Fitbit is one of the most popular brands offering smartwatches that can help you keep track of your athletic performance, as well as your health and overall wellness.
In this article, we will join the Fitbit Sense vs. Fitbit Versa 3 battle, to see whether there’s a big winner, so keep reading below to find out!
Fitbit Sense
With a ‘Reflections’ mode to track your mood, the Fitbit Sense is an excellent and comfortable smartwatch offering you several health and fitness functions.
Colors
The Fitbit Sense is available in 3 color combinations, offering limited options to potential buyers but still sufficient enough when considering this is not a luxury or leisure watch.
The color combinations it is available in are:
- Sage Grey / Silver Stainless Steel
- Carbon / Graphite Stainless Steel
- Lunar White / Soft Gold Stainless Steel
Design
Each piece of the Fitbit Sense is exemplary by design, with a refined stainless-steel ring, specially made AMOLED screen, high-quality glass bonded with the use of laser, but also with a groundbreaking bio-sensor core.
Its breathable, expandable, and comfy band has seamless sides and a compact design that make this watch ideal for wearing every day and night.
Moreover, the Fitbit Sense accessory bands, along with Fitbit’s official collections from Victor Glemaud and Pendleton, allow you to produce an infinite number of styles.
Battery Life
Fitbit Sense can track your daily routine non-stop for more than 6 days, making it a more than decent smartwatch when it comes to its battery capacity.
While there are many other watches that can last for weeks or even a month without needing to be recharged, for its price Fitbit Sense is good enough.
Of course, depending on usage and other variables, your Fitbit might need to be charged up throughout the day, especially when you are using its GPS non-stop.
In that case, you should expect it to last for no more than 12 hours, which is enough for a day out in the wild!
The good news is that the Fitbit Sense can be fully recharged in 12 minutes, so it’s more of a quick pit stop rather than hours of waiting before you can get back on the hiking path.
Features And Specs
The Sense offers a free 6-month trial of Fitbit Premium, which features a new Health Metrics screen in the Fitbit application with monthly and weekly infographics for tracking your respiratory rate, your heartbeat’s pace, your resting heartbeat’s variability, but also your skin temperature fluctuations
The Premium plan also grants you access to exercise videos from barre and yoga studios, as well as meditation classes from well-known courses offered, for example, by Aura.
However, the free Fitbit app tracks everything from sleep and movement to your diet.
It can monitor and record:
- your EDA, that is your electrodermal activity
- your oxygen saturation
- your sleep stages, and more
You can also log your mood thanks to the ‘Reflections’ function, where you can keep track of how you feel every day.
With a built-in GPS, workout intensity map, a scoring system that assesses your day-by-day readiness to workout or needs to rest, but also the option of over 20 exercise modes, the Sense watch is a great deal.
Finally, Sense is waterproof for up to 50 meters, but properly drying it after it’s been subjected to water sources is highly advisable, both for the watch itself and your skin.
Smart Functions
When it comes to the smart functions of the Fitbit Sense, there are the options of connecting and controlling apps like Spotify and Uber, as well as the ability to sync your smartphone and receive calls, texts, and other notifications from apps.
You can also add your credit cards to the Fitbit app and use Sense to complete in-store purchases!
Price
Fitbit Sense costs more than Versa 3, with its price ranging from 160 to 300 dollars at the time of writing.
- 1.59in l x 1.59in w x 0.49in h. ECG, stress sensing and a skin temperature sensor. Get notifications for calls, texts, calendar events and apps like Gmail and Facebook plus send quick replies and voice replies right from your wrist.
- Compatibility: Apple iOS 12.2 or higher, Android OS 7.0 or higher, Syncing range: Up to 30ft, Music control via Bluetooth Classic on Android and Bluetooth LE on iOS devices.
- Built-in GPS + GLONASS, Speaker, Microphone, Multi-path optical heart rate sensor, IR sensors for oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring
- Water-resistant to 50 meters. Battery life up to 6+ days. Heart rate tracking technology. Saves 7 days of detailed motion data minute by minute.
- US Warranty. In Box: Fitbit Sense, Classic wristband (both small & large), Charging cable
However, from the time they were released, there have been many offers and great deals for both these watches, making their price difference insignificant if not inapplicable.
Fitbit Versa 3
The Fitbit Versa 3 is an ultra-light watch with an adjustable infinity band. It also features a sizable digital clock with a bright AMOLED screen for effortless viewing of alerts and data.
But let’s see what it offers in more detail.
Colors
The Fitbit Versa 3 is also available in 3 color combinations, which some might say are a bit funkier and a level higher than the rather classic Sense options.
These 3 color combinations are:
- Midnight / Soft Gold Aluminium
- Black/Black Aluminium
- Pink Clay / Soft Gold Aluminium
Design
Use one of the hundreds of clock face styles and store a maximum of five different ones, making it extremely simple to transition from trendy to sophisticated, or choose one that is completely original by adding your own picture.
Indeed, the quick-release function is also available with this model, making changing between styles an instant thing.
The Versa 3 accessory bands, together with Fitbit.com curated collections from Victor Glemaud and Pendleton, make it possible to create an infinite number of styles, which is one of the many things this model shares with the Sense.
With the option of turning it off or keeping it on, you can either be discrete or have the Versa 3 display constantly on to check your real-time progress when walking, running, or working out.
Battery Life
Keeping the Versa 3 GPS function active at all times will use up its battery in about 12 hours. This is a further thing the Sense and Versa 3 models have in common, in addition to their general battery capacity.
When you are not using the GPS or keep many other apps open and active, your Versa 3 battery can last for 6 days or more.
Features And Specs
If you upgrade to the Premium plan, you will receive individualized insights that will assist you in achieving meaningful results.
You will also get to work on improving your understanding of your body with functions like daily Sleep but also Stress Management scores, as well as long-term patterns in other health functions.
Using the Fitbit app:
- You can track your caloric expenditure and improve your gym session and workout intensity while also viewing your resting heartbeat patterns and aerobic capacity.
- You also get notifications for any irregularities in your heartbeat and skin temperature and other functions like ‘Reflections’ and a menstrual health tracker that are also included in Sense.
However, Versa 3 also features guided breathing sessions, and personalized reminders, as well as a snore and noise detector, three functions Sense does not have.
Moreover, Versa 3 offers some extra fitness functions not included in the Sense model, such as the ‘Active Zone Minutes’ with which you get a buzz every time you reach your desired heart rate zone, and the Cardio Fitness Level function that can help you improve your cardiovascular performance.
Read next – Is hiking good cardio?
Smart Functions
The smart functions of the Versa 3 are exactly the same as those of Sense, with one exception: the Smart Wake.
With the Versa 3, you can choose the Smart Wake function so that your Fitbit alarm will wake you up with a gentle vibration during lighter stages of sleep.
This way you can get up feeling more energized after a power nap, and if power naps are your thing, this might be enough of a reason to choose this model over the Sense.
Price
The Versa 3 model comes with a few extra features that Fitbit Sense does not have, yet it was originally available at a lower price.
- Receive a Daily Readiness Score that reveals if you’re ready to exercise or should focus on recovery (requires Fitbit Premium membership. Premium content recommendations are not available in all locales and may be in English only).Water resistance depth:50 meters
- Run, bike, hike and more phone-free—and see your real-time pace & distance—with built-in GPS. Then check out your workout intensity map in the Fitbit app
- Active Zone Minutes uses your resting heart rate to gauge exercise effort and gives you a buzz when you step up the intensity so you can make the most of your workouts. Fitbit Versa 3 is water resistant to 50 meters
- Better track heart rate 24/7 with PurePulse 2.0, Fitbit’s enhanced heart rate technology
- Use Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa Built-in to get quick news, set bedtime reminders and alarms, control your smart home devices and more just by speaking to your watch
You can still find it on the official Fitbit website at a cheaper price than the Fitbit sense, but as we said, there are many independent retailers that offer several deals, so you can find either watch at a lower or higher price.
Which One Is Better: The Fitbit Sense Or The Fitbit Versa 3?
If you’re searching for a wearable that you’ll mainly wear to track your athletic performance, the Fitbit Versa 3 seems to be the best choice, simply because it features a couple more fitness functions.
However, the Fitbit Sense is more of a wellness wearable, providing a comprehensive strategy for achieving or sustaining a healthy daily routine and lifestyle.
Therefore, there’s not a clear winner here as it all comes down to your needs. Even so, if you are also looking for value-for-money, then again, the Versa 3 is probably going to be the best pick.
The Bottom Line
No matter which of the two smartwatches you choose, the Fitbit Sense or the Versa 3, you are guaranteed to get the quality and advantages of a Fitbit watch.
Both these smartwatches offer a variety of health and fitness functions you can use to track and monitor your athletic performance, as well as your mental well-being.
So, think about your most important needs for a watch, take your budget into account, and pick one of these two Fitbit models to start learning more about your activity, and health, and improve your lifestyle!
