Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch with Tools for Heart Health, Stress Management & Skin Temperature Trends, Carbon/Graphite, One Size (S & L Bands Included)

I almost didn’t order this device. I had an Ionic and before that a fitbit HR. My Ionic died last week after a couple of years of use. DISAPPOINTED! OK, but I still wanted to get another. I found that the Ionic had been discontinued. DISAPPOINTED! OK, but I need something. I saw that the Sense had, more or less replaced the Ionic and was about to order one when I read the reviews. Oh my god. I read ‘don’t buy this it’s a piece of junk’. Poor quality. It doesn’t work. The button is impossible to use, most of the time. I almost didn’t order one. I didn’t see a lot of positive reviews. I depend upon the reviews. I thought, I’ll order one, and if it’s as bad as they say, I’ll return it. I loved my old Fitbit HR, but wow, It was butt ugly. I used super glue to keep the strap on! I kept it under my shirt where it wouldn’t be seen and wore my Cartier where it could be seen. When I got the Ionic, I thought that is was a huge improvement, but it still wasn’t pretty! Finally, with the sense I can say that it looks OK! I don’t mind people seeing it. It doesn’t look or feel at all cheap. When there are some nice replacement straps, I’ll replace the Fitbit strap, just as I did with the Ionic. People don’t buy Fitbits for the strap! At first I had trouble with the button, then I read that you had to push it! I should have thought of that! Anyway, it works, easily and every time. Does it trigger accidentally? I haven’t seen that. I probably wouldn’t see that. In any case, it works after a few minutes getting used to it. As far as I am concerned, this does everything, almost, that the Ionic did. I needed to replace it, and this is better. I am sad that I can’t put my music on the Sense, as I could with the Ionic. It’s the one feature that I will miss. OK, I agree, the spO2 is a bit of a joke, I haven’t yet tried the GPS. For my money, it is functional. It looks way better than the two previous Fitbits that I had. Sure, it is not an apple watch, but it serves an important role. It does a lot more than my Cartier, for which I paid thousands, and I can swim it it – which is important to me. Sure it could be better, but it is not a piece of junk as others here have said. After reading the bad reviews, I feel almost ashamed to say that I like it. I threw the box away. I am not returning it! It doesn’t feel cheap! It does what I need! It looks better than any other Fitbit I have owned. I hope it lasts longer than my Ionic! I can throw stones at every piece of hi-tech gadgetry that I own. Please, when you write reviews, don’t say, this is a piece of junk. That is not helpful. Explain what you disliked about it and compare it to something so that readers can make an informed judgement. I know junk, and this Fitbit Sense is not junk! Go get yours!

so far so good, excellent clarity, accurate steps & heart rate, easy set up. UPDATE: 2 FULL YEARS later practically to the date. My SENSE crapped out. Was a good Smartwatch up until it just started not working (only showed fitbit icon, intermittent vibration, would work for a few hours, then go back to showing nothing. Was a quick death). Not changing rating as all these gadgets are basically throw aways. Now back to original review:—————————————————————————————Probably want to select reviews based on “most recent” as that will provide you with most up to date and relevant information pertaining to this product. I acquired my Fitbit Sense in June 2021, it has not yet been a month, but so far so good with 24/7 use. I am slow to check out and use all the features, but what I have interacted with so far has been stellar.I have been using Fitbit products since April 2015- kinda have a love/hate relationship with this brand. I use the activity tracker constantly, and I greatly enjoy the app. So I have stuck with it as I upgraded over the years (Charge x2, Blaze x2, Versa 2, and now Sense). As with many Fitbit users, there is a known frustration with the products. Despite some of my own qualms, and having the ability to spend whatever I want on any fitness tracker I want, I still end up (so far) with this brand. Mostly because I haven’t found a tracker and app that I totally like better. I even have a Garmin, but I find that so far off base of accuracy (save for HR), that it is a glorified watch. Garmin seems to do best for actual intended activities (going for a run, going for a long walk, going cycling) where it seems to not be accurate in steps for any other part of the day (only counts about 1/3 of actual steps unless engaged in a longer duration activity, and even then it takes a few minutes for it to start). Also, the app seems to have a lot of info, but doent really tell me anything. That being said, when it was time for me to buy another fitness tracker–I went from Versa 2 to Garmin.. back to Fitbit. I went with the Sense because the price was right, and it was an upgrade over the Versa 2. After my underwhelming experience with the Garmin, I would have happily taken over a 2nd hand Charge from 2015. At least my steps would be accurate.Ok, so back to the Sense. WOW, the visual on the screen is really clear and precise. Even way more so over the Versa 2, and I had no issues with that. Set up was EASY, and QUICK. Basically, just like in adding any other fitbit, just let it pair and it will very quickly be all set and ready to go. I didnt have any weird upselling offerings, or at least nothing that wasn’t fantastically easy to opt out from. Nothing shady that I saw.ONE POINT that I DO think is important to know is that if you happen to have a Versa 2 (Not sure if this also happens with regular Versa, Versa Lite, or Versa 3), but this could not be added alongside my Versa 2. I had to take the Versa 2 offline in order to add this Sense. I know this is the case with trying to add more than one of the same products, yet I have always been able to have several Fitbits paired no problem, as long as they were different models. SO, I guess the Fitbit app sees Sense and Versa 2 as the same. Not a big deal as my Versa 2 had essentially died after I wore it on a hot humid day and my sweat killed it (then I brought it back to life after putting it in a bag of rice for about a week, Then afterward the battery was never the same. It drained to nothing daily.. and I needed to not have to worry about daily charging.. hence my picking up a Garmin in the interim to see if I liked them enough to spring for a more fancy model–nope– and ended up buying the Sense.)Hope it lasts. I love the look. The band is way better than the old pin style. Swapping out bands is so much quicker, easier, less need for super fine motor skills. LOVE the charger. It just sort of magnetizes to the fitbit. No need to clip in.SP02 wasn’t the main feature I was drawn to, but in order to have accurate use it seems a special clock face is needed, and that clock face will drain battery quicker (from what I have read). That being said,Battery life has been excellent for me.Love being able to add other apps, and features. Scrolling is easy, turning face on/off is not complicated.HEART RATE is accurate. I have tested it against my garmin, two blood pressure devices, and a doctors appointment. All saying the same.Also, I the voice assistant is great. You can choose GOOGLE Assistant, OR Alexa. This is why selecting most recent reviews on this sort of stuff is important, as the early release of Sense did not have Google Assistant, but would soon with an update. True, and they followed through as I have it.AT THIS TIME, I have ZERO issues, concerns with this Fitbit Sense. I will be back to update as I learn more, or if I have anything worth sharing that is bad. I keep up with my reviews as needed.

Great battery life, love the bright easy to read screen. I am a long time Fitbit user. I upgraded from the Fitbit Charge 3 because I couldn’t read the Charge 3 screen at all in the sunlight. The Fitbit Sense is easy to read even when it’s sunny out. Great battery life & charges super fast. Sleep mode is very helpful. I really wish that you could fully read text messages & emails on the Sense. Also wish you could see your full reply when responding to someone via voice to text. Sense isn’t useful/helpful when you have to use your phone to see full text messages, emails or your voice response to make sure there aren’t any wrong words in your voice to text before sending. The purpose of those features are so you wouldn’t have to rely on using your phone. Also, sometimes when you press on a notification Sense will occasionally clear other unopened notifications. It doesn’t happen often but is frustrating when it does. In exercise mode I wish there was an option to see the current time in addition to elapsed time, distance, pace & heartrate all on the same screen. It would be helpful when doing 5k races or training for a race. I do like the current option of seeing those on separate screens too but would prefer the ease of seeing all on one screen. Golf mode has shut itself off a few times when I’ve used it. That’s disappointing when you’re trying to keep track of total play time & total steps specifically during the hours of playing golf. Wish I could get the “Golfpad” app on my Sense then I could use my Sense instead of the app on my phone. Also wish there were more free clocks similar to Spectrum that showed current time, date, steps, sleep & heartrate on one screen with a nice picture background that was easy to read. Overall I love the Fitbit Sense. I plan to try more of the other features such as music soon & hope I can listen while keeping the walking exercise mode running during a race without a problem. Hopefully I’ll be able to switch back & forth quickly & easily. I bought the screen protector for my Sense & have been using it since. So glad I did as it’s protected the screen many times from being bumped or accidentally dropped when trying to put it on. Wish Fitbit would sell the screen protectors. Would also like more color options for the sport bands including an all black band and breathing holes. The sport bands & Sense are very comfortable to wear even while sleeping. I recommend the sport brands if you play a lot of sports or are very active to ensure it stays on. I love the square face of the Sense. It’s large enough & bright enough to read indoors & outdoors yet delicate looking for a small wrist. One last thing, wish Fitbit gave a better way to sign up for the extra extended coverage. The option popped up on the app on my phone but unfortunately while I was at work & didn’t have the credit card on me I would have used to pay for the coverage. So unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to sign up for that. The Sense is rather pricey so worth waiting until it’s on sale.

Pretty Impressive after 1 month of usage. Updated Review:I initially gave it a 4 Star rating but just changed it to 5 Stars. I was having difficulty with viewing the daily rating of my Oxygen while sleeping. Some times it would register, other times it would not. I finally discovered that it was measuring my O2 level all the time. The results does not show up right away as you have to wait for a short time to appear.It did show me an upward trend in my temperature, resting heart rate, temperature variability with a downward trend in my Heart Rate Variability (HRV) when I came down with a nasty cold. I could trace it to the date it started.Original Review:The watch is pretty stylish. Comparing it to my sister’s huge Samsung watch, this watch is sleeker and filled with more health features than hers.For accuracy, it is pretty good, but not perfect. I walked exactly 100 steps by counting them out, and the Sense showed 102. I’m pretty impressed with that. The sleep feature seems accurate when it measures the time fell asleep until the time I woke up. Even though it may not be totally accurate against more accurate medical-grade devices, it does give me a baseline and I can measure my progress from that. The heartbeat rate is pretty much on target but I haven’t tested it above 120 where some people have issues with it being accurate.What I find inaccurate: 1) the stairs counter. It misses counting about 4 out of 5 times. If I go down the stairs to the main floor and then back up again, I count 32 steps. 2) I find the SpO2 function pretty useless. First, it is not anywhere close when compared with two actual SpO2 devices. Secondly, sometimes it records while sleeping and other nights it fails to record for no known reason. There are a number of similar complaints and frustration on the Fitbit forum about this same problem. Also, you must use their clock face to record, which I find inconvenient. So, if you are thinking about getting this watch primarily for that feature, I would caution you.Other than that complaint, the watch is quite nice. The charging device is genius, you bring it near the watch, and it instantly connects. Charging times are very short, so that’s a big plus. If you use it to record your sleep and then throughout the day, you might get 2 to 3 days between charges.Nice to have the texting and phone calls feature. Sometimes when I have my phone on vibrate only, I miss the call, but now with the Sense, I feel the vibration on my wrist notifying me of who it is. I can read a partial window of the text message too. When my phone is not on vibrate, I can text the person back through the voice feature. I can answer the call and talk to them through my watch; however, you have to hold the phone near your ear to hear them as the speaker is pretty weak.There is a learning curve if you are a first-time Fitbit user. This is true with the watch and with the App. The App is filled with many graphs and features. It will take some time to learn where they all are located, but eventually you will be able to navigate and find them. Speaking of navigation, if you swipe down on the watch to delve deeper into an app, you can swipe back up, but you cannot go back to the previous feature or forward to the next. You must press the button to go back home first where you must start your navigation over. I hope Fitbit improves upon this feature in the future.The silicone watch band was quite difficult to clasp and unclasp. It wasn’t the most comfortable either, possibly because my wrist was in between the sizing holes. The nice feature of the band is that it only takes a couple of seconds to change them out. I purchased a nice elastic one-piece band that allows me to take the watch off and put it back on within 2 to 3 seconds. Here is the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KFFSHBH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1&psc=1 and there are two sizes. I do recommend this band as it comes in a variety of colors and patterns.So, in conclusion, would I recommend this watch? I would say yes as long as you are not needing it for the SpO2 feature which I find unreliable.

Fitbit Sense: Great Features, Poor Durability. I enjoyed using the fitbit sense for tracking my health and fitness, but I was disappointed by its durability and battery life. It stopped working after only 26 months, which is too short for a device that cost me $250. I also had to pay for two premium subscriptions to access some of the features I wanted, which added another $160 to the total. That means I spent $410 for a little over two years of use, which is not very economical.The fitbit sense had a lot of great features, such as heart rate, SpO2, ECG, stress management, and sleep tracking. I used it mainly when I was working out and when I was sleeping. It helped me monitor my health and wellness, but I wish it lasted longer and had a better battery life. It started off well, but it gradually lost its charge faster and faster. I think the fitbit sense should have a lifespan of at least four years, especially for the price and the subscription fees.

The refund was processed. This is a follow up. I have since replaced my Fitbit Sense with a Sense 2. I did this because My Oxygen reading was not working (maybe I did something wrong). I received my refund and new My Sense 2 is working great. This company refunded my money for the Sense. I’m not sure they ever received the return. UPS may have lost it.Both my wife and I love our Fitbits and would recommend them to anyone. I did recommend a Sense to my brother over a year ago and he loves his.

Personalized and Informative Value. Fitbit Sense has a lot of personalized information to help you reach your goals and also improve your health. Resting and current hear rates, personalized notifications, sleep quality and quantity so you can improve areas. Average Pulse ox readings for overnight and discussion with your healthcare provider if needed for a more detailed look if needed. It has been invaluable and the battery life is great.

Excellent Smart Device. Love how it tracks not only my movements but also my sleep stages. I wish it was more accurate in things like afib like my Apple Watch does.