C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Owned by Google, Fitbit is a well-established fitness wearable maker, and its smartwatch game is just as impressive. From humble and questionable initial efforts with the Fitbit Blaze, the company’s smartwatches have grown into capable companions on the wrist. If you’re not an iPhone and Apple Watch user, Fitbit provides a solid foundation from which to offer some of the best smartwatches available.
But now that Fitbit’s smartwatch offerings are plentiful, choosing one that suits you best is a daunting task. Below we take a look at some of the best Fitbit smartwatches you can buy.
See also: The best Fitbit trackers you can buy
Buy the right Fitbit smartwatch for your needs
Fitbit smartwatches strike a good balance between health and fitness tracking and general smartwatch functionality. Like the Versa 3 and Sense, the Premium offerings include microphones to command voice assistants or send voice-to-text responses to messages. Fitbit smartwatches also support a growing list of apps, but this remains one of the platform’s biggest weaknesses. If app functionality is paramount to you, a Wear OS smartwatch or other Fitbit alternative is better off.
While newer Fitbit smartwatches look similar, they all stand out in different ways. Fortunately, the prices of the products are tiered so you won’t have any problem finding a Fitbit smartwatch that fits your budget.
Read more: The Best Smartwatches You Can Buy | The best fitness trackers on the market
The best Fitbit smartwatches
- The Fitbit Versa 3 is the best Fitbit smartwatch you can buy. It’s a cheaper Fitbit Sense minus some special sensors. In terms of value, you don’t actually get a better Fitbit smartwatch.
- The Fitbit Sense is the best Fitbit smartwatch for the data lover. If you want to maximize the health and fitness data output from your smartwatch, the Sense is your device. It tracks three additional parameters in addition to what the Versa 3 offers.
- The Fitbit Versa 2 is the best affordable Fitbit smartwatch. It’s getting on in years, but it remains a powerful and affordable Fitbit smartwatch.
Fitbit Versa 3: The best Fitbit smartwatch
The Fitbit Sense may be the flagship Fitbit watch, but the Versa 3 is the cheaper buy. It has a 1.58-inch AMOLED display, built-in speaker and microphone that can be used during calls, and built-in GPS for runners. The Versa 3 also features Fitbit’s second generation Pure Pulse heart rate tracking technology and an SpO2 sensor.
Why is the Versa 3 the best Fitbit smartwatch and not the scythe? On the one hand, there is a lower list price for three sensors. In addition, the Versa 3 is almost identical to the Sense. Realistically, the average user could live without these three sensors, and the Versa 3’s health monitoring performance doesn’t suffer without them either. Because of this, we consider the Versa 3 to be the most affordable offering in the Fitbit family. Plus, it’s also one of the best smartwatches for Android right now.
Fitbit Versa 3
One of the best smartwatches for most Android users
If you’re looking for the best all-round smartwatch at a pretty good price, you’re probably looking for the Fitbit Versa 3. Fitbit’s cheaper, flagship smartwatch has standalone GPS, an accurate heart rate monitor, and lots of nice smartwatch features.
advantages
- Decent battery life
- Fairly accurate health tracking
- built-in GPS
disadvantage
- Very small app library
- Onboard music limited to two services
- Capacitive key is not ideal
Check out our full review to find out more about the Fitbit Versa 3.
Fitbit Sense: The best Fitbit smartwatch for data lovers
The Fitbit Sense is the company’s flagship smartwatch and has everything the Versa 3 has and a little more. It offers a large AMOLED display, a comfortable fit, and great build quality, but outperforms the Versa 3 with its sensor offerings. In addition to the usual measured values, the Sense also tracks body temperature, stress level via its electrodermal activity monitor (EDA) and heart health with its electrocardiogram (EKG). These three sensors provide more health data and context for those who need it. But not everyone does.
We don’t rate the Sense quite as high as the Versa 3, largely because of its price. It’s consistently more expensive than the Versa 3, and unless you absolutely need additional health sensors, it doesn’t offer anything above the Versa 3. They should be better waiting for Fitbit’s EDA and EKG technology to mature. We found both a hit and miss in our test. That said, if you can get hold of the Fitbit Sense on a special sale, it might end up being a better buy.
Fitbit Scythe
Manage your stress and heart health
The Fitbit Sense is Fitbit’s flagship health-oriented smartwatch. It has built-in EKG, GPS and heart rate sensors, as well as a new EDA scan app that measures your body’s stress level. This is by far the most advanced health watch from Fitbit to date.
advantages
- High-end premium design
- Improved quick release straps
- (Mostly) accurate GPS and heart rate sensors
disadvantage
- Bad inductive button
- EDA and EKG sensors need to be refined
- Fitbit OS still needs work
Check out our full review to learn more about the Fitbit Sense.
Fitbit Versa 2: The Best Affordable Fitbit Smartwatch
The Fitbit Versa 2 may lack the sleeker design and improved sensor layout of its newer siblings, but it’s still a capable smartwatch. Its age hasn’t hurt its appeal, and if anything, it’s an even better deal now than it was when it started. You still get advanced sleep tracking, SpO2 monitoring, heart rate tracking and more with the Versa 2. It also includes a microphone for quick voice responses to messages and commanding Amazon Alexa when you tend to.
However, it has its drawbacks. The Versa 2 lacks an integrated GPS for runners. It also doesn’t have the nifty quick-release wristband features of the Sense.
Despite these shortcomings, the Versa 2 remains a powerful smartwatch for those who don’t need all the expensive bells and whistles. This is especially true when you consider that it can be bought for less than the Fitbit Ionic.
Fitbit Versa 2
The Fitbit Versa 2 combines Fitbit’s fitness knowledge with the brain of a smartwatch. The result is one of the best smartwatches you can buy today, whether you own an iPhone or an Android smartphone.
advantages
- Nice OLED display
- Accurate fitness and health tracking
- Sleep tracking / sleep score are useful
disadvantage
- Fitbit OS still needs a lot of work
- No integrated GPS
- Quick release straps are torture
Check out our full review to find out more about the Fitbit Versa 2.
Recognitions
That’s it for our list of the best Fitbit smartwatches to buy, but it’s only a fraction of what’s out there. We would also like to give an honorable mention to the following products:
- Fitbit Versa Lite: The cheapest Smartwatch from Fitbit foregoes some functions at a lower price. It’s a good way to get started with the Fitbit smartwatch ecosystem, but it’s pretty hard to find one on offer these days.
- Fitbit Charge 4: While the Charge 4 isn’t exactly a smartwatch, it may be Fitbit’s best device overall. The slim fitness tracker offers rudimentary smartwatch features, but is valued for its solid fitness tracking smarts and great value for money.
- Fitbit Inspire 2: Probably the best entry-level Fitbit product, the Inspire 2, is also being offered to new users in a one-year trial version of Fitbit Premium. This is the real reason you should grab one.
- Fitbit Ace 3: This is the only real choice in the Fitbit range for kids. It has several parental safety features, a sturdy housing, and fitness tracking for children.