Wearable (In)decision (Premium)

To say that I’m indecisive about purchase decisions is, perhaps, the understatement of the century. Given enough time between announcement and release, I’ll preorder a product, cancel the preorder, and then preorder it again. And that’s exactly what I’ve done in recent weeks. More than once. With more than one product.

And so it goes for this congenitally indecisive individual. I’d love to tell you that I’m this way for you, that my indecision stems from a desire to only review the best products, or at least the products that I think readers may be interested in. And sure, there’s some of that. But in this specific case, I’ve been struggling to find a replacement for myself, for my current fitness wearable, a Fitbit Charge 3 that’s two years old now and has a display so dim I can’t read it where I need it the most, at the gym.

So before moving on to the wearable I did choose, at least for now, let me take you on a quick walk through my tortured process. Such as it is.

In late August, Fitbit announced the Versa 3 and Sense smartwatches. They are identical from a form factor perspective, and they use the same bands as each other, but not the same as the previous Versa models. And they are identical from a functionality perspective, except that the Sense adds ECG capabilities for assessing heart rhythm for signs of atrial fibrillation, electrodermal activity (EDA) sensing for stress detection (also used by lie detectors), and skin temperature sensing. The Versa 3 costs $239 and would ship by the end of September. The Sense costs $329.

Naturally, I preordered the Sense, because why wouldn’t I just get the best one if I’m upgrading. And then I let that simmer while I struggled each day to see my heart rate while working out with the Charge 3. (I was also interested to see Amazon announce its Halo fitness band and related service in late August, and after receiving it in mid-September, I could quickly tell it wasn’t for me because of the lack of a display. But I continue to wear it, at least for now, just to gather some number of weeks of data.)

Then, Apple happened. In mid-September, Apple announced Apple Watch Series 6 and SE, and, as interesting, its Fitness+ subscription service. From what I can tell—I haven’t owned an Apple Watch since the original version, which was at that time deemed “unnecessary”—Series 6 is identical to Series 5, but adds a blood oxygen sensor, an always-on altimeter, a U1 ultra-wideband chip (that’s currently not used for anything), and a slightly brighter display. So, it’s a minor upgrade for most Apple Watch users, but I’m years out of the loop, so there are all kinds of things going on there.

But it’s the Fitness+ service that may put Apple Watch over the top for me, at least over time: I’ve always struggled with the lock-in of Apple’s ecosystem, and while it’s fair to say that I’ll always have an iPhone on hand—necessary to use Apple Watch—it’s also fair to say that I typically use and absolutely prefer Android handsets over iPhone. And I feel like it’s reasonable to expect my fitness wearable/smartwatch to work with the phone I actually use.

That said, I was so impressed by Apple Watch Series 6 and Fitness+ that I asked my wife—who writes about health, fitness, nutrition, and wellbeing, and routinely interviews doctors, researchers, and others in these fields—to watch the parts of Apple’s presentation that dealt with these two products.

She wasn’t super-impressed with Tim Cook or Apple per se—she’s not a fan of the company—but she thought that both Apple Watch Series 6 and Fitness+ looked fantastic. That might have been just the push I needed, because I ended up pre-ordering an Apple Watch Series 6 too. (Fitness+ won’t go live until later in the year.)

But again, that’s the funny thing with preorders. They give you time to think, to have an early bout of buyer’s regret, and reconsider your decision.

And I did just that. With both the Fitbit Sense and the Apple Watch.

I won’t bore you with the details or the timing. But over the past several days, I’ve canceled both preordered and reordered both. And canceled them again. I’ve researched other smartwatches, including the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and Watch Active 2, and the Garmin Venu SQ, not to mention various fitness bands like the Samsung Galaxy Fit 2.

And … I found myself back at square one. So I finally did what I’d advise others to do, which is to evaluate what is most important to me—that so-called matrix of deciders that I often discuss in writing about smartphones—and let that guide the decision. I know, obvious. But I think I got caught up in looking only at the latest “flagships” in this space instead of honing in on what’s important.

I’m not excusing myself, but this is an easy trap to fall into. One can make a great argument for buying the most expensive and premium choice because it may be more future proof and last longer, or be of higher quality. We do this with all kinds of things—houses, cars, electronics, whatever—but it doesn’t always make sense.

In my case, what it boiled down is that I’m fine with the functionality I get from the Charge 3. I just can’t see the screen. And not because it’s too small, but because the display is too dim.

Two improvements would fix this: Fitbit could simply release a new Charge version that has a brighter display, but they did release a Charge 4 last year and there’s no mention of that improvement. Or, they could release a wearable with a color display: I found that the Samsung Fit wearable, which does have a color display that’s smaller than my Charge 3’s display was very easy to read. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to switch ecosystems for a $99 band. I have a lot of data in Fitbit, so switching to something else would have to be really worth it.

Anyway, since Fitbit doesn’t make a tracker with a color screen, I need to look to its smartwatches instead, assuming I want to stick with this ecosystem. And that means the Versa 3 and Sense.

As noted, the Sense has a few advantages, or at least unique features, when compared to the Versa 3. But the more I think about these features, the more I realize there’s not strictly necessary. Yeah, I’m interested in general wellbeing for sure, and given the COVID-19 pandemic and all the related stress, I’d never discount any solutions in that area. But … I use Fitbit to track activity and sleep. And that stuff works fine on my current tracker.

For $239, or $100 less than the cost of the Sense—and, by the way, $70 less than the Apple Watch SE ($309) and $190 less than the Apple Watch Series ($429), both in 44 mm variants—the Fitbit Versa 3 gives me all the features I want along with the bigger and brighter color display my Charge 3 lacks. (And a new Charge 4 costs $149, so the Versa 3 is just a $90 premium.)

And let’s face it, this isn’t a long-term purchase, so saving money makes sense: I’ve used my Charge 3 for two years, and I’m guessing that that’s about as long as I’d ever want to use the Versa 3. This market is changing so fast, and improving so rapidly, that I may want to upgrade next year. There’s no reason to spend too much money, not to mention waste so much time stressing over this purchase.

That said, when the Versa 3 does arrive today via Amazon, I may discover that it’s not for me. And I’m certainly going to keep my eyes open and see what happens with Fitness+ and with rival wearables. If Versa 3 doesn’t work out, I’ll keep looking.

I hope it works out. I’m tired of worrying about this and just want to move on. Besides, I’ve got a similar indecisive issue simmering with my next smartphone, between the Pixel 4a 5G (which, yes, I’m still considering like an idiot), the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, the OnePlus 8T, and whatever Apple announces on the iPhone front this month. It never ends.

More soon. But seriously. Don’t be like me. It’s not great.