Fitbit's Versa 2 excels as a straightforward fitness tracker but doesn't live up to its much larger goal of being a full-featured smartwatch

• With strong fitness tracking features and long battery life, the Fitbit Versa 2 is a compelling smartwatch.
• It features support for mobile payments, access to a few third-party apps, as well as Amazon's Alexa, but not everything works as well as the fitness tracking, and the lack of GPS is disappointing.
• It's an affordable smartwatch at $199.95 but it left something to be desired in terms of functionality.

With a strong health and fitness pedigree, Fitbit is a popular brand for people seeking fitness trackers. The Versa range is Fitbit's somewhat successful attempt to cross the line into smartwatch territory, and the Versa 2 improves on its predecessor in a few subtle ways with a better screen, longer battery life, and Amazon Alexa support.

The Fitbit Versa 2 sports a bright, AMOLED screen, supports mobile payments and a handful of third-party apps, and offers call and message notifications on your wrist, but the health and fitness tracking is still where this device shines. It's not going to compete with the Apple Watch, but at $199.95, it really doesn't have to.

I've been using the Fitbit Versa 2 for the last week or so, and there have been highs and lows. Here's how I got on with it.

Design

The Fitbit Versa 2 sports a square display with rounded edges. The body is aluminum and it curves away underneath, which helps it feel and look a bit slimmer than it really is.

The design is much the same as the original Fitbit Versa but Fitbit did away with the two buttons on the right, so the Fitbit Versa 2 has a single button on the left. Fitbit has also dropped the logo from the front, which improves the overall appearance, though it still has large bezels around the screen.

Regarding the screen, the switch to AMOLED is a major improvement over the LCD technology used in the original. The full color, 1.4-inch display has the same resolution, but the new screen is superior in most situations and less power-hungry. It's sharp and legible in low light or in direct sunlight, with a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits. You can also set it to always-on, though that does inevitably reduce the battery life.

It's a comfortable, lightweight smartwatch, which is important since you need to wear it all the time for complete activity and sleep tracking. My Fitbit Versa 2has the Coral Sport Band, which is breathable and durable, but there's a wide range of bands to choose from in woven materials, leather, or stainless-steel.

While it feels well-made, with a Gorilla Glass 3 face and aluminum body, my Fitbit Versa 2 has picked up a visible scratch on the screen and the chamfered edges of the case have a couple of tiny chips. These things can happen, but they do raise a little doubt about the long-term durability of the Fitbit Versa 2 — especially if mine picked these up in just one week of use.

Pleasingly, it's waterproof up to 50 meters, so you can swim with it on and wear it in the shower without worry.

Specifications

Dimensions: 1.6 x 0.5 x 1.6 inches

Display: 300 x 300-pixel color AMOLED touchscreen

Storage: 5GB

Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth LE, NFC

Sensors: 3-axis accelerometer, Optical heart rate monitor, Altimeter, Ambient light sensor, Relative SpO2 sensor

Battery: 4+ days

Water resistance: Up to 50 meters

Setup and interface

You'll need to install the Fitbit app on your iPhone or Android phone and create a Fitbit account to get started with the Versa 2. Setup is a breeze, and the interface is very accessible. You swipe right to left to scroll through pages with four icons apiece, including exercise, weather, settings, and third-party apps like Starbucks and Spotify.

Swipe down from the top to reveal notifications, music controls, quick settings, and Fitbit Pay. You can read incoming messages but the reply option is limited to Android and only allows you to choose from five responses — you can edit them in the app on your phone, however. Swiping up from the bottom takes you into your fitness tracking stats for the day. The single button on the left always takes you back, too.

Most of the setup takes place in the Fitbit app on your phone. You can choose from a wide variety of clock faces but most of the good ones require an extra payment, and you can only store five on the device itself at any one time.

The Fitbit app is comprehensive, but it's focused very much on your fitness and health progress. Digging into notifications from apps, changing the look of your Fitbit Versa 2, or setting up Fitbit Pay requires you delve down into layers of settings menus, which can be a little confusing. It feels as though some of the functions have been tagged on after the fact.

Fitness features

The main strength of the Fitbit Versa 2 is the fitness tracking. This smartwatch keeps track of everything from steps and distance covered to calories burned and flights of stairs climbed. Your heart rate is tracked around the clock and the averages at rest and during exercise are displayed. We particularly appreciate the fat burn calculation, which lets you know when your heart rate is elevated enough for you to be burning off those extra pounds.

You pick daily goals for steps and active minutes, but the Fitbit Versa 2 breaks these down into hourly goals for specific hours during the day, which you can also customize.

While the Fitbit Versa 2 can automatically track exercise sessions, it's advisable to select your exercise via the menu to ensure it's properly recorded. There's a good selection there from run, bike, and swim to yoga, Pilates, and tennis. The big omission here is GPS, so if you want to track cycles or runs properly, you'll need to take your phone with you.

The Fitbit Versa 2 also offers detailed sleep tracking, covering light, deep, and REM sleep. There's a chart in the app for estimated oxygen variation, which highlights potential breathing problems. It seems fairly accurate but like many sleep trackers, it tends to interpret lying in bed watching TV as sleeping. The Smart Alarm feature is supposed to wake you in a 30-minute window when you're in light sleep, but it was never pleasant being woken by the Fitbit Versa 2 and I'd always rather get maximum shuteye.

You can also choose to track your water and food intake for a complete picture of calories in and out and to ensure proper hydration.

All this information is available on your wrist, but if you want fancy charts and longer-term assessments, you'll need to open the app on your smartphone. Fitbit also offers all kinds of health advice and there's a bustling community where you can join groups dedicated to different kinds of exercise and share your experiences.

Every Fitbit Versa 2 comes with a 90-day trial of Fitbit Premium. This service offers everything from guided training programs to mindfulness exercises. It also includes more insight and analysis of all the personal stats you're generating. After the trial, the service costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 for the year.

Apps and Alexa

There aren't very many apps for the Fitbit Versa 2, but there are some handy options. As you'd expect, there are plenty of fitness and training apps. You'll also find a few music apps like Pandora, Deezer, and Spotify, though the latter is really just remote controls for the app on your phone. The Fitbit Versa 2 has 2.5GB of space for music, that's enough for up to 300 tracks, so you can upload your own training playlists if you want to work out without your phone.

You can also find apps like Starbucks Card to pay for your coffee, Flipboard for news, and some basic utilities and games, but the quality isn't great. Fitbit Pay is a handy way to pay from your wrist, provided your bank supports it.

Given the lack of screen real estate, voice assistants can prove very handy on smartwatches. I frequently use Siri on the Apple Watch and Google Assistant on Wear OS watches, but the Fitbit Versa 2 offers Alexa integration. Sadly, it's far from impressive. You have to hold down the side button to trigger Alexa and it's a little slow to start up, with frequent pauses while it displays "thinking" onscreen. There's a microphone, so you can ask your question, but there's no speaker, so the replies are text on the small screen.

Alexa can set reminders for you and answer the usual questions about the weather or when your Amazon order is coming, but its significantly slower than Siri or Google Assistant. The fact that you have to press the button or open the Alexa app before you can ask anything also somewhat negates the benefit of a hands-free voice assistant.

Battery life

Fitbit suggests you'll get between four and five days from a fully charged Fitbit Versa 2, but your mileage varies according to how you use it. With the always-on display turned on, brightness normal, round-the-clock heart rate tracking, message notifications turned on, and at least one work out per day, I averaged around three days between charges.

You get a proprietary charging cradle with the Fitbit Versa 2 and it takes around two hours to fully charge.

The bottom line

The Fitbit Versa 2 is a solid fitness tracking smartwatch that represents good value. It's easy to recommend for anyone already invested in Fitbit's app and community and looking to upgrade from an older device. I've enjoyed poring over the stats it offers and feel it's helped me stay fit. The only downside regarding fitness is its lack of onboard GPS.

Where the Fitbit Versa 2 disappoints is as a smartwatch. Third-party apps are limited in number and scope, there's no support for phone calls and only sparse messaging options, and Alexa is slow. On the other hand, Fitbit Pay is useful, if your bank supports it, and the battery life is far better than most smartwatches.

Overall, the Fitbit Versa 2 is a very good device. It's lightweight and comfortable, with a nice display, comprehensive fitness and health tracking, and enough smartwatch extras to satisfy most people.

• Should you buy it? The Fitbit Versa 2 offers enough to justify the $199.95 price. If you want a smartwatch primarily for fitness tracking, then it's a device you should consider. If you're looking for a bonafide smartwatch, look elsewhere.
• What are your alternatives? If you like Fitbit's style, and you're more interested in fitness tracking than smartwatch functionality, then the Fitbit Charge 4 offers very similar features but is sleeker, adds GPS, and comes in significantly cheaper at $149.95. If its a full smartwatch you're after, then the Apple Watch is the obvious choice for iPhone owners. The Apple Watch Series 5, at $399, is the best smartwatch you can buy, but the Series 3 is also worth a look and starts from $199. Android phone owners should look at Samsung's Galaxy Watch Active 2 at $279.99.

Pros: Always-on AMOLED display, long battery life, comprehensive fitness tracking, sleep tracking

Cons: No GPS, limited apps, Fitbit OS can be confusing