I’m not the most tech-savvy person, but I was up and running-literally-within minutes of opening the box. In this Fitbit Versa 4 review you can see the highlights and lowlights of my experience based on SELF’s fitness tracker and smartwatch buying guide. A Google designer spoke to SELF and said it’s designed for avid exercisers wanting to track activity 24/7-that described me to a T. The Versa 4 is an entry-level smartwatch ($230) with plenty of features including a few upgrades from the Versa 3.

Though I did research on all three new devices-Sense 2, Inspire 3, and Versa 4-I was most keen to try Versa 4. In fact, this September, Google launched three new Fitbit wearables to its already diverse line of trackers and smartwatches. Fitness trackers have come a long way since then. My first tracker was the Go Active Stepometer that came with a Mcdonald’s Happy Meal in the early 2000s. Naturally, when fitness trackers first came out, I was an early adopter. They thought I was a little too obsessed with crunching numbers (or maybe they were just mad I was always on the home computer). I kept food logs, sleep logs, and spending logs-much to my parent’s chagrin. However, weather data still refused to sync for me (it worked fine for our photographer, oddly), and the Fitbit app crashed a few times suggesting that there are some bugs to iron out.I’ve been data-driven ever since I was in the fifth grade and my older brother showed me Microsoft Excel.

(I had no other Fitbits, trackers or watches connected to the phone.)Īfter that, it seemed to settle down and work ok, syncing data with the Fitbit app automatically and allowing me to use Alexa. For the first few days, it wouldn’t stay connected for any period of time, requiring me to disable and re-enable Bluetooth on the phone sometimes and, at other times, hold the Versa 4’s button for 10 seconds to reboot it at others. My major gripe was that the Bluetooth connection to my iPhone 12 was unreliable. Given the Versa doesn’t have the body response sensor, and Fitbit’s website says only the Sense 2 has a ‘skin temperature sensor’, it’s unclear exactly how the Versa 4 can report on skin temperature. Similarly, for the rest of the stats, including SpO2 and skin temperature, I had to take the Versa’s word for it. GPS and heart rate tracking was also good, although for heart rate, I didn’t have a medial-grade device to compare it against.

New fitbit versa 4