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Fitbit Versa
R2 989 at takealot.com
I guess you could describe my relationship with fitness as “tricky”. When I got the opportunity to try the Fitbit Versa watch for a month, I thought, why not?
I’ve been judging the counting steps crowd for years now, so let me give you a view from a (judgemental) outsider’s perspective. I appreciate all the amazing value that technology adds to our lives, I really do. But I also find it intrusive.
The constant need to be updated and be a call or text away and then expected to respond immediately is a tad too much sometimes. For that reason, I’ve never cared for smartwatches.
In the Fitbit Versa, I’ve found two things I don’t care much for – intrusive tech and fitness. But, despite my original misgivings, I found using the Versa to be fun, and not for the reasons you might expect.
The Versa is able to display your notifications, track your workouts and last for four days between charges.
It also isn’t bogged down with tons of unnecessary apps.
That said, it took me a while to see the Versa as more than just a device that was going to guilt trip me about the number of calories I was burning (or not burning) in a day.
For example, one night I removed the watch because text message notifications would wake me up if I forgot to activate the sleep tracking option. The watch was chilling on the dresser, but the following morning when I checked it, it said I had taken almost 500 steps.
Now, unless there’s some fitness freak spirit roaming around in my room in the middle of the night, there’s no way I took those or the more than 1 000 steps that followed walking from my front door to the car, then from my car to my desk.
Other than the lies about how many steps I actually took, I enjoyed everything about the watch.
One of the things I most enjoyed is that it has a built-in virtual coach, which can guide you through exercise routines like the seven-minute workout. It’s much like watching tutorials for the same routines on YouTube or Instagram, but the watch is able to track and document your progress.
Overall, my verdict is that the Fitbit Versa is great competition for the Apple smartwatch.
