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Add to SafariWhen comparing Fitbit Alta vs Fitbit Versa, the Slant community recommends Fitbit Alta for most people. In the question“What are the best fitness trackers that pair with iPhones?” Fitbit Alta is ranked 5th while Fitbit Versa is ranked 19th. The most important reason people chose Fitbit Alta is:
For its size, the Alta fitness tracker has a large display. The display will show steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes, and sleep time. You can switch between these by tapping the side of the display (there is no button). The screen is easy to read at a glance while on the move except in bright settings.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Informative and clear display that's easy to read
For its size, the Alta fitness tracker has a large display. The display will show steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes, and sleep time. You can switch between these by tapping the side of the display (there is no button). The screen is easy to read at a glance while on the move except in bright settings.
Pro Many different wrist band options available to suit your taste
The Alta itself comes in 4 colors: black, teal, purple and plum.
While expensive, you can swap out the band. Classic bands cost $30, leather bands cost $60, and stainless steel bands cost $100.
Pro Reminds you to move every hour
The Alta will remind you about your move alerts each hour. By default, it suggests 250 steps each hour and it will vibrate 10 minutes before each hour is over to give you enough time to accomplish the micro-step goal.
Pro Will fit almost any wrist size
The Alta is available in three different sizes (small, large, and extra large). Each size can be adjusted by a minimum of 1 inch.
This is a great tracker for people with wrists below or above average size who may have trouble finding a comfortable fit with other trackers.
Pro Lightweight and comfortable to wear
As a result of the Alta having a slim design, it is both lightweight and very comfortable to wear.
Pro Week long battery life
The fitness tracker's battery can last a full week before you need to recharge it - quite a bit longer than most activity trackers.
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 Fairly basic features which limits the information you'll receive from the tracker
The Alta fitness tracker is designed to be more of a passive tracker for the Average Joe as opposed to a complete activity tracker for enthusiasts. There is no GPS or heart rate monitor, so the stats you get are limited to steps, rough distance traveled, estimated calories burned, active minutes, and sleep tracking.
Con The device cannot be used without a smartphone or a computer
In order to activate the device for usage, it must be paired with a smartphone and/or a PC (through a USB dongle), and an account must be registered through Fitbit.
Con Difficult to see the display when outdoors
The display is quite dim which makes it very difficult to read when in bright settings.
Con Display is off by default
To manually turn on the display you must double tap the side of the tracker which can be difficult to do properly.
It can also turned on automatically by the appropriate wrist/arm movement for checking the time.
There is no way to keep the display on so it may take some fumbling every time you want to look at the display.
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.
