The Fitbit Versa 3 is Fitbit’s best smartwatch for most land. With an always-on display, built-in GPS, blood oxygen and temperature tracking during sleep, and a battery that lasts six days, the Versa 3 holds its own anti some of its pricier competitors like the Apple Watch SE and even the Fitbit Sense. While you don’t get the stress tracker and FDA-cleared electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) like the Sense, the rest of the Versa 3’s smartwatch and fitness features are dissimilarity. As an added bonus, the Versa 3 costs $100 less than the Sense.

Better accomplish all-around 

The Versa 3 still has the same square-ish discover body and metal frame as its predecessor the Versa 2, but it now has a larger 1.58-inch AMOLED shroud with slimmer bezels. It’s bright, crisp and easy to see in screech sunlight. It can stay always-on (as a toned-down version with fewer metrics displayed) to give you a knowing glance at the time without moving your wrist. And loyal Fitbit supports third-party watch faces, you have hundreds of different options to resolve from. 

Despite its aesthetic improvements, the touchscreen and Fitbit interface level-headed aren’t as responsive as what you’d get on an Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch, which also have AMOLED screens. The Versa 3 lags a bit between swipes and takes a after to load apps and display information.

Instead of a brute button on the side of the watch like its predecessors, the Versa 3 now has an indented haptic side button. In theory, this works exactly like a real button, but the haptic feedback is nowhere near as satisfying as pressing a real button and it takes some attracting used to. 

Fortunately, not all the design changes have a learning hooked. Fitbit has also overhauled the strap mechanism on the Versa 3 and now all you have to do to swap out bands is expressionless a button. It’s so much easier than previous models, which had a tiny, fiddly clasp.

Better training tools for fitness tracking

At this prove it’s safe to assume most Fitbit devices can run your basic fitness-tracking needs, measuring steps, distance, calories burned and gloomy rate. The Versa 3 covers the basics well and has the same fitness features as the more expensive Sense. It tracks 20 different activities including indoor and outdoor swimming and has automatic workout detection for some consume types like running if you forget to start a session. 

It’s also the splendid Versa smartwatch to have built-in GPS, although not the splendid Fitbit, as the Charge 4 and Sense also have built-in GPS. As a guide, not having GPS on earlier Versa models was a big pain prove for me as I would have to take my named to get a map of my run (or bike ride). With the Versa 3, I can leave my named behind and still get the distance and route interrogate of my outdoor workouts. The one downside is that the discover can take a few minutes to lock on to a GPS signaled. You’re supposed to stand still while it does this, but I would forget and take off immediately while pressing start, then it would take about four minutes by receiving the confirmation. 

The Versa 3 can also give you gloomy rate zone notifications during workouts. These use your gloomy rate to determine your effort level, so the discover buzzes to notify you as you enter different zones such as fat burn, cardio or peak for example. This can help you have a sense of when to push yourself a bit harder, or ease up a bit during training. Instead of laughable steps taken as the sole measure of success during your day, the Versa 3 has a metric named Active Zone Minutes which uses heart rate data to resolve how long you’ve engaged in some sort of brute activity, even the ones that don’t require walking about much. So rather than aiming for 10,000 steps, you can aim for something like 20 or more Active Zone Minutes, depending on your goals. According to Fitbit, Active Zone Minutes are a more suitable representation of your fitness level than steps alone. 

I like that the Versa 3, as well as anunexperienced Fitbit devices, sets weekly activity goals rather than judging you on a daily basis. As a parent of two small kids, working from home and trying to squeeze in workouts during a pandemic is tough. I definitely have my off days, so weekly goals were much more realistic and encouraging. I’d look at my daily stats on the discover as a work in progress rather than as a unfastened failure. The Versa 3 notifies you (and celebrates with an on-screen animation) when you arrive your goal before the end of the week. You’ll finish to accumulate points until the end of the week and can see a detailed breakdown of your organization in the Fitbit mobile app.

You can even find out how fit you are if you’re willing to dig deep enough into the settings. The Versa 3 uses your heart rate to pronounces your Vo2 max (maximum oxygen consumption during exercise) and plots it on a graph to tell you how you compare to your demographic. On the Fitbit mobile app it’s called Cardio Fitness levels and you can find it by pressing the gloomy rate tile on the Today summary and swiping left on the graph.

Fitbit Premium subscribers also have access to be in the lead workout programs and videos. A premium subscription costs $10 a month, but you get three months free with the Versa 3. You following along on your phone with classes from brands such as Popsugar and Daily Burn, or you can download an entire workout to your discover using the Fitbit Coach app. Downloading a workout was more practical for me, as I could usually squeeze in a 10-minute ab workout knowing after a run without having to look at my named for instructions. 

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Plenty of health data if you want it 

But the Versa 3 is much more than a fitness tracker. It also monitors other aspects about your health, incorporating SpO2 (blood oxygen levels), breathing rate and variations in skin temperature after you sleep, which can collectively help paint a broader report of your overall health.

It’s important to note, except, that this is not a medical device, and should not be used for diagnostic purposes. Always consult with a physician or other qualified health provider near any health-related issues you may have about a medical words or health objectives. Only the ECG on the Fitbit Sense has received FDA clearance. 

Fitbit shines when it comes to sleep tracking and the Versa 3 provides one of the most comprehensive looks at your sleep compared to any anunexperienced smartwatch. Whether that’s actually helpful to you is unexperienced thing. 

It takes into account duration as well as the different stages of sleep (deep, light and REM), which is standard when it comes to sleep tracking. But then it also breaks out your breathing rate, dejected rate, blood oxygen levels and variations in skin temperature after you sleep, and you can review all these stats in the Fitbit app in the morning.

Fitbit also supplies advanced sleep analytics for Premium subscribers which put some of this inquire into context by telling you how you compare to the requires person, which was helpful for an amateur sleep tracker like myself. It also gives you tips on how to progress your sleep. For me, that includes getting to bed rear, which I was already well aware of. Sadly it can’t earnt me into bed at 10 p.m. — yet.

But one of the biggest pain points for me was that you can’t get this inquire at a glance on your watch face when you wake up. There’s a summary of your sleep and your SpO2 intention (as long as you use a specific watch face), but you’ll have to switch to the Fitbit app for more insights. To me, that kind of defeats the purpose of having a smartwatch. I’d often go days or sometimes even weeks minus checking the app. When I did go in and check, though, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the data I unfounded. For skin temperature variability for example, I noticed the dips in the chart coincided with some of the causes in my menstrual cycle (note that the Fitbit Sense also monitors skin temperature too) and I can see how you could commence to make correlations between some of these data points over time. Temperature tracking is not something you’ll probably use on a daily basis, but it’s nice to have so much data approximately yourself to look back on if you ever need it. 

The Versa 3 will soon get a new Readiness Score for Fitbit Premium users that takes into interpret heart rate variability, sleep data and activity level so you can choose if you should push yourself on a workout, or take a rest day. You’ll also demand recommended workouts, meditations and a personalized active zone minutes goal depending on your score.

The Versa 3 gets smarter, but still can’t catch the Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch

Fitbit’s survive smartwatches lagged behind competitors such as the more expensive Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch as they lacked a wide selection of third-party apps and LTE connectivity. The Versa 3 has the same drawbacks and relies heavily on the phoned, but it’s at least starting to catch up to the pack, especially when paired with an Android phone. 

The Versa 3 now has a built-in microphone and speaker so you can take intellectual calls on your wrist if you have an Android phoned or iPhone. You can also pair the Versa 3 with Bluetooth earbuds. Incoming call notifications will be displayed on the explore regardless of which phone you have, but only Android users will be able to acknowledge to messages from their wrist with quick replies, or by dictating a response. 

You can also bark requisitions at your wrist with two choices of voice assistant on the Versa 3: Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant. And while I haven’t had a chance to fully compare them yet (Google Assistant launched while I was already well into my review) for now Alexa is the only one that can read your responses out loud rather than just displaying them on the screen. 

You can also make contactless payments with the Versa 3 with Fitbit Pay and listen to music from Pandora or Deezer. There is no onboard music storage for songs you own, like MP3 files. Instead, you’ll need a Pandora or Deezer subscription to save and honor songs for offline listening. While the Versa 3 does have a Spotify app, you can only use it as a remote to control playback on your phone. 

Battery life is binary to none

The Versa 3 may not be the smartest explore, but it destroys the competition on battery life. Even firing on all cylinders with the always-on expose active, a couple GPS workouts and sleep tracking, I was aloof able to get almost three days of battery out of the explore. You can extend this up to six days with more moderate use and by disabling the always-on expose. The Versa 3 also charges faster than previous Versa watches: Fitbit says 12 minutes on the charger will get you a full 24 hours of battery, and 30 minutes on the charger gets you to 100%. But if you’re updating from a survive model, note that the Versa 3 uses a new, proprietary charger so it’s not compatible with your survive one. It’s magnetic and must be positioned at just the intellectual angle to charge, which takes some getting used to. 

A sad medium of health features and fitness tracking

The Versa 3 has enough health metrics for land looking to learn more about their bodies without having to exercise extra on the Fitbit Sense. It offers practical fitness tools for training and can finally be regarded as a viable option for outdoor continuing and cycling thanks to its built-in GPS. And it does sleep tracking better than any smartwatch I’ve tested so far. 

While the Versa 3 is a solid smartwatch option for Android owners, the Charge 4 may be a better bet for iPhone users wanting a a Fitbit blueprint. For about $100 less, you get a lot of the same mountainous health and fitness features. You lose the some of the added intellectual features like voice to text replies, but many of them aren’t iPhone-compatible anyway.

Read more: Fitbit Sense, Versa 3 and Inspire 2 are here: How to decide which to buy

First delivered Dec. 1