Anybody expecting big design changes from the upcoming Fitbit Versa 4 and Fitbit Sense 2 will be sorely disappointed, a swiftly deleted video suggests.
The video was published by accessory maker Wasserstein and showed how to apply a screen protector to the upcoming smartwatches. Simply titled “Wasserstein Tutorial for Fitbit Versa 4 / Sense 2 Screen Protector,” it has now been taken down, but not before 9to5Google was able to grab stills from the video.
Not that the still above tells you very much at all. As 9to5Google notes, it looks like the screen protector is actually being applied to the original Fitbit Sense in the video, given the placement of the button and sensor.
But that tells us something important: if this screen protector fits the Fitbit Versa 4, Fitbit Sense 2 and the original Fitbit Sense, then the design of all three must be virtually interchangeable. This backs up a previous code dive which suggested that the upcoming wearables would maintain the same 336 x 336 panels as the last generation of Sense and Versas.
That shouldn’t be massively surprising: the history of Fitbit — and especially the Versa — is one of iterative design changes over a number of years. And ultimately, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, which is by the Fitbit Versa 3 and Fitbit Sense have both been featured on our list of the best fitness trackers and best smartwatches.
Unfortunately, we don’t really know what Fitbit is planning within. For the Fitbit Versa 4, there’s little functionality that could be added without additional sensors, so we wouldn’t be surprised if it borrowed one or more of the ECG, EDA and/or skin temperature sensors from the Fitbit Sense.
Given the Fitbit Sense has all of these already, it’s harder to say what a second-generation model will offer, so perhaps the software side is likely to see greater tweaks. Better integration with Fitbit Premium’s guided workouts, or built-in maps, for example.
This is all speculation, of course, but one thing that appears nailed on is that neither smartwatch will use Wear OS. The previously mentioned code dive made specific mention of the Fitbit software bridge which enables the company’s operating system to talk to smartphones.
That’s a pity given CEO James Park said at Google I/O 2021 that his freshly acquired business would be “building premium smartwatches based on Wear that combine the best of Fitbit’s health expertise with Google’s ambient computing capabilities.”
That may be something for the Fitbit Versa 5 and Sense 3 — or perhaps we’ll see a whole new Fitbit embrace the new with Wear OS at some point down the line.
Next: Leaked photos show that the worst feature of the Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 is dead.
