The Fitbit Sense 2 watch has a flawless design, affords a minimalist expertise, and is nice for monitoring health parameters
Launched in 2020, the Fitbit Sense was an formidable smartwatch with complete health monitoring options. The sequel to that one although is merely a health tracker masquerading as a smartwatch because the firm determined to strip off a number of options from the unique Sense whereas specializing in its health capabilities.
This places the Fitbit Sense 2 in a bizarre spot. It’s an ideal health tracker, however an costly one at that — at ₹24,999. And the restricted smarts barely make it a aggressive smartwatch. So, is there any sense to the Sense 2?
An ideal health tracker
The Fitbit Sense 2 appears to be like nearly like its predecessor, and that’s a great factor. That ‘squircle’ dial with a wonderful AMOLED show was anyway excellent. The refinements although are welcome even when the transfer from the unique Sense’s stainless-steel chassis to aluminium is an odd selection.
Sense 2 is thinner and lighter. I discovered it far much less distracting on my wrist, particularly whereas sleeping. Fortunately, it additionally replaces that terrible inductive groove from the unique Sense with an precise bodily button which makes the smartwatch operations seamless. That touch-sensitive button was irritating to make use of and there have been unintended presses on a regular basis.
The flawless design and perfect really feel aside, the health monitoring is good as nicely. The Sense 2 has a plethora of sensors to trace virtually all of the well being attributes that one might ask for in a wearable. It may measure your coronary heart charge, pores and skin temperature, electrodermal exercise (EDA), and blood oxygen (SpO2).
Additionally learn: Do health wearables observe sleep successfully?
The EDA sensor current on the unique Sense is now upgraded to a cEDA sensor – the “c” stands for steady. Whereas the primary era one might solely measure EDA on-demand, Sense 2 measures it constantly within the background. The sensor measures your pores and skin’s electrical exercise and sweat ranges from which Fitbit extrapolates how careworn you’re. Each time the system detects that you’re careworn, it sends you a temper check-in and prompts you to take a number of stress-relieving actions like a guided meditation or going for a brief stroll.
The idea of stress moments – Fitbit calls them “physique responses” – is perhaps stretching the EDA monitoring a bit a lot and the expertise of logging the temper with the anticipated observe ups is unquestionably clunky, but general, the stress administration function is a fairly good addition.
After which there’s sleep monitoring, which Fitbit has aced for some time now. The Sense 2 displays your sleep and likewise the phases during which you have been conscious, tossing and handing over your mattress, providing you with a “Sleep Rating” for every night time. Moreover, the center charge sensor works along side the SpO2 sensor by means of the night time since massive swings in blood oxygen ranges could be a signal of sleep problems.
Fitbit Sense 2 debuts with a brand new model of Fitbit OS. The revamped model has a Put on-OS like design though the core performance stays the identical. Additionally, the UI is extra intuitive, and the general expertise is unquestionably snappier which can be a perform of what lies beneath.
By advantage of providing a minimalist expertise, the Sense 2 manages to supply a stellar battery life. Even when the always-on show (AOD) is lively, I might go with out charging for 3 days. With AOD disabled and restricted exercises, you’ll be able to stretch the battery life for six days. Charging is sort of fast as nicely. When you can simply get a day’s value of juice with quarter-hour on the charger, it takes about two hours to go from zero to 100%.
As with the Fitbit Sense, the Sense 2 additionally has onboard GPS permitting you to go away your smartphone at dwelling if you head out for a run. Nevertheless, the GPS monitoring is iffy, and may not satiate runners who require correct GPS information.
Baffling omissions
Regardless of being a unbelievable health tracker, the Fitbit Sense 2 is objectively a a lot weaker product than Fitbit Sense. To place it bluntly, it’s a downgrade.
Let’s begin with the Fitbit OS. An extensible working system is what differentiates a ‘smartwatch’ from a ‘health tracker’. Fitbit is treading a clumsy line now. The app choice on Fitbit was all the time fairly restricted. There have been just a few nifty, however rudimentary, apps that one might use, like Spotify, Uber, and many others. Nevertheless, even these are gone now. The brand new Fitbit OS does away with third-party apps. You’re caught with Fitbit’s apps that are nice for monitoring health however that’s that. No barcodes on the wrist, no water ingesting reminders, no headlines from the New York Occasions.
If that wasn’t stunning, Sense 2 additionally doesn’t embrace Google Assistant. It’s baffling because the unique Sense and the Versa 3 packed in assist for Google Assistant and given the truth that Fitbit is now owned by Google. There’s nonetheless assist for Amazon Alexa.
Shifting on, whereas the Sense 2 {hardware} is Wi-Fi succesful, the software program has disabled Wi-Fi connectivity. I don’t know why this was executed. Wi-Fi assist allows sooner updates as a substitute of doing it through Bluetooth.
There’s no offline music storage (one other use-case of Wi-Fi assist) on the Sense 2, and since we don’t have third-party apps like Spotify, Pandora, or Deezer anymore, there is no such thing as a strategy to pay attention and even management music by means of the Sense 2. The shortage of music storage might be a good selection, however the absence of music controls is unlucky.
Whereas all these omissions are head-scratchers, not everybody will discover these worrisome. It would irk you provided that you employ or plan to make use of the function. Additionally, because the app gallery on Fitbit has all the time been restricted, not many will mourn the loss of life of third-party apps.
On the brilliant facet, Fitbit has introduced that each Google Maps and Google Pockets could be coming to the Sense 2 (nonetheless no Google Assistant). However there’s no confirmed ETA as of now although.
Fitbit has introduced that each Google Maps and Google Pockets could be coming to the Sense 2 (nonetheless no Google Assistant). However there’s no confirmed ETA as of now although.
(Google)
Must you purchase it?
Fitbit Sense 2 – and different Fitbit gadgets – excels at dissecting all of the uncooked information it gathers with its surfeit of sensors and presenting it in easy-to-digest, visible codecs. It’s nice for constructing more healthy habits in a healthful, holistic manner. Its Lively Zone Minutes metric is great for serving to inexperienced persons and health laypersons preserve a tab on their bodily exercise as a substitute of counting on the complicated calorie consumption or the doubtful steps and flooring counting. Plus, the Fitbit Premium subscription is icing on the cake.
When you get six months free along with your buy of a Fitbit Sense 2, however if you wish to unlock its full potential, you may wish to go for the premium subscription. Fortunately, it’s manner cheaper in India. Whereas the pricing within the US is $9.99 per 30 days, in India, you may get Fitbit Premium for simply ₹999 for the complete yr. It’s nice worth providing entry to an enormous library of guided health coaching and meditation movies, deep dive into health information with Every day Readiness Rating, Sleep Profile, and Wellness Report, in addition to gamified health challenges.
Due to this fact, as a fitness-first smartwatch, the Fitbit Sense 2 is a good choose for Fitbit followers and people who are solely searching for a holistic well being wearable.
Nevertheless, in the event you’re searching for myriad smartwatch capabilities, you may wish to look elsewhere – just like the Samsung Galaxy Watch5. The Fitbit Sense 2 tries to justify its premium price ticket with an ideal set of well being monitoring options however as a substitute of being an iterative replace, Sense 2 is a downgrade of types for a smartwatch.
Additionally, in the event you’re completely married to the concept of getting a brand new Fitbit however don’t wish to pay a bomb, you may wish to take into account the Fitbit Cost 5 or the Versa 4 which affords a lot of the core performance, besides ECG testing and cEDA monitoring. You may, actually, additionally choose up the unique Fitbit Sense.
*****
Specs
Show: 1.58-inches AMOLED | 336 x 336 pixels
Dimensions: 40.5 x 40.5 x 11.2mm | 37.64 gms
Sensors: GPS/GLONASS, coronary heart charge, altimeter, skin-temperature, gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient mild, SpO2, cEDA
Water resistance: IPX8 | 5ATM | Water-resistant as much as 50m
Battery: 162mAh | 6+ days | 0-100% in two hours
Colours: Shadow Gray/Graphite | Lunar White/Platinum | Blue Mist/Comfortable Gold
*****
Abhishek Baxi is a know-how journalist and digital marketing consultant.