Key Points
- The Fitbit Sense is a fitness tracker watch.
- Not only does it track your steps, but it tracks your other work outs plus your heart rate. It also has other features such as music control.
- You can pick up a Fitbit Sense for around $170 USD.
The Fitbit Sense is a fitness tracker watch that does more than track your steps. It has a heart rate monitor and GPS and can even track your stress levels.
It has many features that are great for people looking to get in shape or who want to track their fitness progress. Without a doubt, there is room for improvement, especially on the software side, but Sense is a great health tracker overall.
This guide will go over the Fitbit Sense, its features, and what you should know before you buy one.
Best Deal Today
The Fitbit Sense is considered one of the most expensive fitness trackers on the market, so it is essential to find the best deal before purchasing. Here’s where you’ll find the best deals:
- Fitbit – Sense (Best Buy) – $179
- Fitbit - Sense (Amazon) – $170
- EDA Scan app detects electrodermal activity which may indicate your body's response to stress and a built-in skin temperature sensor logs yours each night so you can see when it varies.Band Size :...
- Assess your heart for atrial fibrillation –a heart rhythm irregularity- and easily share results with your doctor (The Fitbit ECG app is only available in select countries. Not intended for use by...
- An on-wrist skin temperature sensor tracks yours each night so you can see how it varies. You can also see your nightly blood oxygen levels at a glance with our collection of clock faces.Maximum...
- High & low heart rate notifications alert you if yours seems above or below your average
- Battery lasts 6 plus days plus, fast charging gives you a full day’s charge in just 12 minutes (Varies with use and other factors; up to 12 hours with continuous GPS)
Sense Overview
When deciding to buy such an expensive watch, knowing all the features offered on the device is essential. The following is an overview of what the Fitbit Sense has to offer.
Release Date and Price
The Fitbit Sense was released on August 25th, 2020, and retails for $299.95 in the US and £299.99 in the UK. However, there are some discounts and deals available that can bring the price down.
Different Models
Till now, there are no different models of the Fitbit Sense. Nevertheless, the device is available in three different colors: Carbon/Graphite, Sage Grey/Silver, and White/Gold.
Features
- The ability to track heart rate, steps taken, and calories burned.
- EDA sensor that can track stress levels.
- A skin temperature sensor can help people understand their body’s response to heat and cold.
- Waterproof so that you can wear it while showering or swimming.
- A Sleep tracking feature helps people understand their sleep patterns and get a better night’s sleep.
- A built-in GPS to track map routes and distance traveled.
- It can last up to 6 days on a single charge, with a fast charge feature that gives the device a full day’s worth of battery life in just 12 minutes.
- Mic and speaker to take calls.
- It has a premium design, stainless steel ring, and gorilla glass 3.
- A speech-to-text feature enables you to respond to WhatsApp or other messages using your voice.
- Find my phone feature that can help you locate your phone if lost.
Specifications
| Display | 1.58-inch touchscreen AMOLED 336 x 336 resolution 1,000 nits Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Case size | 40.5mm |
| Weight | 45.9g |
| Colors | Carbon/Graphite, Sage Grey/Silver, and White/Gold. |
| Battery | Smartwatch mode: 6+ days Lithium-polymer battery Charge time: (10-80%): ~40 minutes |
| Sensors and components | Electrical sensors compatible with ECG & EDA app Skin temperature sensor Optical heart rate sensor Built-in GPS + GLONASS Gyroscope Altimeter 3-axis accelerometer Ambient light sensor Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz) NFC Vibration motor Speaker Microphone |
| Memory | 4GB (2.5GB available for music storage) |
| Materials | Aluminum case, stainless steel ring for ECG |
| Water resistance | 5ATM |
| Notifications | Call, text, calendar, email, music control, and much more |
| Compatibility | Android, iOS |
©A. Aleksandravicius/Shutterstock.com
Fitbit Sense Review
Depending on our usage over the past few months, I put my hands on Fitbit Sense to see if it was worth the money. In this thorough review, I will evaluate all the features of the Fitbit Sense and show you how it can help you in your fitness journey.
EDA Scan App
The built-in electrodermal activity (EDA) Scan app uses the sensor to measure your skin conductance and detect your emotional state. You can use this app to track your mood over time or to see how your emotions change in response to different activities.
It works by measuring the electrical properties of your skin. When you sweat, your skin’s conductivity changes. The EDA sensor can detect these changes and translate them into an emotional state.
However, the app is not perfect. Since the EDA can also be affected by physical activity, the app may not be able to accurately detect your emotional state if you are sweating from exercise.
To run a scan, select the EDA Scan tile from the app menu. The app will prompt you to place your palm over the watch’s sensor for two minutes. Once you’re all done, it asks you how you feel and gives you a graph of your current emotional state, which can be very calm, calm, neutral, stressed, or very stressed.
The app stores all this information so you can track your mood over time or observe how your emotions alter in response to certain activities.
You can find your stress monitoring falls under the ‘Mindfulness’ category in the app. This is where you can see how well you’ve been managing your stress and get some tips and advice on improving your stress levels.
The app gives you a stress score out of 100 based on your heart rate and skin conductance levels. The higher your score, the more stressed you are.
Honestly, there are several tools to manage your stress in the Fitbit app; however, most of these features require a subscription to Fitbit Premium, so you have to pay a monthly subscription after the free six months end.
A Fitbit Sense smartwatch, isolated on yellow background.
©A. Aleksandravicius/Shutterstock.com
ECG Scan App
One of the best features of this watch is its ability to take an ECG scan. This helps you stay on top of your health and alert users if they have atrial fibrillation, which needs professional attention soon enough!
Built-in Skin Temperature Sensor
The Fitbit Sense has a built-in skin temperature sensor that can track your temperature. The sensor is located on the back of the watch, and it can track your temperature at night while you sleep. This helps track fever or understand how your body temperature changes throughout the day.
After three nights, the app will give you a graph of your average skin temperature and how it fluctuates throughout the day. The graph only shows the variation of your skin temperature, not the actual temperature.
If you think about it, this is more useful since the temperature on your wrist might not represent your entire body temperature. Therefore, tracking the variation of your temperature is more accurate than the actual temperature.
Blood Oxygen Saturation Tracking
The Fitbit Sense has a built-in SpO2 sensor that can track how much oxygen your blood carries at night while you sleep. This helps understand how well your lungs are functioning and can also be used to track sleep apnea, a condition where your breathing is interrupted during sleep. This condition can cause you to wake up multiple times throughout the night and lead to daytime fatigue.
If you want to use this feature, you need to activate it manually in the settings. Doing so will affect your battery life since the sensor is always on and tracking your blood oxygen saturation.
Sleep Tracking
One of my unique features so far is sleep tracking. I am very particular about my sleep and like to track how many hours I am in deep versus light sleep. The watch will automatically track your sleep, giving you a detailed sleep report in the app.
The report includes how long you slept, how many times you woke up, and what stages of sleep you were in. The watch can also track your REM sleep, the stage of sleep where you dream, and this helps you understand how well you are sleeping.
Menstrual Tracking
The Fitbit app has a menstrual tracking feature that ladies can use to track their period, ovulation, and fertility. This could potentially help women prepare for their period or track their fertility.
Workout tracking
The Sense can track over 20 activities, including running, swimming, and yoga. However, several aspects of the exercise widget experience could be improved.
Unlike other watches that give you an option to set a pace alarm, the Sense just uses GPS to track your pace and doesn’t give you any alerts if you’re falling behind your goal.
Additionally, the activity mode takes up the whole screen while working out, which means there’s barely any room leftover where our favorite widgets would normally go; like heart rate monitor display, etc.
Up to Six Days Battery Life
The Fitbit Sense has a battery life of up to six days. This is impressive for a smartwatch, especially one with all of the Fitbit Sense features. However, features like the SpO2 sensor or the skin temperature sensor can reduce your battery life.
Like the versa 3, the Fitbit Sense comes with a quick charge cable that can give you a day’s worth of battery life in just 12 minutes.
In my opinion, Fitbit has made a considerable improvement when it comes to the charging cradle. The charging cradle is magnetic, so it quickly attaches to the back of the watch and is so simple to remove.
Built-in GPS
Another feature that the Fitbit Sense has is built-in GPS. This feature tracks your runs, walks, and bike rides without carrying your phone with you.
Once you have completed your exercise and open the exercise tab, you will see the exact route you took and a bunch of other information like the pace, distance, and time it took you to complete that route.
Built-in Mic and Speaker
Regarding features, the Fitbit Sense has everything you could want in a smartwatch. It has a built-in microphone and speaker so you can take calls, send texts, and use voice commands. This is helpful if you’re working out and don’t want to carry your phone with you, or maybe you are charging your phone and want to be able to take a call.
Music Apps Compatibility
The Fitbit Sense is compatible with popular music apps like Spotify, Pandora, and Deezer. This doesn’t mean you can play music directly from the watch, but you can control music playback from your phone.
Smartphone Notifications
While I always put my phone in silent mode when I am working, there are times when I need to be able to see who is calling or texting me. With the Fitbit Sense, you can see smartphone notifications on your wrist, including calls, texts, and app notifications. You can also customize which notifications you see on your watch, which is great if you only want to see the important notifications.
Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa
The Fitbit Sense also has Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built in. This means you can ask your watch questions, set alarms, and control your smart home devices with just your voice.
Water Resistant
If you’re looking for a smartwatch that you can take swimming, the Fitbit Sense is a great option. It’s water resistant to 50 meters, the same as the Apple Watch Series 5.
©A. Aleksandravicius/Shutterstock.com
Sense Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Detailed sleep tracking | High price |
| Battery life of up to six days | The Buttonless design requires practice |
| Quick charge feature | If you enable the display to be always on, battery life is halved |
| Built-in GPS and NFC | The free version of the app doesn’t include much. You need a premium account to get detailed data from the Fitbit Sense |
| Water-resistant | Band release latch can be accidentally triggered |
| Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa | The Fitbit app has some bugs |
| Sharp display | |
| Measures blood oxygen level | |
| 6-day battery life | |
| Various granular measurements, such as SpO2, heart rate variability, breath rate, skin temperature, and EDA, are included. |
Buy It If…
If you’re seeking a watch to assist you in keeping track of your health and are prepared to pay a high price and a monthly subscription for extra information, the Sense is an excellent gadget with lots of data.
Don’t Buy It If…
You’re not interested in a watch to monitor your health and would prefer one just for exercise, or if you want a budget-friendly watch, then the Fitbit Sense isn’t for you.
- EDA Scan app detects electrodermal activity which may indicate your body's response to stress and a built-in skin temperature sensor logs yours each night so you can see when it varies.Band Size :...
- Assess your heart for atrial fibrillation –a heart rhythm irregularity- and easily share results with your doctor (The Fitbit ECG app is only available in select countries. Not intended for use by...
- An on-wrist skin temperature sensor tracks yours each night so you can see how it varies. You can also see your nightly blood oxygen levels at a glance with our collection of clock faces.Maximum...
- High & low heart rate notifications alert you if yours seems above or below your average
- Battery lasts 6 plus days plus, fast charging gives you a full day’s charge in just 12 minutes (Varies with use and other factors; up to 12 hours with continuous GPS)
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The image featured at the top of this post is ©A. Aleksandravicius/Shutterstock.com.
