So it turns out, smart watches are a guy thing.

 

According to Fitbit's own stats, males outnumber females about 60/40 when it comes to wearing tech stuff on your wrist.

 

To be fair, till now Fitbit's smartest devices have looked more like something Captain Kirk would wear rather than Beyonce or Jacinda Ardern.

 

Chunky. Space-aged. Okay... geeky. Time to introduce some finesse to the equation...

 

 

As much as we'd like to believe we've left the days of pink for girls and blue for boys behind us, there are still some gender-based stereotypes we just can't seem to shake.

 

Guys generally love a gadget whereas ladies would prefer not to wear one that looks too... gadgety.

 

Annoyingly (because I hate Apple so much) the Apple Watch has gone a long way to breaking down the barriers between the functionality of a really clever smart watch and a stylish accessory most people wouldn't mind wearing in public.

 

This is of course, simply because Apple is a cult and those poor souls who have become addicted to any product with a lower-case "i" in front of it will buy whatever they're told to.

 

There were plenty of decent smart watches around before Apple made theirs, unfortunately none with quite the pulling power brand-wise.

 

While all this was going on, Fitbit was perfecting the art of activity tracking, dominating the market in fitness wearables, primarily because Fitbit devices are easy to use, the app is standout and above all, they work.

 

Recent products like the Blaze and Ionic went a step further and attempted to bridge the gap between dedicated fitness tracker and all-round smart watch.

 

The Ionic was easily Fitbit's smartest device to date, introducing their own range of apps and even cutting-edge features like contactless payment.

 

Waterproof, one of the few watches around capable of tracking swimming as well as all the usual exercises, Ionic was a true competitor against other big name smart watches.

 

But not for women apparently. Still too big and weird-looking.

 

Enter the Fitbit Versa. So much smaller. Lighter. Slimmer. And yes, also available in pink.

 

What woman could resist?

 

...or at least that's what I thought.

 

I embarked on a highly scientific survey of all the females I could find in my office and none of them were particularly keen on wearing the Versa.

 

Still too bulky, strap still too wide apparently. I found this surprising, because compared to the Ionic and the Blaze, the Versa is positively tiny. It's even smaller than the Apple watch, but according to my scientific sample, still not dainty enough. I was showing them the Special Edition version too. Admittedly it was the Graphite one with the Charcoal woven band. Perhaps I would have got a more favourable response with the Rose Gold coloured model with either the Peach band or the Special Edition Lavender woven one.

 

Maybe, even now in 2018, the superior sex still don't really want a smart watch, no matter how it looks or feels, and believe me, the Versa is so light it's basically weightless - which makes it more comfortable than ever for sleep tracking. This means wearing the watch to bed of course, which is uncomfortable for most people, but the Versa, especially the Special Edition version with the woven band, is barely noticeable. Fitbit also claims a "4+ Day Battery Life," which, in my testing, turned out to be an almost 4 day battery life, but it certainly means you're not having to charge the thing every night like most other smart watches.

 

In fact, because it's water resistant to 50 metres, (kind of important for swim tracking) there's really no reason to take it off at all. The challenge is finding the opportunity somewhere in that four days to charge it. Because the Versa tracks so many of your everyday activities it's pretty addictive.

 

Speaking of charging, yes, yet again there's a whole new, unique setup for that. This time it seems to be a combination of every other charger Fitbit has ever made; a clippy bedside cradle thing on the end of a USB lead. While nowhere near as fiddly as some previous arrangements that actually involved taking your Fitbit to pieces to charge it, I don't know what was wrong with the stripped-down magnetic attachment we got with the Ionic. It was elegant and simple.

 

Once you get past the dramatic cosmetic differences, the Versa works exactly the same way as the Ionic, with one minor exception. The Ionic has its own built-in GPS while the Versa needs to stay paired to your phone in order to know where it is. Given I usually take my phone with me everywhere anyway, personally this makes no difference to me whatsoever.

 

Fitbit recently completely revamped the Operating System for the Ionic, making shortcuts and notifications easier to get to and replicating the dashboard display from the Fitbit app on the watch itself. This OS runs exactly the same way on the Versa. It works really well, and the improvements Fitbit has made to the reliability of the notification service brings these devices right into the realm of the genuine smart watch market. My only real beefs operationally-wise are the time it takes to download and install apps and watchfaces - although there are heaps more of these than ever before so that's great.

 

The media controller is still pretty buggy, unfortunately. After the OS update I couldn't get it to work at all, until I found a post on one of Fitbit's support forums that suggested toggling the music source between the watch and the phone. I did this and the media controls magically appeared - I trick I've had to repeat regularly to get it to work. Definitely a quirk Fitbit needs to sort.

 

One of the new apps available on the Versa and Ionic is the music streaming service, Deezer. You'll need a paid subscription to download your playlists to your watch, but you get three months for free when you purchase a Versa. It's actually my favourite streaming app, so once you try, you may well decide to buy.

 

But back to the girls. Ladies. Women. In conjunction with the launch of the Versa, Fitbit has also announced its new female health tracking app. While there are other apps around for keeping an eye on menstrual cycles etc, Fitbit promises to provide a more comprehensive picture than ever by integrating all the other health data the Versa already monitors. What's more, Fitbit offers the opportunity to share your experiences via its online forums, which is pretty groundbreaking, especially in countries and cultures where openly discussing womens health is virtually tabu.

 

Unfortunately, although the release of this service is iminent, it's not out yet so I haven't been able to assign a female to put it through its paces on my behalf. Rest assured, I'll definitely do this as soon as I can and that may result in a whole review all of its own.

 

So, in spite of my scientific office survey, it's hard to deny Fitbit is making every effort to cater for the female market with the Versa. To be honest, I'm pretty happy with how it works on my wrist too. Only time will tell if this latest smart watch will be able to bridge the gap between geek-wear and style.

 

 

Click here for more information and pricing on the Fitbit Versa