Great videos, I purchased the scan watch last week and while waiting for it to arrive, I've enjoyed watching all your scan watch related 'reports'! I really appreciate your 'data-driven' reviewing approach compared to others who just unbox the product and repeat the specifications mentioned on the box. I've noticed that you've reviewed other Withings products and I was wondering whether you have any plans to review one of their scales to compare the accuracy of fat% measurements. Or perhaps their blood pressure device.
@@Asdfghjkl-w3j - Still no REM sleep detection - No rest pulse but only average pulse which doesn't tell anything as much sport decreases the heart rate in general while during sports the heart rate is increased --> worthless if not combined with gyroscopic information - not accurate for HIIT workouts as the measurements intervals aren't frequent enough It's a beautiful watch with notifications, alarms, a step counter and an ECG but I wouldn't trust the data but instead buy a Fitbit or Apple Watch if accuracy is most important to you.
Hi, thanks for the detailed anaysis. In the past I testet the Withings Steel HR Sport and was pretty disappointed of the accuracy. One problem was that it counted 30 minutes of playing the piano as 2300 steps, but the main issue was the change between counting and not counting. Because of my job I often sit at the desk for a while, then i go into the kitchen, grab a coffee, go back to the desk and everything repeats. sometimes this counted 0 steps. in the support-forums of withings i found that it can take up to 100 steps before it starts to count, so i decided to count by myself. One time I counted 133 steps before the number on the display raised by 6 steps. Even the older withings step counters (Pulse Ox and Go) performed much better, wearing them on the belt. For longer activities like walking or running the results seemed much better. Your tests are focused on longer activities, because of my experiences with the Steel HR Sport I am pretty interested how accurate the Scanwatch counts when you just go a few steps. Could you tell anything about that?
I have the Steel HR currently but always wondered how accurate they are because I have also had Fitbit and Garmin. I was suspicious that I always got more steps with them then Withings. Glad to know that I am on the right track with Withings and will be looking to upgrade once the Scan Watch is available in Canada. Great work on all your videos and keep up the format. Nice mix of technology and facts.
I'm Gardener and use both Scanwatch and Charge 3 simultaneously at work on opposite wrists. The step counts on the Fitbit at least double what the Withings registers. One thing thayt quite amusing is that when I get home and check the stats on my phone, withings on most days registers about 30mins of swimming per day as well as cycling...I wish my work involved those activities!
Thanks again for this nice test. There is one annoying thing about the steps count with the scanwatch. If you are walking with a baby stroller or if you use a lawn mower, it does not count the step at all because it recognizes the activity as cycling (because of the position of your arm) So if you had kept your arm horizontally the result of your 'not swinging arm' would have been different. I have contacted support about this and they told me the basic answer that I need to swing my arm for the step to be counted correctly. Based on your video, I see that this is not correct. It is just a wrong activity detection.
Very helpful video...still waiting for the release in the US. By the way, love Vienna and my daughter is attending the University of Vienna and lives at a dorm on campus. Beautiful city!!
Hi, a friend recommend your channel because science and Vienna is a good combination of my interests. I really like how you controlled the experiments, especially that you performed the steps experiment on a second person. I've always wondered if step counters are more accurate on some people because their algorithm works better with more averaged sized people - I'm short enough that I've always presumed that they will overestimate for me. Thanks for this and for also looking at false positives.
I have a scanwatch too. For steps I counted manually walking and within 2 % Similarly counting my pulse with my finger on carotid artery. I have not observed misclassifying walking with my arms fixed (eg pushing a troly). The only mistake I had in auto classification was it thought rowing a dinghy was cycling, which seems reasonable given the speed and lack of impacts.
Thanks for the nice videos. The oxygen-video does not seem to be available yet? That would be really interesting. I would also be interested in the step counting results when using "hiking poles". Depending on your walking mode, you hit the ground as many times with your hands (through the hiking poles) as you do with your feet. It might count this as steps (indeed I had this impression with a Withings Steel HR Sport).
Hi, I had interesting observations, that older Withings device, Still don't count steps during walking with the children trolley. If you put your hend on trolley grip, your body will "swing", but hand stays steel in relation to your body. I learned walking with trolley, with one hand on the grip 😉
Hi Jason, thanks for the compliment and great the question!! Yes, it was paired, so I am not sure if it used the GPS signal in addition to compliment the movement of the arm. I just wanted to test it in a similar way as I (and most people) would use it in real life :-) . But you're right (if that is your point) that it could use the extra info of the GPS to deduce from my speed that I am most likely walking. Though surprisingly, when it autodetects cycling, it always says 0 km, so maybe there is a GPS connection issue that I haven't figured out yet :-). Thanks so much!
I was planning to get the ScanWatch but there is so many choice ! Mainly for sleep tracking and smart alarm but sounds like the Fitbit charge 4 can handle it better, tough choice 😬
Eated 50grams of dark chocolate 86% while watching this video, your videos are always great. Love them as time and effort has gone into this video. Keep up the great work. More research and more test (Y) :) Watching from Erbil, Kurdistan Region.
Hey Rob, will you/could you do a review of their Pulse HR device as well? I would love to see that video as their device has significantly higher battery life compared to the competition. Great videos, keep it up 👍
To understand how the scanwatch works : if you start an activity, for example running, does it add the "steps" of your run to your total of the day ? Or it makes a difference between activity and steps for walking ?
You're welcome. I use ggplot2 in the R programming language. I took a theme from the internet ("ztheme"), and my code is roughly (just to give you an idea): library(tidyverse) library(ggjoy) library(scales) library(forcats) #Modify Theme: source("ztheme.R") makePlotPerActivity
My problem with scanwatch is that it "wakes up" late to calculate steps. Like today i've done several morning activities breakfast, shower so on, and scanwatch is still at 0 steps. When my other smartwatch is already for several hunderd. Once it wakes up it calculates correctly, especially if wearing it on my ankle. But why it does this? Also it doesn't seem to calclulate steps at night (sometimes I have to take my dog out at night and I get again 0 steps. Very annoying).
May I ask what you studied to get into your current occupation? I‘m probably gonna start my Mathematics-Bachelor this year and I think what you‘re doing seems pretty interesting - I‘m wondering if something similar would be possible for me in case I specialize in Data Science later on.
Hi Niklas! Very cool! I studied chemistry originally, but my Master was focussed on data analysis. Later I went into "bioinformatics", which is the field in which I am currently working. I think bioinformatics is really cool, and if you start with a Mathematics background you definitively have some advantages. My normal work involves big datasets about people's immune systems, and things like their genetics. Usually I study about 300-500 people at the same time, to see for instance if we can find out why certain people have a disease. Here is a rough summary of my CV: www.robterhorst.com/cv . Let me know if you need any other information! Hopefully you can do your studies despite the COVID-19 situation!
The Quantified Scientist Thanks, that sounds very interesting! Nice to hear that it‘d also be possible for me to do something similar - let‘s see what the future brings! :)
Dissapointed with it since i got it. Walked with a stroller almost all day, Counted 7973 steps and distance 6,9km. Google fit counted 8,8km and 13813 steps. Google maps says 9,2km.
@@TheQuantifiedScientist Well for exemple this morning between 3:30am and 3:45am Fitbit charge 4 detected 39 light steps while I was under light sleep from 03:34am for 47minutes, all according to fitbit apps. I should also tell you, I sleep on a mezzanine bed (120x190) 150cm above ground and the stairs are vertical (not inclined). So I really don't know where I went during those 4 minutes while I was awake (3:30am to 3:34am)
I do a lot of walking and stopping in my job. I noticed my Fitbit didn't count loads of my steps in the past. So I stop, do y job which takes 10 seconds then move 6-10metres to the next point. I stop, do the job and repeat. Could you include something like this on your next video please. Non-continuous walking. Would be good to see if the devices take some time to get going. I've walked a mile before doing this with my Fitbit Blaze and got less than 100 steps. Cheers
Problem is wearing something on your arm to read what your feet are doing. Physiology of walking, and running left arm swings with right foot, right arm with left foot. They read from those swings to estimate steps. Not in motion they read the jolts from each step like the old-time clip on pedometer which in this test gave the most accurate reading with better consistency and no arbitrary readings from swing dynamics. Holding bags, handles, strollers etc which throw off those reading metrics and get inaccurate measurements. This would also mean don’t hold the rails using a stair master if want a proper count. Wrist devices hope to get as close to possible step count if we move appropriately. If want most accurate step counting then need something that reads what the foot is doing which then would mean using something on ankle or as Nike had “footpods” that insert in the shoes. All in all tho I do enjoy these data analyses. Provides a ton of information.
Well I don't know if the scanwatch is accurate regarding steps, I know that I have a scnawatch in my left arm and a fitbit Sense in my right arm. Today I am in home office and did not make a lot of steps because I am sitting most of the time infront of the monitor. So the scanwatch says 383 steps and the sense 1678!!!!!!!!! I am really confused!!! Last week I had a withings GTS2e which was somehow between the scanwatch and the sense. I think fitbit is too much overcounting!!! Thanks!
Seems the older withings sucks with step counting. My withings sport is poor, well under counts and hold arm still wont count, so maybe withings have improved things a lot on the scanwatch
I would imagine that the count with your hand on chest still registers chocks from feet. I would be curious to see how pushing a stroller (which stabilises your hands) affects the count.👶
i think they should lose this “steps” thing and replace it with a general activity name. Why would it count just the steps anyway and why is that goal so important? if one day you go to swim or cycling for one hour, you’ve technically made 0 steps, but you’ve hardly missed your daily activity goal, haven’t you? Unless there’s a specific reason why stepping is more important than any other activity, I don’t get why counting just the steps is so important.
I agree Francesco. I guess some combination of total energy spent (to see how much you are burning) + heart rate zones (to see if it was more fat burning vs cardio) would be great :-D
Because studies have shown that when someone walks at least 10k steps a day they have dramatic reductions in heart disease. Now, that isn’t to say that swimming isn’t giving you that same benefit, but walking is something everyone can do, for free. When people who aren’t normally into fitness start watching step count, they begin to see physiological changes as it increases. And, they may eventually branch out into other activities like cycling, hiking, etc. It is a very valuable feature that both non athletes and athletes enjoy.
after the last video i decided not to go with the scanwatch. not just becouse some of the shortcommings. I went for the galaxy watch 3. the battery life aint suppose to be the greates but i dont mind charging it every other dayish. Just hope they will release ecg eventually
@@TheQuantifiedScientist im supposed to get it early next week. will give my thoughts later But the overall concensus from most people seems to be that it is a very decent smartwatch with alot good features concerning conectivity, health and fitness. Although the fitness tracking and gps is not as precise for example a garmin watch
@@TheQuantifiedScientist so i had the galaxy watch3 for a little over a week now and im happy with it The tracking seems to be pretty accurate compared to other devices i testet it with. Batterylife is kinda short. only 1 to 2 days. but dosent bother me that much However this is my first smart watch so dont have anything to compare it with=P
Hey Rob.. do check on budget lines fitness bands.... Like you did months ago, Mi Xiaomi Bands/ Honor Bands/Realme Bands, and compare them with the expensive ones( I watch/Scanwatch/Garmin/fitbit) and you can scientifically prove its worth or not....and your views will be booming and btw great videos, just wanting too see more reviews in a scientific way no body is doing what you do so..... 😁😁😁👍👍👍
Hi Puina! Thanks so much! Will indeed do that, I am going to buy an honor band for sure and probably a Mi Band. Subscribe to stay updated on new videos ;-) Have a great day!
Hi Suzanne! Interesting, the movement must be similar to walking. Thanks for sharing! Unfortunately my hair is not long enough to try at the moment (a few years ago it was though :-P ).
on scanwatch could i measure my VO2 only when i am running or with other sports could i also? in my steel hr unfortunately is only possible when i am running, but i prefer other sports so i’ve never found my VO2 :(
Ich habe zurzeit leider das Problem, dass meine Steel HR weniger Schritte anzeigt, als die Health Mate App. Hast du das Problem auch schon mal gehabt? Lg
The damn watch counts literally half of what's on my Fitbit! I'm on my feet all day at work walking around, 7000 steps on the ScanWatch, 13500 on the Fitbit today (and I won't even start on the sleep measurements - utter joke). :(
Hi! This matches my findings. Fitbits are great at sleep tracking, but are bad at step counting; that is to say, fitbits count a lot of extra steps when you are not walking
@@TheQuantifiedScientist the 7000 steps feels incorrect though for how much I'm moving around a day. Somebody suggested, who also thought both the pedometer and sleep tracker were off on his watch, that the two may be related and due to a potential issue with the motion detector? Also, both my fitbit and scanwatch translate my electrical scooter rides as "outdoor cycling" (funny because I literally just stand on the scooter!), but the scanwatch also gave me a cycling measurement for midday yesterday when I was most definitely doing nothing else but either sitting or walking. I mostly bought this watch to monitor my heart activity (I've had some palpitations since covid), but now I really don't know if I can trust it at all.
This is misleading. The Scanwatch DOES NOT COUNT STEPS ACCURATELY. Try walking for 1000 steps (counted) carrying two smartphones (Apple and Samsung) and wearing the Scanwatch. The Scanwatch is 20% too low. Withings tries to fool you by talking about "arm swinging". This is just an attempt to escape the fact there is something wrong with the step counter on their watch. Other smart watches don't have this "arm swinging" problem. They cite this RU-vid video as "evidence" their watch works. They won't supply independent lab confirmation. DON'T BUY THIS WATCH.
