Fitbit Sense Smartwatch

Get active, get smart

The Sense is Fitbit’s most advanced smartwatch, featuring new ways to help get a broader picture of your health and wellness. That includes extra sensors to better track certain details, especially related to stress and heart rate. When you wear the Sense, you’re also putting on something that has plenty of tech inside.

It also retains much of what’s made previous Fitbit watches user-friendly and effective. The Sense can track multiple exercises automatically, as well as the quality of sleep, and help with breathing routines to re-centre yourself when you need it.

You can stylize the watch to your preferences, be it choosing from hundreds of clock faces to changing bands to make it fit in for any occasion.

Skin deep Sense

The Sense comes equipped with an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor that can read variances in skin temperature. It logs those variances into data that’s easy to read and understand, giving you insight into how your body may respond to stress. Readings are taken throughout the day to help gather more information.

That also includes sleep, where readings during your time asleep are noted toward overall stress management and sleep quality levels. The tools inside the Sense are easy to understand when they highlight trends, and they can recommend ways to relieve that stress through mood and mindfulness activity.

While the Sense isn’t a medical device in its own right, the data coming from it could be pertinent enough to make an appointment and show your doctor. If a smartwatch can be an early warning detector, to some degree, it may be worth wearing.

Following the heart

Fitbit outfitted the Sense with improved performance for reading heart rate by way of the PurePulse 2.0 sensor. This new heart rate monitor is smart enough to recognize anomalies in your daily heart rate patterns. It won’t know the reason for it, as it could be simply being active or a change in temperature, but it could be something to look into if it’s something else.

The Fitbit app collects that heart rate data and contributes to the wider health assessment and stress management score. It can also tell you when your heart rate peaks or drops while exercising to see how much cardio you’re getting.

The Sense also has an electrocardiogram (ECG)** capable of monitoring the heart for atrial fibrillation or arrythmia, which is an irregular heartbeat. It is a unique feature that could have major implications for one’s health if it catches something fast enough. It’s not designed to replace a doctor, but can present useful information for further treatment.

**Pending approval and clearance from Health Canada. Not intended for use by people under 22 years old.

Connected convenience

Being a smartwatch, the Sense connects to your iPhone or Android phone and can access important features to make things more convenient. Take incoming calls with the built-in speaker and talk to the hand or wrist. You can use voice-to-text to reply to messages (for Android phones only) and keep your phone in your pocket.

It also supports either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant for hands-free control over your smart home devices, set alarms, get weather info and learn more about what the Sense can do. Built-in GPS ensures time and distance are accurate, no matter where you go or what you do.