Fitbit Versa Lite Review: Stripped-Down Smartwatch Nails the Basics
Our Verdict
While it'south missing some of the snazziest features, the Versa Light brings the core functionality of Fitbit's Versa at a more affordable price.
For
- Stellar battery life
- Accurate sleep and fitness tracking
- Fun color options
- Onboard health tracking
Against
- Limited app store
- No onboard GPS
- No onboard music storage
Tom's Guide Verdict
While it's missing some of the snazziest features, the Versa Lite brings the core functionality of Fitbit'due south Versa at a more than affordable price.
Pros
- +
Stellar bombardment life
- +
Accurate sleep and fitness tracking
- +
Fun color options
- +
Onboard health tracking
Cons
- -
Limited app store
- -
No onboard GPS
- -
No onboard music storage
For the past few years, stereotype has dictated that a smartwatch is a luxury purchase. Fitbit started to change that perception with the release of the Versa, one of the best sub-$200 smartwatches ever to hit shelves.
The visitor followed up its affordable flagship with the Versa Lite, a smartwatch with many of the same features — but a $forty lower cost.
Still, $159 is a decent chunk of coin, peculiarly compared to what you pay for smartwatches like the $79 Amazfit Bip. But the Versa Light provides the sleek style and intuitive, sophisticated software for which Fitbit is known. While the Versa Lite lacks some of the features y'all'll discover on the Versa and college-priced competitors like the Apple Watch and Milky way Watch, budget users seeking a loftier-end production won't be disappointed with this spotter.
Since this review originally posted, Fitbit launched the Fitbit Versa 2 ($199), which has longer battery life, Alexa built in, and a brighter display. Even so, the price of the Fitbit Versa Calorie-free has since dropped to $99, making it more than of a bargain. Be certain to read our Fitbit Versa 2 review or bank check out our Best Fitbit page earlier making a determination as to which is best for your needs.
If y'all ain a Fitbit Inspire HR, Accuse iii, Accuse iv, Ionic, Versa, Versa ii, or Versa Lite, you can enroll in Fitbit's new heart study, and the company will notify you if your device detects an irregular heart rhythm that indicates AFib. Fitbit will likewise connect you with a md for a gratuitous consultation. The Fitbit Heart Study, open to U.S. residents 22 years or older, is being conducted to determine how accurate its devices are in detecting atrial fibrillation, as the first step to receiving FDA approval. Hither's how to sign upward for the Fitbit Centre Study.
Fitbit Versa Lite: Design
In terms of shape and size, the Versa and the Versa Lite are most identical. Both come with a 39mm screen. The Versa Lite is 22.9 grams, while the Versa is 23 grams. (You won't be able to feel the divergence.)
Two factors set the Versa Calorie-free apart from its predecessor. The get-go is the color selection. Fitbit says it's tailoring the Calorie-free toward "youthful, fun-seeking" customers who are buying their first smartwatches. The Versa Low-cal's options reflect the focus on that demographic: You can get this watch in White, a light purple Lilac, a dark purple Mulberry or a vivid Marina Blueish. Compared to the Versa, which comes in Black, Grey or Rose Gold, the Lite offers a vibrant selection for a range of styles and seasons.
More: Fitbit Versa vs. Fitbit Versa Lite - which is best for you lot?
The second deviation is the button setup: Both watches have a large On/Off and Back button on the left side, while the Versa has two additional buttons on the correct side that command your music volume and can be programmed as shortcuts to sure apps. The extra buttons on the Versa are a prissy bonus, merely not a necessity; I could command the Low-cal just fine without them.
Compared to Fitbit's other offerings, the Versa Lite is a good-looking lookout. The company's $149 Charge 3, for example, sports a similar ring with a slimmer, 38mm screen, simply it looks and feels more like a gym accompaniment than something I'd wear out and almost. With its glossy metal case and rounded watch face, the Lite is more of a looker. I comfortably wore it to work, a fancy dinner, a theater outing and multiple workouts, and it never felt out of place.
You lot tin can technically swap out the Versa Lite's bands when you get tired, but information technology's no easy feat. I struggled for around 5 minutes to swap the blue band for a yellow i, which requires sliding a very tiny pin inward while struggling to fit another tiny pin into a very tiny hole. I imagine that this gets easier with practice, merely how many times do you lot actually plan on irresolute your watchband?
Fitbit Versa: Performance
If there's one matter Fitbit devices practise better than even their peak-tier competitors, it's tracking practise and slumber. And for those features, the Versa Lite is one of Fitbit'due south best yet. Information technology caught all of the workouts I didn't actively log, including multiple Zumba aerobic workouts and elliptical sessions, and accurately tracked my middle charge per unit throughout. Heavy sweat didn't seem to mess upwardly the lookout's sensors, a trouble I've had with the Charge ii and Charge 3.
As far equally I could unscientifically tell, the Versa Lite was pretty spot-on in tracking my sleep cycles, as well as the times I woke upwards. One affair I appreciated: It didn't think I was sleeping while I was actually watching Netflix or reading in bed. This was another issue I experienced with the Charge 2, too as Samsung's Milky way Watch Active.
Beyond the tracking basics, however, the Versa Lite falls short of the contest in a couple means. The nigh significant is that there'southward no onboard GPS, a cardinal feature of devices like the Apple Lookout man Series 4 and Milky way Watch Active. This means that if you're logging a walk or a run, you'll need to bring your phone forth with you to rail your altitude.
Another reason yous'll still need to bring your telephone along: In that location'south no onboard music storage. That gives a big advantage to the Versa, which does offer such storage. (But since the Versa also lacks onboard GPS, the music storage doesn't necessarily free you lot from your telephone.)
Notwithstanding, you can however use the Versa Light to control the music that your phone plays. Long-pressing the Back button pulls upwardly a music command console, including buttons to play/intermission, skip and toggle the volume. In a slight glitch, the Lite occasionally failed to realize that a vocal was already playing, and then I'd need to press the Play button to become the Pause button to testify up. Other than that, though, I had no issues with the controls.
MORE: How to Choose the Right Fitness Tracker for Your Needs
The do good of these audio controls over onboard storage is that you're non express to the few music services that Fitbit is partnered with. I got the Lite to work without a hitch with all kinds of sound sources, including Netflix, Hulu, HBO and Audible. The only i the watch didn't seem to connect to was the YouTube app, but it did work with YouTube in the Chrome browser.
The Versa Lite is also missing a few of the Versa'southward more than-advanced tracking features. It can't track floors climbed or laps swum, nor does information technology offering guided workouts on its display, every bit the Versa does. You'll want to shell out for the Versa if y'all value these features, and particularly if you lot're a swimmer.
Fitbit Versa: Apps
Compared to what y'all'll find on the Apple Watch and Wear OS, Fitbit'south app store leaves something to be desired. There's a limited pick of 3rd-political party apps, and while yous'll recognize some of the names, you won't see annihilation from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or anything else that plugs you in socially.
In fact, the only actionable notifications, as well fettle-related ones, that you lot'll get on the Versa Lite are Android letters. You tin select a quick respond if you're an Android user, but you can't type a response out on the sentinel itself or dictate a response, as y'all can with the Galaxy lineup. You can't respond to iMessages, either, since Apple is (for the well-nigh part) a closed ecosystem.
In general, Fitbit doesn't permit its apps to admission Wi-Fi, citing battery-life reasons. To pull data from the cyberspace, the Versa Low-cal communicates (via Bluetooth) with a proxy app on your phone.
As a result, almost of the apps you can use on the Versa Lite are adequately bare-bones. The New York Times app delivers a short list of the newspaper's most recent headlines, but tapping one of those entries brings upwards only the first few sentences of the article. The Yelp app brings upwards a list of restaurants around you lot with ratings, simply yous can't read reviews of those establishments or review them yourself. Apps similar those for Starbucks and Flipboard require y'all to create an account and log in on your telephone earlier you can use them on the lookout.
MORE: Here Are the Most (and Least) Secure Fitness Trackers
I have trouble seeing the utilise example for apps similar these, especially when I need to have my phone with me to exercise with the Versa Lite anyhow. Why not just pull up the Times headlines there and get the full articles to kicking?
You lot download apps through the app store in the Fitbit app, which you lot access by opening your user account, selecting your Versa Lite and tapping the Apps tab. For something that could exist, for some users, an integral experience to using a smartwatch, this function'south adequately subconscious in the app. It would exist more user-friendly to download apps if the shop were more central or could be accessed on the scout itself.
Fitbit Versa: Features
Though the diverse swipes took a bit of getting used to, I ultimately constitute the Versa very like shooting fish in a barrel to navigate.
The brandish was quite responsive, and I never had to tap anything twice. There was a scrap more of a lag in the swipes than you'd see on a smartphone, but you probably won't observe it unless yous're in a huge hurry.
Swiping left pulls up app options, as well every bit the functions for alarms and timers, logging exercise, the weather forecast, and settings. Swiping down reveals contempo notifications, including calendar events and text messages.
Swipe up and yous'll see the Today View, a list of health statistics and insights. Y'all can select seven stats to brandish here, including such metrics as heart rate, practice and step count.
MORE: 10 Well-nigh Surprising Uses for Fitness Trackers
You lot tin also see the corporeality you lot slept the previous night on the Versa Calorie-free, in improver to the corporeality of time yous spent in each sleep stage and how those results compare to your weekly boilerplate. In addition, you tin log your weight and water consumption direct on your picket and track your progress toward your goal weight. I e'er forget to log my weight when I don't take my telephone effectually during a weigh-in, so I'chiliad glad to see that yous can now do so on your wrist.
Anyone who has a flow can check their wheel in this view. You tin can likewise come across the calories you've consumed broken down into proteins, fat and carbs (but menstrual cycles and food however demand to be logged on your telephone).
Fitbit Versa: Battery Life
Fitbit advertises the Versa Lite equally having four days of battery life. I actually squeezed nigh v and a half days out of one charge, tracking four nights of sleep, logging a few workouts, and occasionally checking notifications or messing around with apps. Your mileage may vary if yous're using apps more consistently.
The Versa Lite's charging cradle is oversized and, frankly, not a looker. Information technology's overnice that it also fits the Versa, yet, so you can easily share it if you've got multiple Fitbits in your firm.
Fitbit Versa: Verdict
Ultimately, the Fitbit Versa is notwithstanding the best smartwatch under $200, because information technology has a few more onboard features, including swim tracking, guided workouts and music storage. It also has extra buttons, which you may prefer if you'd really like a shortcut to your favorite app.
But for a user similar me — a younger, budget-oriented person who wants to log several workouts a week, control music, track my sleep and occasionally pull up the weather forecast — the Versa Lite gets the job done at a lower price. Sure, there are watches cheaper than the Versa Lite out in that location merely none with the third-party app store, sleek blueprint, accurate fitness readings or health-tracking features that Fitbit provides — not to mention the spunky colors and five-day battery of the Versa Lite.
Information technology would be great to see onboard GPS, music storage, better apps and swim tracking in a device for $159. Until then, the Versa Lite will exercise just fine.
Credit: Tom's Guide
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/fitbit-versa-lite,review-6268.html
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