The more Google kills Fitbit, the more I want a Fitbit Sense 3

Google’s emotions towards Fitbit smartwatches haven’t been a secret for a whereas now — these emotions being that the firm want to do with out them.

Google’s intent to eradicate Fitbit smartwatches from the face of the Earth is a clear and ongoing plan. But the more the firm strips away performance and crushes any hope for future Fitbit watches, the more it makes me want a Fitbit Sense 3.

I know, I know. The possibilities of Google releasing a new Fitbit Sense are slimmer than the firm resurrecting Google Allo. But despite the fact that I understand it received’t occur, I can’t assist however want it could.

While the Fitbit Sense 2 was a little bit of a dud, the unique Fitbit Sense wasn’t. I reviewed the unique Sense for Android Central in 2021 and continued utilizing it for a few months after my evaluate was revealed. Although not a excellent smartwatch, it was a darn good one for its time.

Even although it’s been years since I final used the Sense, I nonetheless look again fondly on nearly every part about the watch — beginning with its design. The Sense’s Apple Watch-like aesthetics might not have been the most inventive, however what it lacked in creativity, it made up for in wonderful construct high quality and luxury. The metallic body and glass entrance felt excellent, the band system was easy (significantly better than the Pixel Watch), and the proprietary charger labored nicely. And unique or not, the squircle design lent itself properly to nearly any setting. With the proper watch band, the Fitbit Sense felt at residence whether or not worn at the health club or a night time out for drinks.

Fitbit nailed different facets of the Sense, too. The OLED show, whereas nothing revolutionary in 2025, was a standout in 2021. It had always-on performance, wonderful colours with deep blacks, and a barely domed form close to the edges. Battery life was equally spectacular, simply lasting five-to-six days per cost — far and away higher than even the Google Pixel Watch 3.

Finally, as you’d count on from a Fitbit wearable, the Sense had no scarcity of well being and health monitoring options. You had the normal suspects like exercise and sleep monitoring, automated exercise detection, coronary heart price monitoring, and built-in GPS. However, the Sense additionally had a couple of distinctive well being sensors for its time: a temperature sensor and an EDA sensor — the latter of which nonetheless hasn’t expanded to different smartwatches past the Pixel Watch household. The Sense was Fitbit’s first huge push into holistic well being monitoring, and it was one thing we hadn’t seen from some other smartwatch model.

Is that to say the Fitbit Sense was excellent? Not in any respect. In truth, the Sense had a truthful quantity of first-gen product quirks that made it a tough advice. Between poor efficiency, restricted SpO2 monitoring, a buggy companion app, and an uncompetitive value, the Sense wasn’t a smartwatch I broadly advisable to people. But for me, it stood out as one thing particular.

The Sense was the finest {hardware} we’d seen from Fitbit up till that time (and I’d argue nonetheless to this very day). It marked a new journey into a completely different form of well being monitoring with the temperature and EDA sensors. It was Fitbit’s finest smartwatch displaying to-date, and it marked the starting of what ought to have been a promising future.

Unfortunately, as we all know now, it’s a future we’d by no means fairly see. While we bought the Fitbit Sense 2 simply a yr later, it wasn’t the successor it ought to have been. It had a lot of the similar nice qualities as the unique Sense, however paired with rampant bugs and quite a few lacking options from its predecessor (together with third-party app help and Wi-Fi connectivity), it felt much less like a sequel and more like a weird downgrade. However, understanding that Google would put all of its sources towards the Pixel Watch from that time on and by no means return to the Sense model, it now is sensible.

But what if that wasn’t what occurred? What if Google had determined to maintain the Fitbit Sense and permit it to coexist with the Google Pixel Watch? What may which have seemed like? While we’ll in all probability by no means know for positive, I suppose it might have been one thing particular.

Imagine if Google launched a Fitbit Sense 3 final yr alongside the Pixel Watch 3 or did so later this summer time with the upcoming Pixel Watch 4. The Pixel Watch would stay Google’s flagship smartwatch, however the Sense could possibly be there to supply the similar well being options and considerably longer battery life at the expense of more superior smartwatch capabilities. Want a smartwatch with Fitbit well being monitoring, Wear OS, Google apps, and  superior security options? Get a Pixel Watch. Want the similar Fitbit well being/health options however want to commerce the fully-featured smartwatch bits for week-long battery life? Go for the Sense.

While a markedly completely different strategy, it wouldn’t be fully dissimilar from Apple’s technique with the mainline Apple Watch and its SE counterpart — or Samsung with the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch FE. There’s room for one firm to supply a number of smartwatch selections, and for Google, a Pixel Watch and a Fitbit Sense might make for a wonderful duo.

The Pixel Watch can be the flagship, the Fitbit Sense can be the more inexpensive and battery-focused choice. Everyone will get what they want, Google will get to promote more watches to individuals, and the firm wouldn’t let a wonderful smartwatch model/basis go to waste. Win, win, win.

I say all of this as a huge fan of the Google Pixel Watch. The Pixel Watch 3 is one in all my favourite smartwatches round, and I’m wanting to see what comes out of the Pixel Watch 4 later this yr. But even so, there’ll all the time be a a part of me that wonders “what could have been” in the case of the Sense.

Google’s actions have made it clear that a new Sense isn’t in the firm’s plans. If it had been, we’d have seen a new mannequin by now. It’s one thing I got here to phrases with a whereas in the past.

But with Google bringing the Sense 2 again into the headlines this month — and stirring up recollections of the first mannequin in doing so — I can’t assist however bemoan the lack of a Sense 3.  Its potential for greatness is gigantic, and the indisputable fact that Google doesn’t appear to see that’s a disgrace for everybody.