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Issues with Batey life, GPS, steps counter and touch screen responsiveness!!

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‎11-20-2021 11:30

‎11-20-2021 11:30

So from the subject, you must have already gathered that I'm facing a lot of issues with my recently purchased Fitbit Sense. (Firmware updated to 44.128.6.12). Let me break this down into 4 parts -

 

1 - Battery life - The battery life that I have been getting has been nothing short of abysmal. Naturally, when I first got the watch, I had charged it fully and had all of the bells and whistles (EDA, ECG, SPO2, etc) on and unfortunately the battery barely lasted a day. For my next charge, I disabled permissions and uninstalled everything like Deezer, Spotify, SPO2, EDA, GPS and also ensured that always on display has been turned off. Despite all these accommodations, the battery lasted just about two days. Now this is much much lesser than the 6 days advertised, and I feel that if we're paying a premium to get the best smartwatch available, we shouldn't have to make such sacrifices on the very health features that this watch prides itself on. Something needs to be done in order to fix this.

 

2 - Crap GPS - So the GPS on this thing just DOES NOT work indoors. Given the current weather here in Canada, I've been doing all my walking/workouts indoors, and try hard as I might, the GPS was forever stuck in "Connecting". When I went outdoors, it did finally manage to connect, but that too after almost 2-3 minutes of waiting. Again, this is vastly inferior compared to what other competitors are offering and at this price point, frankly, it's laughable.

 

3 - Inaccurate step counter - So I've been using a fitness band (Honor Band 3) since 2017, and have never owned a smartwatch. Naturally, this being my first ever smartwatch, I was really excited to see what it could offer. However, after around a week of using it, it seems to be wildly inaccurate with the steps counter. For example, it records steps even if I'm lying down on my couch and just move my arms about! It records steps even while I'm asleep, I'll wake up in the morning to see that the Fitbit has recorded 100 odd steps, whereas my Honor band is at 0 (which is what is expected, since I haven't got out of my bed lol). Considering this much of a premium that we are paying for "supposedly" one of the most accurate and health oriented smartwatch, this was frankly embarrassing.

 

4- Touch screen responsiveness -  And last but definitely not the least, comes the touch screen. Now for most screens and views, there is definitely a noticeable amount of lag and it feels cumbersome to navigate through the various menus but I can still live with that. The deal-breaker is while trying to end my workouts. I literally have to swipe up continuously for almost a MINUTE in order to bring up the pause/end workout screen!!! This is the most irritating and annoying issue that I've been facing since I got this watch. It literally NEVER works on first try!! I can't believe how this wasn't noticed and fixed in QA testing. This problem only gets aggravated with a protective case on the watch ( Which I do have).

 

In light of all these issues, I have been pondering whether or not to send this product back or not, and go for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 instead! The only thing that's keeping me on the fence is that I have a Google Pixel phone, and I heard that a lot of the Samsung's health tracking features only work with a Samsung phone.. so I'm really confused at this point... Any help with any of these issues that I mentioned above would really be very much appreciated.. thank you. 

 

 

Best Answer
2 REPLIES 2

‎11-20-2021 11:49

‎11-20-2021 11:49

Just about the GPS. It is very rare the GPS can connect when you're indoors. It's for any GPS watch, not only Fitbit.

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‎11-20-2021 19:55

‎11-20-2021 19:55

I’m furious about this. When I first bought it (before the Apple update) it lasted 6 days AT LEAST. I had every feature. Ever since that Apple update, it’s drained so quickly it’s pointless wearing it. Fitbit claim to have fixed it with their updates but we all know that’s a lie. The selling points of this watch were 6+ days battery life and lots of features. In less than two days, the battery has drained by more than half: I haven’t logged a workout, I’ve done under 3000 steps each day (I’m unwell atm) and I haven’t used the GPS. I’ve turned off all the features they claim could be “draining the battery” even though it didn’t do this pre-Apple update. I even contacted them and I was told the “Set Up A New Device” advice. 

It didn’t make any difference. It’s infuriating because we all know this is an issue but Fitbit seem to be in denial and claim it’s all fixed! It isn’t! You shouldn’t have to disable all the features (and therefore the entire point!) of a £350 watch to get more than 2 days of battery life, even while sitting still!

 

PLEASE ACTUALLY fix this issue Fitbit. I had problems with TWO Versas therefore I bought the Sense, only to have all these issues because of a single iOS update! 

Best Answer