Fitbit Versa Review

This watch finished right in the middle of the group, matching the performance of the LG Watch Sport and performing slightly better than the Fitbit Ionic. The Versa is a little easier to use than the Ionic and has a slightly more comprehensive set of fitness tracking features, making up for the lack of a dedicated built-in GPS by being slightly more accurate at tracking steps and heart rate in our tests. The LG Watch Sport can't match either of the Fitbit models when it comes to tracking fitness, but it has a much more extensive set of smart features, relying on the Wear OS. The Versa does retail for about $200, with the Ionic selling for around $300.

Ease of Use

The touchscreen on the Versa is about average in terms of response time. It's slightly slower to wake up when you raise your wrist, with a noticeable, half-second delay or so before it illuminates. It also wasn't 100% reliable in our testing, occasionally failing to register that you were looking at it and remaining asleep.

When actually using the touchscreen, the Versa usually responds promptly to your swipes, but would again fail to register them intermittently, requiring you to push harder and swipe repeatedly to accomplish the desired action.

It's relatively easy to swap wristbands, using the standard sliding pin that is becoming more and more prevalent on wearables. It does require a little dexterity, but can be done without tools. The Versa also includes both a small and large wristband with purchase. This watch charges in an extremely secure cradle that make it almost impossible to inadvertently disconnect the watch by jostling it.

This watch is also rated to be water resistant for up to 50 meters, meaning you can wear it while washing your hands or taking a shower and even take it in the pool to track your swimming workouts. Unfortunately, you can't take screenshots of the information on the watch, so you are forced to rely on the Fitbit app to save any data you may want.

Smart Functions

The special edition of this watch enables you to complete transactions using the Fitbit Pay service, allowing you to load your card information on your watch and use it instead of a card, as well as most credit card readers commonly found in stores, using NFC communication. This edition of the Versa retails for about $30 more than the standard, but we feel that the ability to add payment capabilities is well worth it.

You have the standard basic music controls available, allowing you to skip or repeat the track, play or pause your music, and adjust the volume. Music can either be preloaded on the Versa itself using the Fitbit desktop app and output to a pair of Bluetooth headphones for standalone music or the Versa can act as a remote control for the music on your smartphone.

This watch doesn't have a built-in speaker or microphone for voice control or taking calls on your wrist, but it will notify you of an incoming call by vibrating, which you can then answer or reject from the Versa.

It will also notify you of messages, which you can respond to right from your wrist, using either the preset replies or a variety of fitness-themed emojis — at least on Android phones, as this wasn't available for iOS at the time of writing.

The Versa is a bit limited in terms of app compatibility, relying on Fitbit's app store, rather than the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. Of our sample selection of apps, the Versa is only compatible with Uber, lacking any dedicated apps for Messenger, Spotify, or IFTTT. However, there are Fitbit apps for Starbucks, Strava, Nest, Philips Hue Lights and a few more. The selection of apps is always expanding as more and more developers begin to use the Fitbit App store as well, but many of these apps are more limited in nature than their smartphone counterparts.

Unfortunately, this watch lacks a built-in GPS or standalone LTE connectivity, so you must bring your phone with you while working out if you want notifications and the increased set of fitness metrics GPS offers.

Display

The Versa has a 1.34", 300x300 square LCD that is surprisingly nice. While it can't match the Retina displays of the Apple Watch, the Versa has one of the highest-quality displays of the entire group, showing images with much higher resolution and quality than we would expect from a smartwatch.

Unfortunately, it can be a little difficult to read in bright lights, as the white text they chose can easily get washed out. However, we liked that you can turn on an always-on mode for workouts and set the backlight to automatically adjust to the ambient lighting conditions or choose between dim, normal, and bright to match your preferences.

Fitness Impact

We found the step tracker to be highly accurate, only differing from the true count by about 5 steps over the mile-long walk in both of our trials. It was also very accurate at measuring our heart rate in our tests — much more than its predecessor, the Fitbit Ionic. It matched very well with our control chest strap heart rate monitor, usually being within a few beats per minute. It would struggle a bit if your heart rate was changing rapidly, but all wrist-based optical sensors struggle with this.

There are a variety of preset workout profiles that you can choose from and the Versa will log the distance, speed, time, duration, estimated calorie burn, and average speed. The workout summary also showed the elevation gain, but we never managed to see that in the summary in the Fitbit app.

Additionally, the Versa also has a “Coach” app that has a variety of short guided workouts.

Finally, we found the stair tracking to be spot on, with the Versa correctly registering all 10 of the flights of stairs that we climbed in testing.

Battery Life

We used a set schedule of use for each smartwatch, logging at what time it finally died. The Versa performed well, lasting 57 hours, but this duration can vary depending on your usage.

It also charges very fast, reaching 50% in about 37 minutes and fully charging in 105 minutes.

Value

The Fitbit Versa is a decent value for those who want a more fitness-focused smartwatch and are willing to forgo some smart functionality.

Conclusion