Fitbit Versa Health & Fitness Smartwatch with Heart Rate
Fitbit Versa Health & Fitness Smartwatch with Heart Rate, Music & Swim Tracking, Black
| Dimensions: | 25.6 x 4.1 x 1.1 cm; 36.85 Grams |
| Model: | FB505GMBK-EU |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | Fitbit |
| Department: | Unisex |
| Dimensions: | 25.6 x 4.1 x 1.1 cm; 36.85 Grams |
Hi I bought this items to you 2018 after 1 year or 2 years you replace for me because my watch is broken still now is broken please if any chance you can help me to replace again please help me and can’t find exactly the date you replace for me please help me I appreciate thank you write to me ASAP
Happy enough with the watch, app etc unfortunately, the watch keeps going off, leaving me with no functionality and black screen, I had to Google this problem as, you don’t actually get any kind of set up/trouble shooting instructions in the box. If you are wondering or, you are having the same problem, hold all three buttons down simultaneously to re-boot the watch
This fitbit is good for basic functions like step counts etc. I especially like tracking my hiking and cycling routs and being able to see where Ive been on the maps. I also use it in the swimming pool for tracking how many lengths I swim and the function to dictate the length of the pool is very helpful. The sleep tracking is ok but a bit disappointing as more advanced data is only available if you subscribe to the Fitbit premium service. My only moan is that I find it impossible to change th strap as the new strap is such a tight fit and the webbing strap looks great but gets dirty fast.
This is the second Fitbit that I’ve had and I must admit it’s not a bad little gadget. It’s not as good as an Apple Watch but it has lot’s of features. It will track your activities via your mobile phone with a GPS signal and tell you your heart rate and how many calories and distance you travelled. You can add a bank card so you can make contactless payments, and even download music to it to play on your Bluetooth headphones. It’s also waterproof so ideal for swimming or wearing in the shower.
The only downside is the battery life they say it last up to four days but I find it’s only good for a couple of days.
All in all not bad
I purchased this watch as an activity tracker. I am not a runner but I do walk quite a bit when I get the opportunity. I find the reminder to move every hour quite handy. It does encourage you to take more exercise. I have been using it for a year and overall I’m very happy with it.
Pros:
The battery lasts around 4 to 5 days.
It has a basic heart rate monitor.
The app is decent both for iPhone and desktop it allows you to set goals, has food macros and water intake, etc. the app will also give you a weekly progress report.
The units are Imperial or metric
It has a sleep monitor.
Cons:
Limited apps.
No GPS tracker which means you need your phone if you want accuracy for walking or running.
I have broken 2 straps in 1 year.
I wanted to upgrade my older style Fitbit and really liked the look/design of the versa it looks great on the features available are ok but nothing my older style one didn’t do really as you need a PC to transfer music which I don’t have or access to one.I like the digital display and clock faces think some are paid but I didn’t really explore that option as I won’t be paying for any.Apps are ok and can get notifications from messenger/Facebook can’t get WhatsApp tho straps are ok to change when you get the hang of itBattery life seems ok so far does track your sleep but I tend not to wear mine overnight .Im happy with my purchase overall but there’s no “wow factor”.
I do like this watch but I have found that the “4 day battery life” could have been wishful thinking, the best I can get is nearly 3 days but that’s better than my samsung gear(only 2 days) or my Michael Kors smart watches (1day) when the battery is getting low I get an email telling me about it, WHY?! I can see by looking at the watch if the battery is getting low! putting music on it is a bit of a palava but I got there in the end but even then I have to keep pairing my ear buds over and over each time I want to listen to the music, over all I would not say that its ease of use is particularly good, it is very sleek and looks good, I get notifications from WhatsApp and messenger.
I have been using Fitbit for 4 years and from my experience the products they provide are very reliable. I started with a Blaze and moved onto a Versa in 2018, so I’ve had this product for 2 years now.
In that time I have had no problems. The swim function works fantastically, the straps are a little fiddly but okay, and it tracked everything I needed without hassle.
I have just bought a second as a replacement because, as with all tech, this item has a lifetime of around 2 years. So it wasn’t too much of a surprise when it died this morning (Jan 11 2020) after 2 years of solid use. The screen had come a little loose due to use and water seeped in, ruining the screen and killing the components inside. But as I said, it’s old tech and really did the job I needed to so I am fine with buying another.
Keep that in mind when purchasing, though.
Moving from a Charge 2, this was a big upgrade.
Watch is supplied with 2 straps – Small and Large. The first of improvements over the old system of buying the size kit you require.
Setup was reasonably pain free and not as long as i expected. No doubt made a lot easier as i was already a FitBit user so had the app fully set up.
Plenty of clock faces to choose from from classic designs to data rich designs. However, as the majority of faces are developed by third parties, most are chargeable.
My issues with the watch are the following:
Straps aren’t as easy to fit as the Charge. One of the pins has slightly bent where it wasn’t locating quite right. Certainly don’t have the confidence to interchange straps like i did on my Charge.
Screen quality is quite poor and not reflective of the price. I assumed that the screen was made out of tough glass like smart phones, but after minimal wear I already have a nasty scratch down the screen. Looking online, this is a common complaint. And worse still, if you crack your screen, which is quite common given that this is a fitness watch and will be subject to gym uses, there is no repair option. Essentially a throw away item which is suprising given its price.
Moral of the story, buy a screen protector WITHOUT FAIL!
i have been using my fitbit versa for many months now, and my first thoughts are that it tracks steps even if you are not wearing it. i have been in bed in the morning and picked the watch up of my bedside cupboard and the watch had already tracked 17 steps. and the other problem i have is the charging dock thing, i never really move mine, it stays in my front room. i used to plug it into my laptop to charge. but now it seems to have become faulty and is very hit and miss with the charging, i have to check it to make sure it is actually charging. i may end up buying a new one.
I wanted a watch to help me track my progress as I was trying to get back into shape. This one does exactly that while lasting 4/5 days. It’s super focus on fitness and health and which is exactly what I need, so not too bothered if it doesn’t have loads of other types of apps. My main complaint is that fitbit software (don’t know if it’s “talking” between watch and phone) or the Android phone app that seems to have some bugs/connection issue at times. I’d say it seems to work great for some days and then you need a restart of phone/bluetooth or the watch to make everything work great again… this also seems to work on and off depending on software updates… I.e. rev A might be a bit buggy, revision B seems stable, Revision C provides new features but is now a bit buggy again… It’s just not consistent with what you would expect from such a well known company in terms of software. I would say most people probably don’t care, but restarts/etc seem be require too often for it not to be annoying… However, as I said the watch is great and really well made, perfect for people wanting to track or improve their exercise regime and sleep.
Having had the charge 2, I wanted an upgrade.
Just as expected from reading reviews on several sites. Additional things I can do on the watch compared to only being able to use the app for the charge 2.
Cons…it does take upto 5 minutes on occasions to sync to my phone (huawei) which can be frustrating.
I also got blisters within a week of wearing it. I keep it clean and give my wrist a rest regularly but still got burn like blisters. To combat this, I did buy a different strap…IF ANYONE HAS A TIP ON HOW TO REMOVE THE FACTORY STRAP…HELP! I’ve watched hours of videos, broken several nails (husbands too) and yet I can’t remove the strap!! The charge 2 straps were EASY to remove and replace! Why change it!
Conclusion. It’s fine. Not amazing but not awful. Tracks what I want, can personalise all sorts and the watch looks nice (including the display). Not disappointed.
Looks great.
Large customization options.
Lots of fitness tracking and stats.
Great price.
Decent battery life.
Water resistant (50m – could be wrong).
Local MP3 files can be played from the watch directly to Bluetooth headphones.
Cons:
Costs of customization.
Standard plastic/rubber strap can be painful, especially catching hairs etc.
Lack of Fitbit Pay support in the UK.
WiFi temperamental (Bluetooth fine).
Streaming platform seems to be limited to Deezer (paid subscription).
Some time ago, I owned an original Pebble smart watch. It was a brilliant little thing. Limited, sure. It only had a monochrome screen, it only had so much functionality. About the only fitness features it had was the ability to count steps or biking or swimming. But you could have custom watch faces, different apps (albeit there was limited space for them, literally in the kilobytes I belive), it could control things via Bluetooth like your music, and so on. I loved it. At the time when I had one, it was quite late into the Pebble lifespan, and there were other models. Time, Steel, Round, and had colour screens too. There was even a second version of the original Pebble being released. When my Pebble broke (water ingress, ironically, considering it’s water resistant to 50m I think) I went looking for help. What I found made my heart sink. Pebble was all but dead in the water. They had been bought out by Fitbit, only very basic support was being offered, nothing hardware based. There was nothing I could do. Nothing else seemed to come close for me. Sure, there were fancier options, like the Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy watches, etc. But they’re also expensive. Pebble was fairly well featured and much more reasonably priced, in my opinion.
My experience of Fitbit, at this point, was limited and unimpressed. My wife had a Surge. It too had a monochrome screen, but was more fitness based, other than swimming, and had limited personalization options, coupled with an absolutely abysmal battery life. After a while the strap started to disintegrate and it no longer works at all now.
This year, which is a few years since all of that happened and I have been largely watchless, my wife asked for a fitbit Versa for her wedding anniversary present. I got her the special edition purple thing which as it turns out, in the UK at least, is only special in one aspect: its strap. In the US I’m given to understand that the default Versa doesn’t have Fitbit pay, the special edition does. In the UK, its on the standard Versa, but not the Lite. And you’re not missing out much. UK support for Fitbit Pay is laughably limited.
Initially I didn’t think too much of it. It looked nice enough. The screen was nice. It was, as far as I was aware, a fitness tracker of sorts. And then I found out that you could change the watch faces. But, this time, it wasn’t just limited to a few like her Surge was. An entire store, not unlike the Pebble. In fact, I saw watch faces I recognised from back then. OK, consider me interested. Then there’s the app store on it. Apps? Like the Pebble? What? And this time, you’re not limited to only a few KB. The Versa gives you about 2.5GB to play around in.
Alright. So, let’s make an educated conclusion. Fitbit purchased Pebble, including migrating some of the staff over. For a while it seemed they didn’t seem to be doing anything with it. It was just a thing they owned. As far as I can tell, Fitbit models up until the Ionic/Versa cannot do this. They have a set number of watch faces, apps or features, and not much else. The Ionic, just so you know, is identical to the Versa in almost every way apart from two differences: it has GPS built in, the Versa uses your phone. And its screen is a slightly different shape and resolution. Other than that, they do the same. So, Fitbit, it seems, has taken on board some of this “Pebble” stuff and even allows people to create stuff themselves. The downside to that is you need to code it. Which is done, by and large, in JavaScript, CSS, and such. Pebble had a website where it did it for you, almost. Although it had its limits.
All of that aside though, I’ve been genuinly please with it. It should have been called the Fitbit Pebble. It is essentially what it is. Fitbit + Pebble. Part of me still has a place for the monochromed original Pebble, I will always love that thing. I’m not expecting everything to be the same. For example, the Pebble could last nigh on a week, more if you limited things like it’s connectivity. This has an advertised 4 days or so. I’d expect around 2 to be the norm, I’m certainly not expecting any more, but if they changes, I’ll update. As far as the fitness tracker stuff goes, I’m not too interested in it, but it has been interesting monitoring sleep, and steps, and setting targets. Although with steps, I imagine there’s a +/- margin for error, so you might have done more/less than it tells you, but roundabout that area.
The only downside for me personally, is extra costs. 99% of watch faces cost money. Yeah, from 1 to 5 for a bundle of them, which might not seem like much, but it adds up, and you can’t use Google Play credit or other payment methods beyond credit/debit cards and possibly PayPal. As it is, I shelled out for one called “Classic Digital Faces for Versa” becuase I like that Casio kind of digital look, but even that is limited and has only slight variances that could have just been made into one customisable watch face.
A general downside that can affect everyone is that during setup, you’re asked to configure a WiFi network, which I’ve found to be temperamental at best, and may be fixed with a future update. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t actually affect too much, mainly the addition of local mp3 music and a couple of apps. But you do need to be close to your router. Presumably because the watch is fairly low power and can’t really communicate that far. I’ve also found that the strap that comes with it (at least the black one, can catch on arm hairs and can get a bit sweaty and uncomfortable.
The only issue I’ve had with it is the GPS tracking of runs/cycles. Since the Versa has no built-in GPS, you have to connect to a device that does while you’re running, to get a map of your route. If you don’t do this the Versa can still track how long you ran/cycled for along with your heart rate and calories burned. So if the map isn’t important to you then this wouldn’t be a problem at all.
I finally managed to sort it out, but it was a bit of a pain. The fitbit website had a helpful list of things to check if it isn’t working for you. Syncing with my phone can take a bit long sometimes (10-30sec).
No other issues, I got a clear case for mine, since I’m not used to wearing a watch and didn’t want to risk breaking the screen (which some reviews highlight as a danger).
Given the mixed reviews the Versa got, I bought it with a small degree of trepidation. This was out of necessity, as I had become addicted to the Fitbit Blaze I received as a gift 2.5 years ago which promised to transform one’s life and be a transformational product. It did, and it was, if walking the length of Africa and altering my daily behaviour was concerned (willingly I might add). Okay, it wasn’t waterproof, which was mildly annoying and required a change of watch to go in the pool or sauna. So I bought the Versa (the price being right and the ecosystem familiar). I also vowed to wait a while before I commented, just in case it was a dud as a few people had warned.
I needn’t have.
On almost every level, this is a superior product for the price. Once it was configured, a new strap attached, and its tendency to perhaps over-egg the step pudding (solved by calling my left wrist dominant, which it isn’t), the Versa does everything it says it will do. The clue is in the name. Fitbit….Versa for versatility, I suppose. If you want a true smart watch, perhaps look elsewhere and pay over the odds. But for a tracker which will gently nudge you to walk further, climb higher, take naps (I don’t track my sleep at night….enough already) it is like an old friend after six months. It also time dishes when I cook. Tells me the weather (most people just look outside, but in the UK this is at best problematic). Accompanies me in the sauna and pool and on bike rides. The one glaring weakness is that spinning in the gym counts for nought in the steps sweepstakes. The battery might last four days at a stretch, but I kind of doubt it. No matter, just add it to the long list of electronic gizmos (iPhone, Kindle, iPad) which queue up every day to be fed.
Perhaps the folks at Fitbit solved the software bugs before I turfed up. That would just confirm a variation on the old adage: The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
I wear mine all the time – 247 – and only recharge every 4 or 5 days and only for the length of time that it takes to shower. I use it for running and it’s great that I can set a vibrating alert for each km and there is a clear display showing my pace.
Downside is that it takes ages to load music (perhaps I’m not doing it correctly) and I can’t go into the music app to change the playlist if I’ve already started a run (I can only do this if I end the run).
I’m also allergic to the contacts and am always a bit rashy now. I googled it and it seems this is a common problem.
Good reminder to do more steps each hour if I haven’t met my target. Would be nice to have a signal after 20,000 and 30,000 as it feels a bit lacking in praise compared to just 10,000 steps.
As a Fitbit fan, I decided to upgrade from my old Fitbit Versa to this one. I did my research and am pleased to have picked this one. I go to the gym 3-4 times a week, walk over weekends etc so work outs vary from cardio to weights. The tracking options are good so this has been extremely helpful to work out my calorie and exercise every day. Battery lasts me around 4 days usually and charging is really quick. I think it’s great, there is so much to use on it that I haven’t even properly uncovered yet – exercise programmes are available straight from the watch, lots of different clock faces to pick from and customisation on what notifications you receive to the watch.
My only downside to this is that I can never seem to fully clear my notifications on my watch – not sure if that’s a bug on the software but every time I opt to clear all, there are still 3-4 messages coming up. Have reset previously and it’s fixed the issue but don’t want to do this every time.
Still I thoroughly recommend if you’re on the fence like I was 🙂
Know one knows why it seems, that so many of us have a rash from our fitbit, some have it from the watch back and others like myself have it from the strap. I have bumps and some ppl have burn like rashes from under the watch itself. I love my fitbit and because i read that it maybe a sweat problem under the original strap, as someone who suffers hyperhydrosis, i sweat under EVERYTHING. i clean any watch i wear several times a day to ensure cleanliness but the rash appeared, so i am trying a thin glamerous strap that will let my wrist breath. I have included the rash pics and my new glam strap. I have only put new strap on today so time will tell about the rash. Only removed 1 star because of the rash….. UPDATE:- Since wearing a thin stainless steel strap, no more rash. This doesnt help the men so i would suggest they use a leather strap or fabric. I hope this helps.
I bought this on sale, just after Christmas 2018. At first, I was a bit dubious. It only retained a charge for two days, rather than the advertised four. After a couple of weeks, it started behaving erratically, and finally the display went blank. I contacted Fitbit support, who were quick and helpful. Because I’ve been in IT for a looong time, I tried to give complete descriptions of what was wrong, and what steps I followed to rectify the problem. They determined that the device was faulty, and sent a replacement within three days.
The replacement watch is just what it should be. It holds a charge for four days, reports on my activity and has a wide variety of watch faces and a reasonable number of apps. I am very satisfied with it.
I do suspect that it over counts my steps, and over estimates calories, but that’s common to most tracking apps, so I don’t mind.
So because I felt I needed to replace my now-defunct watch I did some homework and decided that if Fitbit had bought the company that made my favourite watch, maybe they would be a good bet for a replacement.
Let me very briefly summarise my thoughts:
Good:
* Has a similar feature set to the Pebble
* Long battery life. (While it’s maxing out at around 4 days per charge, it’s not a patch on the Pebble’s 7 plus days)
* Clear display that, while it’s not as good in sunlight as the Pebble, is at least above average for an LCD screen
* Reasonable feature-set in the phone app (though see below in the bad section)
* A good and growing selection of replacement watch faces and watch apps
* Given that I now want to get fit, it has a very welcome set of fitness features that are comprehensive (and given that Fitbit made their name for fitness devices I would have been upset if not!)
Bad:
* The phone app is excellent in places and absolutely chronically and nonsensically awful in others
* The battery life is similarly variable. I’ve had it needing charging after 3 days all the way up to 5 – and with no appreciable change in usage there’s no clear indication why the variance
* The operation of the watch is confusing and very unintuitive with the only consistent feature being the “back” button
* Sometimes I get notifications but most often I don’t
* My phone will frequently become disconnected from the watch needing me to reset Bluetooth or stop and start the app to get it syncing again
* You can only keep one watchface at a time. I will explain that in much more detail below
* It doesn’t have built-in GPS (this didn’t bother me at all, but if this is a deal-breaker for you and you don’t mind the retro-styling, you might consider the more expensive Ionic.)
* The Fitbit supports watch payments rather than getting out your card, however I think I heard that only one bank (Santander) supports this serice in the UK which makes it rather pointless.
Basically, when it comes to the hardware, apart from not really getting on with the combination of swipes and button pressing needed to operate the watch, I really find it difficult to fault the hardware itself. I really like the look and while I did consider the Ionic at one point I decided the Versa was likely to be better for me, and so far, after just under 2 months of use, I’ve yet to regret my purchase.
The software is a completely different story. I’ve read numerous customer and other reviews, blog entries, help requests and so on to know that I’m not the only one. It isn’t all bad, but when it’s bad, it seems to be pathetically so because you would have thought that if I found many of these problems within my first 24 hours, the authors would have found and more importantly fixed them before release – or at least by now!
First big gripe: when you look at the sleep tracker on the first day (when there is only one entry), navigate away from that display and back again, you have now 2 entries… and you can keep doing this. It’s not bad as such but until you realise what’s going on it’s ultra confusing. The same thing happened to me just today with the Exercise screen where navigating away I suddenly had my latest recorded exercise appear twice… three times… and so on. It gets more annoying in this case because it takes more to scroll to previous records.
The Pebble software showed daily steps as a graph which meant that at a glance you could see when you weren’t moving much and also overlayed your overall average so again you had a pretty good idea how you compared. The Fitbit app doesn’t do that. Instead it shows some very uninformative bar chart and is only available for the current week.
On the plus side (for me) the sleep tracking is very comprehensively supported and while the primary sleep graphs are difficult to use they’ve very cleverly broken that down into the separate Awake, REM, Light and Deep sleep periods.
The Fitbit will recognise when you’re doing something it thinks is exercise and add an entry as such. When it does this it records basic details as best as it can. Better still, however, is telling the app that you’re about to exercise by either pressing the big red plus on the main page or the add button on the exercise screen. But if you scroll the main screen up, the big red plus disappears for no apparently good reason. The other problem I’ve found – which may not make a difference in real terms but is still hugely annoying to me – is that even though I explicitly pick “Walk” (I’m not a runner and never will be) when you finish, it labels it as “Run”. The other annoying thing is that if you want to do something on the treadmill, the app doesn’t let you. It gives only three options: Walk, Run and Hike. If you want to do some treadmill work, you have to select it from the watch itself. In my mind this is the wrong way around… you can imagine a more limited set of options on a small screen and a bigger one on the phone but that isn’t the case. By the way, from the watch you can choose Bike, Treadmill, Run, Weights, Swim, Interval Timer and Workout. I’m afraid I only know what Walk and Treadmill do as I don’t think I’ll ever need them and certainly haven’t tried them to date.
While I’m talking about the Exercise option, there are two things to note: as I said, when the watch/software identifies that you’ve done some, it will record some basic details, but if you actually pick a Walk for instance, it will map your route. I really like that option, though it’s reading of the GPS seems very flakey at times. The caveat is that while the Fitbit is recording the walk, it has just two screens: a map you can’t interact with and is frequently fuzzy because it has been unable to download the map data in time, and another showing your distance, total time and pace. This is annoying and it would be really nice if you could toggle between speed and pace, though. I don’t think in pace, I think speed and so I have to carry around a conversion chart I made for the purpose. When you press the Finish button, it displays a screen showing various information about what you’ve just done. But once again the testers at Fitbit have let us down and most of the information is blank or unavailable. In order to see it, you have to come out, pick Exercise again and pick the entry you just made, at which point you have access to it all. But once again something really screwy is going on. No matter what I do, the calories chart ALWAYS seems to drop to nothing about 10 minutes before the end of the period and the pace for the last split time is much much higher (and therefore slower) than I know. I once tried to trot the last minute and it made no difference at all.
And then there are the watchfaces. This surprised me the most. What REALLY surprised me was finding a question about it on Fitbit’s own website – someone else complained about the same issue, were told to raise a Support Case which they duly did, and then the Case was close without resolution or explanation shortly afterwards. Yet this is so infuriating. The Pebble had an app/watchface store where much cleverer people than myself had taken the SDK and produced some really amazing replacement watchfaces. You find one you like and download it. You find another, and there it is in your list of personal faces. If you get bored of one, you can very quickly and easily change to another. And if you find you need another, back to the app store, and so on. Fitbit do most of that, but they’ve left out the MOST important aspect of that. I literally spent 90 minutes looking at watchfaces. I have no idea how many I looked and and I have no idea how many I never got to see. But foolishly I also never checked to see what was happening to the ones I downloaded – which was almost nothing. OK, so the watchface I chose downloaded pretty immediately onto the watch, but when I went to see which faces I had picked….. there wasn’t anything to see. There is NO local registry of what you’ve downloaded. So in effect I spent 90 minutes for nothing. If you know the name, it’s possible to search for it, but if you don’t you’ve had it. So I would advise that if you spent an eternity looking through what’s on offer, WRITE DOWN THE DAMN NAME!! It will save you lots of pulled out hair and swearing. Of course Fitbit could actually fix this – stranger things have happened.
I’m sure there are a few other niggles I’ve bumped into along the way but if you’ve managed to get this far, I suspect you’ll agree I’ve gone on far too much already.
Suffice it to say that if I could give two scores, one for the watch itself and another for the phone app, I would give 5/5 for the watch and 2/5 for the app. Luckily, if they hire some programmers with some real skills and intelligence then the software can be fixed, and at least with a decent bit of kit, that’s the right way around.
Pro’s: great watch, looks nice, great display and good to have all the stats I want displayed on the screen. Haven’t had the need to use it for music.
I enjoy having the prompts to remind me to walk when I’ve been sat down at my desk for a while.
It’s great to have my work email synced as meeting reminders will pop up to remind me when I’m away from my laptop.
When I have the phone on vibrate, its good to get the calls on the screen in case my phone is in my jacket.
Cons: The pin I had for the strap was damaged. I really struggled to try and get it in place. Luckily I had ordered a stainless steel strap at the same time and that came with extra pins. I didn’t bother using the standard straps.
Also, it took a while for it to connect to the wifi even though I was sat right next to the router.
I find that if I walk out of Bluetooth range it often won’t connect back and so the details in the fitbit app won’t sync. I end up having to reconnect the Bluetooth or restarting my phone. Not sure if this is a watch or phone issue.
I bought my girlfriend a Versa for Xmas, as an upgrade to her Fitbit Charge 2, and she loves it (having previously bought her a charge 3, which was terrible).
As they were available at a discounted price over the New Year, I decided to buy one for myself and have to say, it’s great! I have a number of fitness watches, but this is the most stylish without being garish, waterproof, robust and functional of the lot.
It has a great screen, tracks a wide variety of exercises, has GPS built-in (you can add Strava to the device to track your runs, rides and probably open water swims). It has bluetooth too, and you can play music direct from the watch to headphones without the need for a phone, via a variety of different methods, including Deezer.
The device is well made, and is supplied with 2 different size straps.
The only downside (and it’s not really enough to lose a star), is that changing the “quick change” strap, was a bit of a struggle. That said, it only took me a couple of minutes, but you may find that if you need to change the small strap for the large one, that it’s best to read the instructions.
Battery life is about 4 days, which I’m pretty pleased with. The screen seems to be made out of Gorilla glass and I’m yet to pick up any scratches despite daily use.
I’d heartily recommend. Five stars for Fitbit!
Battery, amazing! 4-5 days before needing a charge, I guess this would depend on how many times you use the screen etc, but I have my alarms set on this, I use the coach for the amazing built in 7-minute workout, timers through out the day, the relax app, reminders, notifications from my phone of calls, messages, Snapchats and WhatsApp, I check the weather and use the exercise tracker too, not to mention the sleep tracker and 24hr heart rate. It comes with a handy charging dock, and you can still use the watch whilst charging.
Using the iOS app on my phone, I have personalised the screen by changing the clockface, I currently have a festive christmas clockface, there are so many of these and the best bit, LOADS are free too!
It came with 2 different sized straps, made of a durable and comfortable resin, and very easy to change.
I have had other Fitbits in the past, as well as a SHINE, but hands down, this is a winner by far.
I was lucky enough to get this watch on Cyber Monday and got an absolute bargain with 60 off the RRP
This is the perfect watch for everything from a swim in the pool to a walk in the park.
Firstly, this watch has an excellent battery life. With moderate use, it can last between 4 and 5 days! The step counter is very accurate and the heart monitor is on throughout the day which allows you to measure physical fitness. The app is very ergonomic and quite easy to use – although I did have a syncing issue which was quickly resolved through a restart of the watch. I haven’t explored the app store too much but there does appear to be a decent variety of apps.
In terms of negatives, I was a little disappointed that you can only link Deezer and Pandora since I use Amazon Music. The supplied charger is also quite cheap looking and doesn’t really have the premium feel like the watch does. Finally, it would be nice to be able to receive phone notifications on the watch instead of just fitness notifications.
In conclusion, I was quite happy with the product, given the price, and I knew that buying with Fitbit would guarantee a reliable product. Unlike the Garmin range, the Fitbit is not just specialised for running and allows you to select lots of different exercises and work outs. I certainly recommend this product as a contender if you are looking for a smart fitness tracker.
Overall the design is really nice! And a lot cheaper than other smart watches! But there are some flaws that could be easily fixed.
This is the second Fitbit I’ve owned (first one was a Flex2) and the first “smartwatch”.
Good – It’s comfortable, easy to set up and use, shows your daily stats easily, can change how the clock display looks and can track exercise on it very easily. I bought a new strap for it and it was a bit fiddly to attach, but fairly easy.
Not so good – the wallet element is pretty useless as not many banks have signed up for it yet – hopefully that will change going forward. Have had some problems with syncing – even though I’ve got it set up to sync all day, there are times when it doesn’t sync and notifications from texts/IMs/calls can be missed. Having looked online, this seems to be a common issue with the Versa. Even with the syncing being a bit random, the watch still tracks everything and so far I’ve not lost any data. I’ve also noticed that since I switched to the Versa, the App on my phone is using a lot more battery.
If you’re looking for something to track steps and exercise this is a good buy. As a tracker, it’s really good. If you’re more into the smartwatch elements, the syncing issue may be problematic.
Pros: It’s comfortable to wear, it’s small and discrete without losing functionality, I’ve found the step count and exercise to be accurate, it picks up on sleep patterns great (it hasn’t missed a night in a month of use), I haven’t been the most careful with it (its had a few knocks) and still seems to be unscratched and unchipped, the screen is visible in sunlight, the battery lasts a really long time unless you’re doing something intensive like streaming music which is fair enough, and it’s really easy to sync with phones and computers, I’m using the free Deezer trial which is easy to sync music.
Cons: I have the standard version and can’t seem to delete the wallet app which is useless with the device, very occasionally the screen isn’t as easy to wake as I’d like it to be and sometimes it doesn’t pick up my heart rate for some reason, but these are mostly blips and don’t occur most of the time.
N/A: I haven’t been brave enough to try swimming with it on yet, and haven’t tried changing the strap yet.
I would also say it’s not really comparable to an Apple Watch, yes it doesn’t have some of Apple’s functionality, but if you’re buying a Fitbit you’re buying it for a specific purpose rather than as a general smartwatch.
So I’m autistic and I have bad anxiety so it’s really good for measuring my heart rate to see what is bothering me and I would recommend it to my students (I work with special needs young people).
I also have kidney stones and PCOS… if you get an app on your phone called My Water the notifications can come through on the Fitbit plus you can track your periods on the Fitbit and your sleep pattern!
I like that you can choose your clock face and even have one with a picture if you’d like!
The Fitbit app itself is fun there are competitions for walking and you can get trophies and stuff for walking… It’s great at the gym because I can track all the different types of exercises I do. I also subscribed to Fitbit coach and you can see the trainer on the Fitbit showing you the exercise and let me tell you they are a real work out plus you can do them at home with no equipment for days when you don’t get into the gym!
The battery life has been decent and with my Bluetooth on and using it a lot it’s lasted 4 days!
It’s nice that I can use my Apple Pay on the bus and there are loads of cool apps just wish there was Spotify!
Really quick to charge; I usually take it off for showering and it’s pretty much full when I’m done. The relax app with breathing exercises is useful, particular on stressful work days. I’ve just started using the female health functions on it and they seem pretty good so far. The step counter can sometimes be a little off – I find it amazing I’m able to get those last few steps of my 250 per hour, simply sitting in a bar, over-gesticulating with my hands while sipping my drink…but I guess that counts as ‘movement’? I’d recommend getting a couple of screen protectors and a guard for when you work out, just to protect it from knocks, but it’s been quite durable so far and I’m useless when it comes to breaking my watches.
My only gripe was that it comes with the Deezer app – because who seriously uses Deezer. However you can control music streaming to your phone easily from the controls by pressing and holding the left button – this works for any music player including Spotify too, which isn’t widely advertised. Hopefully, they’ll come out with an official Spotify app soon as I’d love the ability to download and store a few songs without keeping my phone nearby.
The other apps at this point are okay/good, could do with a few more of the useful Apple/Android apps porting across to Fitbit. But hey, at least I can pay for my Starbucks with my wrist like the pretentious git I am.
Amazon issued the replacement and I had it the next day (was very impressed at this). The replacement works brilliantly as promised, synced first time perfectly and is connected to multiple WiFi routers, and since, there has been no connection or syncing errors.
The watch itself:
The watch itself is beautiful, and can be customised with a variety of straps suiting all styles and tastes. The battery is also amazing, I use it for a full day logging all work outs etc and only loose 20-30% by the time I go to bed. I put it on the charging dock whilst I shower and by the time I put it back on It is full! Brilliant! It may not have the variety of apps apple offer at the moment but everything it does have works great, and it is a purely fitness orientated device. The HR monitor has worked consistently for me, so too has the accelerometer and all other features. The short key work out modes are great, and the watch perfectly tracts all activity and progress and stores it on the app very nicely. I wear this at night to no discomfort at all, and I obsessively enjoy monitoring my sleep! I love using the watch when I’m doing my push pull legs splits (lifting weights), and timing exercises or session, as well ass tracking what zone my heart rate is in. Other things I like and use a lot are the timer when I’m cooking, the alarm functionality works great, notifications save me from checking my phone every 5 minutes or alert me in work when someone is ringing, and surprisingly I find myself using the flashlight when I need to get up through the night.
The app companion on my iPhone 6s works perfectly, it is now one of my favourite and most used apps. I am now cutting weight, and I find it easy to log my caloric intake (and monitor the percentages of macros I am eating a day), I love monitoring my sleep, and the encouragement from the app via notifications, little celebration screens when you reach your personal goals (also on the watch) are great for encouragement, motivation and positive self.
Things I have yet to try:
I have not yet took it for a swim (but have got it wet and it is resistant as promised)
I have not tested the social features of the app as I have only had it for little over a week
Overall:
I am made up with this watch, I was worried when the first one was dysfunctional, as I did not want to loose hope and fork out for an Apple Watch, I wanted a watch that was purely focused on fitness! I am happy that my replacement has achieved this and more! Will definitely be leaving this on my wrist for some time to come!!
After using Fitbit Versa for several months, I am going back to Apple Watch. Unfortunately.
I still love Fitbit’s 5 day battery which is what drove me to it in the first instance. However, after using the watch for a number of months, the black watch band looks scratched and old, the watch (both glass and body) scratched and looking old too. The quality of the watch seems to be way behind that of the Apple Watch. I guess that is the premium price one pays for an Apple Watch.
My Apple Watch 1 Generation still looks good as new after several years of use..
In summary: if the overall make quality and look/durability is important to you: then I’d say that Versa is not the watch for you. For additional features, see my review below.
_______________
After using an Apple Watch (1st generation) for almost 3 years, I thought it was time for an upgrade. Having owned a Fitbit HR in the past, and whilst I loved my Apple Watch, i was curious to find out what the Versa could do. The battery was a deal breaker for me after getting tired of the daily charging (or running out of battery in the middle of a rather active day). On this front, the Versa does not disappoint, so far I got up to 5 days battery on a single charge.
What I love:
– Battery life. Awesome!
– It is light. Ridiculously light!
– Auto-recognition of certain activities (like running, walking or cycling)
– Sleep tracking (although one can end up obsessing a little too much about it)
– Vibrating alarm that subtly wakes you up without sounding an alarm. This is only possible due to the extended battery life
– Compatible with Lose It and other weight management apps.
What I don’t love so much:
– The touch screen is not as responsive as the Apple Watch, especially if when lifting my wrist, the screen does not light up. I often find myself having to press the button to wake the watch up
– Neither the watch itself, nor the sport band, feel like that of a quality watch (again when compared with Apple Watch)
– No fitbit pay yet, although is coming to the UK
– One click to get to exercise mode
Things I miss and things I don’t miss but you might:
– No voice recognition (think Siri). I used this on the Apple Watch to set a alarm, send a quick message or set a timer. Not a biggie for me but I miss it.
– Lack of apps although more will be coming, I am sure.
– Inability to set exercise targets by time/Kcals etc
I thought I would miss other Apple Watch functionalities, I do not and the Versa is fully compatible with the iPhone (via the fitbit app which I like much better than the Apple equivalent). It may not have the same functionality or feel like an expensive piece of kit, but it looks good, feels good and is much better for exercise tracking.
If you are thinking about an Smart Watch and don’t want to break the bank or make a (brand) statement, then consider the Versa. A solid and reliable alternative. Apple Watch, beware!
It looks great, not too big, the screen is really nice and clear and it’s very easy to use. Charges via the included dock and I’ve found battery life to be very good, I’ve gone 3 days without charging and it’d likely last another day on top of that.
The fitness side of this is brilliant, this tracks loads of different metrics, steps, sleep, heart rate, with each meticulously logged and easy to understand either on the watch, the app or the website.
You can customise the watchface very easily via the app, there are a limited number of apps you can install. Unfortunately at the time of review there is no Spotify app.
The watch itself is a music player, you load the music onto the Versa via your computer and it can then pair to your bluetooth headphones, brilliant for those who don’t want to take their mobile out and about, although note there is no GPS built in so if you want to track where you run you’ll still need your mobile.
It can also be used to make contactless payment, however check if your bank is supported. I’m with Santander and they’ve just added support for the Versa, not many other UK banks can be used (at May 2018).
Fitbit Coach is built into the Versa allowing you to do a workout using nothing but your watch. You can check out Fitbit Coach for free, just download it to your mobile and you can try some of the workouts at no charge, if you like it you can pay about 30 (on Android) to get a years access to all the workouts they have to offer.
The one area I’ve found to be hit and miss is the notifications from my phone. On my Pebble I’d be notified on the Pebble at the same time as my mobile beeped. With the Fitbit Versa there is a bit of a lag, sometimes I don’t get them at all. When I do get the notifications they’re very easy to read on the screen and you can select which apps you are notified about.
Very happy with the Versa so far, despite the hit and miss notifications I’m finding it a a brilliant replacement for my Pebble and I’ve not wanted to swap back. Great battery life, great fitness features, great fitness watch!
I had none of the issues that the other reviewers had, I charged the Fitbit up like instructed and it updated within 30 minutes and I did a work out straight after and it analysed it perfectly! I’m currently on day 4 of the battery and it looks like it’ll last the day and hopefully night too into say 5! I found this gorgeous little floral clock in the clock faces too so I’m even more in love with it! I was going to go for the cheaper fitbits but figured this is basically a cheaper version of the Apple Watch! It looks so pretty too, and this one is pink!! My mum is close to buying one for herself too since it gives hourly motivation notifications to move 250 steps an hour, and if really does make you move more haha!! My dog is really benefiting from this Fitbit! It even calculates how much you are in active for in the day, which makes you move more!!
My favourite part so far is how easy it is to wear and how it’s waterproof, I’ve only had it for 3 days and it’s just become the new normal! I’m not sure why there are negative reviews, maybe from competitors?
If you don’t have time to read the whole review: Overall I’m absolutely in love with it! I’d happily pay 300-400 for the quality it provides, and it’s so close to an Apple Watch that it’s gorgeous to look at hahahaha! I’ve had no problems at all and I’m close to buying my mother one lol!
I have been with Fitbit for several years. My wife and I didn’t have any issues with the initial setup, it was straight forward. The firmware update was done under half an hour after connecting it to the WiFi network.
I am happy with the Versa and can see great potential especially the new app store that allows the installation of 3rd party appps.
At the beginning I was missing notifications for Skype and WhatsApp. It seems this got fixed with later iOS/Android and and FitBit OS Firmware upgrades.
Under Notifications -> App Notifications I listed some few that are available in my Fitbit App
Depending on apps installed on your phone as well as your notification setting this list may be longer. As soon as you receive notifications from other apps, these might be available to select in the Versa.
Viber
Amazon
eBay
PayPal
Messenger
IF by IFTTT
Facebook
Gmail
Skype
Instagram
LinkedIn
OneDrive
Printerest
Spark email app
BBC News
…
Had some issues to upgrade to firmware 32.10.15 and it got stuck. So I needed to perform resets to make it work. Several attempts and three hours later it was completed successfully.
Since I am very active, the battery life is ok. Charging my Versa mostly after three days.
Downside for me is the charger. I would have preferred a charging cable like for the Surge.
There is not chance to charge the Versa, when it is in a silicone case. So you will need to dismantel it every time for recharge – remove the straps and silicone case and put it into the charger case. Very annoying. For this reason one star less.