The Fitbit Versa Lite is the perfect combination of affordable fitness tracker and smartwatch

Does anyone remember the days when smartwatches weren't absolutely everywhere? Me neither. Fitness trackers and smart wearables are part of our lives now. And here at T3, we have a list of the best fitness trackers and at the top of that list sits a versatile and sexy smartwatch, the Fitbit Versa Lite… And for very good reasons. We still like it, even though the incoming Fitbit Versa 2 with Fitbit Premium looks even better.

• Fitbit Versa Lite vs Garmin Vivoactive 3

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Why is the Fitbit Versa Lite the best fitness tracker?

First up, the Fitbit Versa Lite comes with a range of excellent features and in the most important respects is as good as the full price Fitbit Versa.  It tracks steps and calories – something you'd expect from any fitness trackers – but it also has unusually advanced sleep tracking, as well as 24/7 heart rate monitoring. The heart rate monitor is also accurate enough to use during exercise to track intense cardio activity, more like a running of fitness watch – not something all trackers can say by any means.

You can take your Fitbit Versa Lite swimming since it's water resistant to 50 metres. That being said, it is by no means a diving watch and it can't track swimming unlike the full-price Versa, but feel free to splash around with it in a swimming pool. You can however track more than 15 different exercises, including running, cycling and even yoga and aerobic workouts.

On top of this, once the Fitbit Versa Lite has been paired with your smartphone, it can use its GPS to give you real-time time pace and distance metrics, too. One of the major appeals of this tracker-cum-smartwatch is actually the smartphone-connectivity and especially the Fitbit app; it is intuitive and user-friendly. You might be able to get another smartwatch with similar functions but there aren't many in this price range that come with such a great app.

Finally, the Fitbit Versa Lite looks amazing and it comes in all sorts of vibrant colours. These colours are not your run-of-the-mill ones, either: there are Mulberry and Marine Blue straps available, among others. This smartwatch looks particularly great on smaller wrists – larger fellas may find it a bit petite.

The Fitbit Versa Lite has over four days of battery life and it takes less than two hours to charge from 0-100 per cent. We recommend charging it at work, especially if you have a desk-related job – you might want to wear it during the nights so it can track your sleep, but usually there isn't much to track when you are sitting still at a desk.

It also does all the core smartwatch things – notifications of messages and calendar appointments, as well as having a growing selection of apps.

Check out the best prices for the Fitbit Versa Lite below.

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Further reading

As well as top 10s for fitness trackers, as well as the best running watches and best running headphones, we've got roundups on all things for smarter living, whether that's a roundup of the best watch winders or the best camping stoves or anything in between. 

You can count on T3 to deliver the knowledge on the best products available to buy right now.