Fitbit Versa 2 Review: Battery Life Champion!
The Fitbit Versa 2 features an amazing battery and a great design. Should you buy this smartwatch?
The Fitbit Versa 2 is a smartwatch that aims to hit the major categories without giving any jaw-dropping or extra features. It has a lot of headlining features like a 6-day battery life, Amazon Alexa built in, and more! However, since so many smartwatches/wearables are in the market from companies like Samsung, Fitbit faces fierce competition, and they have to create a smartwatch that can do everything.
In this review, I’ll highlight the main features of the Fitbit Versa 2, and towards the end of this article I’ll give my general opinion on the product
Activity Tracking
The Fitbit Versa 2 has some great activity tracking features, and the one that I really like is the 24/7 Heart Rate tracking, which I think is substantial to keep track of your workouts and how you worked harder throughout the workout. Fitbit also hits all of the basics of a fitness wearable as well, which makes sense because that’s what they’re famous for. The Versa 2 tracks your steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes, hourly activity and even more. These are all basic features that you would expect on a fitness wearable, but its always nice to point it out.
Fitbit also has something they call a “Cardio Fitness Score,” which is a tool that they provide for you to get a better understanding of how you’ve progressed over time in your fitness goals. Fitbit personalizes this score to only you, and how you have progressed over time, so you know if you are really making progress or not.
Battery Life
The battery life on the Fitbit Versa 2 is the gold standard for all smartwatches, without a doubt. I have both the Fitbit Versa 2 and my main watch, the Apple Watch Series 3. My Series 3 currently gets around 2 days of battery life on a full charge, which is what I would say is average for a smartwatch. Fitbit themselves rates the Versa 2 for 6 days, and I can assure you that they are telling the truth. Either Fitbit packs one of the largest batteries in a smartwatch, or the OS and apps are very light so that the Fitbit doesn’t have to use much charge. Overall, the battery is AMAZING on this wearable.
Sleep Tracking
Fitbit has had sleep tracking for a while now, but with their Fitbit Versa 2 they have improved the tracking to a different level. In this regard, Fitbit is night and day ahead of other smartwatch manufacturers like Apple, who just introduced sleep tracking for watchOS 7 at WWDC. It took Apple 6 years from the original Apple Watch to get sleep tracking, whereas other smartwatches have had it for such a long time.
The way how Fitbits sleep tracking stands out is that they provide you with a sleep score that you can check on your phone after you wake up in the morning, and it gives you a score to see how well you slept, and then also a detailed explanation of your sleep patterns. Fitbit also tracks your sleep stages, and one of the features in this is that it can keep track of how long you slept in the light, which of course distracts from your sleep. Fitbits app also gives you insights onto how you can improve your sleep as well.
Apps
One thing that I love about my Apple Watch is the number of apps that I can download, use, and also support it. There are so many apps that I didn’t know had an app for the Apple Watch, and I’ve incorporated them into my daily life now. With personal experience from the Fitbit Versa 2, I can assure you that there aren’t many apps that I found that were useful on the Fitbit. The one app that I found was Spotify, but that was the lone one.
In one regard, this isn’t really Fitbits fault because third-party developers aren’t developing apps to go on the Fitbit. Apple also makes it very easy for developers to create an app for the Apple Watch, and a common person with a Mac can do it on Xcode, which is why there are a boatload of Apple Watch apps.
Extra Features
One cool feature that the Fitbit Versa 2 has, that actually the original one didn’t have, is Amazon Alexa built in. The Versa 1 didn’t have a voice assistant with it, like the Samsung Galaxy Watches have Bixby and the Apple Watches have Siri. Alexa is also really nice because it integrates with many more smart home products, like your garage door or your living room lights, which you can control with just your smartwatch!
Another feature that the Fitbit Versa 2 packs is the Always-On display. This is a new feature that Apple had to release after 5 generations of the Apple Watch, with their Series 5. I personally am not a huge fan of this feature because it decreases the battery life, but I know some people (my dad being one of them) who would like that, since it would resemble a real watch.
To wrap up, I think Fitbits Versa 2 is a really great product, at a very fair price. If you were looking at a wearable under $200, this is your best bet. The smartwatch now comes down to your budget.
Alternatively, at $300, we have the Galaxy Watch Active 2 which packs more smartwatch features.
If you can afford little more, at $400, you can get the king of smartwatches, the Apple Watch Series 5.
