1. Design

Looking at the appearance of these three watches, you’ll agree with me they all look decent enough to at least justify the price tag on each. However, Fossil being a top name in the fashion industry seems to know how to come up with a more stylish design with every new wearable released.

Although, the Gen 4 Sport doesn’t have that premium design, but certainly is more fashionable and stylish than the Versa or the somewhat odd Forerunner 245.

In terms of sizes, all three are moderate. The versa is the slimmest and also smaller than the other two which makes it the best choice for women and people with smaller wrists. The Versa and Gen 4 Sport have touchscreen support in addition to physical buttons as against the all button choice on the Forerunner 245.

As per display, the AMOLED powered display of the Gen 4 Sport offers the most interactive and lively display that’s more satisfying to view while the transflective LCD display of the Versa and 245 ensures they would actually last longer than the Gen 4 sport and are also easily more visible under sunlight as compared to the AMOLED display which is a bit difficult to view outdoors.

As per body materials, all three devices feature durable materials with the Versa and Gen 4 Sport which weigh slightly less than the Forerunner 245 which is also lightweight too.


2. Connectivity


Talking about connectivity, the Gen 4 Sport and Versa have NFC support which supports Google Pay and Fitbit Pay on these two respectively. There is no NFC chip in the Forerunner 245, so you won’t be able to make any mobile payment from this device.


3. Operating System


While the Forerunner 245 runs on Garmin’s proprietary operating system, same with the Versa running on the Fitbit OS. The Gen 4 Sport being a Wear OS smartwatch runs on the latest updated 2.6 version.

In terms of features, the Wear OS platform offers you more access to your favorite apps, while Google Assistant and Google Fit have improved a lot, but it isn’t any significantly better than the Fitbit OS or the Garmin OS that actually offers relatively nice features and improving user experience.


4. Media


All three devices come with onboard storage for your downloads. However, the Gen 4 sport has a microphone that’s lacking on both the Versa and Forerunner 245 which enables you to access the much improved Google Assistant that’s smarter and easier to access.


5. Activity Tracking


Like mentioned earlier, all three devices are great choices for fitness tracking. Each comes with all the standard sensors, except for the Versa which lacks inbuilt GPS. Although, connects effortlessly to your phone GPS.

The Versa features quite a number of fitness tracking features that include the female period tracking, VO2 max which makes it the best for indoor activity tracking, while the Forerunner 245 with its long list of fitness tracking features and support for multi GPS system is a great choice for outdoor activity tracking.

The Gen 4 Sport on the hand also has quite a number of fitness tracking features that include the ability to track your steps, sleep, calories, while also having inbuilt GPS that makes a great choice for tracking your active life.


6. Battery Life

As per battery life, Forerunner 245 clearly has a longer battery life than the Versa which also has an impressive battery. The Gen 4 Sport, on the other hand, has the lowest battery life compared to the Versa or Forerunner 245. It’s quite surprising, considering it’s powered by the Snapdragon 3100 chip which was debuted to bring a significant improvement to the battery life of future Wear OS smartwatches.

While the Forerunner 245 has the longest battery life that lasts about 5-7 days on regular usage, the Versa has about 2-3 days of battery life, while the Gen 4 Sport will last about 24 hours on mixed usage.
For long term activity tracking, the Forerunner 245 is certainly the best choice.