44 JANUARY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE383
SPECIFICATIONS
THEORIGINALVERSA(Shopper365) almost
single-handedly turned around abeleaguered
Fitbit’s fortunes, so it’s no wonder the firm is
looking forrepeat success with the sequel.
The Versa 2isevery bit as attractive as
the old model, with its sleek square face,
gentle rounded edges and single,
unobtrusive button.
TRICKS OFTHETRADE
It’s actually quiteremarkable how stylish it
looks on the wrist, because to some extent
its good looks are an optical illusion. First of
all, it’s 12mm thick, which doesn’t sound like
alot,but that’s actually close to twice as
thick as the average smartphone.Because of
the wayittapers inwards, however,itlooks a
lot thinner than it is.
Second, if you look closely you’ll see the
Versa 2has apretty thick bezel all the way
around the screen, but because the
background is black on every menu, you only
really spot this in bright sunlight. In short,
Fitbit has done amasterful job of hiding
aesthetic imperfections. It’s comfortable,too,
with straps that can be replaced should you
want to mix things up abit.
Finally,it’s worth saying something about
the new screen technology.The move to
OLED is amasterstroke as it adds two
important additions. First is an always-on
display, whichmeans you don’t need to
move your wrist to read the time or see your
steps at aglance.It’s not on by default,
because Fitbit says it reduces battery life
by aday,but that brings us to the second
point: OLED means the battery lasts longer
anyway, from about four days on the Versa
to fivedaysonthe Versa 2.
It’s agood screen, too. The300x300
resolution is more than sharp enough to
show off the watch’s bright and breezy array
of icons, and you can always see what’s on
the screen at aglance.
Those good vibes continue into
performance,with the Versa 2diligently
tracking your activity as you go along.
Steps are counted, notifications buzz
through and, if you want to interact more
with it, then music, exercises, breathing
FITBIT Versa2
★★★★★
£199•From http://www.currys.co.uk
VERDICT
The Fitbit Versa 2isawell-judgedupdate,
although the lack of GPS holds it back
FITNESSSMARTWATCH
and other apps are just aswipe away.
The Fitbit Versa 2isgenerally seen and not
heard, and that’s absolutely fine.
It even finds room to bundle Amazon’s
virtual assistant Alexa in this time,too,
enabled by amicrophoneonthe side of the
watch. Hold down the button and the Alexa
logo will pop up to show it’s listening. Ask a
question and then, after ashort ‘thinking...’
message,the answer to your question will be
written on the screen foryou to read.
There are limitations to this. Youcan’t ask
it to playmusic on Spotify,for example,even
though the app is there on the watch. You
can, however,get it to set timers and even
control smart home kit. Even if it sounds silly,
it works: we had no issues using the Versa 2
to switch smartlight bulbsonand off.
OUT OF POSITION
The same button can also be reprogrammed
to activate Fitbit Payinstead, but this remains
an extremely minor feature as so fewUK
banks support it; the only major one at the
moment is Santander.
App support is growing, however,and it’s
good to see Fitbit bundling both Strava and
Spotify alongside its own first-party apps,
although the latter is aremotecontrol for
phone playback, rather than afully built-in
music player.Then again, given the lack of
GPS, you’ll need to take your phone with
you forrunning and cycling anyway, so that
shouldn’t be adealbreaker.
Even when piggybacking, however,the
Versa 2wasn’t very accurateatmeasuring
distances. The watch itself logged aprecisely
5km-long run as 5.25km, then revised this to
5.15km when synced to the Fitbit app.That’s
an improvement, but still not right.
This inaccuracy goes the other wayaswell,
underestimating another 5km run as 4.74km.
This time it was alot easier to see why: the
mapping data had the impression we were
significantly cutting corners. This could be
blamed on our phone’s GPS rather than the
Versa 2, but it still shows the missed benefits
of an integrated, dedicated GPS chip.
TWOTIME
As aresult, the Versa 2comes frustratingly
close to being amazing, but without GPS it’s
much less attractive as afitnesstracker.It’s a
shameFitbit doesn’t make this an optional
extra, because the Versa 2isfar nicer to look
at anduse than the Fitbit Ionic (Shopper360).
That being said, if you are confident in
your phone’sGPS accuracy,and you don’t
mindtakingitwith you on arun, you’ll still
appreciatethe Versa 2asasporty
smartwatch.The OLED screen in particular
makes it aworthy successor to the wearable
that put Fitbit back on the map.
AlanMartin
PEDOMETERYes•HEART-RATE MONITORYes•DISPLAY
SIZE1.3in•RESOLUTION300x300•OS SUPPORTAndroid,
iOS•BATTERYLIFEFivedays•WARRANTYOneyearRTB
- DETAILSwww.fitbit.com•PART CODEFB507RGPK
The Versa2comes frustratingly close to being amazing, but
without GPS it’s much less attractiveasafitness tracker
