Anyone love their Sense? (debating to purchase)

[kfitz29]

Hi.  I currently have a versa 2 that I love.  However, after many years of everyday use, it is starting to have issues charging so I plan to upgrade.  The sense is on sale for almost the same price as Versa 3 ($20 difference) but I keep on reading negative concerns with the sense.  If you could redo, would you still buy the sense?  I mostly use my fitbit for counting swim laps and walking.  I also have an iphone that I would like to connect with it.  Thanks!

Moderator edit: format. 

[scaddenp]

Really, really wish I had read the forums. It would be a great watch if the sensors actually worked. Support seems to be asleep at the wheel. Maybe everyone is working on changing to Wear?

Likes:

Notification system. No longer need to check my phone (which is in a wallet case) to see if a notification is important (and only have things I might really want to know about going to the watch.

Battery life is working for me. Not using "always on". 

Heart rate seems pretty good to me but hard to independently verify. ECG works as expected.

Cons:

SPO2 is a once-a-day average and does not reliably transmit to app. it is always a day behind on app. Baffliing behaviour considering other sensors transmit ok.

Steps can be wildly inaccurate. My wife recorded 170 steps at night doing the 15 steps to the bathroom. My phone is way more accurate and consistent at step counting.

But steps are a paragon of accuracy compared to Stairs. Two identical Sense out for a walk together get incredibly different stairs.

And dont bother with Premium. Costs about same as Netflix but I can share cost for that with my children, and fitbit doesnt provide remotely the same value for money. 

Premium actually sums up my view of the watch - a good base but full of "stocking stuffers" that work badly to try and justify the price. it would be better if Sense tried to do less but do it better. As is, I think you would be better value getting something with less features but did them well. I wish I had done that.

[UserJ]

My Fitbit story begins with years ago when I got Fitbit Flex for a gift. It didn't have any screen and was mostly for counting steps and very basic sleep data. 

So I wanted to have a new one now, years later and was looking for many watches. Because of dealing with health issues I loved the idea of health watch. I looked a lot of information that was out there and also reviews and although many were not great there were good ones, too. So I decided to still go with Fitbit Sense. 

Now I have used it over a half of year and I'm pretty happy: 

• no battery issues - if I use snoring detector then that drains the battery but I tried it few times and then switched off - however I like the opportunity
•  Steps are usually ok but if you do a lot of movement with arms and not walking then it may count them as steps
• I don't get the stairs counting - doesn't make sense because it seems mostly wrong 
• Sleep analysis is good and well detected - you can watch the videos from youtube from The Quantified Scientist who measures real data and how accurate it is
• I like to see all this other data, too: Spo2, temperature, breathing - these are night averages and you can see the changes if you are getting ill etc
•  I use regularly EDA/stress function just to learn better to deal witch my stress
• I am quite dissapointed that Fitbit does nothing to let ECG function to work in my country although we are in EU and some of EU countries have this function that means that all EU should have it because we have the same standards and our Ministry of Health said that they just should send them the documents the register etc. Fitbit acts like they couldnt do anything but actually they could and there is no restrictions from our side. At the same time they take the full price from us without one very big function and doesn't .
•  I enjoy sleep phases analysis very much.
• I have Fitbit Premium and I enjoy the data and all these games and extras but I think it shoyld be free for all the Fitbit users. However I still have it because I believe in investing my health. 

I like the general knowledge about my health factors but I would love if the heart rate and step rate would be a bit more accurate. 

If all these things considered I use it every day and I enjoy using it. I haven't have any big issues with Fitbit Sense and I hope all these updates will always make it better. 

I definetly move more, consider my stress levels more and use techniques to relax. It is defintely part of my everyday life. 

If I should buy another watch I would consider some of the Garmin's ones, too. And still hoping for ECG function for Fitbit in my country! 

In conclusion, it's not perfect and has a a few problems but if I was looking I didn't find any other watch with such a wide variety of functions overall. 

[Lloyd71]

No I definitely would not buy it. Mine won't even stay connected to my phone so the Sense controls are useless and that's on top of the other issues:

- It constantly flashes up with a slow charge warning when charging via a power brick

- The screen is pretty unresponsive at the best of times

- The heart rate is inaccurate, it said my bed had a heart rate of the mid 90s last night

- Trying to change settings is a nightmare, to just change the clock to a 24 hour version you have to log in via a browser. Why can't you do this in the app?!

- The battery life is about 50% of what is advertised

- The sensor to bring the screen to life when you raise your wrist often fails to detect it unless you do an OTT motion

- The side button can be difficult to press

- If I start to record a cycling exercise it will fail to switch off the stairs feature which means that it tells me I've climbed over 600 sets of stairs when mountain biking

I'm very close to selling it

[Phteve]

I agree with you Loran, my 6 month old Sense is also a brick after one of their firmware updates failed to finish, they told me they would notify Fitbit Australia for warranty and that’s the last I’ve heard from them. I can’t honestly say I have anything I could recommend about them, I’m not even able to use my previous Fitbit device, a Versa 2 because it has a broken watch band and Fitbit Australia don’t support them anymore so it’s also unusable, some bands are still available on Fitbit US site but Australian Fitbit customers are not allowed to buy from Fitbit US store, about the worst customer support I have ever experienced from such a major worldwide business.

[Loran3]

Hey,

I also had a versa 2 prior to buying my brick, uh i mean sense. If your versa still works you should try Amazon fir s replacement watchband. I’ve purchased several of different colors and matetial.

Sent from my iPhone

[Newtripley]

Hi

Could you not buy a replacement versa 2 watchstrap from Amazon? I had the Versa 3 before I got my sense and my strap broke Amazon had some decent straps 

[ksattler]

I would not buy the Sense again. I have to wear it so high on my arm for it to semi-accurately get my heart rate. However, as I start to sweat and I move my arm, my sense will slide down towards the wrist. I can't fasten it tight enough to stay up and putting it where I would wear my Blaze (my favorite of my Fitbits) doesn't accurately track heart rate, which is super frustrating!

Currently, I'm struggling with connecting it to my calendar. I am getting extra calendars in there that I don't want after buying an iPhone 13. It's why I'm in the forums to see if I can stop that.

Notifications aren't reliable. And all the extra features it has aren't really features unless you pay for premium. 

I loved my Blaze. The Ionic had the face come off because I wore it in the shower even though it was supposed to be "waterproof." 

[MaupBop]

I've had my sense for four hours and will be returning it tomorrow.  Already have had to spend way too much time trying to troubleshoot this because features aren't working correctly.   

[scaddenp]

I was also a bit stunned to find that their support was so underwhelming for such a big brand. With purchase by Google, can we assume that noone cares anymore. At least it has refined considerably what I need to look for when buying my next watch - beginning with spend time in support forums for any product before you buy.

[palack]

I'd pass. It's not great.

[Phteve]

Thanks Loran, I will give them a try 👍

[Phteve]

Thanks, will give them a try 👍

[natefrog255]

I got the Sense last November and really liked it, but I lost it this weekend as it fell off while I was swimming in open water so need a new one.  With that said, I'm leaning heavily towards not spending the extra $75-100 and going with the Versa 3.  I didn't really utilize the extra health things that the Sense provides enough to justify paying the extra.  I'm pretty healthy and when I did do the EKG, EDA stuff it came back fine.  The rest of the stuff it appears the Versa 3 provides, and I really liked the Versa 2 when I had it.

My biggest gripe with the Sense was the on-board GPS was not super accurate for me.  The mileage was always 0.1-0.2 miles short which gave me an inaccurate minute per mile reading.  Plus I wasn't able to get my music through the Sense, so I had to take my phone with me anyway.  Otherwise I really liked the watch, but I'm not going to pay the extra money this time around as the bonus features aren't really anything I need --- but if they are for you, I would recommend the Sense.