My Fitbit History (Part 2)
This article is a continuation of My Fitbit History (Part 1). If you have not read it, I recommend you go back and take a look before you read on.
After the fiasco that was the Fitbit Ionic, my next experience was far better. Yeah, of course, I had a Samsung Gear Sport in between, however, my next Fitbit was a Versa.
Fitbit Versa
Finally, a watch worthy of my hard-earned cash. Sure it had issues as before, but this time the build quality of the physical product was far superior. Although realistically still in diapers, the Fitbit OS was coming along in leaps and bounds. Featuring storage and playback of music tracks, water-resistant to 50 meters, slim and comfortable design, interchangeable bands, 4-day battery life, 15 workout modes, installable and preloaded apps, call, text, calendar, and smartphone notifications, and so much more.
This thing was on another level. From my experience, the watch performed to a standard I had not yet seen from Fitbit. The software experience was well polished, although the screen was still too small, making it hard to read notifications and navigate for me at least. The CPU, whatever it was, produced a choppy experience where you could see some lag as you swiped around the OS, not ideal. The button on the left felt tactile and nice and clicky and operated as expected.
The selection of watch faces was better, although many of them required a payment outside of Fitbit’s ecosystem, and many of them look dubious and did not invoke my confidence to purchase. The accuracy of the heart rate and step count seemed corrected, and on par with previous Fitbit’s I have owned. Around this time, Fitbit decided that not all data was going to be available inside the app. Some integral stats of sleep tracking and fitness, are now going to be hidden behind a paywall. To access them, you now have to pay for Fitbit Premium at a monthly charge. Just what I want, another monthly subscription to pay. I understand why you would have to pay for fitness training videos and dietary advice, but why do I have to pay for my data, as I had already bought the watch. Very frustrating.
Overall, the Fitbit versa was a great watch, one of the best. My Dad still has the watch, and it still works to this day. Rating 9/10
Fitbit Charge 3
After purchasing a Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 and using that for while, and gifting the Fitbit Versa to my Dad, I decided to move on to my next Fitbit, the Fitbit Charge 3.
After my good experiences with Charge 2, I was excited to see what had changed, seeing as the technology had moved on since then. I wasn’t disappointed, the touch screen was more responsive, the device was now fully water-resistant to 50 meters, and now I could track oxygen saturation or as Fitbit calls it, ‘Estimated Oxygen Variation (EOV)’. Of course, some of the new stats are still hidden behind the paywall, which continues to hinder my experience.
However, the experience wasn’t all good. The new button on the left side of the device was very finicky. There was no real button per se, but an ident where the button should be, and when pushed, it gives you some haptic feedback to confirm your press. Assuming this was done to improve water resistance, the button is awkward to push, as you have to push it at a weird angle. Sometimes, you find that it was pushed inadvertently, and suddenly you notice you are tracking a workout that has lasted over 7 minutes. This is badly designed in my opinion.
That wasn’t the worst thing though. My Fitbit Charge 3 experience was cut-short one day when I charged it as normal, using my external USB power supply. After doing what I have done for over a year, removed it from the charger, and the screen was dead. The device would operate as normal, all the sensors worked, sleep tracking still worked. The screen however was dead, and typical, it was just outside the warranty… I could not use it anymore as a watch. So I used it only for tracking my sleep cycles which it did superbly.
Overall, great looking device, worked great until the screen died. Rating 7/10
Fitbit Sense
After having an Apple Watch Series 5 for over a year, I was not entirely happy with it. So I figured I would give Fitbit one last chance, so I bit the bullet and purchased the Fitbit Sense. From the many reviews I had watched and read, it seemed like a very capable device, packed with sensors. Featuring skin temperature sensors, EDA scanner to track stress, ECG capabilities, SPO2, breathing rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and a voice assistant, I was ready to try it all out.
So, where do I start… Voice assistant allows you to use either Google Assitant or Amazon Alexa from your wrist. We use Google Assistant in our home, we have Google Home’s dotted around our house, so configuring Google Assistant was first on the agenda. Oh, wait, what! Google Assitant in English is not compatible with your language region. My Fitbit account is registered in Mexico, so I cannot use the voice assistant in English. First disappointment.
ECG, cool the opportunity to use the watch to get an ECG. Oh man, this is not available in Mexico either. Hang on a minute! I guess everyone who wishes to buy this product should read the fine print. Here are the details about ECG availability.
The Fitbit Sense also sports the previously mentioned indented button design, and again it is still problematic. The screen on the device is smaller than I had hoped and looks small on my wrist, and it has a huge bezel. The text size on the screen is small for me, with no apparent ability to increase font sizing, making it difficult to read notifications. The screen is definitely bright enough though, and easy to see in bright sunshine.
The OS is better laid out than the Versa and features a rich set of apps. Nothing earth-shattering, but an improvement nonetheless. The CPU still appears to be sluggish, and if you are swiping through the screen at speed you will find the stuttering screen lag again. Not buttery smooth like the Apple Watch.
The EDA scan was a fussy and seemingly pointless feature. You activate the scan by placing your palm over the watch and holding still for 2 minutes. However, if you move, even a tiny bit during the scan, it would not work correctly. The sensors detect electrodermal activity (EDA) responses in the skin, and when it worked, it told me I was stressed, something I knew already. So a rather gimmicky feature really, although cool tech in its infancy.
Heart Rate Variability is another cool feature, but as a general user, it means absolutely nothing to me. After reading about it, I discovered that it tracks the variation of time between heartbeats each night and apparently any significant decrease may indicate your body is showing potential signs of stress, illness, or fatigue. Again a bit of a gimmick unless you are prone to such aliments, and normally you can feel you are getting sick or tired anyways.
The skin temperature sensors are not what they seem either. It will track temperature at night only and will inform you how many degrees your temperature was from your norm. Potentially it could detect that you are coming down with a fever, but it seems kinda pointless. Would have been better to use the sensor to continuously sense skin temperature so you can monitor a fever for example.
The breathing rate was recorded at night and seemed accurate enough for me. The daily readiness score and the wellness reports are also available on this device but they are locked behind the paywall, and for me, not worth the extra money. Fitbit Premium is put in your face constantly if you are not a member, which is annoying and frustrating.
SPO2 is another area of frustration. Coming pre-installed with the SPO2 app, I proceeded to install the SPO2 watch face just to try it out, but the watch never gave me a reading. I did manage to get a reading during my sleep, but not on the watch face. However, I did notice that the battery was draining faster than expected. Every 2 days I would have to charge it. After some digging in the Fitbit forums, I discovered that the SPO2 app was the culprit. I uninstalled it and recovered the advertised battery life I expected from the device. When installed, SPO2 seemed to work at night, mostly! Some mornings it would report there was no value available. To be honest, there are better watches out there for reading SPO2.
The Fitbit Sense is polished, good-looking, and is comfortable to wear. Straps are interchangeable, but it feels to me that the strap could easily be pulled out, it doesn’t feel secure. Despite some flaws, it is a solid device, but I cannot personally recommend it. Rating 8/10
Fitbit has now been purchased by Google, and who knows what is going to happen. I suspect that it will take the form of a Pixel Watch, and will not be available in Mexico, as you cannot buy a Pixel phone in Mexico at the time of writing. Also, I don’t believe they will make it iPhone compatible, so Fitbit, this is farewell. Many thanks for everything, the good and the bad.
Paul Jacobs — December 5th, 2021
