Fitbit Sense 2 review: a fitness tracker disguised as a smartwatch

After I reviewed the Fitbit Sense two years in the past, it was an ambitious smartwatch. Its successor, the Sense 2? Eh, not a lot. It’s hyperbole to say the Sense 2 is an entire downgrade, however I don’t assume you possibly can actually name it a smartwatch, both. This, my associates, is what I’d name a premium health tracker — and for those who view it from that lens, it’s an excellent one. However is it actually $300 price of health tracker, particularly because the Pixel Watch is simply $50 extra, has practically all the identical well being options, and is a lot smarter?

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Earlier than I get into why the Sense 2 isn’t a smartwatch, we have to set the stage. In 2020, the Sense was lots good. It had a novel stress-tracking electrodermal exercise (EDA) sensor, FDA-cleared electrocardiogram (EKG) sensors, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) sensors, temperature sensor, contactless funds, and the selection between Alexa and Google Assistant. It was a viable various to the Apple Watch Series 6 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 — even when it didn’t have mobile connectivity and its third-party app ecosystem was meh.

Loads can occur in two years. Since then, the Series 8 and Galaxy Watch 5 have caught as much as nearly all of the Sense 2’s well being options whereas widening the hole by way of smarts. There’s additionally now the Apple Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro to deal with. The Sense 2’s primary benefit is weeklong battery life, however that every one however disappears for those who allow the always-on show. In my testing, enabling the AOD meant three days on a single cost at most.

After which there’s the Pixel Watch. It’s clear that Google, Fitbit’s guardian firm, sees that as the future of its wearable lineup. The Pixel Watch makes use of Fitbit’s platform for its well being and health options; Fitbit CEO James Park even launched the Pixel Watch on the Made by Google occasion. And it has all of the options you’d anticipate from a smartwatch, together with a voice assistant, emergency calling, and good residence management. Should you learn between the strains, all of it appears like a demise knell for the Fitbit as a smartwatch.

Fitbit spokesperson Jonathan Moll informed The Verge that the Sense 2 was designed to “prioritize a very powerful options our customers care about and use probably the most, together with coronary heart charge monitoring, sleep monitoring, and stress administration.” It is smart that Google would take steps to distinguish the Sense 2 from the Pixel Watch. There’s no motive for one firm to have two competing smartwatch platforms, and it is smart for Fitbit to to slender its focus to health. However it appears like Google nerfed the Sense 2 a bit an excessive amount of.

For instance, you possibly can’t use Google Assistant on the Sense 2. That is bizarre. On the unique Sense and the Versa 3, you possibly can choose between Alexa or Google Assistant. Now, your solely possibility is Alexa. Fitbit spokesperson Jonathan Moll informed me, “Right now there aren’t any plans to deploy Google Assistant on Sense 2 or Versa 4. We stay up for bringing this function to future units.”

No matter whether or not you want digital assistants, their presence on smartwatches is a given nowadays. Positive, there’s Alexa — however that’s a complete different good residence ecosystem. Why wouldn’t you set Google Assistant on a Google smartwatch? The entire theme of the Made by Google occasion was that every one these units work collectively! If not, what’s the purpose precisely? I’m actually misplaced on the thought course of right here.

Beforehand accessible third-party apps like Starbucks and Spotify don’t appear to be an possibility anymore. Not less than, they weren’t listed as appropriate with the Sense 2 once I tried to obtain them from the Fitbit App Gallery. Fitbit’s third-party ecosystem was already paltry, so that is one more baffling resolution.

The addition of Google Maps and Google Pockets takes a number of the sting out. Besides, I can’t inform you how nicely both app works as a result of they’re not accessible but. It’s not exceptional for corporations to launch options after a product hits cabinets. However if you mix this with Google taking away earlier third-party apps, it positive is a head-scratcher. 

The Sense 2 has a mixture Bluetooth / Wi-Fi radio, as did the Sense, however the Wi-Fi is deactivated, per Fitbit’s official spec sheet. Moll informed The Verge, “Traditionally, Wi-Fi was used for updating firmware and music storage. Sense 2 and Versa 4 now use Bluetooth to replace firmware, and would not have music storage capabilities.” Add offline music — which the Sense supported for Deezer and Pandora — to the casualty checklist.

All that is odd. The Sense 2’s redesigned UI definitely makes you are feeling prefer it’s meant to be a smartwatch. The refreshed design is spiffier than earlier variations of Fitbit OS. It seems precisely the identical as Put on OS on the Pixel Watch. For instance, swiping left and proper will allow you to view widgets. Urgent the button brings up an app checklist. Swiping up brings up notifications, and swiping down will get you to the short menu. It’s an ideal enchancment, efficiency doesn’t lag, and all the things seems a lot nicer as nicely.

Regardless of its UI, the Sense 2 isn’t actually a smartwatch by 2022 requirements. It’s a health tracker masquerading as one. 

The Sense 2’s software program feels prefer it’s been intentionally restricted — or centered, for those who want — however the bodily {hardware} has been improved throughout. You possibly can inform Fitbit’s put a variety of effort into streamlining the design in order that it’s extra comfy for on a regular basis put on. 

The Sense 2 is lighter than its predecessor, although you might not discover the change in weight. I didn’t once I in contrast them one after one other. I did, nonetheless, discover the Sense 2 is a lot thinner. The Sense had this tapered, trapezoidal form on the facet the place the sensor bump dug into your pores and skin. It was a method of masking the thickness when really in your wrist. The Sense 2 doesn’t want to try this. And so far as numbers go, the Sense 2 is 11.2mm thick, whereas the Sense is 12.4mm. The distinction in thickness is roughly that of a penny.

It was refreshing to put on such a light-weight machine after testing the Apple Watch Ultra. It didn’t catch on any sleeves or jacket cuffs, even once I was carrying a number of layers whereas climbing. It was additionally comfortable for sleep monitoring and all-day put on. I hardly seen it whereas operating or understanding, which is a pleasant change of tempo from the chonkers I’ve been testing as of late. 

The brand new design additionally means utterly completely different sensor arrays — each on the underside of the watch and within the show. The place the Sense had a metallic high ring for EKG and EDA readings, the Sense 2 builds that functionality straight into the show’s bezels. The result’s it seems much more just like the Apple Watch. And whereas I want these bezels had been thinner, I’m glad Fitbit is making use of the “wasted” house. 

However the perfect change is that Fitbit changed the Sense’s infuriating inductive groove with an precise bodily button. That groove was a confounding design selection. Not solely was it liable to unintentional presses, however the haptics additionally weren’t sturdy sufficient for those who had been attempting to make use of the long-press shortcut. I typically sat there urgent, confused why my shortcut wasn’t launching. I ultimately received the hold of it, however peruse any Fitbit discussion board or subreddit, and also you’ll discover loads of pissed off customers. 

I had none of those points with the bodily button. Plus, it’s a lot extra satisfying to press one thing and know it’s registered. The button, whereas raised, doesn’t protrude too far. I haven’t skilled any unintentional presses thus far — even whereas carrying a number of layers and a winter coat.

Fitbit clearly put a variety of effort into stress monitoring. With the Sense 2, Fitbit’s made some significant enhancements to the lineup’s most unusual function.

Fast refresher: The Sense watches measure stress through an EDA sensor. EDA sensors detect minuscule adjustments in your pores and skin’s sweat ranges. That, together with different metrics like coronary heart charge variation, can be utilized as an indicator of stress. Or, as Fitbit dubs it, “physique responses.” Beforehand, the EDA options labored extra like spot-checks that customers needed to provoke. The Sense 2 upgrades the unique’s EDA sensor to a cEDA sensor. The “c” stands for steady, that means now you can get computerized alerts in actual time. 

Mainly, if the Sense 2 detects a physique response, you’ll get a nudge to log your temper. You’ll additionally see prompts to take a couple of stress-relieving actions like a guided meditation, a two-minute EDA scan, or occurring a brief stroll. 

It really works! Largely. In my expertise, the alerts lagged a bit and sometimes got here at inopportune instances. For instance, I had a little bit of a automotive rental snafu once I visited Iceland final week. It was 4:30AM ET at Keflavik Worldwide Airport, I hadn’t slept on the flight, my cellphone was malfunctioning, and the automotive rental company was so new none of its data was on Google but. It labored out, however I used to be one misfortune away from hyperventilating right into a paper bag. You’d assume the Sense 2 would’ve been buzzing incessantly on my wrist. As a substitute, it solely notified me about half-hour after all the things was sorted. When prompted to log my temper, I hit the “Annoyed” emoticon.

By that point, I wasn’t in a position to do a guided meditation session, go on a stroll, or sit nonetheless sufficient for a two-minute EDA studying to alleviate my stress. I used to be in a automotive, giving my husband instructions to our subsequent vacation spot. One other time, I received a physique response alert whereas trekking up Seljalandsfoss waterfall within the freezing rain and wind. I logged my temper as “excited,” however I wasn’t taken with something however being current within the second. It turned a recurring theme. At any time when I had highly effective physique responses, I used to be too preoccupied to do greater than word how I used to be feeling. And that’s if I even seen the alerts, to start with.

The execution is likely to be a little bit clunky, however Fitbit’s stress administration function continues to be the perfect I’ve ever examined. I didn’t all the time reply to alerts as supposed, however general, it is good to take a step again and acknowledge how you are feeling in a high-stress second. I appreciated that Fitbit acknowledges that bodily stress may be constructive or adverse and that it might not all the time align along with your temper. 

The stress information can also be introduced thoughtfully. As an example, you get each a Stress Administration rating and a weekly abstract. The previous seems at your physique responses, exertion stage, and sleep patterns to present you an concept of how your cumulative stress could influence you on a given day. The weekly abstract visualizes what number of physique responses you bought every day within the earlier week, in addition to your commonest moods. 

Stress administration may be difficult, particularly for those who’re somebody who tends to disregard bodily indicators till burnout kicks in. (It me.) The combo of quantified information and logging is a useful visualization software, and I appreciated it wasn’t linked to athletic efficiency. 

Fitbit’s all the time had a number of the finest general sleep monitoring options. It’s lately added profiles, which categorize you as a kind of animal based mostly in your sleep patterns and provide you with sleep hygiene insights based mostly on these patterns. (It’s much like what Samsung does with its Galaxy Watches.) You get a brand new profile on the first of each month. I’d like to inform you the way it works, however there’s a catch. You’ve received to put on it for 14 nights out of the month in an effort to get a sleep profile for the subsequent month, and it solely gives profiles on the primary of the calendar month. In September, because of my evaluation queue, I solely received 12, which meant I didn’t get a profile for October and gained’t get one till November 1st, six weeks after I began utilizing the Sense 2.

I acknowledge that I’m an edge case. This reviewer life has me continuously rotating between units, and I’ve solely received two wrists. Prospects sticking to one Fitbit could have much less of a difficulty, however there’s no good motive to tie sleep profiles to the primary of the calendar month moderately than updating them on a rolling foundation.

I’ll be blunt. If you need a sturdy tracker that may stand up to excessive parts or one with hyper-accurate GPS information, this ain’t it. The Sense 2 has built-in GPS, however for those who actually care about correct route maps, you’re higher off with a Garmin or one other fitness watch with multiband GPS. Living proof, you solely have to take a look at these screenshots of a latest hike to see that Fitbit’s GPS isn’t the best. The identical goes for those who’re on the lookout for in-depth coaching plans and extra uncooked information. 

Then once more, Fitbit’s all the time been a platform for normal customers. Its biggest energy is that it has all the time introduced uncooked information in a digestible format. That’s what makes the Sense 2 — and different Fitbit units — nice for constructing more healthy habits in a mild, holistic means. It’s received nice restoration instruments in its Sleep Rating, Day by day Readiness Rating, and, now, stress administration options, in addition to easy however handy instruments for logging energy, weight, and water consumption. Its Lively Zone Minutes metric is great for serving to rookies visualize whether or not they’re getting an enough quantity of train per week.

So the Sense 2 is an effective general well being tracker however a not-so-great smartwatch. In comparison with dirt-cheap health bands, you’re getting a prettier design and a novel tackle stress monitoring. I’m simply undecided why anybody would pay $299.95 for a fancier health tracker with fewer general options when you will get an entry-level smartwatch for much less. I can perceive wanting a health tracker and not a smartwatch, however in that occasion, there are additionally extra inexpensive choices. 

For iPhone customers, the Apple Watch SE prices $249. For Android customers, the 40mm Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 is $279.99. I imply, come on, the Google Pixel Watch prices solely $50 greater than the Sense 2 at $349.

Fitbit’s different trackers muddy the water much more. The $229.95 Versa 4 has the overwhelming majority of the Sense 2’s options, and even the $179.95 Charge 5 has an EKG sensor. Should you simply need a fundamental tracker, the Inspire 3 is out right here for $99.95. Except you discover the Sense 2 on sale for beneath $200 or actually need stress monitoring, this isn’t an excellent deal.

Any individual at Fitbit (or Google) didn’t do the mathematics proper. It will’ve been a better transfer to retire the Versa line and let the Sense 2 take the place of the Versa 4, particularly for those who had been going to nerf the smarter options on each units. However that’s not what occurred, and even when it had, it’d simply be delaying the inevitable. The Sense 2 is a casualty of Google’s ambitions for the Pixel Watch. And it’s attainable that we’re solely a Pixel Band away from all Fitbit trackers sharing an analogous destiny.

Pictures by Victoria Track / The Verge