Garmin Descent G1 vs Withings ScanWatch 2
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: 2022
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: 2023
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Garmin Descent G1 is a robust dive computer and outdoor GPS smartwatch designed for recreational divers and active individuals, built for durability and reliable tracking. It offers precise tracking for dive-specific metrics, alongside comprehensive tracking for steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes. Its activity profiles cater to both underwater and topside sports, providing essential data for monitoring performance in various environments.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: The Withings ScanWatch 2 is a sophisticated hybrid smartwatch designed to seamlessly blend medical-grade health monitoring with elegant design and activity tracking. It accurately records steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes, providing insights into your daily movement alongside advanced health metrics. Its activity tracking supports various sports with a focus on overall wellness and fitness trends.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: This device provides continuous wrist-based heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, and detailed sleep analysis for insights into daily well-being and recovery. The integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, useful for assessing acclimatization at altitude and contributing to dive planning and safety.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: This device is a powerful health monitor, featuring continuous heart rate tracking, SpO2 measurement for blood oxygen levels, and an impressive ability to take on-demand ECG readings to detect signs of atrial fibrillation. A key feature is its ability to track body temperature variations and perform a respiratory scan during the night, offering comprehensive health insights from the wrist.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 offers strong battery life, providing up to 25 hours in dive mode and up to 14 days in smartwatch mode, ensuring sufficient power for multiple dives and consistent daily tracking without frequent recharging.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: The ScanWatch 2 boasts an exceptional battery life of up to 30 days on a single charge. This significantly longer duration compared to traditional smartwatches ensures uninterrupted health monitoring and activity tracking, making it ideal for users who prioritize longevity and consistent data collection.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Sleep tracking on the Descent G1 monitors sleep stages and provides valuable insights into sleep quality, contributing to a better understanding of recovery essential for both athletic performance and dive readiness.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: Advanced sleep tracking on the ScanWatch 2 provides detailed analysis of sleep stages (light, deep, and REM), sleep duration, and sleep quality. It incorporates SpO2 and body temperature data collected during the night to offer deeper insights into respiratory health during sleep and overall recovery, contributing to informed decisions about rest and training.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Descent G1 provides accurate outdoor activity tracking and basic mapping capabilities on the surface. This GPS functionality is also integrated into dive logging for recording entry and exit points, enhancing the utility for documenting dive locations.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: The Withings ScanWatch 2 does not have built-in GPS. It relies on a connected GPS feature, utilizing the GPS from a paired compatible smartphone to accurately track outdoor activities like walking and running, providing pace and distance data when your phone is with you.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 supports a variety of multisport and individual workout modes, including dedicated profiles for diving (single-gas, multi-gas, freediving), swimming, running, biking, hiking, and strength training, providing relevant metrics for each activity.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: The ScanWatch 2 supports multiple workout modes for tracking various physical activities such as walking, running, cycling, and swimming. It displays essential real-time statistics on the small digital display, offering a blend of analog watch style and digital tracking functionality.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities such as swimming, running, and cycling through its Move IQ feature, ensuring these basic movements are captured in your activity log alongside detailed dive data.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: The device includes automatic exercise recognition for common activities like walking and running, ensuring that these basic movements are captured in your activity log without requiring manual initiation, contributing to a complete record of daily physical activity.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization, dive log management, and smart notifications.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: The Withings ScanWatch 2 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth to the Withings (formerly Health Mate) app for seamless data synchronization and comprehensive health analysis.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central for topside activity and health tracking, while the Garmin Dive app is specifically designed for detailed dive log management, analysis, and sharing, providing a complete ecosystem for both fitness and diving data.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: Synchronization with the comprehensive Withings app is central to the ScanWatch 2 experience, providing a detailed dashboard for reviewing all collected health data, including ECG waveforms, SpO2 trends, temperature variations, and activity logs. The app offers insights and personalized coaching to help users understand their health metrics and make informed decisions.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Beyond its primary focus on diving and sports, the Descent G1 includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It also features essential utilities like a compass, barometric altimeter, and thermometer, valuable for outdoor navigation and environmental awareness.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: Beyond its primary focus on health monitoring and traditional watch design, the ScanWatch 2 provides essential smart notifications for calls, texts, and app alerts on its integrated digital display. It maintains a minimalist approach to smart features, prioritizing health functions.
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: With a robust water resistance rating to 100 meters (10 ATM) and built-in dive computer functionality, the Descent G1 is specifically designed for scuba diving, freediving, and other underwater activities, providing essential dive data and safety features for recreational use.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: With a water resistance rating of 50 meters (5 ATM), the ScanWatch 2 is suitable for swimming and showering, making it a durable companion for everyday wear and various water activities without concern for damage.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 features a sunlight-readable, monochrome display with good contrast, optimized for visibility in various lighting conditions, including underwater and bright sunlight. While not a color screen, it provides clear and easy-to-read data.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: The ScanWatch 2 features a traditional analog watch face with a small integrated grayscale OLED display. This digital screen is discreetly placed and provides clear, readable information for notifications, health metrics, and activity data when needed, balancing classic aesthetics with digital functionality.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The device utilizes a user-friendly interface with a combination of buttons, designed for easy navigation and access to features both on land and underwater, prioritizing reliable operation in challenging conditions over touchscreen complexity.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: The device offers a user-friendly interface controlled primarily through the crown and a physical button, complemented by the integrated digital display for navigating options and viewing data. The intuitive design and seamless syncing with the Withings app make managing health data straightforward.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 features a rugged and durable design built for the demands of outdoor activities and diving. It maintains a comfortable fit for all-day wear and dives, balancing robust construction with practical wearability.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: The Withings ScanWatch 2 features an elegant and comfortable design, closely resembling a traditional wristwatch with analog hands. It is made from premium materials and is designed for comfortable all-day and all-night wear, allowing for continuous health monitoring without the appearance of a bulky smartwatch.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor is a key feature, allowing for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels during sleep and at altitude, providing crucial data for assessing physiological status and contributing to dive safety considerations.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: An integrated SpO2 sensor is a key health feature, allowing for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels on demand and during sleep. This provides valuable data for assessing respiratory health and contributes to the device's advanced sleep analysis.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: It is important to note that the Garmin Descent G1 does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: A significant health capability of the ScanWatch 2 is its ability to take on-demand Electrocardiogram (ECG) readings. This allows users to check for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and share the results with healthcare professionals, offering valuable heart health monitoring.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress, contributing to overall well-being and focus, important for both athletic and diving performance.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: While not providing a specific "stress score," the ScanWatch 2 contributes to understanding stress through its continuous monitoring of heart rate variability (HRV) and sleep patterns, providing data within the app that can help users identify stress triggers and their impact on physiological state.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Body Battery energy monitoring feature provides insights into the body's energy reserves based on activity, stress, and sleep data, helping users understand their physiological readiness for training or the need for rest. This is a key feature for optimizing recovery, essential for demanding sports and diving activities.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: Recovery insights are provided through the Withings app based on analyzed sleep patterns, heart rate variability (HRV), and potentially body temperature data collected during the night. This helps users understand their body's readiness for activity and optimize rest and recovery periods.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all core features and data tracked by the Descent G1, including its dive computer functionalities and access to the Garmin Connect and Garmin Dive apps, are available without an additional subscription fee, providing comprehensive value for a capable and rugged dive-focused smartwatch.
2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: No subscription is required to access the core health features and data tracked by the ScanWatch 2, including ECG and SpO2 readings, through the Withings app. Premium features or deeper insights may be offered through optional services in the future, but essential functionality is free.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: $799.99
Check Garmin Descent G1 Price *2️⃣ Withings ScanWatch 2: $299.00
Check Withings ScanWatch 2 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you