Fitbit Versa review

The Fitbit Ionic (included in our latest fitness band reviews) is a powerfully featured fitness smartwatch, but its bulky design and $400 asking price probably means it's not for people with small wrists and a limited budget.

Enter the Fitbit Versa – a smaller, cheaper, more stylish sibling of the Ionic that looks a lot like the Apple Watch. Fans of the Kickstarter crowdfunded start-up Pebble may also recognise strong design similarities between the Fitbit Versa and the popular Pebble Time smartwatch (Fitbit bought the company last year).

While you don't get everything on the Versa that the more expensive and larger Ionic has to offer, most notably on-board GPS, you do get a fitness watch with battery life measured in days rather than hours.

• What are the Versa's lifestyle features?
• What are the Versa's fitness features?
• What's our verdict?

Lifestyle and leisure

Features that would be considered more lifestyle than fitness include: 

• a weather app
• tap and pay, which lets you buy stuff without using your phone or wallet, and instead by tapping your watch to a terminal that uses NFC (near field communication) technology
• support for text, email and calendar notifications. 

If you're using an Android smartphone, you'll soon be able to also reply to texts and emails by selecting from of a series of canned responses or creating a custom reply. Support for this feature is due this month and we'll update this review when it becomes available. Unfortunately, there are no plans for this feature to be introduced for iPhone users, who can only see notifications, not reply to them, with Fitbit blaming Apple's closed ecosystem for the omission.

_{Fitbit Versa with charging dock. The special edition pictured here, includes a second woven band.}

The latest OS update also includes women's health tracking, which lets you log menstrual periods, track your cycle and gauge ovulation.

Various exercise modes will let you track your session when you're connected to your smartphone, and the subscription-based Coaching app (with in-app purchases) is available for some serious curated workouts.

_{The Versa's heart rate monitor.}

CHOICE verdict

If you're an Android smartphone owner looking for a reasonably priced fitness watch that looks like an Apple Watch, then look no further. The Versa is a true fitness device with great battery life, stylish design and just enough smarts to be useful without being complicated. If you own an iPhone, then the Apple Watch Series One is still your best option for around the same price and better integration with Apple apps and notifications.

• Price: 
  • Fitbit Versa – $299
  • Fitbit Versa Special Edition – $349 (second band included)*
• Contact: fitbit.com/au

* The standard Versa has a silicon band while the Special Edition includes an additional woven material band.

_{Step-tracking screen.}