These are stressful times and stress is
something you need to get under control. The Fitbit Sense can help you with
that thanks to the new Electrodermal Activity sensor (EDA), the first sensor of
its kind on a smartwatch. It measures the sweat levels on your skin – you just
put your palm over the face of the watch and the EDA Scan app measure your
stress levels. The watch is equipped with a wide array of other sensors too.
There’s an ECG app, so the watch can track
your heart rate and heart rate variability, as well as detect signs of atrial
fibrillation. The Skin Temperature sensor can detect the first signs of a fever
or the start of a new menstrual phase. The Sense can also calculate your
breathing rate and measure SpO2 (blood-oxygen saturation), the SpO2 watch face
will show you your readings from last night.
The Fitbit Sense is tailor-made for life
during a pandemic too. “Over 100,000 Fitbit users joined the study so far, and
we’ve found that our algorithm can detect nearly 50 percent of COVID-19 cases a
day before the onset of symptoms with 70 percent specificity,” said Eric
Friedman, co-founder and CTO of Fitbit, referring to a study among Fitbit
Premium subscribers.
The Sense has all the traditional
smartwatch functionality too. It has a GPS receiver, over 20 on-device exercise
modes, along with a built-in speaker and microphone so you can talk to your
friends or talk to your digital assistant (Amazon Alexa or the Google
Assistant). Contactless payments are supported as well.
The watch uses an AMOLED display with
Gorilla Glass 3 and Always On Mode. Battery life is rated at 6+ days and with
fast charging you can get enough juice for the day in 12 minutes (10-80% takes
40 minutes). The body is water resistant up to at 50 meters. The Sense is
priced $330. It and the other two models will ship by September 25, you can
pre-order today if you wish.
