The Fitbit Versa is the best smartwatch I've ever used — and it's on sale for $150 for Black Friday

Avery Hartmans/Business Insider

With the Fitbit Versa, Fitbit has created a near-perfect smartwatch.

The $200 Versa — now on sale for $149.95 for Black Friday — is Fitbit's second "true smartwatch." It has Fitbit's fitness tracking built in, along with a touchscreen that provides on-watch workouts, call, and text alerts, and in-depth fitness stats.

I tried Fitbit Versa for a little under a week, testing whether it held up to Fitbit's claims of four-day battery life (it did!) and whether it could be a more accessible, lower-cost option than the Apple Watch.

After several days of wearing Fitbit Versa nearly nonstop, I can say it's Fitbit's best wearable yet, and one of my favorite smartwatches I've ever tried.

Take a look at the Fitbit Versa, and why I like it more than the Apple Watch:

What immediately struck me about the Fitbit Versa was that I actually enjoyed wearing it. The watch is incredibly lightweight, so running with it or even wearing it to bed wasn't uncomfortable.

Typically, after wearing a watch on my wrist for long periods, it starts to feel constricting. When I come home at the end of the day, I can't wait to take it off. But I never felt that way while wearing Fitbit Versa. I slept with the watch on one night — something I never, ever do — and it was perfectly comfortable. 

And while you can't really tell from the photos, Fitbit Versa is smaller and better designed for thin wrists. I never felt like the watch overwhelmed my wrist or looked like I was wearing a man's watch. On the flip side, it's not overly feminine. I tried the black version of the Versa, and it would work just as well for men. 

One thing that has to be said about the Fitbit Versa's design: It looks just like an Apple Watch at first glance. I know this because more than once while testing it, someone said, "Oh, you're using an Apple Watch?"

I feel conflicted about that similarity. On the one hand, it's smart thinking. Analysts estimate that Apple is the biggest watchmaker in the world, outselling Rolex, Omega, and Swatch combined. Why wouldn't Fitbit want a piece of that? (Plus, Fitbit's first watch — Fitbit Ionic — wasn't exactly great-looking, so the Versa is a welcome change.)

On the other hand, the design feels lazy. I've never loved the design of the Apple Watch to begin with, and Fitbit's version is only marginally better.

I tried the Fitbit Versa in black with a metal mesh band for everyday wear and a white classic band for working out.

The metal mesh band instantly elevated the watch. It didn't look so much like a fitness tracker, but rather a fashionable watch that I was happy to wear every day.

I was worried that Fitbit Versa would feel cheap, especially since it's so lightweight and reasonably priced. But the watch is sturdy and well made, and the stylish accessories helped it look and feel high end.

I received my Fitbit Versa on a Tuesday afternoon and charged it up for an hour or so after unboxing it. But I unplugged it at about 90% because I didn't have time to fully charge it up. 

I wore the watch until the following Monday morning without charging it. It finally died around 11 a.m., but it even lasted almost another hour after getting to dangerously low levels and blinking at me repeatedly. It meant I got a full five days of battery life off a single charge, and not even a full charge at that. 

I don't expect that will be the case for everyone, or that I'll even get that same kind of battery life from the Fitbit Versa going forward. But not having to charge the watch every night was an incredible perk, and a game changer compared to other smartwatches on the market. 

One thing to note: I was surprised when I first took the Versa's charging dock out of box. Compared to chargers for other smartwatches, it's downright enormous. Since you don't have to charge the watch very often, I suppose it's not a big deal, but the charger isn't as portable as others out there.

I often find that smartwatches duplicate the efforts of my smartphone. My watch will send me all the same notifications I'm getting on my phone without adding any value. As someone who sits at a desk all day, I don't really need that functionality.

But Fitbit Versa keeps it simple. The watch has only a handful of apps preloaded, and none of them are messaging, email, or traditional social apps. Instead, it's apps like Starbucks, weather, and meditation. You don't even have the option to load on Gmail or Twitter, which means you're not constantly being pelted with notifications or distracted by frequent buzzes on your wrist.

Fitbit Versa will alert you to phone calls and text messages, but doesn't allow you to respond to messages on the watch, at least for iPhone users (Android have the option to use quick replies, which are short, preloaded messages). That was fine by me, since I was alerted to urgent things like calls and texts, but able to ignore other irritating notifications.

By the end of five days with Fitbit Versa, I felt like that watch did just enough to keep me connected, but not too much to make me feel overwhelmed.

See Also:

• Apple now lets you download all the data it keeps about you — here's how to do it
• The 25 most valuable US startups that failed this year
• The 6 biggest differences you need to know about when switching from an older iPhone to the iPhone XS Max

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