There was a time when the Fitbit Versa Ultra Wide Apple Watch Band was easily the best Fitbit smartwatch you could buy, but things have changed. While the latest Fitbit Versa 4 has its advantages, it also falls short in some obvious ways. Eventually, the brand is expected to trade for a lower-end smartwatch.
Compared to the Fitbit Versa 3, the Fitbit Versa 4 has a modern interface and design that streamlines navigation and resurrects the physical side button. It also has a 6-day battery life and an Amazon Alexa voice assistant. But the Versa 4 isn’t as robust of an activity tracker, with inaccurate heart rate readings that negatively affect Active Zone minutes. It’s also not as “smart” as the Versa 3, which has lost support for third-party apps and Google Assistant.
Some of that grip extends to the premium Fitbit Sense 2, with two new Fitbit smartwatches launching just as Fitbit’s parent company launched the first Google Pixel watch. Still, if you’re looking for a basic step counter with sleep tracking, stamina, and other small features at a mid-range price, this Fitbit Versa 4 review can help you decide if it’s right for you. It is a smartwatch.
Ultra Wide Apple Watch Band: Price and Availability
The Fitbit Versa 4 is available now and costs $229 (£199, AU$379).The versa 3, which launched in September 2020, has the same price tag. It’s one of the most affordable smartwatches under Google’s umbrella, with the Fitbit Sense 2 priced the same. $299 (£269, AU$449) and the Google Pixel Watch starts at $349 (£339, AU$549).
It’s roughly in the price range of the Apple Watch SE (2022), which starts at $249 (£259, AU$399); However, it’s a step up from the $179 (£169, AU $259) cost of the Fitbit Charge 5 activity band.
The Versa 4 comes with six months of free Fitbit Premium, which gives users access to more advanced fitness and sleeps tracking features, as well as Fitbit’s Daily Readiness Score. Premium membership costs $9.99 (£7.99, AU$14.99) per month or $80 (£80, AU$129) per year after the trial ends.
Ultra Wide Apple Watch Band: Design
- It looks like the previous model.
- Nice OLED screen
- 50m water resistance
The Fitbit Versa 4 is very similar to the Versa 3. It is a friendly-looking square-face watch. The screen cover is curved glass.
It’s a less premium design than the Apple Watch SE 2, but it’s clearly more style-oriented than the Venu 2 Sq, the closest Garmin alternative. There’s nothing too new and exciting to see here, but there is one key difference compared to the last Versa 3 model.
Fitbit has added a physical button to the Versa 4, whereas the Versa 3 uses an annoying capacitive panel. The new button feels a little cheap, perhaps because while the casing has a beautiful, anodized finish, the button is shiny. I initially thought it might be plastic. This is not. It is metallic. Still, having a physical button is much better than a capacitive button.
I’ve never been a fan of the “over-under” watch strap style that the Fitbit Versa 4 uses and for that matter the Apple Watch. However, it reaches the high comfort watermark that you sometimes forget you’re even wearing the watch. And it won’t end in a disaster either, as the 50m water resistance is more than enough to withstand a shower or a surface swim.
It weighs 40 grams all in—strap plus watches face—according to our scale, which is light for a smartwatch.
The screen is a 336 x 336-pixel OLED like the Versa 3. Its screen border is much larger than the Apple Watch Series 8, but that’s not hard to forgive when the watch is significantly cheaper. The display is also sharp, colorful, and easily bright enough to see clearly outside on a sunny day.
Ultra Wide Apple Watch Band: Fitness Tracking
The Fitbit Versa 4 experience relies heavily on fitness tracking, which I found to be both a plus and a minus. On the one hand, the Versa 4 with a Fitbit Premium subscription enables full sleep tracking, a daily readiness score that assesses recovery, meditation guidance, and motivational community challenges. It has 40 exercise types, automatic exercise tracking, and step counting very well.
But during my tennis, walking, and yoga workouts, I noticed noticeable inconsistencies with the heart rate tracker. Compared to the Apple Watch Ultra, the Versa 4’s heart rate reading reads 10 to 15 bpm lower at any given moment I noticed a similar difference when I tried wearing the Versa 4 as the Pixel Watch, with my heart rate being the most impressive. sensors I’ve seen for a smartwatch. As someone who checks my heart rate during sustained effort during exercise, the Versa 4’s error disappointed me
Fortunately, heart rate reading errors were not as prevalent as sleep tracking. Indeed, Versa 4 is a great sleep-tracking smartwatch. The data collected overnight reflected my understanding of my night, the watch saw the different stages of my sleep cycle when I awoke to the doom scroll. Each month you will receive a sleep profile or review of your sleep habits. Fitbit will also assign you an animal that describes your sleep behavior, so you can better understand your metrics.
Ultra Wide Apple Watch Band: Battery Life
- The lights can last for about a week of use.
- With always-on mode the stamina decreases by 2-3 days.
- Battery life matches the claims.
However, there is one area you must appreciate in these superficially smart watches, such as those from Garmin and, from a different angle, Huawei. They always give you much better battery life than an Apple Watch or a Wear watch.
Fitbit says the Versa 4 lasts for “6+ days.” After wearing the watch for just under two days, for 44 hours straight, it had lost 29 percent. This is completely in line with Fitbit’s claim, suggesting that a charge will only last for six days.
It was still there seven days after we started keeping tabs on the battery, with 9% battery life left after a week, but that was mostly thanks to a bad habit of absent-mindedly removing watches.
An hour of GPS tracking took seven percent off the charge level, suggesting 14 hours of GPS could be achieved, although Fitbit itself only rates the watch at 12 hours.
This capability results in a completely different experience than the Best Apple Watch info. It’s nice to charge once a week instead of once a day. However, this only happens if you use the Fitbit Versa 4 in its standard mode, where the screen only lights up after a wrist shock indicator, button press or screen tap.
There is also an on mode, which keeps the screen on. That roughly cuts the battery in half, meaning you’ll need to charge the Fitbit Versa 4 roughly every three days—maybe even two if you’re a heavy user. Some of that Fitbit airiness is lost with the always-on mode, but it’s the most enjoyable way to use the watch.
Features
Fitbit-slash-Google rolled out some smart features on Fitbit smartwatches this year. You can no longer download music for offline playback or install any third-party apps on the Versa smartwatch. These features are apparently now exclusive to the Google Pixel Watch with Wear OS. This worries me a little because Apple doesn’t impose the same wear restrictions on the Apple Watch Series 8 vs the Apple Watch SE (2022) despite the price difference.
The Versa 4 gets the basics right with timers, alarms, weather reports, and a Find My Phone function. It also mirrors smartphone notifications from iOS or Android smartphones, though only Android phones can answer and continue calls on their wrist. And of course, the phone must be in Bluetooth range of the Versa 4 for it to work. In Fitbit smartwatches, there is no LTE option. Compared to the Pixel Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, two of the best smartwatches for Android, iOS isn’t compatible but has the option to stay connected independently with cellular support.
Directly, the Fitbit Versa 4 can be used for contactless payments with Fitbit Pay, which I was able to set up in the Fitbit app. Google Pay is coming soon to the Versa 4 as an alternative NFC payment option, Fitbit said, while Google Maps is also coming to help with directions. No word on when these apps will be replaced but stay tuned.
Verdict
The Fitbit Versa 4 isn’t the best smartwatch for most people to buy right now, but that doesn’t mean you should leave it off your shortlist. I like it a lot about it; It’s too bad what I didn’t like about the watch means more to me. Accurate heart rate readings and getting active zone minutes have been hallmarks of previous Fitbit devices, so sadly neither is up to par with this device. If this is fixed, it will be easier to view even limited smart features.
Depending on your needs, the Versa 4 may have plenty of basic features to offer: counting steps, mirroring your smartphone notifications, and lasting about a week on a charge are all things some people want. Looking beyond the smartwatch. Good sleep tracking and Alexa onboard are other perks. I’d have an easier time recommending it as one of the best cheap smartwatches out there if it cost less than $200, but I guess that’s what Fitbit deals are for. Getting the Fitbit Versa 3 on sale wouldn’t be the worst idea as retailers have cleared stock.
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