When comparing Fitbit Charge 2 vs Fitbit Versa, the Slant community recommends Fitbit Charge 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best fitness trackers that pair with iPhones?” Fitbit Charge 2 is ranked 1st while Fitbit Versa is ranked 19th. The most important reason people chose Fitbit Charge 2 is:
It gives you a lot of stats on your activities thanks to the GPS, altimeter, and heart rate monitor. It can track your sleep, show you alerts directly on the display, and offers a variety of helpful features such as reminders to move and a breathing function that helps you relax.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Gives you a lot of features for the price
It gives you a lot of stats on your activities thanks to the GPS, altimeter, and heart rate monitor. It can track your sleep, show you alerts directly on the display, and offers a variety of helpful features such as reminders to move and a breathing function that helps you relax.
Pro Reminds you to move throughout the day
The fitness tracker will give you hourly reminders to get up and move for a few minutes, so you're not spending your whole day hunched over a desk.
Pro Great choice of replacement bands
Including regular vinyl bands, leather, metal, luxury, etc.
Pro The large display is easy to read
The Charge 2 has a very clear black and white display that's easy to read in both light and dark settings. It gives you a lot of activity stats directly on the display, which keeps you from needing to frequently check the smartphone app.
Pro Only needs to be charged every 4-5 days
Compared to other fitness trackers with large display screens, and Charge 2 has an impressive battery life. It can go 4-5 days without needing to be recharged, so there is minimal interruption to your tracking.
Pro Great ecosystem
Lots of users, nice apps (Win10 UWP app as well), etc.
Pro Provides a great blend of design, quality and comfort
Since the Fitbit Versa is light, flat and waterproof, it’s comfortable to wear all the time – while sleeping, showering, working out or in your everyday life. The LCD screen is made of guerilla glass, which ensures scratch protection and durability for active use. The Fitbit Versa has a clear and bright display, making it easily visible both underwater and in direct sunlight.
Even though the watch’s UI is already designed to give users easy access to everything, the three buttons on the watch can be customizable for shortcuts and commands.
The visual design might not suit everyone, and it might seem cheap and childish to some, but customizability and comfort outweigh this con. The app store offers many watch faces, so you can find whichever suits you best.
Pro Tracks a comprehensive amount of health and fitness data
Fitbit Versa offers all-day heart rate tracking, reminders to move, guided breathing sessions, 15+ exercise modes, sleep tracking, female health tracking and subscription-based on-screen workout sessions, all of which is traced and displayed on the Fitbit app. Although the watch does not have built-in GPS tracking, it can easily be connected to your smartphone in a 30 ft range for accurate tracking of speed and distance.
Pro Long-lasting battery life
The battery life of the Fitbit Versa varies between 3 and 6 days depending on use and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings. This also means that you usually don’t have to worry about charging your watch at night and you can properly use the “Sleep tracking & stages” feature. Regarding the charging itself, it takes only two hours to get from 0% to a fully charged battery.
Cons
Con Weak vibration causes alerts to easily go missed
The Charge 2 has a very weak vibration that is easy to miss, especially when you're active. As a result, it's easy to miss silent alarms or reminders to get up and move.
Con No smart alarm
Although the feature has been requested by the community since 2014.
Con No actionable notifications / call and text only
You can only see call and text notifications, no Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. And you can only see them, you cannot reply, delete, dismiss, etc.
Con App is not intuitive and terrible on Android
It is clunky and annoying, but works part time. There's a report on another Android that it just doesn't work. No alerts for 250 steps per hour. Not accurate. Clunky non intuitive functionality.
Con No water resistance
It is not water proof or even water-resistant. The watch will still function if you get a little splash of water on it, but you definitely can’t take it if you go swimming,
Con Lower quality screen that scratches easily
Rather than gorilla glass which is commonly used in the more expensive trackers, the Charge 2 fitness tracker uses a thick plastic display screen. It makes the device appear lower quality and scratches very easily.
Con Lavender band turns blue after a short period of wear
The specific color of band can start to turn blue after only the first day of wear. It very quickly looks stained and dirty.
Con Setting up music is a hassle
The watch offers 300+ song internal storage, but transferring songs takes a long while and it's different for everyone. On this forum post a user has said that it took 7 hours to upload ~5.5 hours of music on their Fitbit, but another has reported that it took 9 hours to sync 9 hours of audio. There are many posts on the official Fitbit community forum referring to this problem.
In terms of streaming, the app store only offers Pandora and Deezer as of now.
Con Relatively small app library
Since Fitbit is a relatively new arrival in the smartwatch scene and has a smaller community, its app store offers only a fraction of what other competitors can provide in the third-party app and integration field.
The app store itself is not perfect – some apps and watch faces offer trial versions and need payment for full-time use, which is not always disclosed at first.