Unboxing, setup, and first use of Withings Steel HR Sport watch

The Withings Steel HR Sport watch arrived a day earlier than promised! It took 5 days total, 3 business days. If I had ordered on Monday morning, instead of a Friday evening, it probably would have taken only 2 days to arrive.

Unboxing: 

Yeah, it was a nice box. Nice graphics and functional design without superfluous or annoying wrapping tapes or wires. I get that unboxing is an aesthetic experience, but a part of me thinks I would have been just fine with simpler paper packaging, which I would have been content to recycle immediately. The box was too nice to just toss.

I had read and watched several reviews of the watch, as well as viewed ads for it. It looked exactly as advertised. The case is slate gray (not black) with a matte finish (not shiny). The crystal is highly reflective. The gray numbers on the black dial are subtle, but do make it easier to read at a glance. Although I liked the white face of my old watch and how easy it was to read, I opted for the stealthy black face on the new watch. I like it and it is nice to have the digital display be unobtrusive. It is very noticeable on the white face Withings watches.

The 40 mm watch is bigger than the Swiss Army watch I had been wearing. It is about the same size as my Apple Watch. It doesn't feel heavy.

Withings was running a promotion when I ordered, so I got a second band for free. I had ordered a leather one. As promised, it arrived in the package with the watch, but in a box of its own.

Comparison of Swiss Army watch to Withings Steel HR Sport watch

Setup:

The bands- The watch came with the standard ventilated black and gray silicone band attached. The silicone band had a nice feel to it and was very supple. It looked less plastic than I had anticipated; it looked nice actually and felt like it might be comfortable. It was really long though. I took the silicone band off and snapped on the leather one. It was very easy to do. Easy enough, in fact, that I could swap bands, if I were planning a swim workout. The leather band was a nice quality multiple-layer leather band with black top stitching and a light tan inner surface stamped with the Withings brand. The buckle was a slate gray that matched the watch case. The leather was extremely stiff and challenging to put on at first. As is typical of a leather band, it got easier each time I took it on and off.   

The battery- The watch was not running when I opened the box. Once I activated it using the app, the battery was at 70%, enough to run through the install process without having to stop to charge it.

Installation- I had previously downloaded the user guide and looked through it to help me make my decision about which watch to buy. Installation was as described there. Finding the device, pairing with bluetooth, setting the time, setting goals, etc. all went flawlessly on the first try. The installation included downloading the latest firmware/software. That step in the process took 3 minutes. The whole process took about 10 minutes, because I was in no hurry and looked at all the options. 

Charging- The online support guide says that the minimum power adapter that will charge the watch is 60 mA. I used a basic 5 watt 5 volt 1000 mA iPhone power adapter. It charged the watch from 68% to 100% in 20 minutes. Neither the watch nor the adapter got warm. It is worth noting that the watch fits in the charger only one way. It is not simply a matter of placing the watch on the charger; it has a specific orientation. The watch’s case stems and button must fit in the cut-outs on the charger. As others have noted, the contact pins will not hold the watch on the charger; they are simply there to make contact between the watch and the charger. The charger does have a non-slip base, so it does not slide around.

First use:

Indoors, the reflective surface of the watch face captured every light and shadow. It took a bit of practice to ignore seeing my face in the crystal and to focus on the time, but after a few minutes both the analog face and digital display were easy to read.

Outdoors in the bright sunlight the analog dial was super easy to read - with or without sunglasses! The digital dial was barely visible in sunlight, but was easy to read in the shade, even with sunglasses. In a completely dark closet the watch was invisible, but the digital display was bright and easy to read.

I walked around a bit and used the heart rate a bit and it seemed to be working just fine. The watch and the app updated with steps, distance, calories, heart rate, etc. Data summaries are also available and data are evidently stored at the Withings’ cloud site. 

So far...

I am delighted.

Congruence with advertising, quality of materials, ease of setup, ease of use, and customization were all top-notch. Value for the price is excellent; it has the functions I wanted and taking it from box to first-use was hassle-free.