Happy to help you out Francine.
After going without for a while, I purchased my Fitbit Versa a few months ago and like it very much. I bought it through Amazon with an extended warranty, should my non-replaceable battery prematurely crash again. It lasts about a week on a single charge. I use it in conjunction with Fitbit's application on my $65 Lenovo E7 Android tablet as I don't need or want anything fancier than that.
There are several watch faces available for free or next to nothing. I use the one that came with the watch. It shows steps, heart rate, calories burned, time, and date.
With a few presses on the button it also shows distance walked (km or miles), stairs climbed, and number of active minutes based on elevated heart rate and duration.
The Fitbit also monitors sleep duration, including a breakdown of awake time, REM, light sleep, and deep sleep. It monitors steps walked for any given number of hours programed by the user. I have mine set up for 250 steps per hour over 10 hours per day. It vibrates at 10 minutes before the hour, every hour, if you're short on steps. (It's easy to do 250 steps in a couple of minutes of running in place.) This is an extremely useful feature during the long winters when I've been sitting at the computer too long. You can also set a steps target for each day. When you meet your target, the watch vibrates and fireworks appear on the face. Cute.
Through the heart rate feature, the Fitbit keeps track of "fat burn," "cardio," and "peak" durations per day, and gives an age-appropriate cardio fitness score. (Says mine is excellent.) Also keeps track of days per week when activity targets are met.
The Fitbit also has dedicated features for about 12 different activities including walking, running, treadmill, swimming, golfing etc., as well as a bunch of features that are used in conjunction with a smartphone including GPS.
I don't use a smartphone (still using a hand crank model -- kidding), but my understanding is that duration between charging significantly decreases with a smartphone, especially when interacting with the phone's GPS feature.
There is a slight learning curve, and Fitbit's documentation perhaps could be better, but you quickly learn what you need and disregard the rest. The Fitbit is very easy to navigate through the features and data, and more information is provided through Fitbit's Android application.
I am very satisfied with the accuracy of the data, especially heart rate and sleep data. The sleep data is fascinating after being "processed" in the Android application, which is included at no extra charge. Additional info is provided with a paid upgrade.
Counted steps have some idiosyncrasies. If you're doing a treadmill with the device hand on the rail, or you're walking through the store with your device hand on the shopping cart handle, your steps will be under-counted. If you're chopping onions or do a lot of hand work using repetitive motion, your steps will be over-counted. I just found out that rocking in a rocking chair with your hand in a certain position also counts as steps . . . a couch potato's dream! However, typing on a computer does NOT add steps. In fact, as I type this, my "you need to get moving" alarm just told me that I'm short on steps for this hour.
I understand the subtilties, and if I feel that my step goals are too easily obtainable, I simply increase my goals. I'm finding that as we get into the warm summer months, increasing the target is warranted.
Good luck.
Bill in Wisconsin
