The recent Sense 2 watch has several qualities that give it a more than decent place in the smartwatch market. Qualities like a sleek, comfortable and lightweight design, larger screen, superb 5-day battery life and skin sensors for a host of biometric settings.
Sitting at the high end of the Fitbit lineup, this $400 Sense 2 watch is still much more affordable than Apple’s or Garmin’s high-end equivalents. And it is possible to find it at a better price by looking a little. In early November 2022, its price dropped to CA$260.
To give you a taste of this watch, the Sense 2 uses stress tracking sensors with a new Body Response sensor that tracks continuous electrodermal activity (cEDA) for all-day stress management, directly from your wrist.
Compared to the first generation launched in 2020, this Sense 2 is thinner and lighter.
Along with cDEA, it uses metrics like heart rate, heart rate variability, and skin and body temperatures to help you better understand when your body is showing potential signs of stress.
When under stress, the watch asks you to think about how you feel and offers suggestions to help you relax. Its weekly summaries highlight trends such as your most stressful days and your strongest moods.
Five or two days of autonomy
The big improvement is undoubtedly the battery life. If the display is set to appear only on a flick of the wrist or a touch on the screen, the autonomy stretches over almost five days. And if you think that’s too long, then you can set the display to always-on, in which case the battery life drops to two days – even more than an Apple Watch with the display on demand.
From 0 to 100%, it only takes two hours to recharge and a 12-minute recharge gives a day of autonomy.
Fitbit Sense 2 or Google Pixel Watch
Since the two watches were born under the same roof at Alphabet-Google, it is interesting to compare them. In summary, Google’s Pixel Watch offers a number of lifestyle features not available on its Fitbit OS-powered equivalents, such as support for phone calls, access to the Google Play Store for downloading third-party apps and the Google Assistant for smart home voice commands. In return, that same Pixel Watch lacks several health features available on proper Fitbit watches, including SpO2 tracking, high or low heart rate notifications, and guided breathing sessions.
Integration with Google’s mobile app ecosystem has enabled Fitbit to integrate Google Pay for contactless payment, without a phone or credit card on hand. On the other hand, the Fitbit Pay in-house function is only possible with a few financial institutions in the country.
Simply put, the Sense 2 is like other Fitbit health and fitness watches; minus some smart features.
Beautiful display day and night
Inside and out, reading the information on the screen is no problem. There are three brightness levels and an always-on display option. The touchscreen is fast and responds well to touches.
Another improvement, the haptic button of the first generation watch has been replaced by a physical button on the left side on the current one.
Navigating the menus is easy. Just swipe down (quick settings), up (notifications), right (activities), and left (metrics, steps, heart rate, etc.).
Useful, standby mode (quick settings) is accessible by tapping the crescent moon. You can create a schedule for the watch to automatically activate/deactivate sleep mode so as not to be disturbed.
Some features such as electrocardiogram (ECG) are not enabled by default. Open the ECG feature on the watch which will open the Fitbit app on your iPhone or Android device. Once the warnings have passed, we obtain a 30-second measurement of the electrical activity of the heart.
Overall, look for look, the design of the Sense 2, without being outdated, will not really turn heads like the newer and thinner Apple Watch series 8. It will have to add a bracelet more elegant than the original model in silicone which is very comfortable.
Speaking of which, replacing the strap is easy, just press one of the latches to release it.
Another detail that deserves to be mentioned, even if in fact it matters little to 95% of users, this watch is waterproof up to 50 meters, a depth that far exceeds many watches on the market, all categories combined. .
Fitbit app
Pairing the Sense 2 with the Fitbit app on my iPhone 14 or my TCL device on Android is easy, as long as no other watch is there. The Fitbit app can only manage one watch.
It has always synced my data without issue. To get started, you need to download the Fitbit app on your phone and sign in or create an account. If you already have the app, make sure it’s up to date (version 3.65 or later.
Next, tap your profile picture > Set up device > Sense 2 > Set up, and the app will guide you through the process. During initial setup, you have the ability to enable a host of features on the watch, but you can always change these settings at any time in the Fitbit app.
The $400 ($399.95) watch comes in three colors:
- Shadow Grey/Graphite Aluminum
- Lunar White/Platinum Aluminum
- Fog Blue/Pale Gold Aluminum