Fitbit Versa 2 VS. Fitbit Ionic- Which Smartwatch?
Fitbit currently sells two premium smartwatches, the Fitbit Versa 2 and the Fitbit Ionic. Which one should you purchase?
The smartwatch world has been rapidly growing with many offerings from companies after seeing the overnight success of the Apple Watch. Apple created a new segment called the smartwatch, which people immediately got attracted to. Fitbit, a couple of years ago, used to be a fitness tracker company, but they have recently started to put out smartwatch models, with apps, notifications, phone support, and many more features!
Fitbit Versa 2 Advantages
Smaller Form Factor
The Fitbit Versa 2 is a physically slimmer watch compared to the Fitbit Ionic. I like how lightweight the watch is, and how it’s also not too bulky like the Fitbit Ionic. The Ionic is a much bulkier watch which you can feel the extra weight on. However, since the Fitbit Versa 2 has a smaller design, the display size will also be smaller, and I’ll get onto why I like the Ionic’s larger display later in this article, but it’s always nice to have something non-intrusive and small like the Fitbit Versa 2.
Amazon Alexa
The Fitbit Versa 2 has Alexa built-in, which is a great feature that it has over the Fitbit Ionic. First of all, I love using the voice assistant on my smartwatch, and Alexa is one of the best assistants to be on a smartwatch. It really helps to have a voice assistant on your smartwatch since the screen is pretty small to work around with compared to your phone. I also like the choice of Alexa instead of some other voice assistant because Alexa works great with my smart home devices and there is a lot of compatibility with smart home devices.
Always-On Display
The always-on display on the Fitbit Versa 2 is a great feature, except it’s only for some users. If you’re like me, and you don’t really like having your display on all the time, you should be fine with the Ionic. However, there are some people that I know who prefer having the display on at all times, and if you’re one of those people, the Fitbit Versa 2 is for you. As for me, I prioritize battery life over the always-on display, since it doesn’t have much use for me.
$50 Cheaper!
The Fitbit Versa 2 is $50 cheaper than the $250 Fitbit Ionic. The Versa 2 comes at a very competitive price, at just $200. The demographic that the Versa 2 caters to is the mid-range smartwatch market. Even though the Fitbit Versa 2 is much newer than the Ionic, it is still decently cheaper than the Ionic, which is a welcome feature.
Features on Both Models
Basic Fitness Features
Standard fitness features like steps, calories, distance are on both smartwatches, which is what you would expect by paying a couple hundred dollars for these devices. In fact, Fitbit is known to be very accurate in these basic fitness features, which is great if you like to track specific things during your workout.
Amazing Battery Life
The battery life on these Fitbits is best in class. When I say best in class, I mean that these smartwatches have the BEST battery life. The Fitbit Ionic has a slightly worse battery than the Versa 2, at 5 days. 5 days! I usually expect around 2 days of battery on my Apple Watch, and the Ionic has 5 days. The Versa 2 has even better battery life, at 6 whole days, which is amazing! In my personal use of it, I would end the first day at so much battery left, usually 70–80%! Even though the Ionic has slightly less battery, these two still have great batteries.
50 Meters Waterproof
Both of these smartwatches are waterproof up to 50 meters, which means that these Fitbits can go pretty much everywhere with you, swimming, to the beach, taking a shower, and more. This is a really cool feature that we’ve been seeing with smartwatches across the board, and it’s useful because Fitbit wants you to have these smartwatches on your wrist at all times.
Sleep Tracking
The sleep tracking feature on these smartwatches is amazing, and not close to being beaten by another company any time soon. Fitbits app will give you insights and reports about how you slept, what bothered you while you were sleeping, and how deep you were sleeping as well. These are really useful to analyze how you’re doing when you’re asleep, and Fitbit also gives you a sleep score when you wake up. This sleep score is a number out of 100 to show you how you slept during that night, which is really cool and a quick way to know how your night was.
24/7 Heart Rate Tracking
24/7 heart rate tracking is a useful feature for people who like tracking their runs, bike rides, and more. Personally, I really like this feature while I go on my 10–20 mile bike rides. I like keeping track of how fast I go throughout my ride, exactly how far I went, but the biggest one is to see how my heart rate fluctuated as I was working harder.
Fitbit Ionic Advantages
Built-In GPS
The built-in GPS, as mentioned earlier in this article, is useful if you want to keep track of where exactly you went during your workout. In my opinion, this is a pretty standard feature that should probably be on the Fitbit Versa 2, but we don’t currently have it on there. I think that one expectation we should have for the Fitbit Versa 3 is that it should come with a built-in GPS, which is a really useful feature.
Larger Display
The larger display on the Fitbit Ionic is nice so you have more screen to put your finger on and use. The larger screen is also much better to look at different complications on the home screen, which can store much more data with the Ionic’s watch faces than on the Fitbit Versa 2. Even a slightly larger screen, like a couple of millimeters, can make a huge difference because of how small those screens are to start off with.
The Fitbit Versa 2 is definitely the better smartwatch in the Fitbit lineup than the Ionic, and this is because of the massive list of new features that Fitbit has been introducing in the months after the September 2017 launch of the Fitbit Ionic. The Fitbit Ionic is now just getting really old, almost hitting 3 years now. The Ionic is due for a massive update because it lacks many features the Versa 2 already has, and it also is more expensive than the Versa 2, which are two statements which don’t line up.
The Fitbit Versa 2 is a great smartwatch that you should purchase over the more expensive, older, Fitbit Ionic. Please avoid the Ionic, which is in a great need of an update by Fitbit.
