching

What needs watching is the Withings+ subscription. It now sits across the range, but not every model gets the same experience. The comparison sheet shows Body Smart, Body Comp and BodyFit with Personalized Health Priorities, Weekly Plan and BodyPath. Body Scan and BodyScan 2 go further with cardiologist review included and Longevity Intelligence.

This is where the buying decision becomes less clean. Heart Age and Glucose Resilience sound like headline features for BodyScan 2, but Withings says those sit behind Withings+. So the question is not only which scale has the sensor hardware. It is also which insights remain useful without paying for the extra software layer.

Which one makes the most sense

Body Smart remains the sensible entry model if weight, body composition and basic health trends are enough. Body Comp adds useful health markers without the larger handle-based design, so it fits buyers who want vascular age and nerve health but do not care about segmental body mapping.

BodyFit looks like the best fit for people who mainly want better body composition data. It brings the handle, 6-zone analysis and 13-frequency bioimpedance at a much lower price than BodyScan 2. Body Scan remains the better choice if ECG and nerve response are important, especially if it gets discounted now that BodyScan 2 has arrived.

BodyScan 2 is the one for buyers who want the newest Withings health platform and are comfortable with the subscription angle. It has the broadest mix of body composition, cardiovascular, metabolic and longevity-style metrics. But the arrival of the new model also makes the cheaper options look more interesting, because the range now has clearer tiers than the product names suggest.

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Withings BodyScan 2 is now available to buy in Europe, taking the company’s new flagship smart scale out of early access and into a wider public launch. The US release is close too, with Withings telling users that the wait ends next week.

The launch follows the BodyScan 2 Insider Program from May. This gave 500 European users early access to final production hardware.

Withings leans hard into longevity

Withings is calling BodyScan 2 its first science-backed longevity station. That is a big label, but the idea is simple enough. The scale tries to turn a daily weigh-in into a broader cardiometabolic check.

It measures more than 60 biomarkers over time and pulls key signals into Longevity Intelligence inside the Withings app. That is meant to act as a health cockpit, showing how your body is trending rather than just displaying isolated readings.

The main features include 6-zone body composition, metabolic assessment, complete heart health and Longevity Intelligence. It still looks like a smart scale, but Withings clearly wants it to sit closer to a home health monitor than a weight tracker.

Body composition is the easy sell

The 6-zone body composition feature will probably be the most useful part for many buyers. Instead of giving one whole-body estimate, BodyScan 2 breaks fat and muscle readings down across different body zones.

That should make progress easier to understand. Weight alone does not say much when someone is building muscle, losing fat or trying to avoid lean mass loss. A more detailed breakdown gives users something more practical to track.

As always with home body composition scales, the exact number should not be treated as lab-grade truth. The value is in regular readings under similar conditions and watching the trend over time.

Metabolic tracking is where it gets more ambitious

The metabolic side is more interesting, although part of it is not ready yet. Withings says BodyScan 2 can track visceral fat, calorie balance and Glucose Resilience, but Glucose Resilience is marked as coming soon.

Now make no mistake, BodyScan 2 is not a continuous glucose monitor. And it is not directly measuring blood sugar. This looks more like a broader metabolic score built from the data Withings can collect or model through its app.

BodyScan 2 also brings in several cardiovascular features. Withings lists AFib detection, vascular age, blood oxygen, cardiac efficiency and hypertension notifications.

The scale is not cheap and some of the more interesting features are tied to Withings+. Heart Age is one example. It turns cardiac timing and efficiency data into an age-style score, which may be easier for users to understand than raw numbers.

Europe first, US next

BodyScan 2 is available now in Europe through the Withings website. In the UK it is priced at £450.

The US launch should follow next week. The company also says the white version is not available yet, but should arrive before the end of summer.

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