Be honest: should I buy the Versa?

[Natbelle]

Im honking of upgrading from a Charge 2, but in reviewing all of the threads here I have serious reservations. It sounds like there are multiple serious faults that are not yet worked out.

Are new Versa owners seeing things improve? 

[SunsetRunner]

I returned the ionic.  But the Versa was much easier for me to set up etc.  So light weight.  The Apple Watch3 is okay, but I really like the Versa for fitness purposes.  Now wearing both, but when I have my phone with me I don't need to wear two watches.  Love fitbit platform and sleep guidance!

[vivo90024]

Oh, well. I have it over past  9 days   from new versa.

I wear over 4 days after bugs was fixed . 

Good thing about versa: I love  versa's shape , color; functions : steps, few  clock faces,   floors counter, heart  beats; swimming labs.....

In charge2, it lost track of steps that if  you do not walk over 15 min.  So Charge 2 lost missed  my  steps at least 3000-8000 steps/day.  And Versa counts every steps,  this is great about Versa.

I just found a new problem for Versa in past few days: It does not count my nap time event over 90 min..    But Fitbit  Flex 2 and Charge 2  both counted 13- 15 min of nap time.   A Fitbit Support team said that  Fitbit trackers do not record over 3 hours of sleep.  This is not  a truth  statement for Fitbit Charge 2 and Flex 2.

Hope those help you make your decision.

[redavis41]

I have owned many Fitbit products in the past and recently switched over to the Apple Watch Series 3.  However, I have found HR monitoring to be suspect with the Apple watch and the sheer bulkiness of the watch cumbersome for my fitness classes I teach.  I went and purchased the Fitbit Versa thinking it struck just the right balance.  I've had the Charge, Charge HR, and Charge 2 previously along with the Blaze, but this experience with the Versa has been the worst experience I've had with Fitbit.  After 4 days of syncing to an iPhone X it no longer keeps a bluetooth connection, it doesn't remember my wifi connection to sync, even if I stand right next to the router.  I will go to resync it and the watch will show up, but no bluetooth notifications and hit or miss syncing to the app.  But what the most frustrating thing about the experience is that the optical HR sensor on this watch is the most accurate I've ever had when conducting strength training exercises.  I have completed four strength training exercises and they were the closest to a Chest Heart Rate strap.  The Apple Watch paled in comparison.  But due to the sheer bugginess of the watch I need to return it and stick with the Apple Watch for now.  Too bad Fitbit, I almost kept it and added an Ionic for my runs too!  

[SunsetRunner]

Maybe you should just sync with blue tooth and turn off wifi on your phone?  I gave up my wifi and just have AT&T unlimited data and sync’s just fine.  I'm very happy with versa and glad to know heart rate is accurate.  Goodluck

[SunsetRunner]

I think what they meant is that you have to sleep 3 hrs in a row to get breakdown of rem, deep sleep etc.

Last night I slept from 12:11 a.m to 4.53 a.m. 3 hrs 50 minutes and gave me breakdown.  Then I slept from 6:55 am to 8:44am and it recorded sleep but no breakdown of rem etc.  It also did take my naps in the afternoon.  I alway worry as to whether it will work or not when I take naps, but most times did, but you right I think at least one time didn't I'll keep checking.  Your right it didn't keep track of nap i took yesterday for about 45 minutes.  Sometimes I'll go into the Begin Sleep now and then take nap.  I will watch to see in the future how it works.  Charge 2 sometimes didn't take naps all the time.

[ali_baba7]

I took the plunge and purchased the Versa tonight. I purchased it at Target since they have a 30 day return window. (Best Buy only had 15, and I called my local REI they said their 1 year return window doesn't apply to electronics.) The Versa firmware is version .15 and my phone is a Galaxy S8 running Android 8.0. The setup took 45 minutes. The heart rate and steps seem to be on par with my Charge 2 HR, but we'll see how that unfolds in the next few days. So far the notifications work quite well. I had a few initial issues, but those were resolved by tweaking the app permissions. I'm hopeful, but we'll see what happens. *crosses fingers*

[littleemery]

I know I'm super late coming to this party, but I hope those of you who purchased the versa ended up happy with your purchases. I purchased one during black friday and have to say it only worked smoothly for about a week. I've been frustrated with it and struggling with it for about a month and a half now and I'm thinking of returning it. 

[Bob136]

I am really happy with mine. My first one had battery issues and they
replaced it. Since getting the replacement unit I am quite pleased with the
reporting and battery life.

[Dubon]

It’s a good device.but you need to be aware that while tracking your workouts, the pause button activates when bending your wrist upwards. This is a big issue when bench pressing or riding a bike specially while wearing  gloves . It is an easy fix for them and there is another thread about this on this site. Once they fix it I will be a happy customer. 

[SunsetRunner]

What problems are you having with it.  I've been very happy with it so far.  The only thing I have issue with is when I start through the exercise pictures I forget to stop it when I'm done with my yoga class.

I love that it records my sleep and the battery lasts a long time!!!!.

[Natbelle]

UPDATE: I ended up buying an Apple Watch 3 (on sale for $200!) due to all of the sketchy FitBit reviews. I couldn't be happier and haven't had any problems with it! 

[Dubon]

This is my problem! My hand presses on the pause button when lifting and pauses my workout or lowers my music volume. It is really becoming the worst part of my workout. I came from polar and I might go back if this is not resolved.

[SunsetRunner]

Did this just start happening with the new update?  I've been lazy at times and not used GPS.  Am I correct that one of the purposes of using the workout pictures is to connect GPS.  I sometimes think that I'm connected when I choose a workout, but don't always know.  The knew update seems to look different when connecting.  Any thoughts?  The pause issues is interesting.  Hadn't walked for awhile, and when bike riding haven't connected to GPS.  I'll have to check and see if issues with new update. Thanks for info

[SunsetRunner]

Doesn't make sense.  I use my iPhone when walking for music.  The picture you showed showed the music buttons.  I don't see the pause on the workout issue you talked about.  

[SunsetRunner]

You could have bought my apple watch 3 cellular.  I never use mine.  Battery life is a joke.  Sorry to hear you returned fitbit.  I stopped my AT&T cellular contract as I was paying $16 (including tax) per month.  I usually have my phone with me and since I like my fitbit battery etc.  I"d love to sell the watch.  I only liked it if I didn't want to carry my phone.  Didn't use this feature enough to make it worth while.  

[SunsetRunner]

I love the fitbit app (has everything together).  Apple watch just shows the dumb circles.  No nice detail of all your workouts and sleep information.  So sorry you didn't keep the Versa!

[Kath100]

[hachaduryan]

Still not worth it. Too many connection issues, too many things that are supposed to work, but don't really (music control, logging water via watch, notifications, alarms etc)

The Versa is a big disappointment not because of the piece of tech itself, but because of the company that maintains it. 

It is ridiculous how basic things need to be called out, then there is this forever long voting process and maybe a year or two later a disappointing version of that feature may be implemented (or not).

[vivo90024]

Oh well, I love designed of Versa. Just recently, my versa does not record
my activities anymore. I had two hours with support on this weekend.
Except re-set versa, nothing helps. The technical support is terrible to
comparing in the past. The quality of device is not good.. But,
overview, Fitbit is the best tracking device on the market.

--
VW

[michellemich]

Honestly if you want something to last for years...Versa might not be it.

I bought mine a little over a year ago, and really loved it for its price and look, but it immediately had some bugs. It would count hundreds or sometimes up to a 1000 steps while I was driving. I got over it by just adding extra steps to my days I drive a lot, but still an annoying bug to have with no clear solution. Sometimes HR would be inaccurate. I'd be going for a normal walk and my HR would be in the 90s-100s, but in actuality my HR was much lower than that.

Then a few weeks ago I noticed a drastic decrease in battery life from 4ish days to less than 2 days. Sometimes just 1 day. Then a few days ago my watch would suddenly turn off around 40-50% charge. Even after restarting and doing a factory reset, nothing helped.

Customer service is fast, but unhelpful. They offer you a 25% discount on another device but only after you "prove" your battery is defective by charging it to 100%, turning off all smartwatch features (what's the point of a smartwatch then?) including notifications, quick view, reminders to move, and then draining it to 0%. In the 10-20 minutes I talked to customer service, by watch already lost 6-7% battery life. Is that not proof enough..?

Anyway I was pretty happy with it in the beginning, but overall there are major flaws and I don't think the watch will last for more than a year (if you're lucky). Probably going to shop around for a different brand now. Hope this helps.