
You can adorn its large, bright screen with a wide selection of fun, functional, colorful faces, though not all of them are free. The FitBit Versa 3 comes stacked with features and apps that rival the likes of Apple and Samsung.Īs a smartwatch, the Versa 3 ticks nearly all the important boxes. Thankfully, there are third-party docks that offer an easier, more convenient charging solution.

And the plug is curved at the back, so the watch can’t lay flat while charging. It fits the Versa 3 in only one orientation, so it’s kind of a hassle because there’s a 50/50 chance you’ll line it up wrong. That cord has a magnetic plug on the end, and it’s not reversible. If you’re heading out for, say, a three-day weekend, you can almost certainly leave the charging cord at home. That’s still pretty decent, especially compared with the likes of the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch, which typically give you about two days, maximum. When I toggled the always-on watch face option, however, battery life dropped to about four days.

In fact, after six days of “normal” use (which didn’t include a lot of outdoor, GPS-heavy activity, because winter.), I still had about 15% charge remaining. Battery lifeįitbit promises at least six days’ worth of wear before it needs a recharger-an estimate my tests bore out. As noted above, the Sense adds EDA and ECG sensors, along with an upgraded heart-rate sensor. The latter seemed particularly important in the early days of COVID-19 detection, but it can still be helpful for those with certain blood-oxygen conditions. In addition to its optical heart-rate sensor (which can notify you if your heart is beating especially fast or slow), the Versa 3 employs both red and infrared sensors for oxygen-saturation (SpO2) monitoring. I was happy to check stats after the fact and even happier I didn’t have to remember to start/stop the tracking. You can manually track an exercise if you want real-time, at-a-glance stats as you go, but most of the time I found it more convenient to let the Versa do the heavy lifting.

But the Versa 3 silently and efficiently detects when you’re doing an activity and records all of it for you-no intervention required.

It’s all too easy to forget one or both of those actions, resulting in skewed or non-existent results. Many fitness devices require manual intervention: Start the clock when you climb aboard the treadmill or head out on the bike, stop it again when you’re done. It’s the simplicity and automation of all this tracking that I like most. Built-in GPS adds real-time route- and pace-tracking as well. It will automatically log the steps you take daily and can track all manner of exercise-everything from hiking and biking to kickboxing and tennis. The automated fitness tracking on the Versa 3 is very reliable.įitness is, of course, the Fitbit’s raison d’etre, so it’s no surprise the Versa 3 excels in that department.
