Fitbit’s many achievements in its subject has, to some extent, turned the model identify into one thing of a family time period for wrist-worn health trackers. Nonetheless, the idea of the health tracker itself is shedding a little bit of steam as smartwatches have now develop into inexpensive sufficient to make these smaller, fitness-focused bands considerably out of date. Nonetheless, for health lovers, a devoted tracker that matches of their price range remains to be a worthwhile proposition. Fitbit continues to work in direction of successful over this demographic, because of its mixture of conventional {hardware} and ever-improving software program.
Whereas the premium section is now largely dominated by smartwatches with first rate health-tracking capabilities, Fitbit stays devoted to the concept of a better and higher health tracker. The Fitbit Versa 4 is priced at Rs. 20,499 in India and guarantees a smartwatch-like expertise, however doesn’t draw back from its fitness-first credentials.
The Fitbit Versa Four has an AMOLED display, with numerous watch faces together with Premium choices as a part of the subscription package deal
Fitbit Versa Four design and specs
Health trackers and bands as soon as adopted a definite look, characterised by fundamental, slim screens and a typically compact kind issue. Nonetheless, the choice in direction of massive screens on wearables have seen fashionable fitness-focused wearables extra carefully resemble smartwatches, and that is the aesthetic that the Fitbit Versa Four goes for. It has a sq. AMOLED display which dominates the entrance, an aluminium casing with a matte end, and a single button on the fitting facet of the machine.
Though the specs of the display aren’t formally acknowledged by Fitbit, it’s sharp and fairly good to take a look at, particularly when you use a watch face with a black background. Waking the display works with a press of the button or the lift-to-wake gesture, however tapping the touchscreen will not work till the machine is lively. You even have the choice to make use of the always-on show mode to see the time, set the display timeout period, and select between three brightness ranges, relying in your preferences.
The underside of the watch has the charging contact factors and the optical sensors for coronary heart price and blood oxygen measurements. There may be additionally an altimeter within the Fitbit Versa 4, which is utilized by the machine to depend flooring when climbing stairs; sadly the precise altitude knowledge cannot be accessed simply or immediately.
In India, the Fitbit Versa Four is obtainable in 4 color choices, with the color of the smartwatch matching that of the straps in all circumstances. These embody a black strap with a graphite colored casing, ‘Pink Sand’ strap with a copper rose colored casing, ‘Beet Juice’ with a copper rose colored casing, and ‘Waterfall Blue’ strap with a platinum colored casing. Whereas I favored the blue-platinum color mixture of my overview unit, I personally felt that the all-black choice regarded higher.
Strap consolation itself is a subjective level, and I did face some points with it throughout my time with the Fitbit Versa 4. A considerably tight adjustment did trigger some pores and skin sensitivity points, whereas a free match was snug however affected the readings from the optical sensors. I used to be positive with the hooked up small strap, however there may be an extra massive strap included within the gross sales package deal. Additionally included within the field is the charger for the Fitbit Versa 4, which attaches to the underside of the watch magnetically and plugs right into a USB Sort-A port for energy (you may want your individual adapter or join it to a laptop computer).
By way of specs, the Fitbit Versa Four is water-proof as much as a depth of 50m, and might subsequently deal with vital publicity to water with out a lot danger of injury. For connectivity, the machine makes use of Bluetooth 5, and has an in-built speaker and microphone which can be utilized to speak with Alexa for voice assistant performance, and to obtain incoming calls from the paired smartphone. The machine additionally helps satellite tv for pc location monitoring by means of GPS and GLONASS.
Fitbit Versa Four software program, interface, and app
Many in style wearables are OS or platform-specific, and Fitbit’s acquisition by Google has led many to imagine that the machine and app requires an Android cellphone to work, or works higher on Android. This is not actually the case although; the Fitbit app works on each Android and iOS and Fitbit stays machine agnostic on this regard. I primarily used the Versa Four with an iPhone for a lot of this overview, and all app-based performance labored as anticipated.
The Fitbit app handles the connection between the Versa Four and the paired smartphone, and in addition synchronises with the tracker to gather and analyse knowledge. This itself is not particular — each smartwatch and health tracker does this — however the place Fitbit really units itself aside is within the high quality of its evaluation of the information. The app generates detailed graphs and statistics based mostly on the information the Versa Four collects, together with numerous knowledge units that come as a part of the Premium subscription.
The Fitbit app (obtainable on iOS and Android) is the important thing to the general expertise, and the Premium subscription unlocks numerous attention-grabbing knowledge factors
Fitbit Premium provides an assortment of further knowledge and statistics that transcend the fundamentals of health, well being, and sleep monitoring on the Versa 4. This consists of detailed knowledge units on factors resembling respiratory price, resting coronary heart price, oxygen saturation, coronary heart price variability, and detailed sleep profiles, amongst others, all with your individual efficiency based mostly on private and typical ranges.
You can even generate a well being report in PDF format, which provides you a complete break up of the way you’re doing when it comes to well being and health. Some particular metrics resembling Readiness Rating, Sleep Profile, snore and noise detection, and extra can be found solely with the Premium subscription. You additionally get entry to video exercises and wholesome cooking recipes by means of the Premium subscription.
Whereas the concept of paying a month-to-month subscription charge after already having spent over Rs. 20,000 on the Versa Four itself could seem a bit extreme, it is value mentioning that I discovered the Premium service to be significantly higher when it comes to knowledge evaluation in comparison with the competing free choices I’ve had an opportunity to attempt. Six months of complimentary Premium subscription comes with the Fitbit Versa Four upon activation, after which it’s priced at Rs. 99 monthly or Rs. 999 per yr. That is fairly affordable for what’s on supply, in my view.
The Fitbit Versa Four itself comes throughout as a bit fundamental for a tool that prices over Rs. 20,000. There’s a easy on-device working system with screens displaying fundamental knowledge together with steps taken, sleep hours, coronary heart price, climate, and instruments resembling alarms, timers, and stopwatch. You can even management fundamental machine parameters resembling always-on show and DnD mode, entry Alexa on the watch (as soon as arrange by means of the app), arrange Fitbit Pay (not supported in India for now), and look at notifications out of your smartphone.
Watch faces (known as ‘Clocks’ within the Fitbit app) for the Fitbit Versa Four might be downloaded and synced by means of the app, with loads of good choices obtainable free of charge or as a part of the Premium subscription. Whereas I most popular the Fitbit-developed, AMOLED screen-friendly choices, many would possibly just like the seasonal and curated watch faces as nicely.
The Fitbit Versa Four is rated for water resistance as much as 50m
Different in-app choices embody organising Alexa for the Versa 4, on-wrist calls from the paired smartphone, and organising particular machine preferences together with each day health targets and account settings. I did have occasional points with knowledge synchronisation, sleep and SpO2 stats took some time to replace within the app, and there have been minor bugs together with one affecting distance monitoring, however nothing was too severe or precipitated any long-term hassles throughout my overview. Meals, water consumption, and guide weight monitoring might be maintained inside the app as nicely.
Fitbit Versa Four efficiency and battery life
Virtually each smartwatch, no matter worth, can function a health tracker, though the accuracy and high quality of the evaluation of knowledge collected varies. The place the Fitbit Versa Four hopes to set itself aside is in its concentrate on health monitoring. There are some smartwatch features resembling the power to take calls in your wrist and look at notifications from the paired smartphone, however the Versa Four is, above all else, a health tracker at its core.
The core knowledge assortment by the Fitbit Versa Four is essentially just like what most health trackers present, and accuracy is fairly good as nicely. The tracker has the power to retailer as much as seven days of detailed movement knowledge on machine, which will likely be retained till the machine is synchronised with the app in your smartphone. Day by day totals might be saved for as much as 30 days on machine.
Step monitoring on the Fitbit Versa Four was first rate sufficient in our 1,000-step check. The machine measured 1,020 steps the place I manually counted 1,000 steps whereas strolling at a reasonable tempo — a suitable error margin of two p.c. At a brisk tempo, the Versa Four barely undercounted steps, with an analogous error margin of round two p.c. Satellite tv for pc location monitoring on the Fitbit Versa Four labored nicely for outside workouts, with the machine measuring 1.01km for a distance acknowledged by Google Maps to be 1km, throughout an outside stroll.
Though it’s superb to manually begin exercises immediately from the Versa 4, the machine can robotically detect train and provoke the detailed monitoring itself. It handles this nicely, though it’s generally a few minutes late to provoke the monitoring. In all circumstances of train monitoring, additionally it is capable of detect if you find yourself in cardio and fats burn zones based mostly in your coronary heart price, categorised by Fitbit as ‘Zone’ minutes which might be set as a each day purpose.
Coronary heart price monitoring takes place each 5 seconds ordinarily, and as soon as per second throughout an train routine, with these readings affecting the measurement of ‘Zone’ minutes. Whereas resting and sleep coronary heart price monitoring was positive, I discovered train and main exercise coronary heart price monitoring on the Fitbit Versa Four to be a bit unreliable, thereby affecting correct measurement of ‘Zone’ minutes and different parameters.
I typically discovered monitoring to be positive as much as round 130bpm, however larger coronary heart charges (widespread throughout intense exercises) precipitated the Versa Four to slide up. This additionally affected different total readings resembling cardio health rating and coronary heart price variability, since measurements throughout heavy exercise had been typically unreliable. Some others resembling pores and skin temperature variation and total pores and skin temperature did not appear to point out any dependable readings even after many days of use.
The Fitbit Versa Four has a speaker and microphone inbuilt, and can be utilized to obtain calls from the paired smartphone or talk with Alexa
Blood oxygen monitoring on the Fitbit Versa Four just isn’t on-demand, as is the case with most smartwatches and health trackers which have the characteristic. As an alternative, this metric is simply proven after in a single day sleep, and might be seen solely with a watch face that helps exhibiting it, or by means of the app. This additionally tended to point out decrease readings than what a good SpO2 monitor confirmed throughout daytime measurements however that is anticipated, and nonetheless supplies a good outlook into your blood oxygen ranges each day.
Sleep monitoring is the place the Fitbit Versa Four performs exceptionally nicely, offering correct and detailed sleep high quality statistics and well being monitoring. The app additionally generates a sleep profile after logging sufficient knowledge, and helps with insights on enhance your total sleep and well being by means of this technique. This additionally helps to estimate a ‘Readiness’ rating — a parameter which supplies some steering as to when you need to work out, relaxation, or atone for sleep, based mostly on current exercise.
Battery life on the Fitbit Versa Four is significantly higher than most smartwatches, however comes throughout as fairly odd when in comparison with different units with comparable {hardware} capabilities. The Versa Four ran for just a little beneath 4 days on a single cost with regular use for me, which was barely decreased on days with extra frequent display use or train monitoring.
Name high quality is odd and workable for brief calls; the standard of the on-device speaker is not excellent, and sounded a bit muffled for calls in addition to responses from Alexa. Notification pushing is dependable so long as the Fitbit Versa Four is close to the paired smartphone, however not like similarly-priced smartwatches, you’ll be able to solely view notifications on the machine with no capability to reply.
Verdict
The Fitbit Versa Four is, not less than when it comes to the standard of the {hardware}, a reasonably odd health tracker and smartwatch for the worth. Nonetheless, the true worth of this isn’t purely within the {hardware}, however within the app and advantages of the Premium subscription, notably for health lovers who actually stand to profit from the information and insights on supply. Should you’re somebody who works out usually and needs to regulate your well being, this can be a good tracker for round Rs. 20,000.
There are some drawbacks right here, notably within the type of unreliable coronary heart price monitoring, a reasonably fundamental smartwatch expertise, and battery life that basically needs to be higher contemplating the extent of {hardware} capabilities. Nonetheless, the general health monitoring expertise was largely constructive for me, and I did profit from the assorted insights and knowledge offered by the app and the Premium service.
Nonetheless, when you do not anticipate to place the main points well being analytics to frequent use, and also you need a extra all-round expertise as an alternative, it may be value getting an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch as an alternative. You may additionally take into account the Garmin Venu Sq 2 or the marginally extra inexpensive Amazfit GTR 4 for fitness-focused performance.
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