In an effort to set the Sense 2 apart from parent company Google Pixel Watch, Fitbit reduced the price this generation and deleted a number of lifestyle apps, focusing the device more on wellness. you can read our article on Fitbit Sense 2 review. The Sense 2 delivers several usability upgrades over the first model, such as a more responsive touch screen, a physical button, and somewhat longer battery life, but we don’t like the way the heart rhythm sensor’s translucent display border looks. We recommend the Fitbit Versa 4, which additionally monitors important health indicators like breathing rate, heart rate variability, and skin temperature change, for the majority of customers. However, the Sense 2 is a great alternative if you’re ready to invest an additional $70 for on-demand atrial fibrillation evaluations and cutting-edge features to help you deal with stress.
Design
We’ve got bad news if you’re already familiar with the Fitbit Sense series and were expecting the Sense 2 will look different. The huge design modification is as much a mea culpa as anything else because the two generations of watches seem similar to one another. The Sense 2 now has a tactile button thanks to Fitbit. The initial concerns about the irritating touch panel were well-founded. The aesthetic of Sense 2 isn’t particularly contemporary, although it has only really aged in one dimension. The Fitbit Sense 2’s bezel is large and heavy, exactly like the first model, in contrast to Apple Watch Series 8 ultra-thin bezel. Because the Sense 2 display is an OLED panel, this isn’t always evident; rather, it’s only noticeable under specific lighting circumstances that accentuate where the screen terminates. Because emissive pixels allow dark portions of the screen to blend into the background, it’s the perfect technology for a smartwatch. The same materials were used in the original as well. The glass front of the Fitbit Sense 2 is somewhat domed and significantly more square-shaped than most. The majority of the back is plastic, and the sides are aluminum. Many other smartwatches, such as the Pixel Watch, Apple Watch Series 8, and Garmin Epix 2, have come into our use recently. The Fitbit Sense 2 has the least sharp of the group’s displays, but you won’t notice it unless you get exceptionally close to the screen. It includes an always-on setting that is worth testing if you’re content with two to three days rather than six of battery life. It is otherwise vibrant and colorful.
Fitbit Sense 2 review: Tracking
When you consider the fitness and health monitoring functions the Sense 2 has to offer, things start to look a little more normal. If you care more about steps, sleep, and stress management than getting really accurate and dependable exercise monitoring, then this is the tracker for you. It is still a better health and wellness tracker than it is a sports tracker. Daily step counts were typically 500–800 steps within the same tracking on the Oura Ring 3 and are simple to monitor from the watch and watch face. Fitbit excels at sleep monitoring, and the Sense 2 is no exception in terms of the level of detail and accuracy of the data. Oura’s dependable sleep tracking support was extremely similar to elements like sleep duration and sleep stage breakdown. Along with its Premium subscription service, which you get six months of free access to when you set up your Fitbit for the first time, Fitbit has now added a new sleep profile feature. In order to analyze your sleep patterns, you must wear your watch for 14 nights. In addition, you will be given a sleep animal to represent your sleeping habits. Additionally, a watch face with that animal’s image can be purchased. The Sense 2 can monitor blood oxygen levels as you sleep to help identify changes in your general well-being. Once more, an ECG sensor and app are available to evaluate heart rhythm and aid in the identification of atrial fibrillation symptoms. Additionally, you will receive assistance with resting heart rate readings, high and low heart rate alarms, and both. A skin temperature sensor is also there, which, like the SpO2 sensor, tracks data at night to provide extra wellness insights. All of these function similarly to how they did on the first Sense.
Display
The screen, which is a rectangular AMOLED touchscreen with dynamic, colourful backgrounds to display watch faces and statistics, doesn’t appear to have undergone any significant changes. Although the raise to wake gesture support is still as dismally slow as it was on the previous Sense, it does offer an always-on setting. The Sense 2 allows for mixing and matching of straps, and removing the 24mm bands from the watch casing only requires the push of a single button. If you want to switch from silicone to leather and are willing to spend anywhere between £24 and $50 for a smarter-looking strap, you’ll mostly have to stick with Fitbit’s own official straps. Although the silicone band on our Sense 2 did perfectly match the color of our case, the clasp arrangement makes it a rather uncomfortable strap to hold in place, and it can take some experimenting to get it just right. Once it’s on, it won’t move, but finding a fit that strikes a delicate balance between being comfortable to wear day and night and sitting snugly enough for the sensors on the back to track data accurately can be challenging. Fitbit hasn’t changed the level of water resistance the Sense 2 offers, so it’s providing you a watch that you can wear while taking a shower or swimming as long as the water isn’t deeper than 50 metres.
Fitbit Sense 2 review: Battery life
Fitbit’s smartwatches, in contrast to some of the better ones, can easily last a week and even a little longer, depending on the features you use frequently. The Sense 2’s battery size is not specified by Fitbit, although the company does state that it should last 6+ days. Additionally, it notes that using features like the cEDA sensor, SpO2, and the always-on display would result in lower battery life. Fitbit claims a battery life of 5 hours for GPS tracking, which is a significant decrease from the 12 hours claimed on the original Sense if you intend to use it frequently. The daily drop-off ranged from 10% to 20%, and the GPS battery stats certainly seem to stack up. When using an always-on display, you may expect to see that daily figure fall to two to three days. A quick 12-minute charge using Fitbit’s fast-charging technology extends your battery life by one day. The Sense 2 can give a smartwatch that can last a week if that’s what you want.
Interface and controls
Despite using Fitbit’s fitness monitoring technology, the Google Pixel Watch is not a Wear OS 3 wristwatch. However, the redesigned UI did show some Wear OS influence. The Fitbit app has replaced the previous method of browsing quartets of app icons with a tile menu that can be added, rearranged, and deleted. This may not feel as special to Fitbit, but it greatly improves navigating. also you can check our article on Fitbit Sense 2 review. Third-party apps cannot be downloaded, despite the fact that you can download a variety of watch faces, including those with always-on modes. It’s odd that the Fitbit Sense 2 and the upcoming Fitbit Versa 4 lack support for a number of third-party apps that are compatible with older Fitbit smartwatches, such as Strava, My Fitness Pal, Starbucks, and Uber. It would still be wonderful to have some options given that the Fitbit app selection has always been constrained in comparison to those offered through Google Wear OS and wearOS on the Apple Watch. The availability of Google Pay and Google Maps for the Sense has been verified, but Fitbit has not yet specified whether the entire catalogue of third-party apps will be supported for the Sense 2 in a future update. These new apps ought to bring a little more “smart” to the term “smartwatch.” Fortunately, you do get the necessities, such smartphone notifications that are reflected, weather data, timers, and even Alexa voice control. We are actually extremely happy that Fitbit devices are sticking with Alexa despite the increasing dominance of Google. The Sense 2 is still compatible with Android and iOS mobile devices. These days, not many popular smartwatches support both.
Fitbit Sense 2 review: Other features
So far, so authentic Fitbit Sense. The Fitbit OS interface has been updated with the Sense 2, though, and the design is now much more similar to that of the Pixel Watch. This makes sense given that Fitbit is now owned by Google and that these watches need to get along, at least as much as family members do. Actually, the change is a good one as well. The watch face’s left and right arrows are used to navigate between the daily stat screens. There is a summary of the day’s statistics, a heart rate graph over time, a weather report, and a few other items — standard Fitbit fare. The alerts appear when you swipe up from the watch face and look fantastic on the Sense’s sizable screen. And the Sense 2’s version of an apps menu is accessed by pressing the side button. This contains some of the information available in those stat panels along with some clever additions. The Fitbit Sense 2 appears like far less of a smartwatch today than top-end Fitbits did a few years ago, which is one of the important lessons we learned from our weeks with the Sense 2. The business no longer supports third-party apps. Fitbit’s app scene hasn’t been great for a while, but at least the first Fitbit Sense had a Spotify app. That is gone.
Price and configurations options
The Sense 2 costs $300 right now, which isn’t cheap, but its style and feature set make up for it. The Fitbit Inspire 3 is a great choice if you’re searching for a less expensive fitness tracker because it costs only a third of what the Sense 2 does, but it lacks many of the Sense 2’s bells and whistles. also you will learn our article on Fitbit Sense 2 review.
conclusion
It is impossible to determine the cause of the Sense 2’s kneecap without an official explanation. This result, however, gives the impression that Google is trying to ensure the success of the Pixel Watch considering the timing of the Pixel Watch—just two weeks after the Sense 2. Nevertheless, the Sense 2 is a regrettable casualty of imprecise design choices. Despite having amazing hardware, it can’t compete with the best. The Garmin Venu Sq Music Edition, which offers third-party app and music functionality as well as a longer-rated battery life, is available for the same $300 pricing.
