The Fitbit sense, 2 is, by its name a sequel, but its like a sequel with different actors and with plot threads that dont really match the first one, which Im going to explain as we go along here, because theres there are things about this device that are Different from its predecessor, if youre following what Fitbit is doing these days, youll notice that there are some divergences. So, for example, the sense is more focused on health, whereas the Versa line is a little more focused on Fitness and working out. You can still do a lot of the same things with both watches, but where I think theyre, the biggest difference is not really between those two, its actually between the sense 2 and the previous sense. The reason why I say that is because of what is missing here, not so much what is here on paper. You look at the sense too and youre thinking. Okay, well, theres a lot there right I mean you have the ECG. It works right out of the box in Canada, especially no problem. If you get an Eda sensor, so you got skin temperature readings, no problem that works out of the box spo2 for blood oxygen. So you have the pulse oximeter in there, which is great. You also have a g you have built in GPS and youve got military grade protection which allows you to use this when youre swimming or going in any kind of water.
Did I miss anything there? No, I dont know that. I did oh wait. Thats right. All Those sensors that I mentioned give you things, like Stress, Management, scores, all kinds of other assessments. That kind of give you some insight into where youre at health wise all that is great. But there is one key element here that has to be mentioned, which is the fact that this is the sense. The previous sense came out at a time when Google had not acquired Fitbit, but now that Google has Fitbit under its umbrella. You notice that the software looks different. It looks very much like a pixel watch thats by design, of course, its not an accident, and it comes with some consequences, primarily what it is thats missing, which is, for example, some of those the third party apps theyre used to using in the sense or that You could previously use on other Fitbit. Smart watches are notably missing here. I love the Spotify integration, for example, that the previous sense had it worked really really well. Unfortunately, that is gone so is like, if youre a Starbucks fan and youre using that app to get your morning latte or whatever it was you were getting. You will not be able to do that with the watch either you can still pay. For it mind you, Google Wallet is integrated in the watch, but you cant use the Starbucks app to do it. I used to control my smart home lights like I have Philips Hue Lights with the watch as well.
Cant do that anymore either. Google Assistant nowhere to be found. Alexa is your only option for voice, essentially anything that you could do that was outside of fitbits. I guess auspices is missing its just gone and theres no guarantee that its going to be coming in, because Fitbit has been very non. Committal in saying whether or not third party apps are coming all theyve said so far. I inquired about this too. All theyve said: is that its just not there right now, if you were to ask me, I dont think its coming at all and the reason I say that is because the sense 2 in a sense is kind of competing with the pixel watch. Both are smart watches, but they have sort of singular focuses if you will like the pixel watch to me, as I noted in my review when I review that is kind of like an every person. Persons watch the sense to really hones in on that health and wellness element, and it does it pretty well. But again, there are caveats to that too. For example, if you want all the features that the sense 2 can give you, as far as like managing your stress learning more about you know your health and wellness, generally speaking, youre going to need a premium account. So youre gon na need youre going to subscribe to Fitbit premium and that way youll be able to get more of that info. Without the premium account you get very basic input.
You dont get much in the way of context, not that theres a ton of that anyway, but youre youre missing a lot of those extra things. That kind of plug in to give you a bit more of a holistic view of whats going on. So, on the one hand, youve got a watch that is missing third party apps and other Integrations, and on the other hand, it is also tied very heavily to a premium subscription that I think you need to go with if youre going to go with this watch. As well, the watch also doesnt have built in Wi Fi. So if I want to update it, I got to do it over Bluetooth tooth. I cant you know. Wi Fi was really good. I felt for music, especially for music, especially you know it just, but because I cant put any music on the watch. I cant really do anything with the Wi Fi either. I just wish that the Wi Fi would have been there more so for adding updates a lot faster than they generally do right now, through the Fitbit app, but again, since Fitbit has neutered the the sense too. In so many ways when it comes to all the ancillary things that you can do, I guess it shouldnt come as a surprise, so I had to then focus on the health and wellness side just to kind of see if the theres a justification here for using This watch primarily for those reasons now dont get me wrong.
You can still work out with this itll. Do all the other exercises theres 40 plus exercises. If youve seen a pixel watch, you will notice right away that the interface and the options are very very similar. If not exactly the same, so if you want to run, if you want to hike, you want to do yoga uh. Some kind of you know: training cross training whatever it is, those options are available and they work fairly well, with the tracking being pretty decent too. Now the GPS is a little finicky, its not quite as accurate as Id say, like Garmin watch is but thats not a surprise. Garmin is to me a leader in that in that category, but it would have been nice to see a little more accuracy that way. So if you are running – and you want to make sure that your route is being tracked, the right way, you might find that theres some deviations there. Now when it comes to health tracking. So there is something called a body response sensor here which is kind of collecting data from the other sensors and giving you a body response score kind of giving you an indication of whether youre ready for what it is that you have planned for the next day. Its pretty cool – and I like it – I mean its sort of a to me its not like an augmentation of the Stress Management score, so you can take.
Of course you can. You know sort of log in how youre feeling, which is good and bad in the sense that you theres no way for the watch to know how youre feeling, unless you tell it how youre feeling. But even then sometimes the context is missing. So you might be and might notice that hey youre, you know your heart rates. A little elevated more than usual is whats going on. Are you feeling calm? Are you feeling cool? Are you frustrated now you can tell the watch, but in some cases it doesnt know like it can read that you are that youre youre, I dont know something is spiking, but it doesnt tell you why that can lead to some confusion as to what the data Then tells you after I I feel like Fitbit – is going to probably uh streamline this in some way, so that it, the data, makes more sense, at least when you look at it empirically, but for now you it does require a lot of manual input in order For you to get the sort of holistic data youre looking for uh, I had no real issue with the health sensors. I mean the heart rate. Monitor is really good. The sleep tracking is excellent and I did appreciate the Stress Management score and things like that too. I feel like those are continually getting better, but then I run into the problem of well. Okay, all that is great, but what am I giving up to get all that I mean even the ECG is nice too, and it works quite well again.
This is not to replace a medical device, its more like a early warning system. If something is off, the watch gets sort of. You know you do a reading. Theyll watch them kind of tell you hey somethings off here. You can also see your spo2 readings if something is low, I mean, if youre below 95 and youre doing and its lower than that consistently, maybe somethings off too. So the watch in a sense like a lot of smart watches that have health features are, is like an early warning system, but again what Im? What Im puzzled by is why certain features that be related to that are also gone too, for example, even though theres a microphone on the sense too, it does not check for any snoring, so theres, no snoring detection, while youre sleeping, which was a really cool feature That was available in the previous watch and, for some reason is missing here why nobody knows Fitbit is insane. So if youre looking to wear this and looking to track kind of how youre snoring is you know if theres something? Are you snoring a lot if youre not at all, maybe theres an indication there that theres my, but you know a potential at least for sleep apnea? This watch is not really going to tell you that, because it doesnt listen for anything that youre doing while youre sleeping on the bright side. I will say that battery life is holds up pretty well, so by default, itll last for up to a week, thats, assuming that you leave the always on display off using GPS intermittently, you know youre youre, doing some basic exercise tracking things like that.
Now, if youre doing a more of that, then it starts to whittle down, I would say: youre if youre a really heavy user, you should be able to hit three days two for sure, but you should. You should be able to hit three days even with heavy usage, even if you you leave the always on display on, then you will probably get to about three or four days as well, if youre not exercising as much again a lot of variables its hard for Me to quantify every single instance, but I would say between three to seven days, based on what kind of usage youre youre going with right and how much uh the watch is actually on. So how much of the screen is actually on how much youre, using the sensors things like that, if youre using previous straps or bands from the first sense they will fit on this like a glove? It is using the same mechanism to lock in so you have. No problem there that also goes for the Versa, 3 and Versa 4. By the way. So, if youre kind of sort of crossing over thats, not a problem, you can bring the scraps with you and youre fine. So, in the end, what I recommend this watch – I dont know Im hesitant to and the reason why is well. Ive probably outlined some of the reasons already in this review, but primarily because its hard for me to determine who this is truly for.
I can see if youre interested in health and wellness, primarily, I can see there being some value there, especially if you dont care, whether theres app integration or not. In that sense, I can see how this would be appealing, but it is a pricey smart watch and it doesnt offer all the features that other smart watches do, including the integration. So from that standpoint, its its a tough call, and so for for that I dont know, I think you might be better off going with the previous sense, especially if you want the integration you may not get youre not going to get all the sensory technology thats In here, but you will get a lot of the same things or you can go with the Versa three or four mind you. The 4 is the same as this in the sense that theres no third party integration right. So if you want more of an exercise, workout watch, you might want to look in that direction and thats.
