If you want something that doesn’t feel distracting to wear in the pool but can offer reliable swim stats to pore over in the Fitbit app, then we’d say the Fitbit Charge 5 (£129) is the one you want on your wrist.įor starters, it has a vastly superior colour AMOLED display compared to the Charge 4, making it far more visible in and above the water. If you can live without the more innovative features that come inside the top-of-the-line Fitbit Sense, this the Fitbit smartwatch you should buy.Īll of Fitbit’s newest trackers and smartwatches are better suited to live in the water. You’re going to get close to that in most instances, which is more than what you’ll get from an Apple, Samsung or a Wear OS smartwatch. Then you have that promise of 6+ days battery life, a promise which gets shorter with the screen in always-on mode. The built-in speaker and microphone brings the ability to take calls when paired with your phone and also adds Google Assistant support, though those features are not ready to use just yet. The Versa continues to offer solid smartwatch staples, like notifications you can respond to with voice (or, even, emojis if you’re on Android) and Fitbit’s integration of Amazon’s Alexa offers the best smart assistant experience on a smartwatch yet.

Just don’t expect to get Garmin or Polar levels of insights and data.

Nevertheless, it’s a solid pool swimming companion. However, it still feels best suited for casual runners. The Fitbit Versa 3 has had its sports tracking credentials beefed up, adding in built-in GPS. The new monitor still comes up a little short for high intensity exercise and is better put to use for continuous monitoring during the day and night. There’s Fitbit’s new PurePulse heart rate monitor on board. It’s not always the most responsive, but, thankfully, you’re not heavily reliant on using it.Ĭore fitness tracking features are in place and monitoring sleep remains the big highlight – a highlight Fitbit does better than its rivals, in terms of accuracy and insights. This time out, Fitbit has ditched the physical button, opting to build one into the case.

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