The Fitbit Sense is the company’s first major watch update since the Fitbit Versa in March 2018, and it adds a variety of new sensors: an ECG similar …
The Fitbit Sense is the company’s first major watch update since the Fitbit Versa in March 2018, and it adds a variety of new sensors: an ECG similar to the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, stress sensing via an EDA (electro dermal activity) galvanic skin response sensor, and temperature sensing similar to the Oura ring. I haven’t tested the Fitbit Sense yet because the Fitbit Sense I was sent isn’t set up to pair with Fitbit’s app yet, but I’m holding the $329 (£300, AU$500) watch in my hands. While I can’t say how all those sensors will work in everyday use, I can say the watch’s build has some improvements over the previous Fitbit Versas. The curved watch shape is a similar thickness to the $199 Versa 2, but has more metal and glass in the finish. The side button for starting workouts and calling up Amazon Alexa (or now, Google Assistant) has been replaced with an indented touch area that vibrates when pressed, like the Fitbit Charge 3 and 4 have (will this be better when one is sweaty? I don’t know). There’s a speaker now, for voice assistant and phone calls. The Sense wrist straps detach a lot more easily than the Versa’s ever did (which also means: new custom watch straps). The charger is also new, a magnetic snap-on that’s more similar to what the Apple Watch has and is supposed to fully charge in about 15 minutes. It’s better than the alligator-clip-charger Fitbit Versa had before. There are other overdue additions too, like GPS, a redesigned optical heart-rate sensor that promises better accuracy when running and sleeping, and maybe richer data collection for future health research (optical heart rate is already where blood oxygen, heart rate, respiration are drawn from; Samsung’s already exploring blood pressure possibilities, too). Fitbit’s newest software updates add specific SpO2 blood oxygen readings to Fitbit watches, and a daily “stress readiness” score that will add measurements like respiratory rate to the mix, which are also part of a new step-down model being introduced Tuesday, too, the $230 Fitbit Versa 3. But the Sense’s ambitious triple-add of new sensors points towards Fitbit’s striving for new data to analyze and add to a growing machine-learning health picture, which makes this look like Fitbit’s closest attempt to a health-and-wellness super-wearable. I’d welcome the idea of something on my wrist that can help me understand how I’m doing on a daily basis, even beyond how much I’m walking around and exercising. I’ve seen ideas around a health super-wearable come and go over years. Will Fitbit Sense be that device? Since I haven’t reviewed it yet, the answer for now is a strong maybe. And Fitbit looks to be leaning on its premium subscription health service, launched last year, more than ever to make the most of Sense’s data (more details on that below). There are a few reasons to wait and see. New sensors on wearables are always a bit of an unknown. Maybe Fitbit is breaking through to a whole new territory here. Or, maybe not. I remember other wearables’ promising new sensor tech before (the Jawbone Up 3 had bio-impedance; the Microsoft Band 2 had UV sensing, and then there was the sensor-studded research-focused Samsung SimBand), and some of these never did anything to live up to their concepts. Will EDA make as much of a difference on a watch as Fitbit promises? I’m extremely curious to find out. Temperature sensing is still pretty unique. ECG is becoming a common standard on fitness watches. But how will these all interconnect? For that, I talked with Fitbit’s Shelten Yuen, head of research, and lead research scientist Conor Heneghan about what these sensors are aiming to do. Temperature on wearables started getting a lot of attention after the coronavirus pandemic shut down the world this year. The possibility of detecting symptoms of illness through a watch or ring with temperature scanning, or pulse oxygen readings, began to feel like a promise of wellness forecasting.
