I know that these types of forums are locked like clockwork, nonetheless, I hope it will reach a few people before this happens. Please, do not buy a Sense 2.
The Sense 2, from start to finish, is in nearly every way a downgrade from the Sense. To call this a "smartwatch" is a joke. It's a glorified fitness tracker with one extremely gimmicky feature being used as its main selling point that most people will never use: cEDA. cEDA is continuous stress tracking for those of you who didn't know, essentially it means that the sensor is located on the underside of the tracker as opposed to on the top like the original sense, allowing it to take readings all day without you having to place your palm on the watch.
This will be a novelty that maybe 5 percent of all Sense 2 buyers will actually use for extended periods of time or in useful ways. For everyone else though, it will just become a gimmick very fast.
In every way except this sensor, the Sense 2 is a literal downgrade from the original Sense. I will list a few of the horrible decisions below, although there is so much that I seriously doubt that I will get everything
- No 3rd party app support or downloading apps that don't come on the device. The original Sense is losing this feature in the EU in June, but at least there's still some time to download apps if you live there before the feature is closed. For everyone else, it remains as the sole thing keeping the watch from being classified as a fitness tracker. And for those of you wondering, on the Sense 2, apps made only by 3rd party developers aren't the only ones unavailable. Some apps made by Fitbit themselves are completely impossible to install on the Sense 2. It's truly stupid to remove the only smartwatch feature from your top-of-the-line smartwatch, IN WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN UPGRADE.
-Higher price. Yes, the Sense 2 launched at the same price that the original Sense was. The key word there is "was". Because in 2024, provided you are willing to buy from a reseller, Sense 1's are dirt cheap. I found one in retail packaging from a seller on eBay with a 95 percent positive review ratio going for $99 USD. And that's not eve the cheapest I've seen if you are willing to go open box. Interestingly, the Versa 3 is roughly the same price buying from a reseller as the Sense, so my guess is that it had higher demand from resellers which resulted in the price not dropping nearly as far as the Sense.
-No music controls. There was a time WAY back in Fitbit's history when their watches even supported downloading your mp3 files to onboard storage on their devices. That is gone now, but at least controls are available for Sense 1. Guess which watch they decided to remove these controls on? To me, this too makes no "sense" (no pun intended) as music was another one of people's favourite things on the Sense and older watches.
-Possibly worse HR accuracy. The OG Sense had far from perfect HR as well, but most users reported an accuracy that was sufficient for day-to-day life and light fitness workouts (just not heavy workouts). Sense 2, according to most scientific testers such as Quantified Scientist, has worse HR than the original. This is likely due to the fact that it uses a newer algorithm, but Fitbit was too lazy to update the sensor itself to accommodate, which throws of accuracy even more.
-It's much more annoying to change watch faces, especially for 3rd party ones. The original Sense downloaded 3rd party watch faces the same way as with apps. It was simple to do, and once downloaded, you could simply hold to swap watch faces on the main screen. On Sense 2, not only is installing/making 3rd party watch faces far more annoying (I'll like this forum if you want to learn more about that) but there is no hold to change on the main menu. It seems clear that they are planning to remove 3rd party watch faces as well at some time in the future.
In conclusion, the Sense is a more advanced, cheaper smartwatch than the Sense 2, which is simply a glorified fitness tracker. I have no doubt that Fitbit moderators will lock this forum at some point, but I hope it will reach people on the fence about a Sense or Sense 2 before that happens so that they avoid making the horrible choice of buying a Sense 2. Thank you for reading, and if any of you notice anything I missed or explained slightly wrong, please let me know below.
Moderator edit: updated subject to try to coerce more people into buying an overpriced fitness tracker
