Apple Watch Series 5 vs. Fitbit Versa 2 By CNET

The Apple Watch Series 5 starts at $400 and comes with many features to help keep an eye on your health and fitness. The Fitbit Versa ?, on the other hand, starts at $200 and comes with many similar features. So lets workout, if you need to spend more or less I've, been wearing both of these smartwatches for two weeks, as evidenced by my sick watch, tan, and I'm gonna break down all the differences between the two and decide which one is right for you. So let's get started with the first main difference between them that might automatically discount one or the other. The Apple Watch Series 5 only works with iOS. You probably knew that, but I know I have to say it's straight off of that the Fitbit Versa 2 is iOS and Android.

A big reason why you get a Smartwatch is not only for the smart features when connected to your phone, but also for fitness and step tracking I've used them separately. So I've got some good baseline results to compare each of them to on the same wrist and I have to say the results from both has been fairly consistent. The heart rate has been pretty similar between the two during a cardio based workout I found that the calorie burn was perhaps a little different between the two. Although that's not a big important metric for me, I was really interested in just seeing your voices and gave me a good baseline reading and yeah for outdoor activities. They were both great.

They both did a perfect job. I, really prefer the way that the Fitbit does heart rate tracking on the screen. It gives you a nice breakdown to show what zone you're in so cardio peak or just general fat burn, whereas the Apple Watch just gives you that beats per minute. Reading on the screen, the Versa ? has much gold based exercises to help. You keep an eye on things like your distance or your calorie burn.

So it will let you know once you hit a certain target. The Apple Watch has that as well, of course, but when it comes to the types of activities that you can categorize, the Apple Watch has a lot more, including admin turn Table Tennis surfing and my personal favorite curling. Another difference between these two watches is how you get an idea of how much exercise or activity that you've done every day the Apple Watch uses the ring based system that it's used ever since the first Apple Watch with your move exercise and stand rings, and the idea is essentially, you want to close those rings every day. The Fitbit doesn't have a similar visual system like that, although it does give you a list of metrics, say your steps and the total amount of exercise that you've done every day, and it does give you lunges along the way. Let's talk outdoor, workouts and GPS, because for me, as someone who likes to do outdoor runs and bike rides, it's a really important feature.

Maybe it is for you too, so the Apple Watch has GPS built-in great means. You don't have to take your phone with you when you are doing it. Outdoor workout, the Fitbit Versa too, though, only has connected GPS, and so that basically means you have to take your phone with you, and if your phone is anything like mine, and you don't like running with it, because it is large its bulky, it's heavy I have nowhere to put it I, don't have a pocket when I have my workout gear on it. Just becomes so frustrating, like fact that I have to take. My friend with me is a real pain point, but maybe it doesn't matter to you.

It does to me on watch OS 6 with the Apple Watch. You can also get some trends to give you an idea of how much you're progressing or how much activity you've done in a certain week or a month. The Fitbit also offers that too within the app, and it also sends you a nice email digests, it's usually on a weekly basis. That gives you an idea of all the activity you've done that week. Both of these watches also offer some health tracking features on top of the regular fitness tracking features.

For example, the Apple Watch gives you full detection and the ability to call emergency services if it does detect a fall. It also has an FDA cleared, ECG and high low or irregular heartbeat readings and sound detection. So it can give you an alert if the environment you're in its noisy and may damage your hearing, sleep tracking is only available natively on the Fitbit Versa -. It's not available natively on the Apple Watch, although there are third-party apps. So let's talk about how the Fitbit does it.

It will break down how many hours of sleep you get and work out the stages of sleep you are in such as REM, deep sleep or light sleep as well as your awake time. At the end of the night, it will give you a sleep score out of a hundred. Sometimes I would get a full eight and a half hours. Sleep and I would feel great when I woke up yet the Versa ? would say: well, you only got a sleep score of like 68, and it didn't give me any ways to kind of improve that or recommendations apart from say like going to bed on time, which wasn't that helpful time to put the smart in Smartwatch. Both of these watches haven't always on display, although it is implemented in a slightly different way, so both of them have obviously color displays, but when you put the always-on, so it actually works, like you know, a normal watch, you can tell the time all the time that is done differently on the Fitbit versa -.

It is a black and white or monochrome always-on, and the Apple Watch is a color, always-on, I, guess kind of before my time, but I'm guessing the difference is kind of like when TV went from black and white to color Alexa versus Siri. So obviously the Apple Watch uses Siri as its voice assistant, and you can say the command with your voice or press a button in order to trigger it with the Fitbit versa. ? you'll need to actually press and hold the button to get Alexa to pop up now, on the back end on the Versa ? you'll have to log in on your phone and register with Alexa, etc. , etc. To get it to basically have control and access to things on your phone, but it is sort of limited, so you won't be able to do things like say, for example, start a workout with your voice, like you can on the Apple Watch with Alexa, you can control smart devices, check the weather, set, reminders, etc.

, etc. However, the Versa ? does not have a speaker on board, so you'll be able to talk. It has a microphone, but you won't be able to hear responses. You'll just be able to see them on the screen, whereas the Apple Watch, Series 5, does have a microphone and speaker, so Siri can talk to you. Both also get notifications from your phone, and you can get pretty granular and customize what comes through.

However, you won't be able to respond to text messages, for example on the Versa -. If you have it attached to an iPhone you can on Android. However, the Apple Watch obviously gives you full control in responding to text messages and things like that from an Apple Watch to an iPhone and both of them. Also, let you accept and reject calls from the watch itself and the Versa ? will even let you do that if you're using an iPhone, you can also put music on both of these watches, but it's really a pain to do it. On the Versa, too, you have to like to go to your computer.

Install some software, drag the files across and just wait an eternity for the music to be stored on your watch. The Apple Watch. Does it straight from the iPhone so from your Apple Music library? It can just be ported straight across you. Do get Spotify control on both, however, not storage. The Versa too has a native Spotify app.

But again you can't store any songs for offline listening. It's just for control same on the Apple Watch, but the Apple Watch does offer you Apple Music control as well as, if you have LTE on the watch, you can listen to songs on the go without your phone and store them offline. If you don't have a connection which is kind of nice when it comes to battery life, there is no question about it. The Fitbit absolutely blows the Apple Watch out of the water I got around five and a half days of constant use with notifications turned on without the always-on display. However, and that gave me a pretty good run with the always-on display.

I got around two to two-and-a-half days of use before I had to charge it. The Apple Watch Series 5 only gives you around I'd, say 18 hours of use before you need to charge it considering the always-on display, as color I was pretty impressed, although I would have liked to see a little of a boost over some previous generations, such as the series 4, which is pretty much the same battery life, but without the always-on display. The Versa ? definitely feels faster and more responsive in the menus and interfaces than the first edition of the Versa, but when you put it side-by-side with the Apple Watch, you definitely realize that this is a much faster watch with a much stronger processor that just feels so much more fluid and things activate much faster, ?, so I think. If you're looking for the most responsive watch, it is going to be the Apple Watch. Let's check the specs.

The Fitbit Versa ? has a color AMOLED display, which has an always-on feature. The Apple Watch Series 5 has an LT PIO OLED Retina display also with an always-on feature with force touch. The Versa too has a heart rate sensor, whereas the Apple Watch has a heart rate sensor and ECG. The Versa has accelerometer altimeter ambient light sensor and a microphone. The Apple Watch has an accelerometer altimeter barometer, speaker, microphone and compass.

The Versa has connected GPS and Wi-Fi. The Apple Watch is GPS built-in, with an LTE option. Extra the Versa too, comes in one size, whereas the Apple Watch Series five is in a forty or forty-four millimeter option. So now it comes to the time when I have to search my feelings and find the winner decide which one I would buy if I was spending my own money on one of these watches, always a tough decision. I say this: every single time and I am really struggling with this decision, because 400 rs.200 I'm in cheap skate, 200 sounds amazing, but I think I'm going to choose the Apple Watch Series 5, just because it does so much more. It has the options of extra health tracking features plus all the fitness tracking and the notifications.

You can do a lot more, but only if you're tied in to the iPhone, if you're an Android user, then this Fitbit Versa to is gonna, be an excellent Buy, I, really, really like using it. And honestly the battery life kills the Apple Watch. So for that reason alone, it's like it's really, really easy to recommend this a bit better, and I'm going to be sad when I have to send it back. To be honest, both of these watches but here's an extra tool for you. Maybe you want an Apple Watch, but you don't want to spend that much money.

So Apple has recently reduced the price of the series three to two hundred dollars, which is the same price as this guy. So maybe that's another option and if you install watch, oh it's six on it, which you probably should, you get a lot of the same features that I spoke about on this series, five, except for this health detection, ACG, etc. Speaking of cheapskates, like myself, if you are looking for an Apple Watch alternative, and you only have eighty dollars in the budget I've compared the Apple Watch to an $80 Smartwatch called the amaze Fitbit II. Can the link right up there go watch that or if you're looking for a standalone fitness tracker, maybe something like the Fitbit or the cheaper me band.4 is what you're looking for the link is also their, thanks. So much for watching I hope you enjoyed the episode, give it a thumbs up or two if you liked it and make sure to hit subscribe, so you stay notified of all the new content that we have coming your way.

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Source : CNET