Fitbit Versa 3 vs Apple Watch Series 6 [9 Aspects Compared]

When we talk about buying a new smartwatch to take our health & fitness seriously, two brands pop into mind. These would be, Apple who has kept a hold on more than 51% of global smartwatch sales, and Fitbit who is known for its excellent health & fitness monitoring.

New Apple Watch Series 6 (GPS, 40mm) - Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band

Fitbit Versa 3 Health & Fitness Smartwatch with GPS, 24/7 Heart Rate, Alexa Built-in, 6+ Days Battery, Midnight Blue/Gold, One Size (S & L Bands Included)

$379.00

$229.95

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

New Apple Watch Series 6 (GPS, 40mm) - Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band

$379.00

Buy on Amazon

Fitbit Versa 3 Health & Fitness Smartwatch with GPS, 24/7 Heart Rate, Alexa Built-in, 6+ Days Battery, Midnight Blue/Gold, One Size (S & L Bands Included)

$229.95

Buy on Amazon

Apple’s latest Apple Watch Series 6 is kinda the new hot cake right now. It comes with the a Blood Oxygen Sensor that has been making some headlines and it has also inherited the ECG feature from the Watch Series 5. On the other hand, The Versa 3 also shares a few similarities with the Apple Watch SE, and even with the Apple Watch Series 6 while coming at a much lower price. It even has a Blood Oxygen (SpO2) monitor which is something that we don’t really see in such a price.

Doesn’t it seem like one of those too good to be true situations? Well, it is actually kinda complicated and you shouldn’t be getting caught up in the marketing and stuff as you may end up with something you weren’t expecting.

To help you decide whether you should get the Fitbit Versa 3 or the Apple Watch Series 6, I’ve spent 167 hours testing both the watches side-by-side. I’ve found out many differences that can make or break the experience, in this comparison, I’m going to mention all the differences between both the watches.

What I’m gonna do is, compare these two watches based on the technologies they are using, the respective health and fitness tracking features, the unique features, their respective ecosystems, and much more. So, that’ll help you decide on your priorities and finally, the model that is going to be perfect for your specific needs.

For an early take, understand that Android users can’t use an Apple Watch 6 because they are only compatible with iPhones. That might make Apple Watches a default choice for iOS users but, for people on Android, they kinda have to look for an alternative such as the Fitbits or maybe even Samsung smartwatches.

The interesting thing is that although the ecosystems are vastly different, the feature set is somewhat similar and Fitbit does support both iOS and Android so, even if you’re an iOS user, you can pick the Fitbit Versa 3. Now, I’ve explained the whole thing in precise detail, so please continue reading.

Fitbit Versa 3 vs Apple Watch 6 [Side By Side Comparison]

I don’t necessarily think that choosing between the Apple Watch Series 6 and the Fitbit Versa 3 is going to be a super hard decision for you. I mean one is a flagship & the other one is a mid-range, right? But, there are still a few things you’ll need to take into consideration before you can decide on one.

Now, before we get into the detailed comparison, if you want to get a clear idea of how the raw specifications and features differ on these smartwatches, here is a side by side comparison, compiled in a single table. So, have a look at that below:

Design & Build

• The Apple Watch Series 6 and the Fitbit Versa 3 have different design signatures. Apple has gone with its traditional rectangular design with rounded corners.
• This particular form factor was first introduced with the Watch Series 4 and Apple hasn’t changed it since. The Versa 3 has a squircle design that means a square design with rounded corners.
• The bezels are slightly thicker on the Fitbit Versa 3 which makes it less appalling visually compared to the Apple Watch Series 6.

Coming to the build quality, both the base variant of the Watch Series 6 and the Versa 3 have Aluminum cases. However, on the Apple Watch, you can also get Stainless Steel and Titanium case options by paying some extra money. Both of the watches do come with glass tops with the Apple one being their ion-X Glass.

The Stainless Steel & Titanium variants of the Apple Watch, do come with Sapphire on top. The Apple Watch Series 6 also comes in 40mm and 44mm case sizes. If you get the Fitbit Versa 3, you’re stuck with just one case size.

Both watches have a 5 ATM rating which means they can survive up to 50 meters underwater. This makes them perfect for swimming or surfing but, they won’t survive Skin Diving at greater depths under the ocean. So, unless you’re going to do that, you should be fine with any of these watches.

Apple also has a wider variety of watch bands available in Silicone, Nylon, Fiber, Leather, and Metal. Fitbit has a smaller variety with a collection of Silicone, recycled Plastic Fiber, and Horween leather bands that can be used on both the Versa 3 and the Sense. Apple lets you choose the bands right at the time of purchase while Fitbit supplies both small & large sizes of their Classic Wristband. You can also purchase the other bands from Fitbit if you want.

So overall, Apple has the upper hand here. With the different case and a wider variety of band options to choose from, the Watch Series 6 beats the Versa 3, fair and square. However, if you prefer that squared-off design of the Versa 3 over the rectangular Series 6, these things might not matter as much to you.

The Display

Both Fitbit Versa 3 and the Apple Watch Series 6 are using OLED panels. Apple is using an LTPO type display and they claim that this new one is improved and can stay twice as bright in the Always-on mode compared to the display on Series 5. It still has a peak brightness of 1000 nits, so there should be no problem in terms of outdoor visibility. There are two display sizes including a 1.78-inch display on the 44mm and a 1.57-inch display on the 40mm variant.

Fitbit doesn’t actually mention what the display size is but the top is 1.59-inches. Due to the bezels around the display, the actual display size might be slightly smaller than that. It also has an Always-on mode and it shouldn’t have any outdoor visibility issues either. However, as you might have guessed, Fitbit Versa 3 isn’t as bright as the Watch Series 6.

Fitbit claims to have hundreds of default watch faces on their store and you can keep 5 of them on your watch all the time. Apple has default watch Faces as well but they also let you create custom watch faces, so you can have any combination of stats available all the time.

Activity & Fitness Tracking

Both the Apple Watch Series 6 and the Fitbit Versa 3 are excellent at health & fitness tracking. The Watch Series 6 is Apple’s latest flagship which means it has some of the best features available on any smartwatch. The Fitbit Versa 3 is a mid-range so, of course, it won’t have some of the more premium features available on the Apple Watch 6 or the Fitbit Sense.

With The Apple Watch Series 6, the company finally introduced Blood Oxygen Monitoring which honestly was long overdue. Other than that we also have ECG which was introduced last year and other features like Heart Rate Monitoring, swim tracking, running, hiking, etc. and even Fall Detection.

ECG and Fall Detection can be really important for elderly people or for someone with a serious heart/health condition. The Fall Detection feature is associated with an SOS feature that alerts selected contacts if you collapse for some reason. If you have the LTE model, the Fall Detection & SOS will also work outdoors.

Fitbit has been including Blood Oxygen Sensors with their watches for a while now and the Versa 3 has that as well. However, it does not have the ECG feature which can be crucial if you have a heart condition. It does do Heart Rate Monitoring and other activity-tracking features like the Watch Series 6.

Now, if you want to stay in the Fitbit Ecosystem and still need ECG and maybe even Stress Management & Skin Temperature checking features, you have to spend a little more on the Fitbit Sense. However, none of the Fitbits come with fall detection, so avoid getting it if that feature is important to you.

If you don’t necessarily need the more high-end monitoring features, the Fitbit Versa 3 is a great smartwatch. But, Apple does home some extra stuff on the Watch Series 6 that may come in handy in an emergency. So, if you think you need features like ECG & Fall Detection, get the Apple Watch Series 6.

OS and Interface

If we’re going to compare Apples to Fitbit’s, we have to talk about the software & ecosystem. Apple’s WatchOS 7 is definitely the better option here. It integrates seamlessly with Apple’s ecosystem and gives you a great smartwatch experience. However, it has got a few tricks of its own and it does support Android devices including OnePlus, Motorola, and Pixel phones which the Apple Watch sadly doesn’t.

On the Watch Series 6, Apple has provided apps for ECG, Blood Oxygen Monitoring, and Heart Rate Monitoring that use the inbuilt hardware to show your health & fitness information. Other than that it also tracks most of your daily workouts. As mentioned earlier, you can also use custom watch faces to have any combination of stats on your wrist and you can also share them with anyone running the new WatchOS.

Fitbit supplies the Blood Oxygen Monitoring app as the hardware is present but, as mentioned earlier, the Versa 3 doesn’t have any other high-end monitoring features like the Apple Watch. Also, custom watch faces aren’t supported either.

Combined with the slower performance, the value of the software on the Fitbit Versa 3, is way lower compared to their own Fitbit Sense, which costs more so, maybe it’s justified. Now, you do get the Community features to connect with your local Fitbit users which is something Apple doesn’t do.

You get Siri on the Apple Watch Series 6 which still isn’t great. The Fitbit Versa 3 on the other hand, lets you choose between Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa which are way better. So, in this section, Fitbit has the advantage.

Both, the Watch (previously known as Apple Watch) and the Fitbit apps are excellent companions and they’ll show all the important stats, right on your smartphone. Anyway, both companies will conveniently sell you their premium Fitness Plans for $9.99 per month and $79.99 per year.

Apple will let you access their premium workout sessions at home if you get the Fitness+ subscription while Fitbit lets you access more detailed health stats and one to one health coaching sessions on their Premium membership. Both watches will come with a 3-month limited free trial of these services.

Hardware & Performance

The Apple Watch Series 6 packs some pretty powerful hardware. The new S6 chip is around 20% faster compared to last year’s S5 chip which was pretty fast itself. Combine that with 1GB RAM and 32GB Internal Storage and what you get is the fastest smartwatch in the market right now. Apple fine-tunes the hardware really well and optimizes the software accordingly. So, what you get out of all of this, is fast and smooth performance.

Now, as usual, Fitbit didn’t mention any hardware specifications for the Fitbit Versa 3. And the real-life performance, well the Fitbit Versa 3 doesn’t really feel that fast. The hardware isn’t as powerful and whatever Fitbit is using here, doesn’t even get close to Apple’s hardware. However, the Apple Watch is also quite a bit more expensive so, maybe you can overlook some of that.

Just like the Fitbit Sense, the Versa 3 also does away with buttons. Instead, they have sensors in place to digitally simulate button inputs. This is a super-unique solution and it works quite well. Sometimes you may miss an input or two but, it won’t be that frequent. Apple’s Digital Crown which is their fancy name for the high-tech watch dial supports haptic touch and acts as a Home button. You can also use it to take an ECG which isn’t available on the Versa 3.

Overall, the Apple Watch Series 6 blows away the Fitbit Vesa 3 when it comes to raw horsepower. The internals on the Versa 3 can surely use an upgrade with its next iteration. But, it also costs less so, if that is enough to justify the extra cost for you, then it shouldn’t be that big of an issue.

Battery Life

When it comes to battery life, the situation is completely different. The Fitbit Versa 3 will give you better battery life over the Apple Watch Series 6. This is because the underpowered hardware on the Versa also sips less battery compared to the flagship internals on the Apple Watch. If you’re using LTE connectivity on the Watch Series 6, it’ll eat up your battery even faster.

Talking about the Apple Watch Series 6, the 303.8 mAh Battery should last you around 18 hours of daily use on average. If you use Family Setup, you’ll average around 14 hours instead. For workout sessions, you can get around 10 hours indoors and around 5 hours outdoors with LTE turned on. In case you make calls on your Apple Watch, you’ll be getting around 1.5 hours of Talktime out of it.

The Apple Watch Series 6 does support fast charging. You can top it up from 0% to 80% in about 1 hour and to 100% in about 1.5 hours. So, you can set it up for a quick top-up in the morning and it should last you all day without any issues.

Fitbit also doesn’t mention any specifications for the battery, so I don’t know what the rated capacity is. But, Versa 3 shares the exact same design and dimensions as the Fitbit Sense so, I’m guessing that it should have the exact same battery as well.

On the Fitbit Vera 3, the company claims around 6-days of battery life but don’t expect that exact number in real-life. Actually, if you’re using GPS all the time, you can lose a full charge in about 12 hours. The Versa 3 supports fast charging as well and it’ll top up the battery from 10% to 80% in 40 minutes. Fitbit also claims that a 12-minute charge can last you all day but, again, it will depend on your specific use case scenario.

Connectivity Options

When it comes to connectivity, both of the smartwatches have very similar navigation features. The Apple Watch Series 6 has GPS/GNSS and the Fitbit Versa 3 has GPS+GLONASS for easy map navigation. So, in terms of navigation, Apple & Fitbit hasn’t compromised on that front.

The Apple Watch Series 6 does come with an optional GPS+Cellular model with support for 4G LTE and UMTS. This allows you to stay connected to the internet when you’re outdoors and take calls even if you left your phone at home, using the eSim feature. The Fitbit Versa 3 doesn’t come with Cellular connectivity so, if you need that, the Apple Watch is the way to go.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth situation is kinda similar with 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 being present in both of the models. However, Apple does support the 5GHz band which is generally slower than the 5GHz on the 802.11 ac Wi-FI but it still lets you connect to a 5GHz network while the Fitbit doesn’t.

Extra Features

Warranty

The Apple Watch Series 6 and the Fitbit Versa 3, both come with a 1 Year limited warranty. Now the Apple Watch does come with an International warranty while the Fitbit Versa 3 only gets a domestic warranty. That means the warranty on the Fitbit Versa 3 won’t work in another country while the warranty of the Apple Watch Series 6 will.

So, if you travel a lot for work or maybe go on vacation in other countries, you are safer with the Apple Watch as it’ll get free repairs, even in other countries. You can also purchase the AppleCare+ or the Fitbit Premium Protection plans which are premium warranties to cover physical damage.

Apple Watch 6: The Pros & Cons

Fitbit Versa 3: The Pros & Cons

Value & Price

The Fitbit Versa 3 is clearly a more value-oriented device compared to the Apple Watch Series 6. So, in general, Fitbit should have better value for most users. But, not for everyone though. Alongside having the important monitoring features, the Versa 3 does not have Cellular connectivity or an ECG sensor. Those may or may not be crucial to you but if they are, the Apple Watch Series 6 would be a better value for you.

Talking about the actual pricing though, the Apple Watch Series 6 starts at $399 for the 40mm GPS model. The GPS+Cellular model costs $499. The Stainless Steel and Titanium models cost $699 & $799 respectively and they do come with cellular connectivity. The bands start at $49 and can go up to as high as $449.

The Fitbit Versa 3 costs $229.95 for the GPS model. It actually does not come with a cellular option as the Apple Watch. So, that’s the one and the only option, you’re gonna get. The bands go from $29.95 to $49.95. The prices are definitely way lower than Apple but Apple does have more premium & non-premium options of cases and bands to choose from.

Who Should Buy These Watches?

Okay, so you’ve reached this far which means by now you already know which one you’re probably gonna get. However, if you still aren’t completely sure, I’m gonna make this easier for you by listing which one is suitable for which user, below:

You need to determine which of these categories you fall into and make a purchase decision based on that. The process should be a lot easier now.

Frequently Asked Questions

Verdict

Finally, it’s time to give my verdict and be done with this comparison. Instead of making one big statement, let’s divide my conclusion into points, so it’s easier to understand and not confusing to you at all.

• The Apple Watch Series 6 is a clear winner in terms of performance & connectivity
• The Fitbit Versa 3 has better battery life compared to the Apple Watch
• Apple’s Digital Crown has more functionality than the Sensor on the Versa 3 but, the sensor is also a unique solution.
• Both watches can survive under 50 meters of water, so you can pick any of them for swimming or/and surfing.
• The Fitbit Versa 3 supports Android which the Apple Watch doesn’t, so if you have an Android smartphone, you have to go for the Fitbit.

This time it’s an easy decision. If you have the money and you don’t use an Android smartphone, get the Apple Watch Series 6. It’s fast, has premium features, and some really important stuff that can be life-saving at times. But, if you’re tight on budget, you don’t have serious health concerns or you’re on Android, get the Fitbit Versa 3. If you need the ECG feature and you’re an Android user, spend slightly more and get the Fitbit Sense over the Fitbit Versa 3.

Other Smartwatch comparisons on BinDaily:

• Fitbit Versa 2 vs Apple Watch 6
• Apple Watch SE vs Apple Watch 6
• Apple Watch Series 5 vs SE
• Apple Watch SE vs 3
• Garmin Fenix 6 vs Apple Watch
• Fossil Gen 5 vs 4