All I want out of a watch is to have subtle notifications of texts/ calls, the ability to send simple text responses, speakerphone capability, and stopwatch/ timer capability. I don't need fitness tracker or any of the other stuff. I use my Polar chest band and app for that.
I love how my Apple watch will give me just a subtle tick tick vibration that no one else notices. It's handy when at meals or putting the kids to bed. Hope I can find similar functionality on the Android side.
You should be able to get all that with pretty much any of the available Android compatible smart watches. What you won't find is anything as refined as Apple's Taptic Engine – pretty much everything else (and, trust me, I've used them all at some point!) just vibrates, some better than others. Apple has haptics nailed, no question.
I did use it for running, it was nice being able to leave the phone at home, which I don't think is a feature of Fitbit Versa unfortunately.
The Fitbit Versa does not have its own GPS, so you will lose that if you use it without your phone on a run. It will, however, record all other stats (steps, heart rate, calories burned and so on) and synchronise with the phone when it's back in range. If you want a built-in GPS on a Fitbit, you need the Ionic.
I'm really struggling to decide between the Fossil Sport (which looks really good but is still $255) or the Fitbit Versa. Obviously the Fossil would be more compatible with my Pixel 3XL but Fitbits kind of work with everything and have great battery life.
All Android smartwatches are compromised in some way, sadly. Anything running WearOS is crippled by a four-year-old CPU/SOC that is simply sluggish at doing many basic tasks (such as opening apps, launching Google Pay etc). They also all have pretty horrendous battery life – a day at best with even basic use.
WearOS devices are also curiously fragmented – many lack NFC, for example, while others (particularly Fossil) have a speaker but no microphone which makes it difficult to interact with Google Assistant and impossible to take phone calls. The only "do everything" WearOS watches are the Huawei Watch 2 and the TicWatch Pro. The former has a small screen and the latter questionable quality control.
The Samsung watches are probably the nicest but are severely lacking in apps. The hardware is excellent but the software is a big issue – no Google Pay or Maps, for example. Even the Spotify app is lacking and hasn't been updated in years. Developers simply haven't got on board with Tizen and that's a real shame.
Fitbit possibly does the best balancing act. You get days of battery life, most basic functionality and, most importantly, excellent fitness tracking. The latter is the primary feature – both the Versa and the Ionic are, in all honesty, just masquerading as smartwatches – but you do get notification support and some limited apps. You can also perform quick replies to messages. The downside is Fitbit's OS – it's very flaky and feels antiquated. Music controls are extremely unreliable, although FitBit Pay does give you NFC payments on the Versa SE and Ionic.
TLDR: there are plenty of options for Android smartwatches but all are compromised in some way and none have anywhere near the features, polish and refinement of the Apple Watch.
