Best Fitbit Fitness Watch for Cycling, Running, Swimming & Interval training?

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Best Fitbit Fitness Watch for Cycling, Running, Swimming and Interval training?

Over the years I’ve gone through my fair share of activities trackers ranging from awesome to downright dreadful. Fitbit has remained one of the front-runners at designing fitness tracker and smartwatches that are stylish, easy to use and effortless to sync activity data to the mobile app.

The Fitbit Versa excels at all of the above. It is a lightweight activity watch that tracks a range of activities and workouts including outdoor running, weight training, treadmill, cardio workouts, swimming and so on. It doesn’t come with inbuilt GPS, instead it will piggyback onto your phone’s GPS using a feature called “Connected GPS”, but the plus side of this is a long battery life lasting up to 4 days.

Heart rate monitoring

As with other fitness trackers, wrist-based heart rate tracking is not as accurate as a chest strapped monitor. Having said that I completed a series of outdoor runs and compared the Fitbit Versa data with my Polar RCX3 and the heart rate readings were almost identical. There is definitely a marked improvement over previous Fitbit trackers.

Sleep tracking

If you’ve read any of my previous Fitbit reviews you’ll already be familiar with how highly I rate Fitbit’s sleep tracking feature. It is arguably the best sleep monitoring that I’ve used. We all know that sleep is important for workout recovery and to maintain peak performance.

The Versa breaks down your sleep pattern into 4 different sleep stages i.e. Awake, REM, Light and Deep Sleep. I like that the sleep graphs are easy to understand and show you periods of broken sleep throughout the night. The Fitbit Versa measures sleep stages using a combination of your movement and heart rate patterns.

Battery life

The Fitbit Versa has an impressive battery life that stretches up to 4 days even when it’s used extensively. I recently took part in a 4-week step challenge which meant that I was constantly monitoring my step count and setting myself mini challenges to walk further in addition to my normal workout routine. I thought that this extra activity would cut the Versa’s battery time by half (which would have still been acceptable) but to my surprise, the watch still stuck to its 4-day promise. Awesome!

When the battery is depleted you’ll have to place the Versa into the charging dock to charge it up. Simply press both sides of the cradle base and slide the watch in. The charging time is about 1 hour. Job done.

Living with the Fitbit Versa

When I initially received the Fitbit Versa I was pleasantly surprised how lightweight it was. My strap is plain black and it very minimalist. If you prefer something a bit more vibrant there is a selection of colours including orange, pink and gold. The watch is very comfortable around the wrist and you hardly notice that it’s there. It doesn’t interrupt with sleep and the green sensor light at the rear is very discreet.

The standard bands are made from a durable high-quality plastic that doesn’t irritate my skin. My skin is very sensitive and I’ve always found that the Fitbit bands never cause me any type of irritation.

Setting up the Fitbit Versa for first-time use is quite straightforward and hassle-free. If you don’t already have a Fitbit account the Fitbit app will walk you through the account creation process whilst simultaneously linking your new Versa to your smartphone. It will take about half an hour to set up everything i.e. configure the settings, choose your preferred apps, input your body measurements and weight and choose a suitable clock face. Apps can be repositioned directly from the watch depending on the ones you consider to be the most important.

I’ll just tell you now that they are millions of clock faces to choose from and after a while of looking through them it can be difficult to select one. It’s not a bad thing, I’d rather be inundated with choice rather than choosing from a limited selection.

I eventually chose the NEON2 clock face which displays a cool colourful stick drawing of a running man with the time and date displayed on the left and various stats on the right including my heart rate, distance, steps, calories burnt and battery life. It’s a vibrant clock face that complements what would otherwise be a dull looking black-on-black watch.

Fitbit Versa Notifications

Calls and texts come through without hassle. The Versa will vibrate when either come through. It will also display calendar notifications and reminders. You can’t respond to messages but its still handy to quickly glance at your wrist and gauge whether a message is important enough to warrant going into your phone to read it. You can also set up various alarms which vibrate on the wrist.

Fitbit Versa Apps

There are various apps to choose from including the Strava running app, Fitbit propriety apps include a personal coaching app, alarm clock, music app, weather, news, a leaderboard (to set various challenges with friends and family), timer, relaxation app and a music app that lets you wirelessly sync 300+songs onto the watch.

Sadly there is no Spotify integration and this is something I would like to see in future updates. I recently found out a quick workaround to control the music playing on your phone with the Versa, including Spotify. Hold the back button down, swipe to Music, press the three dots, then pair Versa Classic via Bluetooth, and you should be able to control music when it starts playing on the phone.

There is a Fitbit pay app that lets you use the watch to make payments but it is not as robust as Apple pay and is limited to a few banks.

Fitbit Versa for Swimming

Fitbit Versa is waterproof which has the obvious benefit that you can take it swimming. Wrist-based tracking isn’t as accurate underwater but it’s still nice to have all the other statistics such as calories burned and the distance covered doing lengths in the pool.

Fitbit Versa for Cycling

The Versa watch uses the GPS data from your phone to determine your route and provide a more accurate breakdown of the distance covered whilst cycling. You can choose what data you prefer to see whilst cycling including your heart rate reading and calories.

Fitbit Versa for Running

Similar to cycling the Fitbit watch will use your phones GPS for route and distance data and it will use your body measurements i.e. height to determine your stride and pace. You can toggle between different stats using the left button. I’ve found that the heart rate data is a lot more accurate when running than other forms of exercise.

Pros

This is a versatile fitness watch that not only tracks activities but also motivates you to stay fit and keep moving.
You can play music directly from the watch and link a pair of Bluetooth headphones.
Fitbit Versa is extremely lightweight! It looks stylish and doesn’t overcrowd tiny wrists.
There are millions of watch faces to choose from!! It’s super easy to switch between faces via the Fitbit app.
The 4-day battery life is impressive and it actually lasts for 4 days.
A huge selection of watch straps are readily available online including high-quality third-party straps that are cheaper. Click here to see one of my favourites.
A highly functional fitness watch that gives access to a huge Fitbit community where you can get involved in various challenges and stay motivated to exercise.

Cons

Spotify integration is currently not available, but this is one of the biggest request from Fitbit users and should be sorted soon.
You can’t have 2 Fitbits linked to the Fitbit app at any one time. The old Fitbit device has to be removed before installing the Versa. Thankfully the app retains all your previous exercise data from your older Fitbit.
The app selection isn’t great but I’m sure this will get better over time.
Payment is via Fitbit Pay is not as robust as Apple pay.

Product Rating

The Versa is Fitbit’s leading device and has enjoyed a strong positive reception from its users. It is beautiful and comfortable around the wrist. This is a true competitor to the Apple watch.

Product score 9/10

Where to Buy The Fitbit Versa

Click here to find the best prices for the Fitbit Versa

Conclusion

Is Versa the best Fitbit fitness watch for cycling, running, swimming and interval training? It sure is. The Fitbit brand prides itself on giving its users useful fitness data that is easy to understand. My grandmother uses the Versa and she gets along with the thing just fine.

With the Versa your daily activity is covered from the moment you wake up and throughout the night whilst sleeping. The Fitbit app is beautifully designed and breaks up the data into neat sections that you can tap into for a detailed analysis. You can also log your food intake directly into the app for a fuller picture of your overall health.

Data syncing has come in leaps and bounds since the early days of the fitness tracker. Fitbit has improved data syncing to the point that you hardly notice it happening, my data is always up to date by the time I’ve tapped into the app.

Are you considering buying the Fitbit Versa or do you already own one? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by.