I’ve had my Fitbit Inspire 3 from Digital Walker for about three months now. As a former Fitbit user, I found it quite easy to get back into that entire ecosystem, with some notable changes from my previous time using Fitbit.
With Google’s acquisition of Fitbit, I had to link a Google Account to my Fitbit account and from other reviews it seems like even though any data downloaded from a Fitbit device is sent to Fitbit servers, using a Google Account to log in implies that Google can crunch your data in some way.
There’s also been a big push toward getting users to sign up to Fitbit Premium, a monthly subscription service that allows you to dive deeper into your data with analysis and reports. You also get access to video fitness workouts, meditation sessions, and recipe suggestions. If this is your only fitness subscription, it’s probably bang-for-buck. Each new Fitbit also comes with your first six months of Premium free.
Aside from these changes, it was still the same ecosystem I’d grown to love using, with step challenges among friends, easy ways to set daily and weekly goals, and automatic activity recording.
Watch my review below for more, or scroll down for some written thoughts.
Here’s the lowdown on the Fitbit Inspire 3. It’s Fitbit’s most affordable fitness tracker with the functionality you need to keep track of your general fitness and wellness.
As a runner and triathlete, I paid special attention to the swim, bike, and run activity tracking as well as the metrics that help me track recovery: sleep and heart rate. All of these can be seen without a Fitbit Premium subscription, but if you want a report or analysis to help you make sense of all that raw data, or if you want to see older data, that’s only available on Premium. So I would recommend you try using the Fitbit without Premium first, then use the free six months. Then you can decide whether or not Premium is something you want to subscribe to long-term.
For running, Connected GPS makes use of a Bluetooth connection and your smartphone’s GPS to track location, speed, and distance. It’s quite accurate without the squiggly lines that I used to get with an earlier Fitbit that also used Connected GPS.
For cycling, if outdoors the Fitbit will use Connected GPS. If indoors, the only thing you can track is heart rate, time elapsed, and calories burned. There’s no option to connect to an external sensor.
For swimming, the Fitbit tracks number of lengths (you can set the pool size beforehand) and time, then extrapolates your pace from it. Unfortunately, during the activity the screen is locked and only displays elapsed time. When you end the activity, the Inspire 3 doesn’t show you any details and prompts you to upload to the Fitbit app to see more. I also found turning off the screen lock to be a bit difficult if my hands were wet.
The Inspire 3 can automatically detect certain activities you select, so even if you forget to start a run activity you’ll still have the data afterwards. However, on several occasions it showed me as going for a swim when I wasn’t even in the water. It’s easy to delete those recorded activities in the app, though.
The real power of the Fitbit Inspire 3 lies in the processing the Fitbit app does to make the data the tracker collects easy to read and understand.
If you’re looking for an all-around fitness tracker that will do the basic activity tracking to help you stick to your fitness goals, the Inspire 3 will get you off to a good start.
The Fitbit Inspire 3 is available for P6,290 at Digital Walker and Beyond The Box.
