Since the Apple Watch Series 4, wearable makers have shaken up adding electrocardiogram features to their smartwatches. Well, leak renders from WinFuture suggest that Fitbit is ready to introduce its own smartwatch with ECG, along with an updated Inspire 2 tracker and … no surprise, a Versa 3.
The actual details of WinFuture, a German tech site with a decent track record when it comes to leaks, are pretty bad. To starters, these are marketing versions, not photos of the actual products. That said, if these returns come true, it looks like we’ll finally get another higher-end smartwatch to replace it somewhat tragically Ionic.
WinFuture says that the higher-end smartwatch will be called the Fitbit Sense. It … looks like the Versa, though with a more rounded ’round’ face and the same inductive buttons that Fitbit has on the Cost 3. More interesting is the render that shows the back of the watch and its sensors. It appears that the back cover now contains metal materials and another sensor arrangement. It also shows the symbols for body temperature, GPS support, water resistance, and interestingly, a heart with something resembling a heartbeat sine wave pattern. The new metal backing, the sine wave pattern, and even the nickname Sense seem to hint at ECG capability – but at this point it’s just speculation.
G / O Media can get a commission
For starters, it could just be that Fitbit adds that capability as a means of futureproofing. A reminder: This is exactly what it did with the Ionic in 2017. At the time, Fitbit added SpO2 sensors to the watch, but did not introduce a feature that these sensors actually used until earlier this year. A big factor here regarding ECG is if it can get FDA clearance. Samsung also introduced ECG capability on them Galaxy Watch Active2 last year, but it was not until this one year with the Edit Galaxy Watch 3 launch that Samsung got it okay from the FDA. Even then, Samsung’s ECG app is not yet live in the US Still, given that Samsung was able to get clearance, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Fitbit has also managed to get FDA clearance or is in the process of to get it.
Or, as WinFuture mentions, Fitbit has used a heart symbol in the past to indicate continuous brain monitoring. That there could be no ECG at all. We’ll have to wait and see.
Moving on to the Versa 3, now, it looks like a Versa smartwatch. The most I can say here is that it turns out that Fitbit removes the wicked pins to replace the tires with an easier button mechanism. It also seems to have the same sensor arrangement as the Sense, but without the metal. The symbols also indicate a microphone – probably for voice assistants, as on the Versa 2 – and GPS and water resistance. I’m not quite sure what else Fitbit can add to the Versa line, other than built-in GPS (which it recently succeeded with the Application 4) and maybe Google Assistant compatibility, given that Fitbit is in it process of purchasing by Google.
In any case, the appearance of a Versa 3 would indicate that Fitbit has not yet done with milking the popularity of its Versa line. The original Versa put gangbusters up for sale because of its attractive price, decent feature set, and non-terrible design (again, the Ionic was a tragic smartwatch). Sales of Versa Lite Edition from last year were disappointinghowever, so we’ll have to see if yet another iteration on the Versa line really gets someone’s eye.
Finally there’s the Inspire 2. It sure looks like another basic fitness tracker from Fitbit! It has a round shape? Based on these renderers, that’s all we really need people for. Maybe the updates have more to do with it the internal hardware upgrades, but we would have to wait for Fitbit to officially launch the devices (like another leak with spec leaks) to find out.
In any case, we probably do not have to wait too long to find out. In recent years, Fitbit’s has been following a regular Spring Fall product cadence, with announcements for new products coming in late August or early September. It’s almost the end of August, so … really, we should get the deets every day now.
.
