There is a whole catalog of smartwatches available in the market today, but not all of them actually put a premium on their wearer’s health much like Fitbit’s latest smartwatch release.
Leading fitness tracker brand Fitbit on April 19 launched in the Philippines Fitbit Versa, its second entry to the smartwatch arena.
Fitbit Versa is a lightweight smartwatch—it is, in fact, Fitbit’s lightest smartwatch yet, according to officials—that boasts a sleek, modern design and four-day battery life. Powered by Fitbit OS 2.0, each unit comes with health and fitness features, which are the core of the brand, and smart features, such as ability to reply to messages, common in wearables.
Overall wellness
“We are focusing on being more personalized for the individual,” said Alexander Healy, director of product marketing for Asia-Pacific and China.
In addition to Fitbit’s trademarked 24/7 PurePulse heart rate tracking technology, steps and calories burned counter, and automatic sleep stages tracking, Versa comes with Fitbit Coach, 15+ exercise modes, and Female health tracking feature.
Fitbit Coach offers personalized fitness guidance with its on-device workouts, complete with instructions, timer, and statistics report. It currently has three workouts available, the 7-Minute Workout, the 10-Minute Abs, and the Treasure Chest.
According to officials, aside from guiding users though every move, it also adapts based on the user’s feedback—making it more personalized.
“It’s like having a coach on your wrist,” said Healy.
Meanwhile, its Exercise mode allows wearers to track their workouts, such as running, biking, swimming, weightlifting, and more. However, since Versa is not equipped with GPS, it has to be connected to a smartphone to see real-time pace and distance.
Speaking of swimming, the fitness tracker/smartwatch is water resistant up to 50m and comes with the automatic SmartTrack swim tracking feature, thus it’s safe to wear in the pool or rain to track laps, calories burned, and more during workouts.
But the interesting new feature, particularly for female wearers, of Versa, is the Female health tracking, available to users 13 years old and above who identify as female in the Fitbit app.
The feature, which will come to the entire Fitbit platform in June, allows women to track their menstrual cycle and symptoms. Using health and fitness data of the wearer, the feature sends predictive notification four days before the first day of their period. Healy said accuracy of prediction for each individual will improve over time as more data from the wearer are obtained.
Obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Angel Tan asserted the importance for women to accurately track their menstrual cycle.
“Being forewarned helps you be forearmed,” opined Dr. Tan. “It helps them correlate their menstrual cycle with their physical activities. For instance you can adjust your fitness regimen, plan your day, and even prepare healthy snacks especially when you know you tend to snack on unhealthy foods during your period.”
All-day companion
Fitbit Versa wants to be everyone’s everyday companion with apps that let wearer run their day connected and entertained.
Coming soon on Versa and Ionic devices is the Quick Reply feature with which wearers can create and send up to five custom quick replies of 60 characters or less to text messages and messenger apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. This feature will first roll out on Android devices only.
Its built-in NFC chip allows wallet-free payments via Fitbit Pay, which is supported by more than 60 banks and card issuers in 15 countries.
Versa’s 2.5GB internal memory provides enough storage for 300+ songs as well as apps and customizable clock faces available in Fitbit’s App Gallery.
“We believe Versa is a smartwatch that will have mass appeal, attracting new audiences and helping us capture a previously untapped segment of users in this growing wearables category,” Fitbit co-founder and chief executive officer James Park said in a statement.
Fitbit will also release its first activity tracker for kids, Fitbit Ace, in the second quarter of 2018.
Fitbit Versa retails at P13,890 in black with black aluminum case, gray with silver aluminum case, and peach with rose gold aluminum case. Its Special Edition is priced at P15,590 and comes in lavender woven band with rose gold aluminum case and charcoal woven band with graphite aluminum case, both come with an extra black classic band. It’s now available at Digital Walker, Globe, Liberty, Runnr, and Lazada, as well as online at Fitbit.com and other major online retailers.
