5050 AUGUST 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 378
SPECIFICATIONS
THEORIGINALFITBITŚersa (Shopper365)
was distinguished by its versatility,sowhat
happens when acheaper version comes along
that jettisons features to hit alower price͇
The answer isn’t as grim as it could have
been. The Fitbit Śersa Litemakes afew cuts,
but not to anything that was essential to the
original Śersa’s success, and buys itself a£50
price difference in the process.
THE DAYTHE MUSIC DIED
The first thing to go is onboard music support,
mainly in the loss of Deezer.This is arguably
the least significant of the cuts, as since
neither this nor the original Śersa have built-in
GPS, you’re most often going to be using it
together with asmartphone,which can be
your music playback device,too.You can still
control music from the Śersa Lite, just not
have the songs stored on the watch itself.
Second, it loses support forFitbit Coach’s
onscreen workouts, presumably because of
the lack of internal space.That’s more of a
shame,although given it was asubscription
service anyway, it’s not ahuge loss either.
Third, it loses the Śersa’s ãFCchip and
Fitbit Payapp.This is less of aworry in the UÃ
than it would be in, say, the US: only acouple
of smaller banks support Fitbit Pay, so most
users won’t be missing out on anything.
The fourth and only major loss is the
Śersa’s altimeter,meaning it can’t count the
number of ɩoors you’ve climbed. It also
doesn’t have the three-axis gyroscope,soit
won’t track laps when you’re swimming,
although you’re still free to take it in
the pool fortime-keeping
purposes, as it maintains
the same 50m
waterproofing.
Design-wise,the
Fitbit Śersa Liteis
barelyanydifferent
at aglance.Ithas
the same slightly
rounded square face
and chamfered edges
surrounding abright,
300x300 touchscreen.
Displaycolours are
bright and vibrant, and
the contrast is excellent.
However,ifyou were
to make the slight
downgrade from the
original Fitbit Śersa to the
Śersa Lite–perhaps taken in by
FITBIT VersaLite
★★★★★
£150•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
InthissuccessfulattemptatamoreaffordableVersa,
Fitbithasmadesnipsinmostlyalltherightplaces
FITNESSTRACKER
the new marina blue or
mulberry colour schemes
–you might initially be a
touch confused. That’s
because Fitbit has reduced
the number of buttons from
three to just the one on the
left-hand side.
The rest is all controlled by
touchscreen. It’s often worth
being wary of any move to reduce
physical buttons on afitness tracker,
because rain and sweat tends to make
touchscreens unreliable at best, but at least it
brings the Śersa in line with the Fitbit Charge
3and Inspire’s single-button designs.
POSITIVETOUCH
In day-to-dayuse,the Fitbit Śersa Liteis
simply brilliant. The screen is just the right size
to get all the data you need at aglance,
without looking bulkyorawkward, and we
didn’t really miss the two buttons on the side
either.The touchscreen is responsive enough
to serve you well fornavigation and controls.
ãotifications come through with a
reassuring buzz, and the built-in apps are
easily accessible and sensibly thought out.
Like the recent Fitbit Inspire HĚ (Shopper377),
breathing exercises are right there
on the watch, allowing you to
take two or five minutes
out of your dayfor
some guided meditation:
it’s not all about the
cardio,afterall.
Speaking of cardio,
this is awatch that
is farbetter suited
to running than
the Inspire HĚ.
Although it doesn’t
have any more features –both have heart-rate
monitors and connected, rather than
integrated, GPS –the screen shows alot more
useful data thanks to the extra size.Indeed,
you can see two fixed stats (distance and pace
by default), while athird data field lets you
cycle through alist of other
metrics at the touch of abutton.
This is avery sensible design, and three
data fields are probably enough formost
people,although the more advanced running
watches we’ve used, such as the Garmin
Forerunner 235 (Shopper368) and Polar
Śantage M(Shopper375), have space forfour.
ALRIGHT ONTHE LITE
Piggybacking off the phone’s GPS isn’t as
good as abuilt-in solution, of course,but the
Śersa Liteproved reasonably accuratein
distance tracking; at the end of aprecisely
5km run, it was only off by 130m.
Unfortunately,heart-ratetracking is all
over the place.Wewore both achest strap
and the Śersa Liteduring an extended exercise
session, and while the strap data showed
predictable increase over time,the Śersa Lite’s
data showed no trend at all –just random-
looking ɩuctuations. That’s disappointing,
although given the Śersa Lite’sprice and the
fact that heart-ratetracking isn’t the most
important thing in arunning watch, it’s also
something we’re willing to forgive.
The Śersa Litemakes largely sensible cuts
on its predecessor to ensure it’s just as easy
to recommend. Combined with the excellent
Fitbit app and the community it brings, this is
awearable that’s every bit worth its price.
AlanMartin
PEDOMETERYes•HEART-RATEMONITORYes•
DISPLAYSIZE1.3in•RESOLUTION300x300•
OSSUPPORTAndroid,iOS•BATTERYLIFEFivedays•
WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.fitbit.com•
PARTCODEFB415BUBU
RECOMMENDED
The screen is justthe rightsizetoget all the data youneed
at aglance, without looking bulkyorawkward
