Fitbit Announces New Apple Watch Rival 'Versa' and Kid-Friendly 'Ace'

[MacRumors]

Fitbit today announced the Fitbit Versa, which the company described as the "smartwatch for all." The Versa has a few features that directly compare it to the Apple Watch, as well as an overall design that looks similar to Apple's wearable device. Alongside the Fitbit Versa, Fitbit announced a kid-focused Fitbit Ace device and female health tracking coming to the Fitbit iOS app.

Fitbit said the Versa is the "lightest metal smartwatch" in the United States market, with a case made out of ultra-thin, anodized aluminum that is slightly tapered and angled so it fits small or large wrists. The device's touchscreen supports a brightness of up to 1,000 nits, allowing users the ability to read the screen in bright environments, and it has a battery that will last for 4+ days.

The Fitbit Versa has many of the expected features seen in previous Fitbits, like 24/7 heart rate tracking, onscreen workouts, onboard music storage, automatic sleep tracking, and wallet-free payments on the Fitbit Versa Special Edition with an NFC chip. Fitbit will also sell a variety of accessories, ranging from stain-resistant classic bands to Horween leather, stainless steel links, metal mesh bands, and a designer collection.

"As the wearables category continues to grow, Fitbit Versa fills a critical need in the market by delivering a beautifully designed, full-featured smartwatch that is easy to use at a very competitive price," said James Park, co-founder and CEO of Fitbit. "Versa brings consumers the advanced health and fitness features Fitbit is known for, along with broad compatibility across mobile platforms and 4+ days battery life to provide users with a better picture of their overall health, making it stand out from any smartwatch available today."

The new smartwatch will launch with Fitbit OS 2.0 for the company's line of wearable devices, which will include a new personalized dashboard for a simplified overview of a user's health and fitness data. Users will be able to see daily and weekly health stats, historical activity, heart rate, exercise summaries, motivational messages, tips, and daily guidance, all from their wrist.

Over time, Fitbit said this dashboard will become more personalized, offering reminders, celebrations, logging, insights, sleep summaries, and social challenges, all with prompts to take actions based on each user's own data. This ongoing personalization aspect of Fitbit OS 2.0 is said to launch later in 2018. Here are a few other features available on Fitbit Versa with Fitbit OS 2.0:

Music on your device: Listen to phone-free music anywhere using Bluetooth headphones like Fitbit Flyer, including 300+ songs from your personal music collection, your favorite stations from Pandora, and now your own or curated playlists as well as Flow from Deezer.

Apps and clock faces you want: Personalize your device by choosing from a wide range of apps and clock faces in the Fitbit App Gallery, including those from Fitbit, Fitbit Labs, and popular brands like E*TRADE, Flipboard, Hue Lights, Nest, Starbucks, Strava, Surfline, United Airlines, Weather powered by AccuWeather, and Yelp. The Fitbit App Gallery has more than 550 apps and clock faces available today, many of which developers are working to make available to Versa users soon.

Fitbit Ace, the kid-focused wearable band, will include many of Fitbit's features in a pared-down hardware model. Kids eight and older wearing the device will see that it automatically tracks steps, active minutes, and sleep on a five day battery. Using a Fitbit family account, parents will be able to monitor and control who their kids connect with in the Fitbit app and other features of the Ace band.

The band will remind kids to move, and reward them for listening to such reminders with collectible badges. Coming soon, Fitbit will launch daily and weekly challenges where families and friends can compete against one another in certain health goals. There will also be a "Family Faceoff" that challlenges family members in a family account to earn the most steps in five days.

Fitbit Ace can be pre-ordered today on Fitbit.com for $99.95, and will launch in Q2 2018. Fitbit Versa is available to pre-order today on Fitbit.com and at select online retailers tomorrow, priced at $199.95. The smartwatch will come in the following colors: black with a black aluminum case, gray with a silver aluminum case, and peach with a rose gold aluminum case. Band accessories will start at $29.95 and cap at $99.95. For those who want the NFC-enabled Fitbit Versa Special Edition, that model will be $229.95. The device will officially launch worldwide in April.

Article Link: Fitbit Announces New Apple Watch Rival 'Versa' and Kid-Friendly 'Ace'

 

[johnnygee]

Will they have a Vice edition of the Versa?

 

[keybraker]

WOW Pebble 4 is looking real good !

 

[Glmnet1]

I prefer its design over the Watch, especially the sharper edge. It makes it look slimmer.

 

[bopajuice]

Nice looking although I prefer the rugged outdoor look better. The price is right that's for sure. Did not see anything about water resistance. I know from experience, Fitbit's of the past were not waterproof, that's why I went with the Garmin Fenix 3.

 

[RogerWilco]

Ive and Ahrendts' arrhythmia alarms just went off, someone call 911.

 

[deanthedev]

But......round watches are better.

 

[Glmnet1]

Nice looking although I prefer the rugged outdoor look better. The price is right that's for sure. Did not see anything about water resistance. I know from experience, Fitbit's of the past were not waterproof, that's why I went with the Garmin Fenix 3.

Their website advertises "Swimproof**" and then in small characters at the bottom "**Water-resistant to 50M.". Not bad.

 

[jmgregory1]

Wow, that is one dorky looking watch. It looks out of proportion to the band, too square with far too much of a frame around the active screen. It kind of has a 1950's tv set look to it - big square with a small screen - and that's not a compliment.

 

[Arcus]

They look like dollar store merchandise. I like the kids model better.

 

[McTool]

Nice looking although I prefer the rugged outdoor look better. The price is right that's for sure. Did not see anything about water resistance. I know from experience, Fitbit's of the past were not waterproof, that's why I went with the Garmin Fenix 3.

Officially not waterproof! Wearing an Alta for 2 years never take it of. Not even while bathing, doing dishes and what not. Still works.

 

[MacLawyer]

The Android/Microsoft set are already prepared to proclaim this the new industry standard. (Yawn.)

 

[fuchsdh]

While there are advantages (longer battery life, etc.) there's two problems with the Fitbits versus the Apple Watch for me—one, tighter integration with the latter, which they can't really do anything about, and weak hardware quality, which they can. As expensive as they are, the fact that my family and friends have burned through Altas and Charges doing nothing more than being active commuters means that it seems like it'd be more cost-efficient to just buy an Apple Watch on the expectation I can go two years without breaking it. These seem to be chasing the Watch more directly but given my reliability concerns I wouldn't bite.

 

[avatar77]

Officially not waterproof! Wearing an Alta for 2 years never take it of. Not even while bathing, doing dishes and what not. Still works.

It's waterproof (officially, even!) to 50m. I like the look of it. I hope Apple Watch Series 4 gets a little bit of an update - aside from getting even thicker!

 

[NinjaHERO]

Interesting. I'm still bummed Fitbit didn't seem to do anything with the Pebble tech. I love the 7 days of battery life on my current Pebble. But 4 days on this is actually impressive. Keep going Fitbit. Someone has to push Apple to keep improving their watch.

 

[NachoGrande]

I sitting here still frustrated with my half baked apple watch. my be an option.
[doublepost=1520953248][/doublepost]

Nice looking although I prefer the rugged outdoor look better. The price is right that's for sure. Did not see anything about water resistance. I know from experience, Fitbit's of the past were not waterproof, that's why I went with the Garmin Fenix 3.

It can track swimming strokes so it's good

 

[goblutes]

If only it had GPS.

 

[Baymowe335]

RIP.

Fitbit is actually doomed. You can't try to rival Apple. You have to do something different and even then, you're probably screwed.

 

[coolfactor]

I miss the days when Apple would surprise us with new stuff.

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

Looks like crap.

 

[markfc]

Is that the only music choice? Seems weird dedicating an entire watch to one band...I mean I love Weezer but I'd want other music too.

 

[MarkB786]

Wow, that is one dorky looking watch. It looks out of proportion to the band, too square with far too much of a frame around the active screen. It kind of has a 1950's tv set look to it - big square with a small screen - and that's not a compliment.

Yeah, kind of like the Apple Watch.

 

[deanthedev]

Ive and Ahrendts' arrhythmia alarms just went off, someone call 911.

Not likely. Nobody has been able to match the Apple Watch, which is why it's the number one seller (by a mile).

Their website advertises "Swimproof**" and then in small characters at the bottom "**Water-resistant to 50M.". Not bad.

You need 50M water resistance even if you're swimming in only 1M of water. The pressure of the water on a wearable while swimming is far higher than you think. Simply hitting the water doing a backstroke can subject the device to pressures equivalent to 10M or more. This is why all the wearables out there that are considered good enough for swimming have a much higher water resistance rating (50M being very popular).

 

[MarkB786]

RIP.

Fitbit is actually doomed. You can't try to rival Apple. You have to do something different and even then, you're probably screwed.

Depends on cost. Folks might go for this if it is more affordable and has enough functionality. Plus, the app works across mobile operating systems unlike Apple Watch.

 

[hrefman]

While there are advantages (longer battery life, etc.) there's two problems with the Fitbits versus the Apple Watch for me—one, tighter integration with the latter, which they can't really do anything about, and weak hardware quality, which they can. As expensive as they are, the fact that my family and friends have burned through Altas and Charges doing nothing more than being active commuters means that it seems like it'd be more cost-efficient to just buy an Apple Watch on the expectation I can go two years without breaking it. These seem to be chasing the Watch more directly but given my reliability concerns I wouldn't bite.

Ive and Ahrendts' arrhythmia alarms just went off, someone call 911.

Take a look at the strap release mechanism