FitbitSense Advanced Smartwatch with Tools for Heart Health, Stress Management & Skin Temperature Trends, White/Gold, One Size (S & L Bands Included)

Let me first say that I am not a smart watch person. I had the Samsung Watch before and absolutely hated it. I was very resistant to switch from my faithful Charge 3 to a new device that seemed similar to a smart watch, especially one that clearly had features that hadn't been fully sorted out yet. At the same time, some of these features, like the 24/7 heartrate monitoring and improved data for sleep monitoring were definitely a draw.I haven't had this device for months yet, and may update this in the future if I notice different things, but I will say if you go into this with the idea that you're buying a health tracker, you'll get about what you expect. This is not a fancy smart watch and if you want all the music features, additional apps, and things of that nature, this device is not for you. It doesn't function like a smart watch near at all. The music player is limited to Deezer, which I haven't tried. It allows you to navigate Pandora and Spotify on your phone through the device, which is literally the only feature I wanted a smart watch for when I was teaching dance, so for me it's perfect. Almost everything else focuses on your health.Other reviews have commented on the press point to activate the watch being problematic, but I have had no issues. It doesn't always come on when I turn my wrist to face, which was the same issue with all my previous Fitbit devices. However, the press point to turn it on is basically the same idea as my Charge 3, so maybe that's why I have no issues there.Not all the newly available metrics have obvious uses. The additional sleep data is very much up for interpretation, but if you keep a log with how you feel when you wake in the morning, any correlation becomes obvious. While I don't know how to interpret this data myself, it is something I've mentioned to my doctor and we will be reviewing on my next visit to help give us a bigger picture of what contributes to my poor quality sleep and other sleep challenges. This is one of the reasons I opted to upgrade when my Charge 3 was still working great and perfectly serviceable.In additional metrics, we should talk about that EDA scan that's mentioned in all the reviews, but no one seems to understand. I'm actively trying to train myself to make use of that feature. A nifty little thing I've noticed, EDA responses don't appear when I'm under high stress, but they do appear when I've experimented with using the quick scan feature as a non-visual timer for deep breathing in the middle of a anxiety attack. While I don't know if this is reliable, it is giving my medical team more information to try and figure out what's going on, so this may have useful implication in the future.Another note on the EDA quick scan, as I haven't done any of the guided sessions, it gives you information on your heartrate variability in comparison to your baseline, which I assume is taken from your sleep baseline. Below baseline indicates high stress where above indicates a relaxed state. For me, this has become a useful tool to make sure I'm getting enough exercise, which directly impacts my depression. I know some people out there say "just make sure you get XYZ amount of exercise every day." For me this is giving me useful data on how much and how often is enough to get that number up. Will a run or yoga in the morning be effective for the day? Does an evening routine impact the next morning? It's quantifiable data that I can use as a cue in building my own routine.I also want to mention the other feature that sold me on this device, the 24/7 heartrate monitoring. Before the pandemic (and became increasingly difficult throughout the pandemic) I had taken up running. One of the things my training app asked was my heartrate during my run. Only problem was I could not accurately get that data as my Charge 3 needed me to remain stationary for an accurate heartrate read. While my heartrate on a run may not have been a necessary detail to include, not having that heartrate often meant exercises were missed and other activities that possibly should have flagged a response didn't. My active minutes have dramatically increased as a result of having more accurate heartrate monitoring. I am also getting a much more accurate look at my activity levels and my calorie intake versus calories burned. This constant data is a lot more useful for anyone who is monitoring their health during exercise, trying to get an accurate calories in/calories out record, and anyone trying to get an accurate picture of what their activity level is throughout the day beyond simply steps to include things previous trackers may have missed. It even picked up on 4 minutes of cardio levels while I was doing an excited sword demonstration for my kids while homeschooling. Is that 4 minutes useful time? Probably not, but it's good to put in my list of activities Fitbit wouldn't have noticed before, but logs now, which also includes dance and other movement exercises that weren't enough to trigger my Charge 3 to identify them as exercise. It was disappointing that 2 hours of dance 3 days a week would often only show up as maybe 30 minutes each day, and sometimes not at all. Those same practices (with an admittedly shorter 30 minute cap due to lack or stamina, thanks pandemic...) are being picked up in their entirety, even if my heartrate elevation is small, but enough to push it into registering in one of the "zones". This has helped a good deal in getting an overall portrait of my health and activity levels, which I'll be bringing to my doctor on my next visit.The only thing I have found is I haven't been able to get 6 days of battery life out of it, generally landing at 4-5 days. For me this isn't an issue as I don't wear my device to shower and have had a habit since my original Charge HR (way back in the day) of popping it on the charger whenever I shower. This may also be why I don't have any effect from the device or band as my wrist gets regular breaks.If you're primarily looking for a smart watch and just want something with some extra features, this will not be the device for you. While the extra health tracking is a great draw, it loses a lot of the functionality my old smart watch had, the notifications for things like texts don't always come through (which is fine for me because I don't want that) and the pay feature isn't fantastic. Again, that doesn't matter to me because it's a feature I don't intend to really use anyway, but had to test it out. The apps are limited, and options for music and taking calls aren't wonderful.On the other hand, if you're looking for a device to give you detailed health information, to accurately log fitness activities, and increased metrics for sleep, this may just be the device for you. It's the best fitness tracker I've seen so far, and this is giving my medical team some new information to work with, which may or may not be useful in the long run, but looks promising. That EDA quick scan had potential for people who suffer clinical anxiety or even PTSD as it can be used to cue deep breathing, and the resulting data may result in creating a better profile of what's going on during an attack, or at the very least can result in creating a cue to take specific actions in a way that simply feeling in the moment cannot. Not all of this data will be useful for everyone, but it could be useful for someone who needs this kind of data to help understand their sleep patterns, anxiety levels, how activity, even in small amounts of a few minutes here and there, impacts their mental health, or even just someone who wants an accurate profile of their physical fitness throughout their exercises.I was 100% resistant to the idea of yet another smart watch, but in the end I'm happy I made the switch. The added information I've gained has given me a lot more understanding of what's going on with me. I now have clues as to why nights I get plenty of quality sleep (according to previously going on just my sleep score) I wake up feeling tired, and I'm seeing a correlation with sleep temp particularly and low quality sleep. That 24/7 heartrate has been huge. I can now actually monitor my activity level instead of trying to track exercise my Charge missed (because I never turn on exercises prior to start as I never remember or can't figure out which fits best), and result in trying to figure out a routine that way. Everything is logged now, making it simple and accurate. The EDA scan is becoming a tool to manage my anxiety, and while the metrics may or may not be useful, it does cue activities which are useful, so even if it's no more than placebo effect, the end result is valuable.What you will get out of this device will be very personal and it depends on how you use it, and what you expect to get from it. The Fitbit Sense can be a useful tool for you and your medical team, or even you and your trainer, depending on your goals. This device is definitely not for everyone, and the price point does not make it worth it for every user, but if you're looking for a tool to track your health, this one seems to be the best on the market to date.

I bought this because of having surgery. It does a lot of things I have not used yet. It is easy to put on and off

I like how easy it was to setup the watch, the recipes, and challenges. The fitbit company really improved their watches from the first one. I was hesitant to purchase a fitbit after I got the original charge. The watch band comes in large and small. Very easy to put on by yourself.I take my watch off to wipe the back and wash my wrist if I wear it for a long time. To give my wrist a break.The sleep accuracy is also good. Clocks me in at about 6hrs which is pretty accurate.The information you get back can be a bit more easier to understand.I like the cheer it sends when you reach your step goal. It truly is motivating. In the community its nice to see people cheer each other on makes it worth wild. Plus they do offer family plans. That would make the challenges even more fun.I did have trouble with doing the alexa assistant but when I removed the app from my phone then did it. The assistant did not give problems. Then I redownloaded the app now it works fine. I did do a tech support with fitbit when I had this issue non of them knew what to do. I was told I would receive an email but didn't. So I guess on my part I figured it out on my own.By the way the eda is pretty good and the calming. Being someone who gets anxious this is a nice reminder to relax.The cost is up there but I had a samsung watch 4 and returned it for this. The cost if this was 100 dollars cheaper. Also the battery does last quite long. My Samsung watch had lasted about 10 hr day. Fitbit lasts three or 4 between charges.

First things first, I got the Sense for the promo price of $278 and wasn't going to buy it at the original price. When it went on sale, I thought it'd now be worth it but that is not the case at all. I don't even think it's worth $200. I will be returning it for many reasons.1. Phone DependencyIt's interesting that a $330 watch that has its own independent wifi capability as well as its own independent GPS still relies so much on being paired to a mobile phone. I didn't think this was the case before buying it but I learned very quickly and frustratingly that a few features are useless without phone connectivity (active pairing).--Information syncing: with its own wifi capability, technically a smartwatch shouldn't have to be paired to your phone via Bluetooth just to receive information and stats updates.A smart scale with WiFi for example no longer needs to be actively paired to your phone via Bluetooth to update your stats, you just get on the scale, get off and the data gets sent off. The phone doesn't need to be directly tethered to get an update of that info and as long as the scale has wifi, you should never need bluetooth. That's what a Fitbit -should- be like, but it absolutely is not and is completely dependent on bluetooth to send stats to your Fitbit app.-- Spotify: it neither stores music (downloadable playlists) nor accesses streaming music through the watch itself. It's merely a controller for the Spotify app on your phone. This kind of negates the point of independent GPS because... cool you can use the GPS for a run without your phone but then.... you still need your phone for music.--Google Assistant: is NOT built-in! Not in the way that would usually mean. Google Assistant piggybacks or hooks into the Google Assistant on your Android phone. It's not really an assistant app as much as it is a "relay." This means it doesn't work if the watch loses connection with your phone. Which, guess what my second big issue is:2. It loses connections a LOTRight out of the box, connectivity was a massive headache. This was the most frustrating piece of tech to set up and it probably shouldn't be that way for $300+. The way to set it up is to use the phone app to connect the watch to wifi or Bluetooth so that it can do all of its updates and syncing. Now, if you don't have wifi access, you can just pair the Sense via Bluetooth and set it up that way, however, it will take **hours** as the updates are probably massive.I know this because the Fitbit app could not find any wifi networks whatsoever during setup and after trying to add my home network manually and failing over and over, I opted for bluetooth setup instead. I left it for half an hour, came back, and it wasn't even a fourth of the way through on it's little progress bar.I decided I couldn't wait and wanted to attempt wifi setup again and after a few more tries it finally took. The update indeed went much much faster, but that wasn't the end of the connectivity issues.The Sense also just loses bluetooth connectivity a LOT throughout the day. And you'll find this out when you try to open an app that requires your phone to be actively paired (see my photos). Instructions say to turn the Bluetooth on your phone off and back on or restart the watch if you're still having connection issues and I cannot. Why should anyone have to be constantly restarting their Bluetooth or smartwatch for a $300+ premium device??Combined with the phone dependency of some apps, it's almost like you have to have your phone in hand any time you want to use the watch and this is NOT a premium experience for a watch that claims to be their newest and most advanced!3. The Fitbit app is complete rubbishI cannot fathom wanting to spend extra money on a subscription to Fitbit Premium, not just because we already paid $300 but also because even if the information and tracking was worth it, the app is so wonky that the extra info wouldn't be of much use.By wonky I mean that sometimes things don't register. I'll log water and it just won't show that I did it. I've tried again and again to log food by scanning barcodes and it just can't detect a single barcode. Meanwhile MyFitnessPal on the same phone can detect them perfectly. Trying to select watch faces for some reason caused the app to get stuck on me a few times and then lastly of course there's the lack of wifi detection. It wasn't just during setup, even if I wanted to switch the Sense to a new wifi network, the app still couldn't pull up any networks around me. Meanwhile my phone's OS will pick up about 15 networks around me instantly.On top of the app not being able to read wifi networks, it seems really cluttered to me and just not well organized. In some cases, I can see Sense data (like reports) but can't see what the data means. I can get a score of something, but can't see why my score is this and what the insight is as to how it pertains to my health. Like... cool, they boast all this data but it means nothing if we don't know what to do with it.4. UI / UX just isn't thereFor a $330 smartwatch, the User Interface is dismally basic and not as robust as I was expecting. The additional watch faces you can download aren't great and the user-made ones are truly horrible. The watch face doesn't wake up on double-tap every time, sometimes I have to try 3-4 times. I just was expecting more for something that cost more than my phone did.All in all I have had the worst buyers remorse I've ever experienced with this watch because for the things it does alright or well, it just isn't worth the money.