Remember the time when we could all walk around without tracking our steps? Those were dark times indeed for health nuts, fitness pros, and dieters everywhere. Tracking those steps has gone a long way from the archaic pedometers of the past.
Over the years, I’ve become a connoisseur of fitness trackers after I discovered that I moved a lot more when reminded about my activity level. I started out with the basic pedometer and then graduated to my first “smart” tracker, which was a Jawbone UP24. After a rough time with the UP24, I ended up moving over to the world of FitBit, where I have used the FitBit Zip and One. I even had a bit of experience with Garmin’s line as my husband had the Vevosmart HR Plus, which is one of the worst step trackers I have ever seen. However, that is a story for another day.
After I decided that I wanted something a bit more out of a fitness tracker, I turned in my FitBit One and got myself a FitBit Versa. I nixed the Apple Watch Series 4 as I don’t have an iPhone. However, my husband upgraded and got a Series 4 for Christmas. Since we both had new fitness watches, I felt it was a great time to do a bit of a comparison, especially since they are competitors (at least in some ways).
First off, remember that the Apple Watch is a smartwatch with fitness capabilities. The FitBit Versa is a fitness tracker with smartwatch capabilities. If you keep that straight, both products excel at what they proclaim to do. The price point of the Series 4 is more than double the Versa, and you are getting much more with the Series 4. If you are an Apple fan or person wanting more smartwatch stuff who hasn’t gone into AFib over the price, then the Series 4 is the way to go. I’ve played with it. I’ve seen it used. Two thumbs way up there.
However, what if you don’t want to spend that much money on a smartwatch? What if you don’t have an iPhone? What if you are more concerned about having a solid fitness tracker? If any of these situations are the case, then I highly recommend the FitBit Versa. It’s a solid, accurate fitness tracker that has some cool bells and whistles on it that will give you a taste of an actual Apple Watch.
The Versa itself is a bit smaller than the Series 4 with its screen size. You’re looking at a bit under 36 mm (the smallest Apple Watch is 40 mm). This is not necessarily a bad thing. As a female, the screen is huge on my wrist, and I’m not even sure if I’d want to go much bigger. IT also looks slick on the arm and comes with comfortable bands in two different sizes. You can also purchase different colored and textured bands as well, so the most important thing in choosing one is the face color, which include black, rose gold, silver, and graphite faces. I ended up with the silver, which I am really enjoying.
It has a nice display that has (so far) held up well. One of the features that I love is that the ability to be able to change the watch face to almost whatever you want. There’s huge list to choose from, and I (*gasp*) found a Pip-Boy face! My life is now complete. The display itself will typically tell you the time, date, heart rate, steps taken, and calories burned. Depending on your display, you can also have other things. The Pip-Boy one I have also displays the battery, floors climbed, and miles walked.
The Versa also gives smartphone notifications such as seeing whether you have a call, text, calendar, and email notifications, which is extremely convenient. Your phone must be nearby, but the range is good. I can go anywhere in my house and still get notifications easily.
Other things that you can track include steps per hour, hours slept, water drank, and days of activity. Some of these things must be manually input from the FitBit phone app or on the website. The phone app must be installed in order to upload your data via blue tooth (you can connect wireless headphones as well). Much of the customization is done via the app, including changing watch faces as well as adding apps on the watch itself.
There’s a decent number of apps to add to the Versa, including everything from Pandora to The New York Times. It’s obviously not as large of a collection as the Apple Watch, but it’s not bad either. The Versa certainly has a better selection than any other fitness-focused tracker out there.
One of the aspects of the Versa that I was interested in was the menstrual tracking apps. Unfortunately, the advertising was a little deceiving for this device. You can track menstrual cycles on the FitBit app on her phone, or you can download a third-party app called Clue to go on the Versa itself. I was kind of annoyed that FitBit didn’t have that already integrated on the Versa. However, I’m not going to ding it too much because that’s a very small part of what the Versa can do.
The most important element in a fitness watch is the accuracy in which it calculates activity. I am pleased to say that the Versa is amazing. Step count is about as right on as you’re going to get. Floors climbed is accurate too. What I like the most, though, is that I’ve been getting a much more accurate daily calories burned calculation on the Versa than what I was getting with the other devices that I had, which had no heart rate monitor.
Some activities don’t involve a ton of steps (yoga, swimming, weight lifting, etc.). With older fitness trackers, if you aren’t manually logging these activities, you’re not getting an accurate look at how many calories you’ve burned in a day when just looking at steps. The heart rate monitor does a great job of keeping the calories burned count accurate. Plus, there are on-screen workouts and 15 different exercise modes, which helps you better calculate your calories and activity levels. The Versa will also detect lengths of fitness-level activity and add it in manually. For example, I shoveled my driveway, and it was added in as a “sport” to my activities that day without any input from myself.
If do a lot of distance-based activities, there is a connected GPS that allows you to see your pace and distance. You can get a map of your activity as well. But be warned: the Versa does not have an on-board GPS, and it must use your phone’s GPS instead. I have not personally tried it because I’m not into distance activities. However, I did notice a lot of complaints online about connectivity issues.
An extra plus for the Versa is that the battery life is great. It claims four days, and I was able to get to four days with juice to spare. Just for comparison, the Apple Watch claims 18 hours, though my husband said that he gets two days out of his (he does admit he needs to get more active).
Overall, I’ve had a blast with the Versa. It was exactly what I was looking for in a fitness watch, and it’s really helped me with my fitness goals. If you are looking for a full-featured smartwatch, you’re much better off with an Apple Watch, though it is going to cost you. However, if you’re looking for a fitness tracker with more versatility, I highly recommend the Versa.