Buying a smartwatch these days is anything but a simple process.
On one side, you have the Apple Watch, the undisputed queen of the smartwatch category and the world’s bestselling watch.
Then, on the other side, you have a wide array of smartwatches that work with various platforms and at all price points.
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There’s the vast line-up of watches running Google’s Wear OS, as well as heavy-duty devices from companies such as Garmin and Samsung.
Yet in recent months, a new competitor has arrived on the scene: the Fitbit Versa, a US$200 smartwatch – produced by Fitbit, an American company that makes wireless-enabled wearable technology devices – aimed at the everyday consumer.
The Fitbit Versa is the closest thing the Apple Watch has to a real competitor and it is an excellent watch in its own right.
So while there are plenty of reasons to love the Apple Watch, here are eight reasons to choose the Fitbit Versa instead.
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1. It is much cheaper ...
The Fitbit Versa costs US$200, while the Apple Watch Series 4 starts at US$399.
2. It is smaller ...
The Fitbit Versa measures 24 millimetres (0.9 inches) across and 24mm deep, making it not quite as big as the smallest available Apple Watch, which is 38.6mm wide and 33.3mm deep.
A smaller watch may not be important for everyone, but the Fitbit Versa does fit better on women’s wrists.
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3. It has a better battery life ...
Fitbit says the Versa has up to four days of battery life when charged.
In my tests, I got almost five full days on a 90 per cent charge.
The Apple Watch, on the other hand, gets only about 18 hours of battery life.
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4. It has fewer apps ...
The Fitbit Versa has only a handful of apps preloaded, and none of them are messaging, email, or traditional social apps.
Instead, it has things such as Starbucks, as well as weather- and meditation-related apps.
You don’t even have the option to load on Gmail or Twitter, meaning you are not constantly being pelted with notifications or distracted by frequent buzzes on your wrist.
Apple, on the other hand, is slowly paring down the apps on its watch – third parties are also choosing to discontinue their apps – but you still have the option to be inundated by iMessages and emails.
Again, it’s all personal preference, but for me, the fewer apps on a smartwatch, the better.
5. It can provide women’s health tracking ...
Fitbit says women’s health tracking is one of the most requested features from its users, so the US company introduced it on the mobile app and the Versa earlier this month.
Women can now use the Fitbit Versa watch to track where they are in their menstrual cycle, check when to expect their period, and keep tabs on their fertility.
Apple does not offer a similar service for the Apple Watch.
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6. It has built-in sleep tracking ...
Fitbit has a feature called Sleep Stages that lets you keep track of how well you are sleeping if you wear the watch at night.
You can also set a sleep schedule, track your awake time, and check your sleep average over time.
While there are several third-party apps for tracking sleep on the Apple Watch, Apple does not make a sleep-focused app for it.
7. It has an SpO2 sensor ...
The Fitbit Versa – and last year’s watch, the Fitbit Ionic – both have an SpO2 sensor, which measures blood oxygen levels.
While it's not able to track health conditions like sleep apnoea quite yet, the possibility is there.
The Apple Watch Series 4 has plenty of built-in sensors, including an advanced heart-rate sensor and an electrical heart sensor that can measure electrocardiograms – a record of the electrical activity of your heart – but it still lacks an SpO2 sensor.
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8. A 45-day money-back guarantee ...
Fitbit gives you 45 days to return the watch if you decide you don’t like it and offers a one-year limited warranty on the device.
Apple has a much shorter return window of 14 days, though it does offer one perk Fitbit does not: you can trade-in an Apple Watch for an Apple Store gift card to use toward a new device.
If it’s not eligible, Apple will recycle it for you.
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This article originally appeared on Business Insider .
