Sense Heart Rate and Battery life

[KCl94]

Hi everyone! Very first time posting here. I just wanted to ask for up-to-date fixes (if there are any) to some of the common issues I've seen posted on this site: The inaccuracy of the heart rate tracker and the poor battery life. 

1. I just got my Sense last Friday (12/04). Charged it on that same day, and yesterday (Tuesday 12/08) once again. I don't think this is a HUGE deal (Samsung and Apple smartwatches barely make it through one full day), but my Sense's battery life is definitely not close to the advertised 6 days. I don't have AOD on, I don't use a SpO2 screen at night (but I did install the app). The battery of my Fitbit is below 60% as I write this post. So, what have you guys done besides the classic restarting and rebooting to solve this issue? 

2. My workouts consist mainly of weight lifting with a few minutes of cardio in the end. I work out three times per week and yesterday was my first session, as I finished every set of lifts I would compare my HR readings from the Sense to the readings from the S9+ sensor on the back of the phone. My expectations were that the Fitbit readings would fall +/- 5 bpm (arbitrary window) vs the S9+, but I was so wrong! The Fitbit would sometimes read 90-105 bpm when my HR was actually over 130! And during the StairMaster session, where my peak bpm was over 180, the Sense would read 110-130, it did read over 160 bpm twice, though. Maybe it's just lagging?

Anyway, out of 15 scans, the Sense would only read similar values to those on my phone 3 times. Needless to say, the Fitbit did pretty bad.

This is my first smartwatch (upgraded from a 4yo Fitbit Alta, STILL ALIVE AND WORKING FINE!) and I like it so far! It's not great because you can't make calls or text anybody from it but I am hopeful these features will be integrated soon. Any news on upcoming updates, btw?

[Rich_Laue]

Hi @KCl94 you may not have an SpO2 watch face, but you probably still have the SpO2 app installed. 

It is this app, not the watch face, that now measures your O2 level while sleeping. 

Go to the list of installed apps and remove the SpO2 app. 

As for heart rate accuracy with weight lifting, this is a common complaint due to the flexing of the wrist. Try moving the watch a little up the arm. 

I'm able to respond to texts, and speak to callers through the wrist. 

[KCl94]

Hey Rich, 

I am not trying to remove the SpO2, any other ideas?

I tried moving it up a bit, I also tried with the sensors facing the inner/lower side of my wrist. The second gave me better readings (a difference of +/- 10 bpm) but the results were just as bad as the first time when I went for the StairMaster session. According to the Sense, my avg bpm was 118 (vs 165 from StairMaster)!!! 

Last, I can respond to texts by dictating the message and I can speak to callers through the wrist as well, what I meant to say is that I would like to see a future update that would allow us to start a call FROM the Sense (Google Assistant starts the call from the phone), and a text-typing feature, like Apple watches.

[Rich_Laue]

My point about the SpO2 app is explaining why your battery life has decreased. 

I don't know anything about text typing on the AW. 

As for initiating calls or texts. You may want to address this with Fitbit and not the Fitbit users. 

Add your votes to 

Make calls from the wrist. 

Reply to text messages (scribble/keyboard) 

As for the heart rate, did you check your pulse and the clocks second hand? 

[KCl94]

I get your point about the SpO2 👍🏽

The text/call features were just a comment, I have voted for those ideas already. 

Also, sorry but I didn't fully get what you meant by second hand, you mean putting it on my dominant arm? After every set I would scan my HR using the S9+ sensor while at the same time reading the results from the Sense. Same thing during StairMaster. 

[Rich_Laue]

Try this link.