Michael—September 7, 2025
I am not the kind of person that wanted a wristwatch, let alone a smart watch. I don't need that level of connectivity, and I have the unfortunate tendency to destroy nicer watches because of clumsiness and absent-mindedness. But, I do enjoy working out. I love having data when I want to see it. And, importantly, I work in a profession where I would benefit from having a wrist watch to check the time. It's with that mindset that I finally caved and purchased the Fitbit Charge a few years ago. I liked it, but it crashed a bunch of times and eventually refused to reboot. So, I started looking for alternatives. I found the Versa but resisted, as I really don't want or need most smart watch features. Then Black Friday sales came along and I took the plunge. I am glad I did. The watch is durable, easy to use, fits well, and does all of the things I want it to do. I mostly use it to track steps, heartrate, workouts, check the weather, and set timers at work. It does not have a catchy or flashy look, which I am more than fine with. My biggest concerns are whether or not the screen can take a hit (it does) and if I'll fry the darn thing when I inevitably forget I'm wearing it while showering or swimming (it's waterproof). I don't use a lot of the features on this thing. I tried syncing with my Google Wallet, but I find it way easier to just use my phone or wallet -- two things I am very reluctant to travel without. My phone is on silent most days, so I guess it's nice to get alerts when I've missed a call, but I really don't pay much attention to it. I've never bothered with the advanced features for health monitoring, though I guess for a person experiencing health difficulties or someone wildly focused on wellness would find the features useful. The Fitbit app is a nice bonus, and the premium features include some solid workouts and tools for holding yourself accountable to fitness goals. I've dabbled with these when really focused on personal goals, and seen the usual mixed results of someone who will only somewhat commit themselves to diet and workout goals. Still, nice to have. In a world where most smart watches are double the price for a slew of features I don't want or need, this is an excellent product. Read more
Jason—December 23, 2023
When I first got this, it would not maintain sync. I updated the firmware on the watch, tried doing a factory reset twice, uninstalled/reinstalled the fitbit app twice, ensured that the app wasn't allowed to go to sleep when in the background... nothing worked. It would work for a few minutes, then when I tried to command Alexa, it would say connection lost. I decided to contact support, and they informed me that my app was outdated. Come to find out, version 4.04 of the bitbit app is too old, and will not work. The latest version, 4.06.7 had not been released for my phone yet, as is typical ridiculous play store behavior. Google... are you listening? When a developer releases an update, you shall IMMEDIATELY make it available to EVERY device! I manually downloaded the apk and installed it, and everything has been working great since. Alexa follows my direct orders immediately, phone calls come through, texts come through, and I can sync with ease. Overall, I suppose this is an improvement over the Versa 2. Screen is a little bigger, but the notification vibrations don't seem to be as forceful, even when set to strong. This uses google wallet instead of google pay as the Versa 2 did, so my AmEx will not work for contactless payment. Phone call feature is nice, seems to work OK. I can hear them, they can hear me. You can only answer calls, you can't make them. The $50 brand x watch I ordered to replace this one before I got the sync figured out was able to do that. It could also control my camera and music player, neither of which is possible on the Versa 4. Google maps is nice if you walk in unfamiliar areas. I'll probably never need it, but it's nice. Battery life seems to be improved over the Versa 2, but mine was 2 years old so I'm sure the battery had gradually decreased it's charge capacity. I used it for several days, and he battery was still at 55%. Skin temperature sensor will one day be nice when it can sync with a smart thermostat and automatically adjust the temperature as needed. But for now, it's just a novelty and has no purpose. Yes, I know my skin is hot. I woke up in a puddle of sweat. Yup, I'm freezing, so my skin is cold. o2 saturation is nice if you have any relevant health problems. If you want to take full advantage of the watch, get the free "Overview" clock face by Chris Blyth. It gives you current and average heart rate, battery percentage, fully customizable date format, allows for a larger clock that shows seconds, and you can have weather, and 6 other health stats displayed on the main screen, all at once. I have steps, distance, calories burned, active zone minutes, floors, and BMI/BMR. It all fits, and is easy to read. Vast improvement over the default face, which shows no useful information. I had th is face on my versa 2, and loved it. So glad it's available for the 4. Bottom line, it's a good watch. There are cheaper brand x ones out there, but none of them have NFC payment, and not all of them have Alexa. And, you get what you pay for. fit & finish feels cheap, the screens get washed out in the sun, finicky alexa integration and so on. Best to pony up and get a refined product. Be sure to update your fitbit app. Their customer support said the latest version should be released within a week, but I circumvented the beurocracy and downloaded it manually. Why wait? Read more
Ameerah—November 22, 2025
The media could not be loaded. Before I talk about the functional part of this watch, I wanted to mention the silicone band. I previously owned the sense 2 and ended up giving it away because the band caused my skin to peel and blister. My only two conclusions were either, A: I am allergic to this material. Or B: a combination of normal skin moisture and this material caused some kind of issue. The band isnt breathable so this is a possibility, however I am not someone who perspires a lot. After some time I really started to miss that watch, and now that I am mostly healed post partum I would like to get started taking better care of my health to get back into shape to care for my heart which I discovered has issues during my pregnancy. Yay high blood pressure and high cholesterol (not.) anyway, I want to be there for my kids lives, so Im making the step to be better. These smartwatches are a great reminder of get up and move, and more accurately keep track of how often youre doing that. It does a decent job of tracking your sleep, who knew sleep can have such a serious affect on your health and mood?! The whole interface is very streamlined, it is very similar to the sense 2. The app is also easy to use and the whole thing is simple to set up. The touchscreen is responsive and the processing is quick. I have a fairly small wrist so it may look a little bulky on me but I like the screen size. Overall Im really happy with this watch and Im glad I bought one again, this time I just switched out the band. It holds a decent charge. Now the downsides; the audio quality for phone calls is VERY poor. My husband can't really hear me even if I put the watch right next to my mouth. Its pretty disappointing. So that and the watchband issue knock a star off for me. This watch isnt perfect but it is a really good option. Read more
