Like Kleenex or Xerox, Fitbit is becoming a proprietary technology eponym. Although they might have started as relatively simple activity trackers, the wearable devices have evolved significantly over the past decade or so — and with them, the entire fitness tracker and smartwatch industry. There is still plenty of simple fitness watches intended to be worn all day long and mostly overlooked when you decide to test your stats and behaviour. But you can also get much more adequately equipped smartwatches or GPS-enabled fitness bands that can lead and control you through a variety of sports and exercises.
However, that does mean selecting one to purchase on your smartwatch is more complicated than ever before. Whether you’re just searching for a daily activity tracker or something even more sophisticated for fitness trackers, we’ve selected some of the best latest Fitbits here to support you to pick the best one.
Important Things before purchasing a perfect Fitbit fitness tracker
While the demand for fitness trackers and smartwatch has expanded, so have the features of the Fitbits range. How much you need to pick the best one you are buying will strongly correlate with how much you can pay. Something like the Inspire HR below provides you with a touchscreen, Bluetooth, GPS connectivity, heart rate and activity monitoring, options for watch styles and not a bit more. On the other hand, the Ionic has all of that but does not need any connectivity like GPS, has a much bigger display, offers onboard training, and can store songs directly — further minimizing a smartphone need.
How We Pick These Fitbit Fitness Trackers for you
We depend on our previous experience with smartwatches and fitness trackers to select those fitness trackers. We also have analyzed the demand and market and took consumer reviews into account and expert reviews from respected sources such as PC Magazine, Wired and Ars Technica.
Fitbit Ionic – Best overall
The star in the Fitbit lineup of fitness trackers and smartwatch packs a strong impact. It takes all the Versa Lite (below) has and adds some notable features, including onboard GPS. That means you can see the pace, the distance travelled and sped everything on your wrist, even if your phone is at home.
That might not be a big deal to some. But if you would instead fly, walk, or run without a bouncing phone around, it is a difference-maker.
The Ionic also has a Gorilla Glass 3 glass that is robust but packs it up in a sleeker, more compact shell. You can also get the Ionic Adidas version, which will send you straight from the Adidas brains to train regiments and coach. Nonetheless, if you are searching for the latest and best tech, be warned; neither the Versa nor the Ionic will make a phone call.
- Small. Fits wrists 5.5″-7.1″ circumference.
- Large. Fits wrists 7.1″-8.7″ circumference.
- Width 1.34″ diagonal. Screen size 0.9478″ x 0.9478″
Charge 4 – Built-in GPS
The long-awaited Fitbit update to the Charge 3 has built-in GPS, a noteworthy improvement for a $150 tracker. Using GPS drains the power in four hours, so it is not ideal for ultra-runners or dedicated cyclists as a primary fitness tracker, but it should be enough for most informal athletes. (While Fitbit reports a maximum battery power of one week, the average battery life is three days). You can load all kinds of activity onto the device, though it only holds six at a time.
You can find Some new features, including Spotify control (You can use the smartwatch as Spotify-streaming remote), payments with Fitbit Pay, Sleep Score (to monitor your sleep quality) and Sleep durations (to prevent the smartwatch from distracting you at night times). The tiny touchscreen is excellently sensitive to wet and dry handed inputs but often feels uncomfortably small.
The screen will not get bright enough in the direct sunlight, either leaving you to stare or find a dark spot until you can use the tracker. But besides the amazing battery life, the Charge 4 stands apart as a reliable, inexpensive, GPS-enabled fitness tracker when using GPS and an often flat screen.
- Water resistance: 50 meters.
- GPS: Yes.
- Heart rate sensor: Yes.
- Display: 1 inch, 160 x 100-pixel touchscreen.
- Contactless payment: Fitbit Pay.
- Battery life: 7 days/5 hours of continuous GPS.
Versa Lite – BEST VALUE
Original Versa by Fitbit is still a great choice if you’re looking for a full-featured and inexpensive option for the Apple Watch. But the latest Fitbit Versa Lite will save you even more money if you are not interested in using all those tricks.
You still have plenty of fitness features, including sleep tracking and heart rate, but miss out on some more sophisticated features such as on-screen training exercises, elevation logging and swim laps. The watch’s capabilities, along with its lower price, make it a Wired favourite that earned the Versa Lite 2nd place in its fitness tracker analysis.
Charge 3 – Best Design
The counterpart to the above Charge 4, the Charge 3 records statistics including climbed floors and up to fifteen different activities (including swimming) and relies entirely on the GPS of your smartphone to show your distance and speed.
Charge 3 also has a range of training features — along with some daytime relaxation controlled breathing exercises — and female health tracking to monitor signs and forecast ovulation and pregnancy periods. Then there are smartwatch apps like Fitbit Pay for quick wrist purchases, then alerts that include real details, such as how far away your Uber is.
- 1.57-inch grayscale touchscreen OLED.
- Materials: Glass and aluminium body with a durable material band and an aluminium buckle.
- Wireless: Bluetooth 4.0, NFC (special edition only)
- Water resistance: Up to 50 meters and sweat, rain, and splash-proof.
Inspire HR – The best Everyday fitness tracker
Enfranchise and motivate HR models from Fitbit (the “HR”, which means that version will monitor your pulse rate). Sit right in the middle of the company’s product family, perfect choices for anyone who wants to move up from the most basic trackers while keeping it smooth and straightforward. The Inspire replaces the previous Alta and Alta HR versions from Fitbit and offers a broader monitor and more powerful touchscreen (you should tap the Alta interface; this one works with swiping too). There are also new features such as several watch faces, which Runner’s World and Ars Technica accepted. Those come to the battery life at some cost, though.
The Inspire does not have built-in GPS like other simple trackers but can connect
with your phone through Bluetooth to track your running tracks and monitor your speed. And you have the option to replace the multiple bands to match your taste.
- Swimproof design with swim tracking.
- Track steps, distance, active minutes, calories burned.
- Sleep tracking.
- Notifications.
- Automatic exercise recognition.
- 24/7 heart rate tracking (Inspire HR only)
- Sleep Stages (Inspire HR only)
- Guided Breathing (Inspire HR only)
Flex 2 – Most Discreet
When you do not want another flashing screen in your life, this is the perfect tracker. It has no watch face but preferably five LEDs that indicate your progress during the day. Open the app to see the exact numbers for steps; distance travelled, active hours, stationary time, and active calories if you want more accurate details.
For those who already wear a wristwatch but want to add fitness tracking, the Flex 2 is available. The bracelet is the slimmest make of Fitbit so that you can cut the center of the fitness tracker, so place it in a range of designs and colors in other cases such as bangles and pendants.
The smartwatch is waterproof and can track swimming, and understands other things such as cycling and running. Finally, a range of non-fitness tools is available, such as sleep tracking and vibrating text and call warnings.
- Design: (3.5 / 5) Battery: (4.5 / 5) Fitness tracking: (3.0 / 5) Features: (2.5 / 5) Price: (4.0 / 5) Average: (3.5 / 5)
- Rectangular/curved
- 31.7 x 8.9 x 6.8 mm
- 22.7 grams
Ace – Best smartwatch for Kids
Take your children’s gym fun and allow them to take them at least one hour of activities suggested by the CDC (and Michelle Obama). Notifications all day long advise children to get up and drive and not go to play Fortnite and PUBG for hours.
Longer Battery Life ensures that your child can use it for a long time, which also helps sleep tracking, a crucial part of development, to build healthy sleep habits. But that is fun, too; when celebration messages come up, Ace awards significant achievements to its daily target and can connect with other Aces to contend for virtual awards and send motivation messages.
- Small. Fits wrists 5.5″-7.1″ circumference.
- Large. Fits wrists 7.1″-8.7″ circumference.
- Width 1.34″ diagonal. Screen size 0.9478″ x 0.9478″
