Fitbit Versa 2 Review UK

Fitbit Versa 2 Review: Overview & Price

In this Fitbit Versa 2 review, we go over everything you need to know about this 2019 smartwatch.

We go over the Fitbit Versa 2 specs, battery life and much more, even showcasing the best deals here in the UK.

The Fitbit Versa 2 release date was a couple of weeks ago on September 15^th 2019.

So how does the Fitbit Versa 2 compete with the likes of the Huawei Watch GT and Apple Watch Series 5?

Well, it doesn’t complicate things; it is nice and easy to use with some useful features and incredibly fitness tracking.

However, it does lack GPS tracking, which means you will need your phone with you wherever you go.

Fitbit has taken what it learned with the original Ionic and improved them as much as possible without making the device cluttered and complicated.

The Fitbit Versa 2 is currently priced at £199 here in the UK, making it a cheaper alternative than some of its competition.

Along with the release of this new smartwatch, Fitbit also released ‘Fitbit Premium’ which aims to be your digital fitness coach at just £7.77 per month.

Let’s take a closer look at what the Fitbit Versa 2 has to offer…

Fitbit Versa 2 Review: Design & Display

When looking at the Fitbit Versa 2 design you will see that it sticks with the square/circular design, as it has a squared display with rounded edges.

This design is the typical one of a smartwatch; it looks very similar to the Apple Watch Series 5.

The Fitbit Versa 2 actually looks surprisingly good when on your wrist, you could comfortably wear this watch to the gym, or out for a meal without the watch making you look out of place.

The Fitbit Versa 2 comes in a range of colours, either Emerald, Bordeaux, Black, Stone, Petal or the special edition Smoke colour.

We were lucky enough to get our hands on the Emerald colour of the watch for just over a week to conduct this Fitbit Versa 2 review.

Now you may be wondering is the Fitbit Versa 2 waterproof?

Well yes it is! The watch is rated swim-proof up to 50 meters, which gives you the freedom to take a dunk without stressing if the watch is going to survive or not.

The actual body of the watch is 40mm, and with a depth of 0.47 inches (12mm) its easy to think that this is a chunky device.

However, the Fitbit Versa 2 does well to disguise its chunky design, as it tapers inwards from the back, which gives it the illusion of being much thinner on your wrist than it actually is.

The straps that the Fitbit Versa 2 comes with are able to be changed, simply unclip them and swap them around at your leisure.

We found the Fitbit Versa 2 extremely comfortable when on our wrist; it wasn’t a chore to keep the watch on all day like some other smartwatches in 2019.

There is only one button on the side of the Fitbit Versa 2, which is used for both ‘select’ and ‘back’, which makes it super easy to navigate around the watch as well as using the touchscreen.

Moving on to the Fitbit Versa 2 display and one of the first things you will notice when compared to last years Fitbit is that it now has slightly slimmer bezels, which give the watch more real estate on the screen.

The display uses Gorilla Glass 3 to protect the watch face from scratches or cracks, granted its not the strongest glass in the world but it’s an extra layer of protection that is reassuring to have.

The display is where the Fitbit Versa 2 has had one of the more noticeable upgrades; it now has an OLED display as opposed to an LCD.

This makes the colour on the display much more punchy and vibrant, it also makes the black pixels super inky and dark.

The watch now features an always-on display, which means that you don’t need to move your wrist at all to read the time or see your steps at a glance, this is awesome and something we really appreciated on the new Apple Watch Series 5.

Of course, when having the always-on display turned on, you can expect the battery life to drain much faster, almost twice as fast.

You will also need to dig into the settings if you want to use the always-on feature, and it does limit your customisation option too.

The Fitbit Versa 2 display has a 300 x 300 resolution, which is sharp enough to show you the watches icons without them being pixelated or blurry.

The display is also capable of reaching up to 1000 nits of brightness, but we found this to be much brighter than needed when in use and rather blinding if cranked up in low light settings.

However, even when using the Fitbit Versa 2 on the lowest display settings, the display is still nice and crisp and clear.

This is because of the ambient light sensor that the display has; it detects the amount of light in your environment and automatically adjusts the brightness levels of the Fitbit Versa 2 display to suit.

Fitbit Versa 2 Review: Performance

So what are the Fitbit Versa 2 specs like?

Well, the Versa 2 has a faster processor than its predecessor to start.

So when navigating around the Fitbit you will notice that everything is silky smooth, with no lag or shudders it’s a breeze to flick through applications and menus without frustration.

The Fitbit 2 has 5GB of storage but only 2.5GB of that is accessible. This is quite a lot for a smartwatch and we found that it’s plenty for storing applications, music and more on your watch.

If you are anything like us and forget to download music before going for a run, then this is perfect as when your home you can download a playlist onto the watch then when you go outside you can listen offline.

The Fitbit Versa 2 is now jam-packed full of useful features too, first of all, is NFC, which is used to make wallet payments.

This allows you to make payments anywhere that has a contactless card reader, meaning if you do forget your bankcard your watch is always there to have your back and save you from that embarrassing walk of shame.

That being said FitPay is extremely weak here in the UK, it’s not supported very well unless you bank with Santander.

So instead of using the button on the side of the way to pull up FitPay, you can use it for Amazon Alexa too, which we will get on to shortly.

One feature that the Fitbit Versa 2 lacks is GPS tracking, this can be a deal-breaker for some as it means that every time you go for a run if you want to access location services then you’ll need your smartphone handy to do so.

As well as this the Fitbit Versa 2 doesn’t support offline Spotify, so you may want to look at other music streaming services if you are wanting to download music to your watch.

That being said Spotify is useful when you are connected, the Fitbit Versa 2 also has Starbucks, Uber and more applications that can be used from your phone.

We found this extremely convenient we during our time with the watch we would often order an Uber into town from our watch, this is handy if you happen to stray away from your normal territory and get lost, your watch can guide you safely home, at the cost of an overpriced Uber that is.

So what else does the Fitbit Versa 2 do?

Well, it has the Amazon virtual assistant integrated into the watch, meaning you can use Alexa to ask questions and receive answers.

Granted, the Fitbit Versa 2 doesn’t have a speaker to read out the answers, but it does have a beautiful OLED display, which will show you the answers written in text.

Simply hold down the button and the Alexa logo will show up to let you know its listening, then you can ask “Alexa- What is the traffic like in London today?”

and after a short ‘thinking’ message the watch will show you how busy the traffic is.

There are limitations to this being as though it is a smartwatch, you can’t ask the watch to play music on Spotify for example, but you can use Alexa to control other smart tech you have in your home.

So if you do own an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, the watch will allow you to communicate with the devices.

For the most part, we found that it was much easier to whip out our smartphone and ask Google what the weather, football score or traffic was like.

Alexa on the watch won’t allow you to make calls or respond to messages either.

See Related:

*Huawei Watch GT Review*
*Samsung Galaxy Watch Review*
*Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2*
*Apple Watch Series 5 Review*
*Fossil Sport Watch Review*

But I guess it’s a nice added feature for the Fitbit to include, as it does take some time to think and give you the answer, as the watch is not quite as powerful as a smartphone.

The Fitbit brand is well known for its tracking features, and the Fitbit Versa 2 adds to the portfolio with its fantastic fitness tracking.

You can either start an exercise routine by selection an option from the exercise app, or the Versa 2 can record you fitness activities automatically.

One downside to this is that you cannot see real-time analytics of the exercise, so you cannot see the distance you have ran and the calories burned until after you have finished your workout.

The Fitbit Versa 2 will even give you your own ‘Cardio Fitness Level’ which can be increased over time by working out more, it’s a great way to track your fitness and we found it excellent motivation to get our running shoes on and out the door.

The watch automatically records some workouts, such as swimming, running and aerobic exercise, which means if you do forget to set the workout in your app there is no need to worry, as the Fitbit will keep track of this and give you the stats at the end.

We did find that some exercises are recorded more accurately than others, because of the lack of GPS tracking when cycling and running the watch doesn’t give you an accurate measurement of the distance you have travelled, this makes it hard to beat your last lap as you don’t know how far you have travelled.

Now as mentioned previously Fitbit now offer a premium service that aims to be your workout coach.

This is priced at £7.77 monthly or £79.99 annually and gives you access to a range of guided programs and workouts to help you get in shape.

This gives you the ability to download your workout and you can even show your doctor if needed, it includes step-by-step workouts and detailed statistics of your exercise.

This can be a great added feature to your watch if you are serious about getting in shape, but for some of us the free version does just fine and can steer you on the right path.

Fitbit Versa 2 Health & Fitness Smartwatch with Alexa built-in, Sleep Score & Music, Black - Carbon 

The Fitbit Versa 2 watch has an incredible sleep-tracking feature too, the watch is comfortable enough to wear when going to sleep and after a couple of nights we forgot it was even on.

The feature takes into account how long you are awake for, your light and deep sleep duration and your restless and REM sleep.

The watch then calculated a ‘Sleep Score’; it can even compare sleep scores over an extended period.

This can be really beneficial for those who struggle to sleep, as you can weigh up the variables and find out what you need to do to get a well-rested sleep.

As a whole the Fitbit Versa 2 performance is impressive, it comes packed full of features that are great for the gym-goers and those that want to get in better shape.

We found the sleep-tracking features to be accurate and a great way to monitor the quality of sleep we were getting each night.

Fitbit Versa 2 Review: Battery Life

When it comes to the Fitbit Versa 2 battery life we were very impressed, despite it having a more powerful OLED display the Versa 2 actually has a better battery than its predecessor.

When you think that the Apple Watch Series 4, Samsung Galaxy Watch and Huawei Watch GT all need to be charged regularly.

You will be glad to know that the Fitbit Versa 2 got me through 6 full days of usage!

This is fantastic as this is not in a conservatively either, this is using the watch for fitness tracking, sleep tracking and using Alexa like it is going out of fashion.

We have to say we were extremely impressed with the Fitbit Versa 2 battery life, we didn’t have to worry about charging the device as soon as we go home and it was the peace of mind knowing that it would get us through multiple days of intense use.

Fitbit Versa 2 Review: Summary

So should you but the Fitbit Versa 2?

Well if you are looking for a stylish smartwatch that can be worn with multiple outfits, whether you are in the gym or the club, then yes.

This watch looks great, and thanks to its OLED display viewing content on the watch is nice too, granted the display is small, but the colours are vivid and punchy.

The Fitbit Versa 2 specs are impressive, it has plenty of storage to download music and apps on the device, however GPS tracking would have been great here.

As well as this battery life of the Fitbit Versa 2 is incredible, six full days of use is incredible from such a small watch, especially when you think its tracking your sleep at night too.

The Fitbit Versa 2 is packed full of features and it makes a great addition to a gym bag, coupled with the Fitbit premium service it can be a great tool to help you get in shape for the new year.

We hope you have enjoyed our Fitbit Versa 2 review, feel free to check out the best Fitbit Versa 2 deals at the top of the post.

Fitbit Versa 2 Review: Full Specification