To Pebble fans who were pissed about Fitbit‘s acquisition of the Kickstarter darling, Fitbit’s heard your complaints and have come up with what is basically a Pebble smartwatch with Fitbit branding.
This new smartwatch is called the Versa (because it’s versatile, it would appear) and it looks like the Pebble Time 2 and Apple Watch had a love child.
In a sense, it’s the spiritual successor to Pebble’s efforts kind of in the same way that the Razer Phone is the spiritual successor to Nextbit’s smartphones. Looks similar but with the distinct “major corporation” feel that the startups never had.
Nevertheless, the Versa is designed to sit below Fitbit’s flagship Ionic smartwatch and it has a lot of the more expensive smartwatch’s features for a much lower price. For example, it runs on Fitbit OS and maintains the flagship smartwatch’s 4+ day battery life.
What’s more, it’s also swim proof, with a water resistance rating of 5ATM meaning that it will survive in depths of up to 50m. This means that you can track your swim activities as well as the usual Fitbit activity and exercise tracking. It will also feature Fitbit’s PurPulse heartrate tracking technology and workout training via Fitbit Coach, but it loses the built-in GPS of the Ionic in favour of a connected one with your phone instead.
Fitbit’s latest watch is also all about the fit. This watch’s case is made up of annodised aluminium and has rounded edges. Its display is also a 1:1 aspect ratio and features a display that has a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, which Fitbit says is the “ideal format” to view things on your wrist.
Since it’s a smartwatch like the Fitbit Ionic, the Versa will also feature stuff like notifications and quick replies, Fitbit Pay, a whole bunch of watchfaces to choose from, and a whole bunch more. You will also be able to store music on your device so you can exercise without a phone…assuming you don’t need GPS.
Fitbit says that in May, both the Ionic and the Versa will gain the “female health tracking” capabilities, which you can learn more about here.
Set at being the smartwatch that’s at an “approachable price”, the Fitbit Versa is priced at RM990 for the standard variant and RM1,120 for the Special Edition version which comes with new bands plus either a rose gold aluminium case or charcoal with a graphite aluminium case. At this price point, the Versa will likely replace the Blaze.
The Versa will go on sale in Malaysia starting Q2 of 2018 and will be available in major retail stores including All IT Hypermarket, AONE Plus, Best Denki, Harvey Norman, Timekeeper and Thunder Match Technology. Online, you can get them in Lazada Malaysia.
Learn more about the Fitbit Versa here.
Besides the Versa, Fitbit also launched the Fitbit Ace which is a kid-focused fitness tracker that’s basically a watered down version of the Fitbit Alta. It isn’t able to join the social aspects of the regular Fitbit app but it will allow parents to use the Fitbit app to track their kids activity levels and sleep hours.
