Withings Steel HR – Hybrid Smartwatch – Activity Tracker
Withings Steel HR – Hybrid Smartwatch – Activity Tracker with Connected GPS, Heart Rate Monitor, Sleep Monitor, Smart Notifications, Water Resistant with 25-day Battery Life
From the brand
Withings Store
| Weight: | 50 Grams |
| Size: | 36 mm |
| Dimensions: | 62.48 x 9.14 x 3.3 cm; 40.82 Grams |
| Brand: | Withings |
| Model: | HWA03-36black-All-Inter |
| Colour: | Black |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Included: | 1 CR2 batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | Nokia health |
| Age: | Adult |
| Department: | Unisex |
| Dimensions: | 62.48 x 9.14 x 3.3 cm; 40.82 Grams |
| Quantity: | 1 |
| Size: | 36 mm |
This is my fifth activity tracker, first Withings one.
Overall after nearly a month I’m happy. App is good (nothing like the horror of the Decathlon app, lots of info and analysis and seems to have good partnering with other apps), I like that it is a watch not a band, battery life so far is superb (I’ve not had to charge it yet, my Garmins had awful battery life, nowhere near claimed), and it’s easy and intuitive to use. The hand showing how far you are to your walking target is nice and subtle and grown up.
Minuses: no “move” alarm/prompt AFAICT, visibility of hands is sometimes hard as they are very fine and not illuminated, visibility of the digital display is poor in strong light (summer daylight) and too fine to read without glasses (that is me not them, but on my Garmins I could read them).
It’s not perfect, but so far it’s pretty good, especially as I got a “return” for a bargain price.
I’ve had my eye on this for a while over any other smart watch as i’ve owned other withings products and as a smart watch it does exactly what I need. It’s also a very attractive watch and people always comment on how simple yet striking it is compared to other more garish watches. The only real downside is that the battery life doesn’t seem to last 25 days as quoted. for the past 2 charging cycles I seem to reach 40% after only a week or so of use. Hopefully this changes with time
Bought an Apple Watch SE last year and never got on with it – too many features and constantly charging it were enough to put me off.
The HR steel by Withings is incredible – it tracks all of your core health metrics, isn’t intrusive, looks like a conventional watch, and the 100% dial is addictive to complete.
And after nearly a month of wearing it, the battery still has 25% charge.
For 140 you cannot go wrong. For most people this watch will do right by you.
An excellent watch with good tracking. But if your sight is not 100% and you don’t wear glasses except for reading, then it is hard to see the hands when they are over the black area – which is the time I usually run. It would be better if there were an option to reverse the colours in the top circle. I have seen pictures of a Withings watch which looks like this one which has a white circle, so it must be possible.
Now had the tracker for over three months and very pleased with it, it’s battery life is exceptional, it seems a fairly accurate step tracker and has plenty of options on the app for activity types. Sleep tracking is fairly accurate, as good as any other I’ve used and the watch is robust and durable unlike a few others I’ve broken! Recharging is quick and easy it sits in a recharging dish so you don’t have to pull apart the strap for a usb connection like cheaper versions. Plus it looks good on amf is easy enough to read. Would have liked luminous dials but that’s probably the only minus. And via Amazon warehouse a good price too.
I bought this as I wanted a watch with hand rather than a digital display but also wanted to track activity and couldn’t rely on my phone as I don’t always carry it around with me. In terms of look it is very smart. I have swapped the strap for a stainless steel one. I’ve been wearing this for 13 days, the battery is currently on 20% so not sure it will last 25 days but it does say the watch and step count will carry on for another 20 days after hitting 0%. Some of the others I looked at only lasted 5 -7 days so it is doing better than that already. The app is user friendly with a nice dashboard that shows the general stuff at a glance. the step counter is not accurate. I noticed this straight away my phone shows more steps even though I haven’t had it with me all the time. I read up on the forums and this seems to be an issue many others have reported. Bit annoying. I’ve just set a lower daily target. I use the silent alarm to wake up now which is a much nice way to wake up. Can also set it up for phone/text/whatsapp/outlook notifications which is really handy. In general I’m happy with it bu disappointed the step counter is not accurate.
I bought this to replace my rapidly fading Chare 3 Fitbit which I had had for just on 3 years. That was my 3rd or 4th Fitbit and will be my last.
I decided on the Withings Steel because I wanted an analogue face that I can see while out and about – the Fitbit had a screen I could not see in full daylight and without my reading glasses.
The product arrived promptly – just as the Fitbit completely gave up the ghost. and I immediately set about downloading the app and charging it. The charger is far superior to the Fitbit charger – basically lie the watch down on the charger and it starts to charge – no fiddling around with small connectors to get the right fit. Within an hour it was fully charged and ready to use.
Setting up the app was simple, and it started recording the relevant stats immediately.
That was 2 weeks and 3 days ago and today is the first time that I have charged the device again and it was still at 22% when I put it on charge – again, only an hour to be fully charged.
The straps are a bit on the expensive side, but a quick look through Amazon has brought up some attractive and affordable straps which I will purchase in due course.
All in all, I am very pleased with my purchase – and it was a whole lot cheaper than a Fitbit with the same features. I purchased the all black model as it was 80 odd cheaper than the white or blue one, but as I wear a lot of black. that is not an issue.
Highly recommended.
TLDR;
DON’t get this for accurate exercise and heart rate tracking,
DO get this as a less annoying+stylish version of a pure smart watch and upgrade to your analogue watch
Build
The watch itself is very stylish in the black and silver I got (36mm). I have fairly small wrists for a man so don’t quite like giant watches and the thicker form factor of some full smart watches. The watch also takes the very common spring catch straps so loads of opportunities for styling it. I have also found the face to be very durable having dropped it a fair few times on indoor surfaces, mostly wood flooring.
Comfort
Very comfortable to wear and not too heavy. I found the silicon strap with the watch was a bit stiff and also irritated my skin. Loads of options to swap out though so keep this in mind in your price calculations
Features
There is the usual sleep and steps as well as combining GPS with the app on your phone. There are handy tools like stop watch and timer and vibration alarm too that the Pop did not have. All of these I think work accurately enough and am happy overall with these. The heart rate tracking however is pretty terrible. It has dedicated exercise modes that track your heart rate in real time and consistently the heart rate during exercise will be halved. It feels like this might be a straight up hard wear issue and perhaps a combination between my wrists and the type of sensors this watch uses but my veins are pretty popping during exercise so I’m a bit unsure if it’s me. I’ve seen some youtube reviews of this watch and realise that this is a common problem and in fact is also the same in that the heart rate is halved – cycling on a spin bike generating 400 watts and it things you are awake and resting at 70 to 80 bpm when in fact you’re at 150 to 160 bpm and collecting an ocean of sweat under you! At resting however it does appear to be quite accurate but considering I got this for exercise it does undermine the very reason I got it.
App
Healthmate is pretty streamlined I’d say and quite clear. I have however been using it for 7 years so I might also just be used to it. It does update frequently and permissions have to be re enabled so you can end up missing layers of information from workouts which can be annoying. The app can also be linked into Google Fit and Samsung Health which makes it quite cross compatible.
Battery
Lasts me about 10 days with tracking about 7 hours of physical activity which is excellent in my book. Beats having to charge something every other day.
But that aside, i love the size of it – I have really tiny wrists and hands and hate anything bulky, but this doesn’t look huge. And I love that it looks like a normal watch but has all the extra features, and that I don’t have to charge it every few days. I like being able to see the percentage toward my daily steps goal without having to press a button – it’s a really clear and visual representation of how far I have to go and I find that pretty motivating.
I couldn’t be happier with this product! Firstly, I couldn’t believe how quickly the product arrived, especially considering the disruption caused by COVID 19. The product was dispatched safely and promptly. I chose this seller as there was a quicker delivery time and I wanted to start keeping better track of my fitness during isolation, so I was thrilled when it arrived earlier than the expected delivery time.
The watch itself is brilliant! I’ve been considering a smart watch for a few months, but always been put off by how sporty and bulky most smart watches are. This watch looks amazing, it’s small and classy looking. The strap is actually rubber which I hadn’t realised in the pictures, but it looks very smart and is extremely comfy to wear all day. The small black screen is discrete but very easy to read. It’s easy to toggle through the time/date, heart rate, steps, distance travelled and calories burned, as well as set an activity time. There is a wide range of activities to select from on the watch and more on the health app. The app has been great for tracking my fitness and logging activities, it’s really helped motivate me to do more which was my hope purchasing the product. I didn’t want anything too complex and the app again is easy to use and sync to other apps (such as Strava). It’s possible to sync it to your phone, I have it set up to notify me of phone calls but nothing else as I didn’t want anything too intrusive. Steps match my boyfriend’s count (using a Garmin sports watch) and everything seems accurate.
Couldn’t recommend highly enough! I love this watch. Anyone considering whether now is the best time to get a watch during isolation, it has really helped me to get motivated and stay active. One way to add some control back into my life!
Size: the Steel HR is a very slender and compact watch well suited to a small to medium adult wrist. The fit is very comfortable but I will probably swapo the silicone strap for a more formal alternative.
Activity monitor: the step counter seems about as accurate as the Fitbit and is certainly good enough to differentiate active from inactive days. It recognises different activities well and monitors sleep well enough to pick a good from a bad night’s sleep. The heart rate monitor jumps around a bit and I’m not convinced it’s particularly accurate, but I found a similar experience with Fitbit and other smartwatches. The analogue progress dial on the face is a useful touch.
On screen display: the digital display is small and monochrome, but very clear in most conditions. It is near impossible to read in bright daylight. The data displayed is easy to customise but for some reason the data and time are on the same display and the date screen swaps out too quickly; I hope that this is improved through software as it would be helpful to have the date as a single viewable item.
Smartwatch: Connectivity to android phone is reliable and steady, way better than the Fitbit which really struggled to connect to my Note 9 or Motorola Play 2. Notifications work well with all the apps I’ve tried and it’s easy to choose which you want to get to your wrist. Notifications must be set up via the connected phone but can be disabled and enabled as a whole on the watch.
Battery life: this was my primary reason for switching to a hybrid from a pure smartwatch. My Fitibit Ionic struggled to last two days without a charge. It’s still early days with the Steel HR but so far it’s lasted a week and has 28% left from a full charge. On the basis of initial use, I wouldn’t risk a two week holiday without a charger, but a week seems very safe even allowing for about an hour a day of recorded exercise, two daily alarms and notifications on. I’ll update the battery life impressions over time.
Other issues: there are three alarms that can be one off, or repeated daily or weekly to pretty much any pattern. It would be nice to be able to set more alarms, but not a big issue. The alarms need to be set via phone but can be disabled and enabled on the watch. It would be nice to have watch hand tips that glowed at night and a stopwatch or countdown timer function but I can live without them.
All in all an excellent device that looks good, works well and comfortably survives with a weekly charge.