Sense issues reported by reviewers

[Rinopopo]

I've read 7 different reviews and every single one says that this device is half-baked. I'm really worried about this. Anyone at fitbit could tell me if they are aware of those issues and if are going to be fixed in a day one firmware update?

- slow OS

- slow animations

- not so accurate HR readings when exercising.

- no spo2 readings if you don't enable the spo2 watchface (WTF FITBIT!!)

- no voice responses from alexa
- no voice calls at all.

- Lack of information about stress management data.

[Heather-S]

I believe physical buttons can be an issue with when the device gets wet (water can potentially enter in through the button). I prefer an inductive button like on the Charge 3 and 4. It is a more sleek, modern design and it reduces the risk of accidentally pressing the button when bending the wrist. 

And like I said before, for the 100th time, I believe the heart rate swings DC was recording were due to lack of a firmware update. That isn’t his fault, but it doesn’t mean the HR sensor is faulty or inaccurate overall. I have not experienced any swings in HR with my Sense, personally. 

@Tomtomato 

[Rinopopo]

@Heather-S I wrote a comment on his video. Maybe he will reply

[Heather-S]

@Rinopopo He responded to me when I told him I could see all my stress score data and that the app gives you a detailed explanation. He seemed perplexed as to how I was seeing this data. Maybe Fitbit hadn’t rolled it out yet (not his fault). 

Fitbit needs to stop giving early reviewers access to devices if they aren’t getting updated firmware or app updates, because it just looks bad. 

[SunsetRunner]

@Heather-SFit-Bit should also stop releasing products that are half-baked. Some Services are not ready, only through a promise without actual dates. Some services are half way there. Releasing a firmware upon delivery is also bad practice because it feels that they rushed the release of the product. So why don't they release the product 2 days later and show us that within one year of developing this product they were actually working on it.

As a candidate looking for a job, will I be spared the rejection if I told them that my Resume is not finished but I will finish it in two days ? I guess when someone wins the contract for a job, they can do as many mistakes as they want.

[bobby2478]

@SunsetRunnerunfortunately releasing products that are "half baked" meaning have some defects in software that need to be fixed post release that's common. They have to pick a launch date far in advance, scale up manufacturing and delivery to brick and mortar stores, all while continuing their testing/development. There is a small window to be competitive. If they delayed launch then they could lose sales to Apple that announced right around the same time.

No software is ever 100% defect free, they have to prioritize the fixes for the most important items. It's not unreasonable or uncommon to release products with minor issues that need to be addressed post launch (assuming those issues are software and not hardware related). Most everything I've seen in reviews from the Sense would seem to be software/firmware issues that they can clean up post-launch.

I just wish the reviewers with negative feedback would post an update AFTER firmware update reflecting whether their concerns were addressed or not (especially HR). However no telling if the devices they got were special "test" devices that don't get the firmware updates pushed to them as timely, and many of those reviewers finished their review and may have sent the devices back to Fitbit in which case they can't post an update to their initial review.

[Rinopopo]

 I don't know if there was a new update after that. let's wait for more reviews after some days.

[Tristannyc]

I think the new sensor is suffering from “it didn’t get tested enough”
syndrome.

I’m also kinda turned off by how much Is pay gated these days on these
devices.

I’ve ordered the Garmin Venu as well as it does all day stress tracking to
compare. I feel like perhaps Fitbit has lost it’s way. My Versa 1 was great
but the “new features” that kept popping up were locked behind premium
models that just don’t make sense for a fitness watch costing 300+ $

Maybe I’m wrong. Hopefully I’m wrong.


--
Sent from my phone. Please excuse any typos, over abundance of emojis, or
autocorrect duck ups.

[dcrainmaker]

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@Heather-S wrote:

I believe physical buttons can be an issue with when the device gets wet (water can potentially enter in through the button). I prefer an inductive button like on the Charge 3 and 4. It is a more sleek, modern design and it reduces the risk of accidentally pressing the button when bending the wrist. 

And like I said before, for the 100th time, I believe the heart rate swings DC was recording were due to lack of a firmware update. That isn’t his fault, but it doesn’t mean the HR sensor is faulty or inaccurate overall. I have not experienced any swings in HR with my Sense, personally. 

@Tomtomato 

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My Sense (and app) has been on the most recent firmware offered each day, and I checked it each day during the review period (it offered one on the first day). Currently it shows 128.1.42 (and doesn't offer/show any updates).

From my discussions with Fitbit, they have been looking at my data, and believe that "due to your low resting HR and the algorithm having difficulty ramping up when you are exercising", going on to note that the sensor or algorithm has challenges with basically more athletic people than not. Obviously, that won't impact everyone (optical HR sensor issues rarely do), but given that multiple reviewers noted issues, it seems like a pretty valid issue. Nobody at Fitbit has said that I'm doing it wrong, nor that I'm not on the right version or anything else. So I'm not sure why some folks are posting in every forum/Reddit/etc everywhere that it's just a case of reviewers being on the wrong firmware.

I'd really encourage folks that are saying they aren't having problems, to dual-record a workout using a HR strap or other relative known good. Despite a lot of talking, I haven't seen much of that...

[Heather-S]

@dcrainmaker I don't have a heart rate strap, so unfortunately I won't be testing via that method.  I'm simply comparing my workout data with my Versa 2 to my Sense with similar workouts and lengths of time and perceived effort, similar to what other users have done.

I appreciate your review and the time it takes to do them, I just don't always agree with all the reviewers.  I go by what I experience with the device in my hands.  Everyone has different experiences and variables.  You're probably more athletic than I am, so perhaps that's why your HR sensor struggled and mine really hasn't.

I commented on that Reddit post for the simple reason that I disagreed with your observation that the button was hard to push.  I was being honest that it seemed very nit-picky and a little dramatic.  And I'm a Fitbit CC member, I'm on the Fitbit forums ALL the time, not only when Fitbit releases new devices.  

[VascoDeGama]

Heather-M   posts the same posts here or on reddit. If it's the same person as on reddit, she said her sense was donated by fitbit. I don't think she has an objective opinion.

I have the garmin Fenix 6 pro for cycling and runing and the Sense was for the work en sleep tracker.

I'll give the sense a chance, if the HR is really bad, I will make an amazon return

DCray i follow you from France, great job in your reviews, pity there is no French translation for your videos but I read your reviews in your blog. Great job. 

Sorry for my english. 

[Heather-S]

@VascoDeGama I am completely objective, however I don't use other devices -- I'm not interested in Garmin, Polar, or Apple at all.  Fitbit has been and will always be my primary device.  I don't agree with everything Fitbit does and I do agree there are some frustrating decisions they make.  I'm very honest about that. 

My point was that there are HR variables for every single person.  If DC and Fitbit are communicating that he's on the right firmware, then fine, that's up to Fitbit to determine why his heart rate sensor wasn't working properly. 

But all I can give is my point of view based on my own hands on experience, just like he can.

[SunsetRunner]

As I read the comments here, Fit Bit gave me a fat burning zone warning of 130 bpm. I said  what !!!? I was looking at it to see where it will go. I was just sitting on my chair. Every second it lowered the bpm by 1 beat.

I was having weird thoughts in between. How much I devalued my Active 2, sigh !

It missed 2 stairs that I climbed ! They are definitely 3 meters high each.

[N8teGee]

I think the most worrying part here is that Fitbit believe the issue is because @dcrainmaker is fit and has a low RHR. So the fitter we get, the less accurate we could expect the heart rate sensor to become? At least we have now learned that there may be an issue with the Sensor/Algorithm. So the question is, is it something that Fitbit are able to fix through software updates. 

[VascoDeGama]

@SunsetRunner  130 bpm while you are seated?The HR is really bad in this case. 

[Heather-S]

If it is indeed true that Fitbit is blaming it on DC’s low RHR, I agree that is not good and it needs to be fixed ASAP. @N8teGee 

[SunsetRunner]

@N8teGee 

But don't tell me they didn't know about it, 1 whole year that they were working on it and got shockingly surprised to find out now that the sensor needs fixing. DCrainmaker tested this along with other trackers and they were showing the same thing on the graph except for fit bit. So everyone else found how it better works and fit bit with a better sensor v2.0 don't.

[bobby2478]

@dcrainmaker thanks for the additional context, that's helpful. Out of curiosity, have you reviewed the new Versa 3 (HR specifically)? I'd assume since Versa 3 and Sense both use the new Pure Pulse 2.0 HR sensor tech that they'd both experience the same issues with HR accuracy.

You did a lot of research and have solid data by measuring HR across a variety of other devices and it's promising that you say Fitbit has taken this data and is actively looking into the HR algorithm/accuracy. The fact you can state that you have been in direct contact with Fitbit (obviously someone in the engineering/software dept and not your front line customer service rep) is again promising as it means the people at Fitbit who actually have the ability to make this better are in the know and are looking into it. To your point about how it has difficulty with combination of low resting HR and slow to ramp up when exercising, hopefully this is just a software/firmware/algorithm issue that can be cleaned up over time (to your point it's all new), vs a design/hardware flaw.  Considering this is such new tech i'm somewhat surprised they'd run into this now, you'd figure as part of their R&D they'd have done similar tests as you did with a participants in a variety of skin color and level of physical fitness all with the same variety of devices to see how their new tech compares to others and fine tune/tweak it until it was more consistent/accurate.

Hopefully they get back to you soon with some confirmation that they feel they can/are addressing the issue with a future firmware/software update

[Heather-S]

But see, that's different than my experience. @VascoDeGama @SunsetRunner I'm standing at my stand-up desk right now and it's recording 100bpm.  My RHR fluctuates between 59-62.  

 

I don't know why it is different for some and fine for others.  It's strange for sure.

[N8teGee]

@SunsetRunner I have no insight into how Fitbit test their devices, in fact I'm just as interested as you are. I can't comment on accuracy from a personal perspective as I haven't got a non fitbit device to test it against. So it could be pretty good, or horribly inaccurate, I just don't know. I do however trust DC Rainmakers heart rate tests, and for me it's disappointing to see the Sense struggle. Hopefully Fitbit will investigate this further and fix whatever is causing the issue. I'm only a walker and would say I fall into the "average" fitness range, so I assume I wouldn't give the HR sensor too much of a hard time.

[SunsetRunner]

I don't know @Heather-S . I'll wait another week or so for more info. So far FitBit is not that different than even the cheapest fitness trackers out there. They are accurate too when compared to a pulsOX2 machine and cost $30, they are just not fancy enough to cost $329.