Fitbit now allows its Sense 2 and Versa 4 watches to rely on smartphone GPS. A function that will save both autonomy and tracking precision.
At the end of last year, Fitbit launched its new range of connected watches, the Fitbit Sense 2 and Fitbit Versa 4. Unlike the Pixel Watch, also developed by the American manufacturer acquired by Google, these two watches are not equipped with Wear OS, but from Fitbit’s in-house system, Fitbit OS.
However, both watches still incorporate comprehensive health and sports activity tracking. For this, they include a chip with GPS tracking. Only, during our tests, we cannot say that the reliability of the GPS of the watches – and in particular of the Fitbit Sense 2 – was irreproachable, far from it. Not only does the activation of the GPS during the training follow-up tend to drastically reduce the battery, but the fix was also particularly slow to be done and the precision of the route completely in the cabbage, distorting not only the distance covered, but also real-time pace or average training pace.
Three different modes as needed
Fortunately, Google has just announced a new feature for its Fitbit Sense 2 and Fitbit Versa 4 that will correct this problem. In concrete terms, the two watches will be able to take advantage of a function identical to that of the Fitbit Charge 4 and Fitbit Charge 5 bracelets with a choice between three GPS modes: dynamic, integrated GPS and phone GPS.
In fact, the watch will be able to rely, rather than on its integrated GPS, as was necessarily the case until now, on that of the smartphone if you have it with you during your workouts. However, since smartphones are generally larger, with better antennas and multi-GNSS and multi-band compatibility, this should logically improve precision. In addition, the watch no longer deals directly with GPS tracking, so it can gain autonomy.
However, it will still be possible to use the watch’s integrated GPS alone if you ever plan to train without your smartphone. Furthermore, the modedynamicwill automatically adjust the tracking between the different modes by prioritizing the GPS of the smartphone, but switching to that of the watch if the smartphone does not move at the start of your training – which logically means that you do not win not with you.
In any case, both because of the gain in autonomy and for the increased precision, we cannot advise you too much to prioritize the GPS tracking of the smartphone.
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