Withings Scanwatch Heart Rate Test (Review)

In this video I test the heart rate measurements of the Withings Scanwatch against an ECG monitor. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quantified_scientist/
Twitter: @QuantifiedRob
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-ter-horst-90756a4a/
Website: www.robterhorst.com

This video in the 3rd in a series of 4 videos on the Scanwatch.

📹First two videos📹
Unboxing and first review: https://youtu.be/swQLhrdxEkk
Sleep test: https://youtu.be/lWPxpdUjLBI

⏱️This comparison is part of a larger project where I spend over 11 hours a week tracking everything in my life. If you'd like to know more:
https://youtu.be/8iPWu0Cbq14 ⏱️

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:29 Overview
00:58 Recap of first results
02:15 Final results
04:48 Conclusions

The “Insider program” only had a total of 1000 scanwatches for sale, and they were sold out in minutes. I picked up the 38mm black version.

Hello everyone, my name is Rob and I am a Postdoctoral researcher based in Vienna. In my first video on the Withings Scanwatch I noticed that during cardio workouts the Scanwatch sometimes seemed to record a way too low heart-rate, about half of what it should be. However, this was based on just two days of heart-rate measurements, so I thought this might just be a one-time error, but someone on Reddit had the exact same problem. Therefore I decided to test it for two more weeks, to see if the problem would persist or it was just a one-off thing, and in this video I will show the results.

In total I recorded 9 workouts on my home-trainer, and 4 weight lifting sessions with both the Scanwatch and the Polar H10 chest strap. The Polar H10 is considered one of the most accurate heart-rate monitors available to the public. I recorded the raw RR-interval data from the chest strap, and tried to calculate each individual heart-rate measurement over the exact same time-frames as the Scanwatch used to make the comparison as precise as possible. Lets immediately dive into the results.

This is the plot I showed last time, with the Scanwatch on the vertical-axis and the Polar H10 on the horizontal-axis. Each dot is a single heart-rate measurement, and the diagonal line is where you would hope all measurements would be if they agreed perfectly.
It was this set of measurements here that were the problem. These were about half the heart rate they should be. I usually divide my workouts on the exercise bike in about 4 parts, with a small break in between, and it was exactly one of these parts that had too low of a heart-rate.

So, let’s look at the new data. Here is the same plot as before but with much more data, and I just used the new data. Again you can see this set of heart-rates which are about half what they should be. And this time it is not just from one workout session, but from several. As you can see, there are quite a few which have a problem, though some are fine. And, almost always, the problem appears to come and go right after I take a short break. I am not sure what is happening. During these breaks I stay on my bike, and all I generally do is take a drink, wipe of the sweat, and give my legs some rest.

So, this does seem a systematic problem for me in this early release version of the watch, which can hopefully be solved using a software update. As far as I know, I am wearing the Scanwatch according to the recommendations, and other smart-watches have had no problem on my wrist. So why is this occurring, well one of my subscribers had a possible answer to that:

Have you had the same issues? If so, let us know in the comments below.
I did contact Withings, and I will send them the data to see if they can fix the problem. Again, this is an early release version, so hopefully they can update the software.

🎵Music🎵
(1) Not Without the Rest by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
(2) Wonders by JVNA
(3) Can’t Sleep (YouTube Audio Library)
(4) Classique (YouTube Audio Library)

Видео Withings Scanwatch Heart Rate Test (Review) канала The Quantified Scientist