Apple watch SE Vs Fitbit Sense

Apple watch SE sits in the same price range as a Fitbit Sense smartwatch. For someone looking to buy a Fitbit Sense, the Apple watch SE comes at a premium of around $70-100 over the Sense price. And, it does make for a compelling case study to compare the features of both smartwatches. Below, we look at some of the factors that can help you decide about getting a Fitbit Sense or the Apple watch SE smartwatch.

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Operating System on Mobile – Apple watch SE Vs Fitbit Sense

An Apple watch SE will work with an iPhone. It is not compatible with the Android operating system and, therefore, won’t work on any Android phone. A Fitbit Sense, on the other hand, works well with an iPhone or an Android phone. It has no issues of compatibility with iOS or Android mobile operating systems. If you have an iPhone, the iOS ecosystem works seamlessly with an Apple watch SE.

Screen and Display Resolution – Apple watch SE Vs Fitbit Sense

An Apple watch SE boasts of higher screen resolution, a bigger screen size, and a thinner body. In terms of aesthetics of the watch, an Apple watch SE looks more attractive and slim than a Fitbit Sense. It comes in 40 mm and 45 mm dial sizes. Below, we share the screen size and pixel density of an Apple watch SE for your consideration.

Apple watch SE has a screen resolution of 368 x 448 pixels. A Fitbit Sense has a screen resolution of 336 x 336 pixels.
Screen size of Apple watch SE is 1.78″; this is a tad bigger than the Fitbit Sense’s 1.58″ screen size
Apple watch SE is 10.74 mm thick and compares favorably with a Fitbit Sense that has a thickness of 12.4 mm.
Pixel density on an Apple watch SE is 336 ppi; a Fitbit Sense has a pixel density of 301 ppi.
Inspite of a larger screen size, an Apple watch SE weighs 36.7 grams. A Fitbit Sense weighs 48.2 gram.
Fitbit Sense comes with always on display or AOD feature. The AOD feature is unavailable on the Apple watch SE. AOD is very useful to bring up the screen under dark or shady conditions.

An Apple watch SE is more compact and offers better display quality and throughput than a Fitbit Sense.

Battery – Apple watch SE Vs Fitbit Sense

An Apple watch SE has a battery life of 18 hours. If you make use of GPS on an Apple watch SE, the battery degrades faster. You will be lucky to get a backup of 8 hours on an Apple watch SE with GPS on settings. The battery has always been a challenge on an Apple watch. Be it an Apple watch SE or the latest Apple watch 7. You will need to charge the battery every day. Full battery charge may take up to one and a half hours for the Apple watch SE.

Fitbit Sense comes with a claimed battery life of 6 days. With GPS usage, the battery may tire out in a day’s time. However, for normal watch usage, a Fitbit Sense does offer you a decent battery backup on the smartwatch mode.

If good battery backup is a significant criterion for your watch, a Fitbit Sense makes much more sense than an Apple watch SE. If you intend to use the watch on the normal smart watch mode, you could even choose to not carry the charger of Fitbit Sense on short trips of 2-3 days.

Health monitoring – Apple watch SE vs Fitbit Sense

An Apple watch SE and a Fitbit Sense watch do offer heart rate monitoring on the watch. Generic feedback from Apple watch users suggests that the heart rate monitoring on an Apple watch SE is robust, reliable, and dependable. Fitbit Sense’s heart rate monitoring is also found to be of acceptable levels.

But, a Fitbit Sense trumps an Apple watch SE in offering the ECG functionality on the watch. On demand ECG can be taken to uncover any irregular heart rhythm issues on a Sense watch. Apple watch SE does not have ECG functionality. On a similar basis, a Fitbit Sense offers oxygen saturation and skin temperature features. An Apple watch SE cannot measure Spo2 saturation or temperature through the skin or otherwise.

Fitbit Sense also offers a barcode scanner app. This app can scan food items and share calorie details against the United States Food data. You could track your water consumption by logging water data on the app of Fitbit Sense.

Health wise, a Fitbit Sense offers more insights. And, Fitbit Sense users are happy with the insights shared by the app for health and overall upkeep tracking.

Wireless charging – Apple watch SE Vs Fitbit Sense

An Apple watch SE supports wireless charging; a Fitbit Sense does not have wireless charging capabilities. To use wireless charging on an Apple watch SE, you will need to buy an Apple charging dock or an Apple charging station that supports charging multiple devices at the same time. Wireless charging docks and charging stations would cost you anywhere between $79 to $150.

Extended warranty – Apple watch SE Vs Fitbit Sense

Fitbit Sense brings a Fitbit Protection Plan as part of its initiative to offer an extended warranty to the Fitbit Sense users. The Fitbit Protection Plan is normally offered as part of the special offer on the Fitbit app. The offer is shared with a new user of Fitbit Sense within 30 days of Sense activation.

An Apple watch SE offers AppleCare+ plans for an extended warranty. You can extend the coverage of warranty on an Apple watch SE by one year. For this, you will need to buy AppleCare+ as a separate package at the time of purchase of the Apple watch SE. Alternatively, you could buy the AppleCare+ package within 60 days of the purchase of the Apple watch SE.

Fall Detection – Apple watch SE Vs Fitbit Sense

Fitbit Sense does not have a fall detection feature. Fall detection helps to handle emergency fall situations. An Apple watch SE will inform your designated emergency contacts if it detects a fall. It shares the GPS coordinates of your location with your designated emergency contacts. If emergency calls are available in your country, an Apple watch SE can be configured to call the emergency numbers to seek immediate help on your behalf.

Apple’s fall detection feature is next to none. If fall detection or incident detection is of utmost significance to you, then we suggest choosing an Apple watch SE over the Fitbit Sense.

We do hope that Fitbit will improve its operating system to implement an incident detection or fall detection feature on the smartwatch sometime soon. Till that time, you may either send in your feedback to the Fitbit development team with a feature request or you may choose an Apple watch SE for its robust fall detection feature.

Summary

With the exception of better display and bigger screen size, a Fitbit Sense makes a more valuable proposition against an Apple watch SE. A Fitbit Sense has a better backup on the battery and it offers much better health tracking. ECG on the go is a very useful feature on Fitbit Sense. It helps to monitor the health of the heart.

However there may be specific requirements for each user. Both, Apple watch SE and Fitbit Sense are quality smartwatches. You just need to pick one that ticks most boxes for your needs and goals.

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Helen Kurt

Helen Kurt is a geeky nerd who loves to cover the wearables space. She has over 5 years of experience in the smartwatch domain. You can reach her on email at [email protected].