Fitbit remains in the middle of a makeover, with the business pressing right into medical care and software program solutions to buoy gadget sales. It’s a shift that is significantly mirrored in its newest smartwatch, the Fitbit Versa 2.

The initial Versa was a big success for Fitbit, yet the Versa Lite – its curtailed, more affordable design– was much less so. The Versa 2 has components of both of those precursors with some remarkable brand-new attributes, the greatest being Alexa.

Yes, Amazon’s wise voice aide goes to your beck and also get in touch with the Versa 2. It’s not the very first time we’ve seen Alexa on the wrist, yet it is the very first time on a Fitbit gadget. How does it function? How does the Versa 2 contrast to what came prior to it? Here’s our decision.

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Fitbit Versa 2 crucial specifications

Works with Android and iOS
Built-in mic for Amazon Alexa
Fitbit Pay on Core and Special Edition designs
24/ 7 task tracking
Heart rate monitoring
15+ goal-based workout modes
Connected GPS (calls for phone)
Water-resistance approximately 50 meters
Always-on display
5+ days battery life/2+ days in the always-on setting.

Fitbit Versa 2: Design

From a range, the Versa 2 coincides with the exact same identifiable square face doing its finest work of copying the Apple Watch while being simply various sufficient. Look much more very closely and you’ll see a number of refined renovations. First of all, the Fitbit logo design is gone.

It’s an action far from the angular layout of Fitbit’s last couple of gadgets, and also CEO James Park informs me the Versa 2 is a middle of a bigger shift to rounder forms, so anticipate the Versa 3 to progress appropriately, when it comes.

Speaking of the display, there’s 0.05 much more inches of it on the Versa 2, and also Fitbit has actually exchanged out the LCD for an AMOLED screen. It provides 300 x 300 pixel resolution and also 1,000 nits in illumination, and also, with all these powers integrated, the Versa 2 display is much easier to see under sunshine.

The Versa 2 is likewise the very first Fitbit smartwatch to supply an always-on screen setting that reveals you the moment, day, battery life and a number of efficiency statistics – yet, is cautioned, this will certainly effect on battery life.

But while Fitbit has actually included, it’s likewise removed. The Versa 2 currently has simply one physical switch, on its left side, which indicates 2 have actually disappeared.

It’s in fact the exact same design as the Versa Lite, and also, while Fitbit really did not discover much success with that said smartwatch, it thinks the streamlined input system was much better.

That switch can be utilized to turn the display on or off (you can likewise trigger it by transforming your wrist, if you allow it) and to return a display when flipping via the food selection.

Flip the Versa 2 over and also the sensing units and also charging port on the back both being in a much more unified, bent square that’s even more comfy versus the wrist.

Front and also back, the Fitbit Versa 2 is easier, cleaner, tidier. It likewise is available in a various line-up of products and also shades: black with a carbon instance, flower (pinkish) with a copper increased lightweight aluminum instance, and rock (grey) with a grey instance; plus a number of scandal sheet designs with cool bands.

Remember, bands will certainly function throughout all Versa designs, as well, so those updating from the initial or Lite design will not require to begin their collection of bands from the ground up (I’ve still been switching in my Versa 1’s black silicone band for running in, and also I in fact fairly like just how it looks with the grey instance).

Sadly this likewise indicates Fitbit is still utilizing its quick-release pins, which are a discomfort to jump on and off, specifically with the silicone bands.

Fitbit Versa 2: Fitness and Attributes

We’ll obtain onto Alexa quickly, yet fitness are still front and also facility of the Fitbit experience. The Versa 2 is established to track running, cycling, fitness center and swimming exercises. I’ve checked it with a handful of these and the Versa 2 has actually mainly done as wished, and all the far better many thanks to the much faster chip that’s currently running the Versa 2.

During a number of exterior runs, I was pleased to see the sensing unit staying on top of me essentially, yet– and also if you’ve checked out any one of our earlier Fitbit review, you’ll understand this– it still fails with higher-intensity period workouts.

An exterior run tracked by Fitbit Versa 2 (left) VS Polar chest band (right)

During periods, I might see the Versa 2 dragging my Polar H10 chest-strap in the online analyses– occasionally as long as 10 bpm, although the last charts and also optimal weren’t horribly off.

Now, just how much does this issue? It depends upon what you’re trying to find below. Are you trying to find an operating watch that can manage interval training and those even more extensive exercises? Get a Garmin or utilize a chest band. Otherwise, if you’re simply choosing the strange go for a regular rate, the Versa 2 does simply great.

Weight training (left) and biking (right) on the Versa 2

But in addition to workout, the watch likewise tracks your heart rate 24/ 7, and also rest throughout the evening. I’ve tracked my rest with the Versa 2 every evening of the screening procedure, and also I’ve observed 2 points: It’s actually efficient recognizing when I sleep and also much less efficient recognizing when I get up.

This, likely, is since the gadget requires to identify a reasonable quantity of activity prior to it finishes a rest session, and so forth a couple of celebrations it’s informed me I got up around 15 mins behind I understand what I did (since I pushed the switch on the watch to examine the moment).

That apart, Fitbit still has one of the most precise rest monitoring, and its Sleep Insights, offering you ideas based upon your rest ‘efficiency’, are a good added, though I occasionally want these dug a little much deeper.

At some factor in the future, Fitbit will certainly present a chart in the application that reveals approximated blood oxygen degrees, as long as you have among the much more current gadgets with an SpO2 sensing unit on it, yet this will certainly be a standard chart that will merely reveal fads in time.

Fitbit is still in the procedure of getting FDA authorization to utilize its SpO2 modern technology to track atrial fibrillation and rest apnea. It’s currently finished medical researches on the last, yet there’s still no timeline on when these attributes might get here.

One point it does absence is integrated GPS. Instead, the Versa 2 tethers the GPS link from your phone, and this has actually functioned flawlessly great throughout my outdoors runs and bike trips. Really, so long as your phone’s GPS is tracking, the Versa 2 can.

Most people still keep up our phones anyhow, and up until Fitbit has far better alternatives for offline songs, it might be a moot factor. But hardcore joggers and bicyclists will likely desire the immediacy of information, integrity and adaptability of on-device GPS– which will certainly require them in the direction of the Garmin Venu, Vivoactive 4 or, certainly, the AppleWatch .

And yes, songs. The Versa 2 once more has an indigenous songs gamer that can stand up to around 300 tracks, yet you’ll require to essentially post the electronic data from a computer system.

One all new attribute of the Versa 2 is the Spotify application, yet unlike its combinations on Garmin’s and Samsung’s watches, you can not sync songs offline. Instead, you can begin a playlist or a “Made for” mix (IE Discover Weekly, Release Radar, etc). It’s a penalty, and helpful as long as I do not intend to look for a certain CD or musician.

Another great adjustment on the Versa 2 is that Fitbit Pay gets on board all Versa 2 watches, whereas it had actually been restricted to the scandal sheets in the past. That indicates you’ll have the ability to connect a charge card (as long as it’s sustained) and also pay from your wrist, regardless of which Versa 2 version you choose.

Fitbit’s Premium solution currently likewise resides in the application, which provides assisted health and wellness programs for targeting locations like rest, tension, and workout.

Premium is Fitbit’s initially significant paid-for solution, something it’s wagering large on for its long life as a firm. Premium is maybe the greatest signifier of that shift I spoke about, as Fitbit wagers its future on software program solutions along with its gadgets.

Fitbit Versa 2: Alexa on the Wrist

A couple of have actually attempted (and also stopped working) to place Alexa in a smartwatch, yet the Versa 2 shows the most effective implementation I’ve seen of it up until now, also if it’s not ideal. Here’s just how it functions: You hold back the side switch, wait on the Alexa sign to show up, ask it a concern and wait on it to present the solution on the display.

There’s no audio speaker on the Versa 2, so every one of Alexa’s actions are text-based. And if you’re an Alexa customer currently, the bright side is that Alexa on Fitbit can likewise regulate your wise house gadgets as it would certainly when regulated via an Echo audio speaker.

I’ve asked it to lower lights, change audio speaker quantity, and play details radio terminals on specific audio speaker teams in my house. You can likewise utilize it to establish alarm systems, or obtain it to present your day’s health and fitness objectives (if you’re as well careless to swipe to the control panel).

When it functions, it’s terrific. The issue is that it occasionally does not. Initially, it was much more usual that Alexa would certainly return an inquiry with a message notifying me the link with the phone has actually quit, yet, because an upgrade, we obtain a lot less of this. Now, it’s simply a situation of whether Alexa listens to the command appropriately.

Fitbit Versa 2: Battery Life

Battery life is where Fitbit has long had the top hand on Apple, and also it’s the exact same tale with the Versa 2. Fitbit claims you can rise to 5 days of battery life on this point, and I procured specifically that throughout my very first week…

But if you do utilize workout settings (specifically those which need GPS tethering) and Alexa much more intensively, you will not make it that much – as I uncovered in my 2nd week. Using the always-on screen likewise brought the battery life to around 3 days, and I presume if I had actually been tracking much more workouts because time, it would certainly have been closer to 2.