The Review of the Fitbit Sense Smartwatch
This Fitbit Sense review gives well detailed information about the Fitbit Sense Smartwatch. The Fitbit brand has been in existence since 2007 and are known for producing health and fitness devices. Their products are either worn on clothes or on the wrist, and are designed to keep track of sleep rate, walking steps and so on.
The brand is owned by Google and has its headquarters in San Francisco and California. However, their products and customers hail from different parts of the world.
This Fitbit Sense Smartwatch is one of their exceptional products. The sleek smartwatch was released towards the end of September in the year 2020.
Being the most recent model from the brand, the smartwatch has a number of improved and innovative developments that are mouth watering.
With this Fitbit Sense, you are guaranteed a fitness tracker that monitors your heart health, acceleration, stress levels and even down to your body temperature and lots more!
For first time premium users, when you purchase the Fitbit Sense, you get a free 6 months premium trial. Subsequently, you only get to pay a token.
You definitely have it all in this modern Smartwatch!
Pros
- Sleek edge design
- Heart rate and stress monitoring features
- Voice assistant supportive
- Fast charging battery
- Large image resolution
Cons
- Inaccurate step counts
- Quite expensive
The Guide to Buying the Best Quality Smartwatches
The Fitbit Sense is basically a fitness centered smartwatch. With the Fitbit Sense, you can keep track of the number of steps you take per day. You also get to closely monitor your sleep quality and rate, heart rate and stress levels.
Asides these, it comes with a GPS tracker and a sensor to monitor your body temperature.
In fact, it is a core smartwatch for your health needs. If you are a hard core health person, you would appreciate the Fitbit Sense more.
Another amazing feature of the Fitbit Sense is its fast charging battery. The problem of charging a smartwatch for hours before use is a thing of the past with the Sense.
As fast as it charges, it can also last you a couple of days before the need to recharge. In other words, you would concur that the watch makes life really easy and convenient for you.
The use of smartwatches today have gone beyond the fashion or a show of wealth by the more privileged. There are a range of companies that produce smartwatches today, some smartwatches are even regarded as phone accessories.
With the flocking of smartwatches all over marketplaces, it is now a tid tad chore to choose the best out of them.
To help ease this stress and help you channel your hunt for a good smartwatch to the right sources, we have put up this section before going to the Fitbit Sense review.
This section is solely based on the key things you should look out for before choosing any smartwatch.
Compatibility
Certainly, you wouldn’t want to get your smartwatch home before realizing that it can not work with your phone. It renders it entirely useless for you.
Well, that is why you must know the operating system of any smartwatch you’re eyeing. Fitbit smartwatches have their own operating system, most other smartwatches run on Google Android Wear Operating system and then the Apple watches of course, run on Apple Watch Operating system.
The need to choose a smartwatch that is compatible with your phone is for you to be able to enjoy all the features that the smartwatch offers. Like previously stated, some smartwatches can be regarded as phone accessories because they need to have a connection with your phone either via Bluetooth or WiFi for full optimization or efficiency.
Brand
If you’re just buying a smartwatch for the first time, you probably may not know which one is better than the other.
As a greenie in the smartwatch world, a good factor that would keep you safe in your selection, is your choice of brand.
It is better to stick with known and trusted brands such that you are sure that even if you get the least of their products, you’re still good to go.
Such amazing brands that make smartwatches are Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, Fitbit and so on.
As a matter of fact, if you just limit your search to these brands, you would be overwhelmed with the available options for you.
Other good brands that make good products exist as well, there is no general best brand. It is rather a relative thing, so it depends on your preference.
Budget
There are a range of good smartwatches out there. Some are high end, some are averagely priced while some are very cheap.
In some cases, you may realize that some average smartwatches offer the exact same or close to features of other high end smartwatches.
Sometimes, it is because the brand has already made its name and sells for a more expensive price.
However, it all depends on your pocket size. There are smartwatches for every budget type. Though, you must know that most times, the more the price, the more features you get from the watch.
If you want a very basic smartwatch, there are a ton of options to choose from and if you want the very classy ones, you do know where to get them!
On an average, you don’t have to break a bank to get a good smartwatch.
Features
You just don’t go to buy the same smartwatch your friend got because you think it’s beautiful. That would be making a very big mistake.
Smartwatches are designed to meet the needs of different people. Some have basically sport features, some are designed with majorly health features. Similarly, you get some with a mixture of health, sport and other smart physical features like texting, chatting, calling and so on.
The point is, before choosing a smartwatch, be sure it meets the needs you have. If you are a sports person, choose a sports smartwatch, and if you are a health core person, choose a fitness smartwatch.
Or better still, make a list of the features you want in your smartwatch and then look for one that can offer if not all, most of the features you want.
Design
Here’s another important feature to look out for in any smartwatch. When we talk about style, we refer to the shape of the watch, the size of the watch and the strap of the watch. It is not limited to these however.
Newer models of smartwatches come of super slim and sleek sizes. This gives you a classy and sophisticated look. The bigger sized smartwatches on the contrary, offer a wide watch face making operation easy and quickly accessible.
About the straps, there can either be metallic, silicon or leather straps. The choice still depends on your preference.
Our recommendation however, is that if you are getting a smartwatch for mundane outings, you can get a metallic strapped one, since they look more classy.
However if you want a smartwatch as a companion for sports and gums, a silicon strapped one is your best bet!
In general, there is no best design, you know what you want, and don’t hesitate to go for it!
Battery life
The battery life of a smartwatch is like the first thing that everyone who wants to get a smartwatch looks out for before purchasing.
Indeed, it’s very important!
The battery capacity of smartwatches are usually measured in milliAmps (mAh). On an average, you should get a smartwatch with no less than 200mAh.
That battery capacity should last at least a week with health or sports features activated.
Nonetheless, you must know that the more the features of the smartwatch, the lesser the days it can serve per single charge.
Another important factor to consider is the charging time of the watch. Choose a smartwatch that charges really fast. One reason you can’t let go of the Fitbit Sense.
Warranty
Just as you would check for the warranty when purchasing other gadgets, it is necessary to do likewise with the smartwatch.
Opt for smartwatches that offer a manufacturer warranty of at least 6-12 months. With this, you are less troubled should the smartwatches go haywire all of a sudden.
The Specifications of the Fitbit Sense Smartwatch
| Display | AMOLED display. Gorilla glass screen cover which makes it bright and quickly responsive. Has image resolution of 336 x 336 mega pixels. |
| Strap | Sleek silicon detachable strap. |
| Screen size | Screen size of 1.58 by 1.58inches |
| Mode | Screen touch, side control button |
| Sensor | Stress, Sleep, ECG, SPO2 |
| Dimension | 1.59 x 1.59 x 0.49 inches |
| Battery | 6 days on optimal use on full charge, 12 hours with GPS on standby. Fast charging. |
| Weight | With the small band, 1.6 ounces, with the large band, 1.7 ounces. |
| Features available | Google assistant, GPS tracker, Microphone and speaker, Water resistance, Text supportive |
| Price in Ringgit Malaysia (RM) | RM1498 |
Detailed Review of the Features of Fitbit Sense Smartwatch
Design and Display
Anyone that sees the Fitbit Sense Smartwatch would definitely give kudos to it for it’s sleek and classy design. If you are familiar with the Fitbit series, you would see that the Fitbit Sense looks very similar to the Fitbit Versa 2, though more classy and finished.
The Fitbit Sense comes with a fine metallic, stainless steel case. Just that alone, is enough attention. Well, it doesn’t end there, by the side of the watch is an intuitive button that gives you access to the voice assistant in one press and access to your most used apps in 2 pushes.
With that aid of the button, you don’t have to keep scrolling through the faces of the watch to get to your commonly used apps, it gets you there in the blink of an eye!
The button is placed quite low to the case which makes it less obvious and more beautiful.
Still on the design of this Sense, it has fine silicon straps that come in an Apple like closure. The strap has two bands to accommodate all wrist sizes.
The first band can fit a wrist circumference between 5.5 – 7.1 while the second band fits wrist circumferences between 7.1 – 8.7.
The screen of the Fitbit Sense is covered with Gorilla glass which gives it a bright and quick responsive feature. Under direct sunlight, the watch has a nice angled and bright view.
The image resolution is similar to it’s preceding version, Fitbit Versa 3.
Through the app, you have a wealth of watch faces available to you that you can change anytime. The watch also allows you to save up to four of your favorite faces on it that you can toggle switch when you please.
Battery life
The Fitbit Sense adverts claims that it can last for 6 days on a single charge. No disputes about that, but to achieve this, you have to watch the features that you use.
With the GPS tracker always on, the always-on display turned on, overnight sleep track on, a few stress measurements and about an hour workout, the battery would not go beyond 2 days in a single charge.
However, if you switch the GPS tracker off and use the raise to wake display feature instead, you can enjoy your smartwatch without charging for about 5- 6 days.
Conclusively, we would say, the Fitbit Senses’ battery is fair, though not as good as previous Fitbit smartwatches.
Nonetheless, with the Fitbit Sense, they have improved the charger of their products, it comes with a magnetic charger that takes about 40 minutes to boost your watch battery by 80%.
Unique Features
Though quite similar to the Fitbit Versa 2 functionally, the Fitbit Sense comes with additional features such as the stress monitoring and ECG monitoring.
Though the Sense is not the first Smartwatch to have a stress monitoring feature, its mechanism of checking is quite different.
It uses electrodermal activity (EDA) sensors through skin contact and sends electrical charges to the skin and measures how they interact with the skin’s sweat level.
Not to bore you with all the science stuff, let’s talk about how it is measured.
You open the EDA scan app on the Sense, place the plan of your other hand on the watch and wait for a vibration that indicates that the scan is completed. It takes approximately 2 minutes to complete the scan.
You can check the readings through the Fitbit App on your smartphone.
As expected in a health fitness tracker, the Sense comes with ECG monitoring sensors though it is not available in all locations, it is being released in bits. When it is released to your location, once you refresh the Fitbit App on your phone, you can have the feature available to you.
The ECG feature is able to be Atrial fibrillation and notifies you when there is any.
You may need to see some videos to guide you on how to access this feature.
Check out this YouTube video for more clarifications
Furthermore, the Sense comes with SPO2 trackers. These take measurements of your blood oxygen levels, however, they only work at night.
Similarly, the temperature monitoring feature works at night.
For the first three nights, it monitors it and gives a baseline data of your body temperature.
This helps it to identify when you’re most likely having an infection and it notifies you.
Another amazing function that you get to enjoy with the Sense is its Menstrual tracking. You are allowed to log your PMT through the App and it is able to predict your most fertile periods.
Performance and Software
The Fitbit Sense offers a lot of amazing features as expected in a high end smartwatch. In fact, the Sense meets most or all of the requirements required by fitness smartwatch users.
However, to be able to merit or enjoy these features, you must have and connect the Fitbit App to the watch.
The App allows you to explore and get the most out of your smartwatch.
For first time premium users, the Sense comes with a free Premium trial for 6 months.
After which, you may choose to subscribe for a continual useage or not.
Connectivity and Compatibility
The Fitbit Sense is compatible with most devices so you may not encounter any problem.
The Fitbit App can run conveniently on Apple devices of Operating System version 12.2 and above. Or Android devices with 7.0 Operating System versions or higher.
Like you already know, Fitbit watches work with the Fitbit App. This does not necessarily mean that, without the App on your smartphone, the watch is useless. No, however, to be able to enjoy all the benefits and features that come with the Sense, you have to use it alongside the App.
Fitness
The Fitbit Sense not only checks your mental health, it is a go to for physical exercise monitoring.
The incorporation of the GPS tracker and the heart rate monitor, you know that it does not lag in the fitness functions.
It has a pedometer and accelerometer. By this it means, it can tell you how many floors you climbed in a day, the number of foot steps you took.
The Sense can also pick, riding, running golfing, swimming, yoga and a lot more exercises.
There’s really nothing you don’t get with the Fitbit Sense.
Warranty
Most of all Fitbit series come with a one year warranty. Though the process many vary with your location and where you bought your Fitbit product from.
You can get a better clarification from the official Fitbit return and warranty policy website.
Other Unique Features of the Fitbit Sense
Asides the more than enough features that the Fitbit Sense offers we have discussed, there are a lot more to get from the classy watch.
The Sense offers voice assistance through Alexa. Asides asking it to perform some functions, you can dictate texts to it while it types and sends to the recipient.
Furthermore, you get to receive text and call notifications through the watch and make calls with it as well, thanks to the microphone.
In addition, the Fitbit Sense is water resistant up to 50m which makes it suitable for swimming in seas and pools.
Pros
- Stress monitoring
- Sleek design
- Lightweight
- Water resistant
- GPS tracker
Cons
- No music storage
- Fair battery life
- Need for a particular watch face for SPO2 functioning
Our Top Pick Alternative Smartwatch Options to Consider
Still are not satisfied with the Fitbit Sense, check out these other smartwatches.
Apple Watch Series 6
For lovers of the Apple series, this is the Apple Watch series 6. The watch has similar features compared to the Fitbit Sense. It measures body oxygen levels, tracks sleep and has a GPS tracker too.
The Apple series 6 is also water resistant to a level. Amazingly, it can detect when you fall hard on the ground and it automatically calls the emergency number.
Thanks to the microphone it has, you can speak to the emergency line through your wrist and get yourself to safety first.
However, you must set these features in place beforehand and your phone must be within reach.
The missing thing in this smartwatch that is found in the Fitbit Sense is the stress monitoring feature. Plus, it is way more expensive than the Sense, it sells for about RM1899, whereas the Fitbit Sense goes for less than RM1500.
Smart watch Bluetooth with Fitness Tracker
In terms of price, the Smart watch Bluetooth with Fitness Tracker is nowhere compared to the Fitbit Sense Smartwatch.
If you’re looking for a basic smartwatch within a budget of less than RM100, this is your best bet.
Though selling for a cheap price, the fitness tracker has basic features you can get in a smartwatch.
The smartwatch has a battery capacity of 200mAh, which can last for up to 14 days in a single charge.
Just like the Fitbit Sense, it has a microphone that aids the receiving of phone calls.
On the contrary, the image resolution of the fitness tracker is smaller than the Fitbit Sense, also, it only comes with a month warranty period and nothing more.
It is water resistant and is Android phone compatible.
In general, the smartwatch offers great features for its price!
Fossil Gen 5 Julianna
The Fossil Gen 5 is quite different from whatever smartwatches we have described in this article.
If you’re getting a smartwatch to wear around for fashion, here’s our recommended one.
The Fossil Gen 5 comes with a metallic, stainless steel strap. It supports texts and phone calls.
Unlike the Fitbit Sense, it has enough storage space for music and other things.
The Gen 5 offers two years unlimited warranty and is compatible with both Android and iPhones.
For Androids, it supports an Operating System version of 4.4 and above and an Operating System version of 9.3 and above for iPhones.
The battery of the Fossil Gen 5 can last for as long as you want it to with it’s 3 mode smart battery modes.
It is an average smartwatch costing RM1079.
In summary,
- If you are a fan of the Apple brand, and would not mind sacrificing the stress monitoring feature of the Fitbit Sense for it, you can go for the Apple Watch Series 6.
- If you just need a basic smartwatch within budget that can perform smart functions, the Smart watch with Bluetooth Fitness Tracker is your best bet!
- Not a sporty person? Just need a smartwatch as part of your dressing accessories with basic smart functions, choose our Fossil Gen 5 Julianna watch.
If you like any of our recommended alternative smartwatches, feel free to check the smartwatch review for them on our website.
The Fitbit Sense Smartwatch is your go to for both health and fitness features. It offers basically all that there can be for a smartwatch to do.
It is a great smartwatch for its price. Check out more details about the Fitbit Sense on the official website.
