The only product in Fitbit’s current lineup that has onboard GPS is the Fitbit Ionic (prior to that there was the Fitbit Surge). – Like the Versa there’s no built-in GPS, it still leverages your phone. Whereas the lower end Fitbit Inspire/Inspire HR doesn’t get the SPO2 readings. This means you’ll get the same performance as you saw with the Fitbit Versa (it was OK), but more importantly you’ll get their SPO2 readings. – The optical HR sensor remains exactly the same as before. Though frankly, despite having some 500+ apps in the Fitbit store, many of them are kinda shruggable. With that gone, I suspect we might see a few bumps in the road on apps.
With the Versa being a slimmed down Ionic, it retained the three physical button layout (plus the touch screen). Remember that up until now, the FitbitOS (loosely built atop the Pebble OS learnings), only supported the Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Ionic. – The removal of the buttons may impact some apps that might have assumed the buttons would be there. In talking with Fitbit, there’s a few other minor technical things that are notable: In fact, Fitbit has a fancy little slide deck that shows this outlined with plenty of dots to keep everyone clear on all the nuances. To recap, all of the following features are still there. – Two buttons removed (because one-button is the cool kids club) – Fitbit Pay not available (it was only on the even more expensive Fitbit Versa Special Edition) – WiFi removed (given it was used primarily for music transfer) – Music storage/streaming capabilities removed (but it can still control music on your phone)
– Swim Lap Counting removed (it’s still waterproof though) – Stairs/Floor Tracking removed (the barometric altimeter was removed)
Still, there are a handful of features that were removed from the full Versa to cut the price down on the Versa Lite. It also retains core features like activity tracking, the optical heart rate sensor, female health tracking, sleep tracking, smartphone notifications, and even Fitbit’s ‘connected GPS’ capabilities. The Versa Lite (above in blue) retains the vast majority of the features of the full Versa (above in black), including the touch screen and the ability to install/download 3rd party apps on it. Once I’ve had time to figure out the full good/bad/ugly after some weeks or so. For a full in-depth review, check back…in a while. This is just a dive into all the details of things. Oh – and before we go too far, note that this is not a review.