FITNESS

Fitbit Sense Review

14 January 2022

Phoebe K. | Author

By now you have either heard of fitness trackers because a friend or family member has bought one or you have had a previous experience with one but are looking to upgrade and see what the latest technology in fitness trackers and watches can help you with. Whatever your experience with technology or health and fitness is, we have got you covered.

As part of our new year’s resolutions and a healthier January, we got our hands on the extremely popular Fitbit devices Sense and Charge 5. What does that mean? Expect a full, honest, and detailed review, over a period of one week, while we take you with us from unboxing to a variety of activities like hiking, weightlifting and everything in between. And by the end if this review hasn’t helped you decide between fitness devices or at least given you inspiration to start your wellness journey, then we don’t know what will.

Key features of Fitbit Sense in Lunar White/Soft Gold

Let’s start with some key specs and show them in action as we go along.

State-of-the-art stress management
Detailed sleep analysis and score
Ability to reflect and track mood changes
24/7 Heart rate tracking
Apps on your wrist, including Fitbit Pay and Spotify
Voice assistant (Google assistant or Alexa Built-in)

Stress Management

Fitbit’s state of the art stress management offers Sense the ability to measure electrodermal activity which indicates your body’s response to stress. Apart from this feature which can be found in the EDA Scan app on your Sense, there are other stress and mood management tools that can help you with self-love, compassion and unwinding. Especially these days, stress is all around us. From a simple trip to the shopping centre to coronavirus and work, stress can come from anywhere and it can cause insomnia, irritability and even some unhealthy habits like drinking or smoking. For me, irritability and mood changes are the main signs of stress. However, through Sense’s EDA Scan app and stress management log on the Fitbit app, I learned a lot more about my mood swings and was able to see my body’s response to stress through either a quick 2-minute scan or a one hour guided mindfulness session.

Sleep Score and Analysis

With the Fitbit Sense smartwatch you can have a daily detailed sleep score and analysis. All you have to do is wear the smart watch overnight and in the morning, when you wake up, your sleep analysis is ready for you to explore. You can see your time in light, deep and REM sleep, and get a daily score which shows your sleep quality each night. It can also show you how much you tossed and turned in bed, or your skin temperature during sleep.

What I personally loved about this feature is the detail and accuracy with which the watch tracks your sleep. So if you had a dream and were wondering about how long it lasted, you could check your REM sleep timeline. The best part of it all? With the snore and noise report, you can see if and for how long you or your partner snore, so whether you want to win an argument or finally find out if you’re a snorer, Fitbit Sense can help you out!

Apps on your Wrist

With Fitbit Sense you can download hundreds of apps for fitness, sports and anything else from Uber, Starbucks, TRX, Spotify or Find my Phone. You can also do a lot of other things that you could do with your phone like make contactless payments with Fitbit Pay, learn about the latest Covid-19 statistics (which may then incidentally lead you to the amazing stress management feature) or simply receive calls, texts and notifications.

From my experience, while receiving notifications is useful and can definitely be beneficial if you’ve left your phone in another room or someone is messaging you while you’re cooking or exercising, what truly helped me out was the Spotify and Fitbit Pay app. Imagine going for a late night run and suddenly getting the urge to stop for a quick snack or to just grab an energy drink. With Fitbit Sense, I was able to do all that without having to carry a wallet or a debit card that could easily get lost while running. As for Spotify, I mainly use it to remotely control, from my wrist, the music while exercising at home, which is really useful when you want to switch from cardio to stretching.

Fun things to do at home

Now you might be thinking that fitness trackers and smart watches are only useful for fitness and people that exercise daily or are frequent members at the gym but that’s definitely not the case! Don’t be intimidated by all the exercise related features. On the days that I simply just wanted to stay at home and more specifically in bed, the Sense smartwatch was actually incredibly useful. Apart from helping you track things like your menstrual circle or mood, you can also play loads of games like Sudoku, take virtual hikes and adventures either solo or with friends in various different real-life locations like the Pohono trail.

These adventures offer real life maps and paths with embedded scenic landmarks and milestones along the way in the form of panoramic photos! I tried the Vernal Falls one so give it a go as well and share your experience in any Fitbit community or group. You can also show other people your cooking abilities by following and getting inspiration by the countless recipes Fitbit offers. And you can follow them all via short and helpful videos on the Fitbit app!

Fun things to do at the gym

Now if you are serious about your new year’s resolutions and want to use the Sense smartwatch for that extra bit of motivation you need to hit the gym, or you just want to see your actual progress and feel better about all that effort you put in, you’re also in the right place! With the active zone minutes feature, you can make every minute count during workouts, as Sense will buzz your wrist when you’ve entered your personalized target heart rate zone. You can also do any form of exercise you want, as this smartwatch is swim proof and can automatically recognize and record your exercises, so not even a single calorie burnt will go unnoticed.

And if you suddenly decide to go for that extra dose of endorphins and your Sense smartwatch is out of battery, you can relax knowing that it can fuel up in just 12 minutes, so roughly the time it would take you to put that new gym wear set on, or make that pre-workout shake.

Final Thoughts

Now don’t get me wrong! I am as lazy as the next person/editor/marketeer. But throughout this week this little miracle on my wrist has somehow motivated me to get my daily steps in, take the stairs to my apartment because the zero next to the number of floors I climbed today just didn’t look right, and try that oat recipe that I always see on social media. So even if you decide to buy this smart watch for strictly social, fitness or wellbeing reasons, thinking that you will never use it for some of the little perks and benefits mentioned above, I can guarantee you will! And you can thank me later.