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It's Not Just A Smart Watch, It’s A Lifestyle Watch

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After testing out the Fitbit Inspire 2 fitness tracker, I gave my wrist a fancy upgrade with the Fitbit Versa 3, one of the San Francisco-based company’s two brand new series of smart watches.

NEW FEATURES

If you're hesitant about an upgrade from the Versa 2 to the Versa 3, there are a number of feature upgrades in the health and smartwatch arena which would make it worthwhile.

The Versa 3 now has built-in GPS, so you don't have to lug your smartphone along with you during workouts and is equipped with a PurePulse 2.0 heart rate sensor.

Fitbit says its upgraded heartrate monitoring has improved accuracy and uses machine learning algorithms which can map multiple heart rate signals and build them into a better picture of your heart rate and overall health.

This might not be a clincher for those looking for a basic smartwatch, but improved heartrate tracking is an important feature for fitness and health fanatics.

As with the Inspire 2 and Sense, Fitbit has placed a greater importance on Active Zone Minutes, which is a better determinat­or of quality physical activity than counting steps.

More feature upgrades in the Versa 3 also include a built-in speaker, fast charging mode, BlueTooth connection for answering calls and a promise that it will soon support Google Assistant coming mid December.

It also has a number of features also available on the Versa 2, including NFC for Fitbit Pay and 20+ exercise options.

PERFORMANC­E

If you live and breathe health tracking, a smartwatch needs an impressive battery life to ensure you're not spending half the time charging it on the dock.

The Versa 3 has 6+ days battery life but if you use the ‘always on' display like me, battery life is almost cut in half. Luckily, it has super-fast charging and 12 minutes on charge gives you 1 day of battery life.

As a runner, I was keenly interested in the Versa 3 built-in GPS and how it fared tracking long runs. I found the ‘run' exercise option was a little scatty when it comes to monitoring pace but the constant heart rate monitoring mid-run is a great way to keep motivated to stay in the zone.

While the data presented at the end of the workout isn't insanely inaccurate, there was often problems with measuring splits and distance too. The Versa 3 is a great way to get a general idea of how your run went but brands such as Garmin and Apple or running app Strava might be a little more advanced in this arena.

I tried to use the Spotify app on my Fitbit mid-run but annoyingly you can only access another app if you stop the exercise tracking altogether.

Personally, a great feature upgrade from my Inspire 2 was the integratio­n of auto-pause. This helped present a more accurate picture of a run or swim.

I found having 20+ options for exercise was useful. I tracked Pilates and hike which was great for monitoring whether I was burning calories or if my exercises counted as active zone minutes. A gentle way of encouragin­g me to work harder!

The Versa 3 is also water resistant and can withstand 50 metres depth, which is the same rating as the Versa 2.

No device is perfect, and so many new features and upgrades squeezed into a tiny watch face does not come without lag problems.

Some apps can be a little slow to load and there was (while minimal) some lagging while scrolling through the menus.

Installing new watch faces from the Fitbit app can also be a little slow, particular­ly when selecting new designs and wallpapers not supported by the company.

One of Fitbit's most prized features is sleep tracking, which of course the Versa 3 delivers on. The advanced sleep analysis is also accompanie­d by new health metrics such as SpO2 sensor, breathing rate, heart rate variabilit­y and nightly temperatur­e trends.

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