Fitbit Versa 4 review: Sense 2 lite

Alongside the brand new Sense 2 comes the Versa 4 from Fitbit. Now owned by Google, you possibly can assume these health-focused smartwatches are edging ever-closer to working Google’s Put on OS, however that is impossible to occur. Out of the field they run a refreshed model of Fitbit OS.

It’s not possible to assessment the Versa 4 with out evaluating it to the extraordinarily comparable Sense 2 and, in fact, the Versa 3.

The Versa 4 fixes among the Versa 3’s points, however mysteriously drops helpful options on the identical time. Many will see the Versa 4 because the ‘Sense 2 Lite’ however is that this the health watch to purchase?

Let’s dig in.

Options & Design

• Thinner and lighter than Versa 3
• Bodily button
• No ECG or pores and skin temperature sensor

Arduous to inform aside from the Versa 3 at a look, the fourth-gen mannequin is thinner and lighter. It’s very comfy to put on all day, and the usual silicone band has an identical peg-and-loop design to Apple’s silicone strap.

It retains the Versa 4 firmly connected to your wrist, however is simple to tackle and off and it’s mere seconds to swap straps because of the quick-release system.

The watch itself has a vivid OLED show and – reward be! – a bodily button as an alternative of the Versa 3’s a lot hated solid-state one.

There’s a built-in speaker and microphone, permitting you to take telephone calls over Bluetooth, together with from WhatsApp and different apps. They will also be used for Alexa. As soon as arrange, you possibly can maintain the button for a few seconds, say your piece and Alexa will reply precisely like on an Echo speaker.

Effectively, not precisely: the speaker high quality is pretty poor and distorts fairly badly. That goes for telephone calls, too, with the caller laborious to listen to – particularly in something besides a quiet surroundings. That isn’t solely at most quantity, both.

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Unusually the Versa 4 doesn’t help Google Assistant, however Google says that Maps and Pockets are coming quickly.

At present, contactless funds are doable utilizing Fitbit Pay, however not many mainstream banks are supported within the UK. It’s just about simply Santander (Starling and Revolut are additionally on the record). If you will get it arrange, you should utilize it to faucet and go on transit methods – together with TfL within the UK – and wherever you see the contactless image in retailers and eating places.

After all, most individuals purchase a Fitbit for exercise monitoring, and the Versa 4 excels right here. There’s a built-in GPS, as you’d count on, so that you don’t have to take your telephone with you to observe distance and your precise route when going for a run.

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It might probably additionally observe your coronary heart fee, respiratory fee, SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation) and pores and skin temperature.

Whereas it doesn’t have the EGC function of the Sense 2, the Versa 4 can nonetheless detect indicators of atrial fibrillation whilst you’re sleeping or are nonetheless and notify you if any are detected. It should additionally warn you of excessive and low coronary heart fee – you possibly can keep on with the defaults or customise the bounds within the app.

It’s water-resistant to 50m, so you possibly can swim with it, or put on it within the bathe.

The watch will robotically detect train, although can take as much as quarter-hour to take action. Fitbit has doubled the variety of exercises from 20 to 40, so no matter you’re doing needs to be trackable. New modes embody CrossFit, dancing, cross-country snowboarding and HIIT.

You can begin a exercise manually, in fact, and see your stats whilst you train. What you see relies upon upon the exercise, so it may very well be your tempo and listen to fee for working, or your coronary heart zone for aerobics.

A number of the watch faces embody this information, too, so you possibly can see it at a look with out opening the Train app.

Fitbit OS

At this level, it’s price speaking in regards to the up to date interface. Fitbit says not solely has the {hardware} been redesigned: so has the software program.

Whereas some might have anticipated the Versa 4 (and Sense 2) to run Google’s Put on OS, they don’t. What you get is a tile-based working system that’s definitely simpler to make use of than earlier than.

You swipe left or proper to scroll between these tiles, and you may edit the order and what’s proven within the Fitbit app.

By default, there’s Steps, Immediately’s Exercise, Coronary heart fee, Sleep, Timer, Train and Climate.

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A swipe down from the highest reveals shortcuts to Do Not Disturb, Sleep Mode, Settings, All the time-On Show, Display screen Wake and Brightness, plus additionally exhibits the battery share.

Swiping up from the underside brings up current notifications.

Urgent the button wakes the display screen, or you possibly can increase your wrist to wake it. A second press shows the record of all apps, and an extended press of the button launches Alexa. A double-press exhibits 4 shortcuts together with Fitbit Pay.

Apart from the truth that there’s noticeable lag as you’re swiping round, it’s all comparatively intuitive and simple to make use of.

Nevertheless, there are just a few options lacking. One is the absence of music management. There is no such thing as a strategy to management playback of audio taking part in in your telephone, nor a Spotify app. Each had been current on the Versa 3.

After we queried this Fitbit instructed us that it had “prioritised a very powerful options that we all know our customers care about, together with coronary heart fee monitoring, sleep monitoring, and stress administration.”  Nevertheless, it added that “we’re engaged on it and can maintain customers up to date on new options as they’re added over time”.

You may assume it’s not doable to search out your telephone, however that is the one ‘app’ that isn’t put in by default. At present, there are solely Fitbit apps obtainable and the one non-Fitbit content material is clock faces, a few of which you need to pay for.

This leads us to a different lacking function: it isn’t doable to vary clock face on the Versa 4. You need to open the Fitbit app and choose the one you need within the Versa 4’s settings, which is each inconvenient and irritating if you wish to swap between two or three faces usually.

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Not one of the faces are customisable, so you possibly can’t choose and select which information you need to see or what color it’s. Unusually Fitbit doesn’t supply a clock face that allows you to choose a customized photograph, neither is there one which exhibits the present outside temperature.

Fitbit app

You possibly can see some information on the Versa 4, however there’s much more to be discovered within the app. On the Immediately tab you possibly can see your zone minutes, steps, flooring climbed, distance coated and energy burned.

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There’s stress administration, a sleep breakdown, mindfulness, readiness, train log, coronary heart fee, steps per hour and extra.

You possibly can edit what’s proven and in what order, so you possibly can concentrate on what’s necessary to you.

A number of the options require guide logging, reminiscent of how a lot water you’ve dunk, what you’ve eaten and, for diabetics, your blood glucose ranges. You possibly can add a Menstrual Well being tile and observe your weight, both robotically with a suitable sensible scale or by coming into it manually.

The extra information there’s (whether or not from the Versa 4 or entered by you) the extra you’ll get from the app.

Nevertheless, you gained’t get the total expertise until you subscribe to Fitbit Premium. The app will nag you to do that, and also you’ll discover some options aren’t obtainable with out a Premium subscription.

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The essential health and sleep stats (together with gentle, deep and REM sleep) are, however not superior sleep analytics, snore detection, a sleep profile, a wellness report and a day by day readiness rating.

The latter is a rating out of 100 that tells you the way ‘prepared’ your physique is for train every day.

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With out Premium you additionally miss out on mindfulness classes, video exercises, video games and challenges and recipes.

As ever, you possibly can add Fitbit-owning associates within the app and compete with them every week for essentially the most steps.

Within the Uncover tab you’ll discover guided applications that will help you train extra, eat more healthy and get fitter. You can too problem associates to ‘Journey races’ or do solo adventures the place you nearly discover places as you stroll.

There’s a devoted Premium tab with shortcuts to all the advantages. It’s price tapping on all of those as some aren’t enabled by default whenever you subscribe, reminiscent of Snore Detection, as a result of it makes use of the Versa 4’s microphone and desires your permission.

It’s irritating that the app doesn’t immediate you to do that: it’s solely whenever you attempt to see whether or not you had been loud night breathing or not that you just’re requested to set it up. Equally, it’s straightforward to overlook prompts for different options reminiscent of detecting atrial fibrillation within the Uncover tab.

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Alongside comparable strains, you’ve obtained to dig deep into the Versa 4’s settings to search out options reminiscent of scheduling sleep mode and alarms. They’re there, however are buried and never provided whenever you first arrange the watch.

You’ll have to enter the app’s settings to configure notifications, that are additionally disabled by default for all of the apps put in in your telephone.

For those who’re utilizing an iPhone you gained’t be capable of reply to messages: the Fast Reply perform is offered for Android solely.

Battery life & efficiency

• As much as per week (however <4 days with always-on show)
• Utilizing GPS will shorten life significantly
• Bluetooth connection issues

Fitbit has at all times been dependable in its battery life claims, and it’s no completely different for the Versa 4. Utilizing the always-on show means you’ll begin to get low battery alerts after about three days, however so long as you don’t use the GPS for monitoring runs, you’ll get virtually 4 days earlier than recharging.

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The magnetic, proprietary charging cable snaps on simply and – as per the declare – offers a full day of use (with out GPS) from simply 12 minutes of charging. Be aware {that a} charger isn’t included within the field: solely the cable.

Flip off the always-on show and also you’ll rise up to per week between expenses, which is nice in comparison with many sensible watches, however par for the course for many health trackers.

In relation to efficiency, the Versa 4 makes it very clear that it isn’t a medical machine and that you just shouldn’t deal with it like one. It’s there to offer you helpful information on health and wellbeing.

I discovered that, after a few preliminary nights the place sleep wasn’t tracked correctly, the Versa 4 did a wonderful job and precisely detected once I fell asleep and wakened, together with any instances of restlessness within the night time.

GPS and coronary heart fee monitoring was additionally good, though for coronary heart fee, I didn’t have a medial-grade machine to match it towards.

Equally, for the remainder of the stats, together with SpO2 and pores and skin temperature, I needed to take the Versa’s phrase for it. Given the Versa doesn’t have the physique response sensor, and Fitbit’s web site says solely the Sense 2 has a ‘pores and skin temperature sensor’, it’s unclear precisely how the Versa 4 can report on pores and skin temperature.

My main gripe was that the Bluetooth connection to my iPhone 12 was unreliable. For the primary few days, it wouldn’t keep related for any time frame, requiring me to disable and re-enable Bluetooth on the telephone generally and, at different instances, maintain the Versa 4’s button for 10 seconds to reboot it at others. (I had no different Fitbits, trackers or watches related to the telephone.)

After that, it appeared to quiet down and work okay, syncing information with the Fitbit app robotically and permitting me to make use of Alexa. Nevertheless, climate information nonetheless refused to sync for me (it labored positive for our photographer, oddly), and the Fitbit app crashed just a few instances suggesting that there are some bugs to iron out.

Worth & availability

You should purchase a Versa 4 from Fitbit for $229.99 / £199.99.

It’s additionally obtainable from different retailers within the US and UK, together with Amazon, for a similar value.

This makes it $70 / £70 cheaper than the Sense 2.

Verdict

Ranking the Versa 4 isn’t a straightforward process. It’s actually a case of 1 step ahead and at the very least one step again.

The OS is undoubtedly improved, and bringing again a bodily button is the suitable name. You additionally get superb sleep and GPS monitoring, which are sometimes missing in cheaper gadgets from rivals. Plus, you get an entire load of information, offered in a transparent means.

However with out Fitbit Premium, the Versa 4 actually solely tells you what you probably did and never learn how to motion any of it. If you would like these insights, it turns into a dearer proposition.

And that is likely to be acceptable if Fitbit hadn’t eliminated helpful options reminiscent of music management, Google Assistant and help for third-party apps.

Fitbit confirmed that is the case, saying “we would not have plans to supply third occasion apps on these well being and wellness centered gadgets”.

This leaves the Versa 4 feeling loads like a health band that simply occurs to appear to be a smartwatch.

Until you’re a runner that wants the GPS however doesn’t need to take heed to music, you’ll have to take your telephone with you. And for those who’re going to try this, you don’t want the Versa 4’s GPS and so ought to think about an Encourage 3 or Cost 5 and get a really comparable set of options for much less cash.

You may even look to rivals, reminiscent of Amazfit and pay three-quarters of the worth for a GTS 3 which has GPS, SpO2 monitoring and Alexa. You probably have an iPhone, the Apple Watch SE is a a lot slicker proposition for less than somewhat extra money.

For extra options, see our roundups of the very best smartwatches and health trackers.

Sure, the Versa 4 will ultimately get Google Maps and Pockets, however because it stands, it’s laborious to advocate unreservedly.