Fitbit has plenty of fitness trackers and smart watches to chose from.
Were comparing two of the most popular fitbits the charge three and the versa to see which is right for you.
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So if it is comparison, I wanna talk about the real world use to this.
Not so much about the specs, even though I will cover some of that.
This is about how it's like to live with both the Versa and the Charge 3. And also you Probably wondering why we are doing this comparison now?
I mean, they've been both out for a little while.
It's because Fitbit OS 3.0 has been loaded onto these finally, which is kind of brought them more in terms of parity in terms of what they can do as they're smart watches and fitness trackers.
So let's start with design.
The Charge 3 is obviously shaped like a lot of the previous Fitbits.
It's small, it's more of a fitness tracker with a monochrome touch screen.
The [INAUDIBLE] is much more a smart watch and fitness tracker hybrid.
It's got a color screen, it's touch screen as well, and it's got a couple more buttons than the Charge 3.
Obviously if you want something easy to use in terms of just telling you your steps, your heart rate and calorie burn, the Charge 3 can do that really easily.
I like the Versa a little bit more just because it gives me a lot more metrics on the screen.
And I find the buttons just a little bit more intuitive than the swiping on the Charge 3. That being said you can use the same sort of gestures on both.
So you can swipe down from the screen to see notifications, metrics, and also change settings within the menus, too.
Now the display on both of them is pretty easy to see when you're inside.
The raced wake works fairly well on both of them as well.
That being said, when I was doing an outdoor workout with the charged three in bright sunlight, I found that the highest brightness setting on the screen wasn't quite bright enough for me.
Whether that was on the automatic or on the normal brightness setting.
The birther is just a little bit more bright because it has that maximum brightness.
So for that reason I found the Versa a lot easier to see outside as well.
It's a lot easier to change the straps on the Charge 3 than it is the Versa.
The Charge 3 has a just little button that detaches the strap and you can swapping another one really easily.
The Versa has a little metallic toggle that you kind of have to pinch the squeeze and then move the bar out of the way.
It's a little bit more tricky than the Charge 3 Which is nice and simple.
Both of them use gorilla glass three to protect the screens from bumps and scratches.
I havent been using the charge three as long as the versa.
The versa has developed a couple of scratches on the edge of [INAUDIBLE] of the screen, something to bear in mind if you're someone that does sort of bash around the watch a little bit, is very active, maybe consider putting a screen protector on it.
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So both the Fitbits have pretty similar fitness tracking features.
You can track your heart rate, you can track your sleep.
That being said, you have to have a phone in order to get GPS data if you wanna track your routes on something like a run or a bike, both use connective GPS.
Not GPS built in.
[UNKNOWN] let you set goal-based exercises so you can get a notification once you've reached your calorie, distance, or time goal.
You can put six workout shortcuts on the Charge 3, or seven on the Versa.
I like just having one more on the Versa.
It's really nice if you're someone that does a variety of different exercises And you don't constantly want to be going back and forth to the phone to add new ones in.
The Versa has something that the Charge 3 doesn't have and that's the coach app that's on board on the watch face itself.
So this actually runs you through a number of different workouts and exercises and it shows you visually the moves that you need to do.
I really like that.
That being said, you can get the Coach app on a phone itself.
And then you can just put the phone down and work out alongside it.
But it's just really nice having it on the watch face itself.
When it comes to sleep tracking, you can actually do it on both, as I mentioned.
The Veser is probably a little bit less comfortable to sleep with, I'll have to say.
Just because it's slightly bigger Obviously, with the biggest screen it's a lot easier to see your workout details when you're in the workout on the Versa than it is on the Charge 3, and when you finish that workout, you can actually see a lot more details about it on the Versa than on the Charge 3.
Plus, you can go through and see a couple of previous workouts from days ago, rather than the Charge 3, which really only just shows you what you've just done and then you have to go into the Fitbit app itself.
I found the charge three was perhaps overestimating my maximum heart rate.
So when it was tracking it I noticed it was saying my maximum heart rate was around 200 bpm, which was probably a lot higher than it's ever been tracked on any of the previous fitness tracker, or the Versa itself.
So that's just something to bear in mind if you're really thinking about accuracy here.
And for the ladies there is women health tracking on both of these devices.
It's pretty much the same across both.
You can track your periods and then also predict ovulation and your fertility window.
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So both of the Fitbits are compatible with iOS and Android, and you can get the same notifications from your phone relayed to each of these watches.
That being said, if you are an iOS user, you're only gonna be able to see messages when they come through and calls.
You're not gonna be able to actually respond to them.
Like you can on Android.
And you can also then in Android customize the quick responses that you want to send when you get a notification come through.
They also both use proprietary charging cables, which is a bit of annoyance.
If you have a couple of different Fit Bits or different generations of Fit Bits and the battery life you'll get with each of them, you're gonna get around almost a week on the charge three.
I say almost a week because they say up to seven days.
I think in reality it's more just Its like six, six and a half, depending on how many workouts you do and how much you're really pushing it.
The versa, on the other hand, will get you just around 4 days, and that's with pretty much normal use with a couple of workouts thrown in.
Each of them also comes with a so called "Special Edition," and that gives You Fit BIt Pay, which is Fit Bit's mobile wallet.
So you can essentially tap to pay with your credit card or debit card using an nfc terminal when you are out and about.
This special edition also means it is special in terms of the price.
So it does cost a little bit extra.
I would love to say that FitBit versa 2 just come with the special edition all in one level.
So it is all just the same device.
That means that I don't have any insider information about the next FitBit.
I'm just spitballing and telling you what I would really like to see on it, and it would just be Fitbit pages brought into the regular Fitbit Versa 2 device, please.
The Versa also has a lot more apps available than the Charge 3. In fact, the Charge 3 pretty much has nothing.
You can change the watch face, and they're obviously all monochrome screens, and they're all what Fitbit wants you to have at the moment.
The Versa has a lot more apps to choose from and a lot more watch faces.
Especially since the Versa first launched around a year ago, the app store really built up quite a lot, and so there are a lot of different apps for things that you might wanna do from fitness tracking through to, say, news reading on your watch.
I don't know why you wanna read the news on your watch, but it's there if you do want it, so that's kinda neat.
When it comes to music, the only one that can store music is the Versa.
That it can store around 300 songs and the process to transfer them from your computer to the watch itself is a little bit cumbersome.
I would really love, Fitbit Versa 2 if you're listening To make it so you can transfer songs that you have on you phone, on to the watch really simply and seamlessly over bluetooth and wi-fi other than through your computer.
You can also use Diza Pandora apps on the [UNKNOWN] to store.
Music offline if you wanna use if while you go for a run or just stream directly from there.
But that's about it.
It's Deezer and Pandora.
There's nothing else in terms of streaming services.
So no Apple Music and no Spotify.
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So you're probably wondering why I haven't talked about the price of these yet, and that's kind of deliberate.
It's because, since the Versa was released about a year ago, the price has changed and come down a lot, there's been a lot of specials, and so it's come more in parody with the Charge 3.
So, really, the only difference between them, especially if you're getting the special edition as well, is only around $20-$50 so it's not a huge question about price.
That's not as really significant as whether you want a fitness tracker or more of a smart watch itself.
So I wanted to just run through a little bit of a wish list for the Versa 2.
The Fitbit, if you're listening, I hope that this really comes to be.
Because I think a couple of changes could make it a really really strong device.
I would love to see if you could transfer music directly from a phone And add a number of different streaming services to it.
I would also love the special edition to not exist, just to get Fitbit pay in the regular Versa 2, that would be amazing.
And number three, having GPS on board, that would just make it a really, fully fledged all-around smart watch.
I think that would be a great competitor to the Apple Watch as well.
So that's a comparison between the Charge 3 and the Fitbit Versa.
I would love to hear some of your comments, suggestions about what you wanna see in the future Fitbit models, or any questions that I didn't answer in this comparison.
Let me know in the comments below or you can find me on Twitter.
And stay tuned to CNET for a lot more comparisons in our versus series.
