Sense 2 / Versa 4 battery issues

[Guy_]

The battery in the Sense and Versa 3 had a capacity of 266 mAh.

The battery in the Sense 2 and Versa 4 only has 162 mAh [to be confirmed].

The WiFi is also deactivated and cannot be turned on.

So it is among the other things removed from the new watches which become truly Lite versions, albeit with a few more predefined exercises and minor features.

This explains why the GPS only runs for 5 hours and on the Sense and versa 3 for 12 hours

[N8teGee]

Do you have a source for these figures @Guy_? Not that I doubt you, I just didn't think Fitbit released such information?

[Dopovo]

Hey @Guy_ , where did you find the battery specifications?

Thanks

[Guy_]

@N8teGee  - yes from local shop, but of course they may not be correct though it does seem to match GPS usage.

[N8teGee]

Ok thanks. Yes it does seem to make Sense, but then I would worry about the claim of 6 day battery life in general use. Can we really believe that the components are that much more efficient.

Honestly I can't understand companies wasting efficiency savings by also reducing battery size. 

[Guy_]

@N8teGee - expect the 6 day battery life claim is with EVERYTHING turned off, like the Sense, and possibly even more optimistic.

Also the fact that it has no WiFi that can be turned on means it probably has no developer bridge, so can't be used for testing like a Sense and prior watches can, so as mentioned, a truly Sense Lite version, which makes it's high price seem even more unreasonable.

[Guy_]

The details of the sense watch battery capacity are found on this site

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Fitbit+Sense+Teardown/137130 

The smaller battery and lack of features probably explains the lighter weight of 24g as opposed to the Sense 35g and it's smaller thickness.

[N8teGee]

Are we certain the WiFi can't be used? Or is it a case of it just being determined by the system rather than the user. For example on the current Sense it is possible to force connect it to WiFi (although I'm not sure what the purpose is), perhaps with the Sense 2 this won't be possible but it can still be used during FW updates. Just more heavily regulated by the system.

I can't imagine what FW updates would be like without WiFi. Also what is the point of adding the components and antenna if it's not being used at all. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I remember with the Sense launch material there was a similar issue around GPS battery life, eventually the material was updated to 12 hours. So maybe there is still some hope that it is a mistake in the documentation. 

[Guy_]

@N8teGee  - given the specs say WiFi cannot be turned on and that it explicitly mentiones Bluetooth 5.0 exclusively which has a theoretical throughput of about 37 MB per minute, and given the recent increase in size of the Fitbit app, it could be that FW installation will only get done over Bluetooth from a preloaded image on the phone.

By abandoning WiFi they save space and consumption and avoid the hassles and confusions users have experienced with it.

Also eliminating features such as Google Assistant and music support etc. It reduces the size of the FW image, meaning it could be small enough to easily load over Bluetooth in 10 minutes (370 MB) and 1 GB in 30 minutes which seems enormous, so it could be much smaller.

Hence WiFi becomes unnecessary. Just a theory.