Fitbit Versa 3

amazon Fitbit Versa 3 reviews

In addition to rich health and fitness features, the Fitbit Versa 3 smartwatch improves its predecessor with a larger display, built-in GPS for speed and distance tracking, an oxygen sensor in blood, and fast charging.

In its third generation, the latest Fitbit Versa costs $30 more than its predecessors at launch ($229.95) but justifies the price increase with a larger screen, built-in GPS, SpO2 sensor, and support Fitbit Active Zone Min’s metric introduced in the Charge 4. GPS lets you track real-time speed and distance while you’re working out without power. The phone and SpO2 sensor give blood oxygen saturation readings while you sleep, an indicator that’s especially useful during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also continues to offer a long battery life, strong fitness and sleep tracking capabilities, and useful smartwatch features that have made the Versa series our favorites. The Versa 3 offers everything we like about Fitbit Sense, minus some advanced heart-health and stress-monitoring features, for $100 less.

Price, design, and specifications

At $229.95, the Versa 3 sits in the middle of Fitbit’s line of smartwatches, between the Sense and the Versa 2.

Adds built-in GPS, a SpO2 sensor to measure your blood oxygen while you sleep, and supports Fitbit’s Active Zone Minutes metric (earned from time to time) fat-burning, cardiovascular, or peak heart rate zones).

For an extra $100, Sense offers some sensors and health tracking features you don’t get on the Versa 3, including an EDA scanning app that measures your body’s response to stress. A Stress Management Score Daily, an ECG app that can assess your heart rate for signs of atrial fibrillation, high and low heart rate notifications, and skin temperature sensors. Beyond that, the Versa 3 offers all the same fitness, sleep, and smartwatch features.

If you get the Versa 3, you might also want to consider subscribing to Fitbit Premium, which gives you access to workout videos from brands like Barre3 and Gaiam’s Yoga Studio, as well as meditation sessions from brands like Aaptiv and Aura. Fitbit offers new users a 90-day free trial, then costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year.

The Versa 3 looks almost identical to the Sense in design, featuring the same bright, colorful 1.58-inch, 336 x 336-pixel AMOLED display. In my Sense review, I noted that the screen could be laggy; sometimes, you have to swipe multiple times to get a response, an issue I also had on the Versa 3. The screen is nice, but sometimes it can be frustratingly unresponsive. While testing the Versa 3, the screen froze at one point, and I had to reset the device for it to start working again. The Versa also has the same troublesome band-release mechanism, which I found accidentally activated on Sense.

The Versa 3 is 0.49 inches thick and weighs 1.4 ounces with the small band or 1.5 ounces with the large band. It feels light and comfortable on my wrist, even when I wear it to bed. It comes in three color options:

• Black aluminum with a black band
• Soft yellow aluminum with navy band
• Soft gold aluminum with pink band

The Sense has a slightly more fancy look, with a shiny metal ring around the screen, something the Versa 3 lacks, but putting them side by side, you can hardly tell them apart. The only difference from a design perspective is that Sense’s case is stainless steel, while the Versa 3 is aluminum.

In the box that comes with the Watch, you get small and large Silicone Infinity Straps that fit wrists between 5.5 and 7.1 inches (small) and 7.1 to 8.7 inches (large) in circumference. Fitbit also offers a Versa 3 compatible strap in various colors and materials that you can purchase separately, starting at $29.95.

The Versa 3 is water-resistant to 164 feet, so you can wear it in the shower or swim with no problem, even in salt water, though Fitbit recommends against wearing it in the bath hot water or sauna. If it gets wet, you should dry it completely as soon as possible. Fitbit recommends wearing the Watch high on your wrist for a snug fit during your workout and regularly cleaning your band and wrist with a soap-free cleanser.

The Versa 3 charges surprisingly fast. After putting it on the magnetic USB charger for the first time, it took less than an hour to reach 100%. The Watch has a new fast-charging feature that Fitbit says will give you 24 hours of battery life in less than 12 minutes.

It promises more than six days of battery life when fully charged, which is impressive, especially compared to the Apple Watch Series 6 and Samsung Galaxy Watch3, which last about 18 hours on a single charge. Your battery life results will vary depending on your usage and settings, such as whether or not you have the always-on display enabled, which will drain the battery faster. After 24 hours of testing the Versa 3 with the always-on display turned on, it still has 79% battery life. After two days of heavy use, it was still more than 50 percent.

Set up and view face

If you don’t already have a Fitbit account, you’ll need to download the app (available for Android or iOS) and create one before setting up your Versa 3. If you already have the app, make sure it’s up to date (version 3.30 or later) before setting up a new watch so you won’t have any problems. Then, open the app, tap your profile picture, select Device Setup, select Sentence 3 from the list, press the Setup button and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once set up, the app provides an overview of the main Versa 3 features. The whole process only takes about 10 minutes.

Over 10,000 watch faces in the Fitbit App Gallery; you have to pay for some of them. Navigate to device settings in the Fitbit app to browse through them, check the Watch Faces tile, then toggle All Watches. In the Versa 3’s Watch app, you can store five watch faces on your device. So you can easily switch between them, a handy feature, especially since you need to have the SpO2 Signature watch face enabled at night so that it monitors your blood oxygen saturation level while you are sleeping.

Like the Sense, Versa 3 has a new solid-state sensor button on the left that can be programmed for multiple functions. Fitbit says to make sure to cover the entire button with your thumb when pressed. A single tap wakes the screen or returns you to the watch face from anywhere on the Watch. Pressing and holding the button for two seconds can be customized to open an app of your choices, such as Alexa (default setting), music, payments, or a timer. Finally, you can double-tap the button for quick access to four apps of your choice.

Alternatively, you can navigate the Versa 3 with onscreen swipes and taps. Swipe down from the watch face to see your phone’s app, call, and message notifications. Swipe up to access widgets like the weather and your Key Statistics for the day (steps taken, floors climbed, distance traveled, calories burned, etc.). Swipe right for quick access to watch settings and modes, including do not disturb mode, sleep mode, brightness, always-on display, screen wake-up options, and volume control for devices connected audio.

Swiping left brings up your apps, including default options: Agenda, Alarm, Alexa, Clock, Coach, Deezer, Exercise, Find My Phone, Mail Relax, Settings, Spotify, Timer, Today, Wallet, and Weather. Sense has several additional built-in apps, including EDA Scan, Pandora, Starbucks, and Strava.

In an app, you can swipe from left to right to go back to the previous screen. To download additional apps, tap your profile picture in the Fitbit app, select Versa 3, tap Apps, then toggle All Apps.

Activity, Fitness and Health Tracking

During the day, the Versa 3 automatically tracks your steps, heart rate, calories burned, floors climbed, distance traveled, and Active Zone Minutes. It tracks your hourly activity and can send you a 10-minute move reminder if you haven’t reached 250 steps. While it doesn’t have an ECG app or high and low heart rate notifications like Sense, it does offer heart rate zone alerts, so it will chime when you reach your target zone during exercise.

You can view your activity data in the Today app on your Watch or in the Fitbit app on your phone. The Today app also shows your progress towards your weekly fitness goal and sleep data from the night before.

Versa 3 also allows you to log and track your weight and food and water intake. For women, it offers menstrual health tracking, allowing you to record your menstrual cycle, record symptoms, and calculate your estimated time of conception.

In the Fitness app, Sense offers the following activity tracking modes: cycling, Bootcamp, circuit, elliptical, golf, hiking, interval training, kickboxing, martial arts, Pilates, running, spinning, stair climbing, swimming, tennis, treadmill, walking, weight training, workouts, and yoga. Its SmartTrack feature can automatically detect and record certain cycling, running, swimming, and walking exercises.

Thanks to the built-in GPS, you can view your real-time speed and distance for outdoor running, horseback riding, walking, and hiking, without having to carry your smartphone. That is a great addition as Versa 2 requires your phone to have GPS.

The Versa 3 also generates an estimate of your VO2 max, or the maximum amount of oxygen you can use during an intense workout, and calls this your Cardio Fitness Score. Track your run for at least 10 minutes on flat terrain with GPS enabled for the most accurate scores. To check your Cardio Score, tap the Heart Rate tile in the Fitbit app, then swipe right on the Resting Heart Rate graph. I’m proud to say I have a Cardio Score of 44, which Fitbit claims is great for women my age.

Versa 3 can help you fight stress with a guided breathing session. When you need a little relaxation, navigate the Relax app, which uses soothing onscreen images to guide you to inhale and exhale. Sessions can be up to 10 minutes long and are personalized based on your heart rate.

Sleep tracking

The Versa 3 tracks how long you sleep, sleep stages (awake, light, deep, and REM), sleep heart rate, restlessness, and estimated oxygen changes (see changes in your blood oxygen saturation are high or low). The Watch also gives you a Daily Sleep Score from 0 to 100, which considers the total time you slept, the time in each sleep stage, and the restlessness.

You’ll want to enable sleep mode at night, dimming the screen and mutes incoming calls and messages. If you sleep with someone else, you can set a silent alarm, so it wakes you up with a gentle vibration on your wrist.

In the Sleep section of the Fitbit app, it records how you close your eyes each night. You can click on each record to see your metrics, complete with charts and educational information to help you understand the data.

Like the Sense, the Versa 3 doesn’t just track your estimated oxygen changes with the ability to measure your blood oxygen saturation, or SpO2, when you wear it to bed. This metric provides more detailed information about how easy or difficult you are to breathe during the night. In general, your SpO2 level during sleep should be between 90 and 100 percent.

Fitbit says the feature is “not intended to diagnose or treat any health condition and should not be relied upon for any medical purposes.” That said, if your sleep SpO2 level is lower than 80%, you should seek professional medical attention.

To track this metric, you need to download the SpO2 Signature watch face, available for free in the Fitbit App Library, and enable it on your Watch while you’re sleeping. About 45 minutes after you wake up, you should see your SpO2 readings on the watch face. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch Series 6 can calculate your SpO2 level in 15 seconds, whenever you want, not just while you’re sleeping.

The Fitbit app’s Health Stats dashboard — currently a Premium feature but will be made available to all users with a compatible device for free in the coming months — offers some interesting sleep metrics, including your breathing rate, heart rate variability, and resting heart rate. Meanwhile, Sense also measures your skin temperature at night, a feature absent on the Versa 3.

where can you get a Fitbit Versa 3 online

Fitbit Versa 3 Health & Fitness Smartwatch with GPS, 24/7 Heart Rate, Alexa Built-in, 6+ Days Battery, Black/Black, One Size (S & L Bands Included): Buy it now

Smartwatch features

The Versa 3 is primarily a health and fitness watch, but it offers some handy smartwatch features like the pre-installed Deezer, Pandora, and Spotify apps; Fitbit Pay for mobile payments; and smartphone notifications for calls and messages, and meeting invitations.

If you use an Android phone, you can also reply to texts and messages sent via WhatsApp right from the Watch. There’s a voice-to-text option, or you can choose from a pre-populated list of quick answers. You can also create five custom quick replies. Fitbit says it cannot offer the feature to iOS device users due to Apple’s ecosystem limitations. Apple Watch offers far superior calling and messaging features for iPhone users.
The Versa 3 supports wireless headphones (I had no problems connecting my Apple AirPods) and lets you download Deezer playlists and Pandora Plus stations right to your Watch (with a subscription), so you can listen to music while working with your phone.

However, you cannot transfer downloaded songs via Apple Music or Spotify. The Spotify app gives you access to your music library and lets you use your Watch as a remote control to pause, play, and skip tracks streaming on another device. Versa 3 does not offer any Apple Music support.

The Versa 3 also works with Amazon Alexa, allowing you to use your voice to set reminders, start a timer, start tracking, control compatible smart home devices, check the time details and get answers to questions. During the initial setup, you have the option of connecting your Versa 3 to Alexa. If you choose to do so, the app will take you to the Amazon login page; enter your credentials and tap Allow to authorize the Fitbit Alexa skill to access your Fitbit data.

By default, the sensor button on the left side of the Versa 3 is set to Alexa, so you can press and hold it to wake up the virtual assistant. You can always program the button to trigger another app, but you’ll probably want to set it to Alexa if you use voice commands a lot. The Versa 3 has a built-in microphone, which Fitbit says only turns on when you’re using the voice feature. If you’re worried about privacy, you can turn it off completely.

Fitbit says support for the Google Assistant will arrive before the end of the year. It also plans to enhance the Versa 3’s smartwatch capabilities soon with audible Alexa and Google Assistant answers (in addition to existing text responses) and the ability to answer calls using the Versa 3’s speaker and microphone. Android users will also reply to text messages with their voice; a feature is already available on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3.

Fitbit says there are “hundreds” of apps to choose from in terms of downloadable apps, but the selection is paler than what’s available for the Apple Watch. Available apps include City Bikes, Strava, Surfline, and Uber by Fitbit, along with some games like Snake and Tic-Tac-Toe. Some popular apps available on the Apple Watch, including Evernote, Facebook Messenger, Runkeeper, and Shazam, aren’t here.

Compare and conclude

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly fitness tracker and smartwatch, the Versa 3 is a strong contender. For $229.95, it has an attractive yet functional design, a large always-on color touchscreen, and long battery life. It also offers extensive fitness and sleep tracking capabilities, including built-in GPS, a blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) sensor, 24/7 heart rate monitoring, and guided breathing sessions. With support for smartphone notifications, Amazon Alexa mobile payments, Fitbit Pay, Deezer and Pandora music and podcast storage, and Spotify music control, the Versa 3 is a feature-rich Android-compatible smartwatch most capable at this price range and worthy of our Editors’ Choice Award. For most people, it’s a better choice than Fitbit Sense, which adds EDA, ECG, and skin temperature sensors but costs $100 more.

That said, if you’re an iPhone user, you should also consider the Apple Watch SE. It offers a wider selection of downloadable apps, better integration with the iPhone for calling and texting. You don’t get some good health and safety features on the Versa 3, including sync Automatic hand, wash countdown timer, and fall detection (but no blood oxygen saturation). It’s $50 more expensive than the Versa 3, but you can see it’s a worthwhile investment.

Advantages
Attractive design with large, always-on color display
Built-in GPS
Charges the battery quickly and lasts for days
Measure blood oxygen levels while sleeping
Supports Amazon Alexa, Fitbit Pay, and Spotify

Defect
Delayed touch screen
No sensors to monitor stress, skin temperature, or ECG
Does not provide high and low heart rate notifications