Most of the time, it is successful better than its successor, the Fitbit Sense 2. Although it’s unfortunate that many of the stress-management tools are only accessible to Fitbit Premium subscribers, the Sense offers a six-month free trial, so you can still benefit greatly from them even if you decide not to continue with the subscription after that. One of the priciest and most advanced android smartwatches offered by the company is the Fitbit Sense. It was the first Fitbit to offer electrocardiogram (ECG) heart rhythm monitoring and electrodermal (EDA) stress monitoring. The gadget also monitors your exercise, stress levels, sleep, menstrual cycles, and a whole lot more. You might be uncertain about the Sense’s value, though. Fitness trackers convert your daily routine into numerical data, providing you with a bird’s-eye view of your fitness and health routine. To set goals and monitor progress, use these insights. Finding a device that tracks the metrics you care about at a price you can afford is crucial, though.
Fitbit Sense review: Design
The Fitbit Sense has significantly improved hardware over the Fitbit Versa 2, and it has a few more sensors than the Versa 3. Most of the materials are the same, but almost everything else is more sophisticated. The Versa 3’s aluminum and stainless steel case is virtually identical to it. Despite having a similar appearance to the Versa 2, it feels much more sturdy. Think of the build quality of an Apple Watch. It has a slightly rounded 1.58-inch AMOLED panel compared to the Versa 2’s. A nice screen, indeed. It has good viewing angles and is sufficiently bright outside in the sun. The display is still surrounded by a large bezel, but it is noticeably smaller than the bezels on earlier Fitbit watches. An inductive button, like the ones on the Fitbit Charge 4 and Charge 5, has taken the place of the case’s physical button on the left side. It no longer serves as a back button, but as a home button. Inductive buttons are a good idea in theory, but they don’t work well in reality. This one can occasionally be unresponsive. It’s a little too low on the case, so I’ve repeatedly ended up pinching my wrist. As a result, I’ve simply grown accustomed to swiping backwards rather than using the home button.
Interface and controls
This isn’t the smartwatch for you if you’re looking to check your bank balances, manage all of your smart home devices, and make untethered phone calls. There are some third-party apps for Starbucks, Uber, Yelp, Walgreens, United Airlines, Strava, and a few other services in Fitbit’s smartwatch app store, which is far from as extensive as Apple’s. MapMyRun won’t be available on the Sense because Fitbit probably wants you to use its run-tracking instead. Playlists from Spotify and Deezer can be stored on the Fitbit Sense so you can play music directly from the watch. While Spotify can be controlled from the watch, you cannot download music to the watch directly from the service. We hope this changes soon, especially since Spotify is one of the biggest music streaming services. Users of the Sense can also make hands-free Bluetooth calls using the built-in mic and speakers, send incoming calls to voicemail, and adjust the volume without having to reach for their phone.
Fitbit Sense review: Display
A small touch-sensitive button on the left side of the case, which is made of stainless steel and gives the sense a premium appearance, can be configured to provide quick access to your most frequently used apps. A single press launches one app (Alexa by default), while a double press shows four shortcuts to additional apps. This was especially helpful for quickly starting an EDA scan and accessing our favorite workouts without having to scroll through the watch’s menus. Bright, clear, and responsive describe the Gorilla Glass-encased colour display. A variety of settings are accessible by swiping to the right, including do-not-disturb mode, screen brightness, volume, and sleep mode, which turns off vibrations and dims the screen. You can customize the shade that displays your notifications by swiping down from any screen. This shade is part of the Fitbit app.
Tracking
The Sense’s sleep tracking was erratic the first few nights wore it, sometimes recording that didn’t fall asleep until 2:30 in the morning and other nights splitting my sleep into two parts. You can edit your sleep logs after the fact, but you won’t receive a sleep score if you do. After changing the sensitivity from Normal to Sensitive, the Sense was able to accurately record one night. The Sense believed we slept for only two hours the second night, which was a bad sleep night for me. When it functions, you are given a score for your overall sleep, with a score closer to 100 being better, along with information about your heart rate and estimated oxygen variation. The Fitbit app also displays how much time you spent in REM, deep, and light sleep. The new Fitbit Health Metrics dashboard provides more comprehensive information on trends over time, tracking breathing rate, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, SpO2 levels, and skin temperature variation.
Fitbit Sense review: Other features
Despite its small size, the Fitbit Sense has a slew of sensors and gizmos under the hood. Fitbit Pay, as you’d expect from a modern smartwatch, allows you to pay without a wallet, while all data is relayed to your phone via the Fitbit app for iOS or Android. Both Alexa and Google Assistant are also available as options. At its most basic, it will track your steps, distance walked, and calorie count by default, providing you with a “at a glance” view of your goals throughout the day, as well as sleep tracking. You won’t need to charge it overnight, unlike the Apple Watch Series 7, so you can benefit from sleep-tracking insights. This is due to its six-day battery life, though you’ll see less of a return on a single charge if you prod the device frequently and run ECGs and other tests. It’s also waterproof up to a depth of 50 metres, and offers blood oxygen measurements. So far, so Fitbit, but the Sense can now provide an ECG to assess atrial fibrillation, allowing you to receive high and low heart rate notifications.
Fitbit Sense review: Battery life
The Sense met the two-day battery life claim with the always-on display turned on, two 30-minute workouts, a few stress measurements, and a full night of sleep tracking. Turning off the always-on display and only using raise to wake increased the battery life to about 4.5 days between charges. However, outdoor workouts appear to be a strain on the battery. Lexy noticed the battery had dropped to nearly 50% after a particularly strenuous 2.5-hour outdoor bike ride. If you are actively using GPS and have the screen set to “always-on,” you will get about 12 hours of battery life. If you turn off GPS and set the screen to “auto-wake,” you can get up to six days out of the battery. To charge the watch, a proprietary magnetic USB charging disc snaps onto the back of the device. It takes less than two hours to fully charge the watch.
Price and Configurations options
The Fitbit Sense, which costs around $209, is a bit pricey. Yes, it is reasonably priced in comparison to other fitness trackers. A nice smartwatch will set you back $100, and a really nice one will set you back $500 or more. However, $209 is a large sum of money. And, prior to this test, it was more than it would have paid for a fitness tracker. However, after weeks of using the smartwatch, we believe the Fitbit Sense represents some of the best value available. It has top-tier features that you won’t find on a more affordable fitness tracker, and it isn’t weighed down by expensive features you don’t really need. Its not enough of an athlete to spend $500+ on a fitness tracker. But rather spend $200-$300 on the Fitbit Sense than spend $100 on a smartwatch that can’t monitor my heart rate or track my sleep at night. These premium features are what made me fall in love with the Fitbit Sense and they make the smartwatch worth the investment..
Final Words
If you’re looking for a complete offering of health monitoring options, the Fitbit Sense is a good fit. The health reports and pattern tracking features of Fitbit Premium can be helpful for tracking your heart rate, monitoring your oxygen levels, and enhancing your sleep cycles. The Fitbit Sense is an all-around device that keeps you in touch with your body while still looking chic and fashionable on your wrist. The Fitbit Sense might be for you if you want to up your fitness game or if you’re simply taking your health and overall wellness more seriously.
