Is the Fitbit sense recommended?

[ichiha68]

Hi everyone, I'm thinking of buying a Fitbit sense to use as heart rate, HRV, sleep, notifications tracking

My question is, how is it going today? I read a lot of complaints about malfunctions, the heart rate measurement is quite bad, etc.

This was fixed or are the problems still?

And I wanted to know how necessary the Premium membership is, does it force you to pay for many functions or is it not so necessary to have it?

[t.parker]

HR isn't and probably won't be fixed. I find Premium useless for me (the only thing I was interested in was the readiness score and it turned out to be another pseudo-scientific Fitbit score rather than anything useful) but that's an individual thing. You may try a free trial and see for yourself whether you need it or not (all Premium features are marked in the app so you'll know what's premium what's not). Due to bad HR, I rarely use my Sense (to be honest, I don't even know where it is now 🤔).

[Newtripley]

Hi

I can understand folks being a bit cautious after reading posts here...however keep in mind that this is a advice/help community 

I love my Sense personally I think it's the best smartwatch out there yes I does have the occasional hiccup...but that applies to nearly every bit of technology and usually there's a simple fix 

I'm a premium member mostly for greater insights into my sleep habits and there's tons of other programmes with premium membership that I have yet to discover saying that the Sense has all the important stats without having to be a premium user 

If you do decide to buy a new Sense it will come with 3 months of premium membership...try it all out for those 3 months if at the end of the trial you feel you can do without all the bells and whistles then cancel 

As I've said I love my Sense there's only two things that I wish were different 

1: Sense (in fact most smartwatches not just fitbit) will not work properly on black ink tattoos  I have to put an epoxy sticker over the diodes to get HR reading etc

2: no audible notification sounds which puzzles me ...Garmin Samsung etc all make a noice for notifications and alarms but fitbit as yet hasn't incorporated into the devices which with the Sense having a microphone and speaker seems a bit of a waste to me

As for should you buy a Sense I'd say yes absolutely 

[eezeepee]

Keep in mind there were recent rumors (as of a day or two) of a Versa 4 and Sense 2 for release this year. Coding mentions them in the Fitbit app. Unfortunately, it's been said to not likely be Wear OS. Hopefully, issues that have been common can be fixed and improvements can be made.

I would wait as you can either get the "latest and greatest" or get the older one for discount. 

[Clove6060]

I’m happy. Sense works for my needs 

Been premium member with Sense since 11/3/20.

The only thing that puzzles me is why I have not experienced problems like others. 

[t.parker]

@eezeepee two new codenames appeared. Found them, too. I don't remember the previous list but there is a third codename that appears only in one list (is specified as an enum field but it's the only field that has no explicit class constructor initializing it). It may be nothing but the codename means either "star" or somebody in Fitbit is a big fan of Star Trek TOS 😉

Edit: Just realized, it could be Ionic (just an educated guess but due to recall id could have been left for compatibility but it's no more initialized like other values).

[eezeepee]

@t.parker The thirds is supposedly the Luxe 2.

[SunsetRunner]

I am experiencing this HR measurement  problem also.It is extremely frustrating as this measurement is the one most important to me.I previously owned an iconic and had no problems at all.Fitbit help line hasn't been able to fix the problem  for me so I am thinking of returning the watch and buying another brand .Such a pity as it is such a great  watch in all other ways.

[Glen.price]

The only caution I'd give is that the battery for mine gives me no where near 6 days. I average 2-3 days per charge. Just to factor in, I have every battery draining app turned off, all notifications switched off. Basically, I'm using it as a pedometer not a smart watch. Apparently there are issues with apple watches but not android for battery drain. If it's worth the cost for you with the use you will get, go for it.

[eezeepee]

@Glen.price Welcome to the Fitbit community.

What are your settings? I can get 4 whole days with these settings:

Brightness dim, screen wake motion and button, always-on display off, snore & noise detection off, SpO2 on.

The biggest battery drainers, especially overnight, are the snore & noise detection and SpO2, but more so the snore & noise. With it on, I lose around 20% over 7 hours of sleep. With that option off, I only lose around 6-8% over 7 hours of sleep. I had it on for over a week and I don't snore and noise is minimal so it wasn't worth the drain. If I turned off SpO2 I would definitely get 5-6 days. I keep that on because it's part of the health metrics. 

Also, keep in mind most battery claims for devices are in ideal conditions and are more of a maximum battery life rather than an average. 

I just did another battery test and this was my results:

Day 1

5:15 AM - 99%

5:15 PM - 88%

Day 2

5:15 AM - 77%

5:15 PM - 65%

8:00 PM - 61%

Day 3

8:00 AM - 49%

8:00 PM - 40%

Day 4

8:00 AM - 21%

2 hours of outdoor workout with GPS used 15%

10:45 PM - 5%

That's 3.7 days and a GPS tracking usage of 7.5% per hour. At that rate, GPS tracking would average to 13.3 hours on a full 100% which is more than the 12 hours listed.

[Glen.price]

Hi, thanks for the further advice. Switched off snoring and thought I'd already culled SpO2 but woke up this morning with only 4% down from last night.

I did speak to Fitbit over the battery issue and what I needed to do to get a better result (my old Fitbit was a Versa which averages 4 days) but I think I got a duff chat bot as they could give me zero help or advice on what to do to get longer battery life. I genuinely though I had a bad battery until that chat.

Anyway, thanks once again, I'm going to go step by step with notifications now and see which I can switch on to turn it back into a smart watch!

[Auntie-Jess]

Absolutely not.  After 6 weeks mine has decided that its not going to charge.

4:30 am and my sense isnon 46%.  11 pm it was 41%.  This is not technology, this is a piece of crap.

I have 2 chargers and bought an after market one, all the same problem.  

Colossal waste of money.

[E_rose]

 I regret spending one dime with this company. I guess it really depends what you’ll use it for and your training. I’m a competitive athlete and this (also had versa 2 which sucked as well) is the worst fitness tracker I’ve ever tried. It works great for steps and treadmill stuff. Anything strenuous HA good luck getting accurate readings if it even is able to pick up anything.

just today for example (I’ve done this numerous times) I worse my boyfriends Apple Watch on one wrist and my Fitbit on the other; his Apple Watch was pretty on par with the reading on the stair master;

stair master was reading 185 HR

apple watch 181 HR 

fitbit ————- 97 🙄  again this happened constantly with the versa so they offered me a discount on the sense and the same thing. 

I have more accurate readings with my $50 tracker from Marshall’s than this 

[Twinz2]

I have only had my sense for about a week, but the HR seems accurate for me so far. The battery seems to drain faster than the Ionic I returned in the recall, but the Sense charges a lot faster too.

[eezeepee]

@Twinz2 Welcome to the Fitbit community.

I didn't have an Ionic but the Sense definitely charges quick, when the connection is good. Just giving you a heads up but I think most, if not everyone, experiences a "Slow charging" notification eventually. If that happens, just give the charger pins a clean wipe, alcohol pad will do, and the connection should be good.

Top is a poor connection and the bottom is a good connection. You can tell by the low watts, 0.378w vs 1.172w. The only difference is a wipe. When it's fast charging and I have a <15% battery, I can get gain around 50% (so end with around 60%) in only 20 something minutes. I do that when I shower and get ready.