(NEW) Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch

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.