CHAPTER, VERSA ON NEW MODEL

Fitbit smartwatch: no Apple, but not a lemon

Fitbit’s new Versa 2 smartwatch is a stellar fitness tracker that struggles to escape the Apple Watch’s shadow — despite its reasonable $200 price tag.

The company’s latest wearable, which started selling Sunday, has several great features that might make it a must-buy for fitness nuts, including a workout detection function that was super helpful when I forgot to tell the watch to begin tracking my workouts.

But for previous Apple Watch owners, the Fitbit Versa 2 will feel like a step down, thanks to its clunky controls and a barren selection of apps. And though it’s not fair to compare the $200 device to a $400 Apple Watch, we will do it anyway.

But let’s get the positives out of the way first. Where the Versa 2 shines is its battery life, which is so long it makes it feel more like a traditional watch and less like a piece of tech on your wrist. This, combined with the workout detection function, is what makes this a mustbuy for people who don’t want to miss out on tracking a single step or snooze, as the watch also doubles as a stellar sleep-monitoring device.

Fitbit brags that its new smartwatch can go five days between charges — a claim I easily verified via my own testing, with just under 10 percent battery to spare. This longevity puts it head and shoulders above the Apple Watch, which generally needs to be charged every night.

And the new Fitbit still excels at its bread-and-butter: activity tracking. The step and exercise trackers are accurate, and the always-on heart-rate tracker provides detailed feedback about your cardiovascular health.

The sleep tracking, meanwhile, monitors your heart rate while you snooze, and registers how long you spend in deep sleep as well as how restless you are. Plus, though I was initially concerned about discomfort sleeping with the watch, the Versa 2 was extremely comfortable and I quickly grew to like tracking my sleep patterns.

The problem is that it’s impossible to not think of the Apple Watch when you pull the Versa 2 out of the box — and that’s when the Fitbit falls short. Yes, both have similar squircle-shaped displays (though Fitbit’s is slightly wider), both have brushed aluminum backs and an array of colorful wristbands, and both could easily be mistaken for the other at a glance.

But the Versa 2’s gorgeous, colorful AMOLED display is surrounded by enormous, chunky bezels, which makes the display appear smaller than it is and takes away from what is otherwise a clean-looking watch face.

Speaking of watch faces, the Versa 2’s selection of faces is paltry, and doesn’t leave much room for customization. For a watch that could theoretically look like anything, it’s disappointing.

Setting up the Versa 2 with my iPhone XS was a quick, painless process that even a Luddite could breeze through. And the watch looks stylish and pairs well with most outfits.

But once the watch was set up, navigating it was tricky. It took me a full day to learn my way around the Versa 2, which features only one physical button that either wakes its new built-in Alexa voice assistant or brings you back a page.

Activating workouts, viewing notifications and adjusting settings felt clumsy on the tiny and sometimes sluggish display — though once I did learn the Fitbit’s quirks, things got notably easier.

Bottom line: People looking for a smartwatch that can report on texts and calls and track steps, too, should just pony up the extra money for an Apple Watch. Folks looking for a reliable fitness and sleep tracker that they don’t have to think about should consider the Versa 2.