The Fitbit Inspire 2 might be entry-level but it's packed with high-end features.
Should I Buy The Fitbit Inspire 2?
Pros
- Great value for a Fitbit
- Comprehensive fitness tracking
- Fantastic Fitbit app
Cons
- No altimeter
- No built-in GPS
Our Verdict
Price When Reviewed
- $99.95
The Fitbit Inspire 2 is a feature-packed activity tracker that offers the best value for money of any Fitbit.
While it’s the company’s entry-level tracker, it boasts nearly all the fitness features of the top-end Sense at 70% of the cost. It’s also nearly a third cheaper than the company’s other non-smartwatch tracker, the Charge 4.
It lacks the complex health functions of the smartwatches but offers just about everything you need in terms of simple and even quite advanced fitness tracking, from step count to sleep quality.
The Fitbit Inspire 2 replaces both the original Inspire and Inspire HR, and joins Fitbit's other non-smartwatch activity tracker, the Charge 4; read our comparison of the Inspire 2 and the Charge 4. While the Inspire 2 lacks the built-in GPS and altimeter, we think it's a better choice for many in terms of features for the price.
Design and build
The Fitbit Inspire 2 look just like the Inspire HR that it replaces. It’s a tracker rather than a smartwatch, so it has a monochrome OLED touchscreen display rather than a colour screen that would enable onscreen workouts and smarter apps.
There are several different clock faces to choose from, and you swipe up and down to set and see your metrics.
It's undeniably easier to see the stats on a larger colour smartwatch screen of a Fitbit Sense or Fitbit Versa 3, but the slimmer design might better suit your fashion.
The tracker itself is the central black part with the screen. It is water-resistant up to 50m, and comes with two sizes of silicone wristbands included, so you can choose which fits you best. Fitbit lets you print out a guide to find your right size.
At 37g, it’s lightweight and comfortable.
It has a robust aluminium buckle that is secure - indeed it feels more secure than the new Infinity Band that ships with the top-end Sense and Versa 3 Fitbits.
The Inspire 2 is available with Black, Lunar White and Desert Rose Classic bands, but you can accessorise with other available options.
Swapping the bands is pretty easy when you get the hang of it, although I found it a little more fiddly than with the new smartwatches.
You can also accessorise the Inspire 2 with patterned, leather and stainless steel mesh bands, from £24.99 or US$29.95.
Another option is a £19.99/$19.95 clip that you can attach to a belt, pocket or bra. You need to set it to an On Clip mode, and of course while in the clip it won’t be measuring your heart rate, so you’ll lose a bunch of features but keep the fitness basics (steps, distance, etc).
Features And Tracking
The Fitbit Inspire 2 is an activity tracker and it does that job very well, measuring steps, distance and calories burned.
It can automatically recognise when you are exercising: running, hiking, cycling, swimming, yoga, dancing, kickboxing, working out, and more. Indeed, there are over 20 exercise modes you can track with the Inspire 2.
You can set yourself targets for calorie burn, distance and time, and the Inspire 2 will give you real-time updates when each is reached.
Swim tracking includes lengths, duration, distance and pace. You need to add the pool length in the Exercise app first, but swim tracking is otherwise automatic.
The Inspire 2 starts its water lock when you begin swimming to prevent accidental taps.
This 24/7 heart monitoring gives you deeper insight into your exercise and workouts, as well as the quality of your sleep.
Fitbit sets heart-rate targets that it separates into zones: Fat Burn, Cardio, and Peak.
As you move in and out of these zones, you earn Active Zone Minutes that are a better fitness metric than just how many steps you make. The tracker gives a buzz when you reach each target heart rate.
Knowing your resting heart rate (RHR) is also a key fitness indicator. A lower resting heart rate can indicate more efficient heart function and cardiovascular fitness. Poor sleep, stress and weight gain can raise your RHR. Walking, cycling and swimming are great exercises to lower your overall resting heart rate.
Compared to the top-end Fitbits, it lacks just the altimeter to count the number of floors you climb during that - a great stair motivator, but probably the activity metric you can do without - and a built-in GPS.
Instead, you connect the Inspire 2 to your phone’s GPS for pace and distance stats. If you run with your phone, you won’t miss the lack of built-in GPS, and you’ll save on the tracker’s battery life.
Sleep And Mindfulness
As with all of today’s Fitbits, the Inspire 2 offers sleep tracking. You can check both sleep duration and the quality of your sleep by checking your periods of Light, Deep and REM sleep.
It also includes menstrual health-tracking features that examine your cycle and symptoms.
Impressive Battery Life
The Inspire 2 offers the longest battery life of any Fitbit: a massive 10 days, double that of the Inspire HR it replaces and several days longer than any of the other Fitbits available today.
Smart Features & App
The Fitbit Inspire 2 is a tracker rather than smartwatch, so lacks most of the apps that you get by spending more.
That said, it will give you on-wrist app notifications including Caller ID, texts, and alerts for other messaging apps (for example, WhatsApp and Facebook).
There’s also a handy countdown timer and stopwatch. And you can set alarms, too.
What sets the Fitbits apart from their rivals is the excellent mobile app that groups together all the stats you can see on the tracker plus plenty more - and more again if you subscribe to the Premium service.
There's the competitive Friends Leaderboard, where you compete for the most steps in the past seven days, accomplishment badges galore, and a great selection of virtual challenges and “adventures”.
Extra Features With Fitbit Premium
The Inspire 2 comes with a full year’s free subscription to Fitbit’s Premium service, which normally costs £79/$79 – almost the same price as the tracker itself!
Price
The Fitbit Inspire 2 costs £89.99 in the UK, $99.95 in the US, €99.95 in the EU, $129.95 in Canada, and $179.95 in Australia. You can buy it directly from Fitbit, or from Amazon or any of the usual tech stores wherever you are.
The original Inspire, without a heart-rate monitor, can be found even cheaper. But we’d seriously recommend the Inspire 2 for the heart stats and outstanding battery life.
You might also want to consider some of the other fitness trackers we've reviewed - some, like the Xiaomi Mi Band 5, offer most of the same tracking features as the Inspire 2 for less than half the price.
Verdict
The Fitbit Inspire 2's fitness feature set covers the basics very well - steps, calories burned, Active Zone Minutes, distance travelled, heart rate, sleep tracking, swim tracking, guided relaxation breathing, the ability to auto-detect workouts with reasonable accuracy, and notifications.
A third cheaper than the Charge 4, the Fitbit Inspire 2 offers incredible value for money for its extensive fitness tracking features, smartphone notifications, and heart-rate health insights.
It might lack a built-in GPS, but can connect to your phone’s GPS for greater sporting stats and maps. Everything else is built right in.
This is a great price for a light, smart-looking device with a solid feature set. Fitness fanatics will want something more advanced, such as the Versa 3 or Sense, but for most of us the Inspire 2 will be all we need.
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