Fitbit Inspire 3 Review (2024)

If you're in the market for a budget-friendly fitness tracker to start logging your workouts and health metrics, consider the $99.95 Fitbit Inspire 3. Fitbit's latest entry-level model features an AMOLED color touch screen that improves its aesthetics and usability, along with an SpO2 sensor. It can also track your breathing rate, skin temperature, and heart rate variability. Despite a slight decrease in battery life from the previous model, it's still the longest-lasting Fitbit available. The Inspire 3 offers more workout metrics than the cheaper Amazon Halo View ($79.99), including capabilities similar to more expensive options like the Fitbit Luxe ($129.95) and the Garmin Vivosmart 5 ($149.99). Given its features and performance for the price, the Fitbit Inspire 3 earns our Editors' Choice award for the best affordable fitness tracker.

Fitbit Inspire 3 vs. the Competition

The $99.95 Fitbit Inspire 3 replaces its predecessor (the Inspire 2) as the lowest-priced option in Fitbit's adult fitness tracker lineup, which also includes the fashion-focused Luxe ($129.95) and the more advanced Charge 5 ($149.95).

Fitbit also makes health-focused smartwatches with larger screens, including the Versa 4 ($199.95) and the Sense 2 ($299.95). Rounding out the lineup is Fitbit-parent Google's Pixel Watch ($349.95), which features Fitbit fitness tracking.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Fitbit devices come with a one-year limited warranty that covers manufacturing defects but not accidental damage. You may want to spring for the $19.99 Inspire 3 extended warranty, which increases the coverage term to two years and includes accidental damage.

The Inspire 3 comes with six months of Fitbit Premium ($9.99 per month or $79.99 a year), which offers access to 90-day health metric trend graphs and more than 1,000 video and audio workouts, plus guided meditations, healthy recipes, and more. With a Premium subscription, you also get a Daily Readiness Score, a metric that indicates whether your body is ready for a workout or needs a rest day.

By way of comparison, the Amazon Halo View one-ups the Inspire 3 with a one-year premium app membership trial, but Fitbit's trackers offer more functionality without a membership, including detailed activity, exercise, and sleep metrics. The Halo View, on the other hand, requires a membership ($3.99 per month after the first year) to access most of its features; without one it only functions as a basic activity, heart rate, sleep, and step tracker.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Design-wise, the Inspire 3 centers on a black plastic case measuring 1.55 by 0.73 by 0.46 inches (LWH), making this model slightly larger but thinner than its predecessor. I wouldn't call it stylish, but its AMOLED color touch screen is a big aesthetic upgrade from the Inspire 2's dated grayscale OLED.The touch screen is satisfactorily responsive to swipes and taps and doesn't exhibit much noticeable lag.

The tracker's rectangular display is still surrounded by a thick black bezel on all sides, but its user interface features colorful text set against a black background, creating an optical illusion as though the bezel is an extension of the screen. Many other trackers pull the same visual trick, as does the Pixel Watch.

Left to right: Fitbit Inspire 3, Garmin Vivosmart 5, Amazon Halo View (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Text on the display is tiny but otherwise clear. You cannot adjust the font size, which could be an issue for those with poor vision. Because the screen is so small, it can be tough to read your metrics during vigorous activity.

The display offers three screen brightness levels: dim, normal, and max. A built-in ambient light sensor helps the screen adjust for optimal visibility based on lighting conditions. Indoors, the screen is bright and easy to read. Outdoors in bright sunlight, glare often causes me to squint to read text on it. There are four display timeout options: default, medium, long, or always on.

Increasing the screen brightness or lengthening the default display timeout period will reduce battery life. If you choose to set the display so that it's always on, you can still have it turn off during the hours you sleep.

(Credit: Fitbit)

Fitbit offers 21 clock faces for the Inspire 3 via the companion app. The default Highlight clock face comes in three color options (green, yellow, or purple), and shows the time, date, and various stats you can cycle through by tapping the screen. Most of the other clock faces are not customizable.

Fitbit doesn't specify the tracker's weight, but it feels light and comfortable on my wrist, and it's slim enough to wear alongside bracelets.

The stock band is made of silicone with a plastic buckle and it comes in Lilac Bliss, Midnight Zen, or Morning Glow. In the box, you get both small and large bands that fit wrists measuring 5.4 to 7.6 inches and 7.6 to 8.7 inches in circumference, respectively.

The clip works with yoga pants and thicker fabrics (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Fitbit sells stainless steel and translucent silicone Inspire 3 accessory bands, as well as a clip so you can wear the tracker on your waistband without the strap. Changing the band takes a bit of practice. You have to slide the metal lever on the back of the band to remove it from the tracker. To attach a new band, push the pin on the opposite side of the lever into the tracker first. Then, slide the lever inward and attach the other end of the band.

For my review unit I chose the Morning Glow band, which I'd describe more as marigold. Fitbit also sent me the soft gold stainless steel mesh accessory band (sold separately for $69.95), the deep dive translucent band ($34.95), and the clip ($19.95). Happily, Fitbit upgraded the clasp on the stainless steel mesh band for the Inspire 3, so it's a lot more secure and far less likely to accidentally come undone than its magnetic counterpart on the Fitbit Luxe.The clip is a nice option if the included bands don't fit or are uncomfortable, but it limits the tracker's functionality as it doesn't support heart rate or sleep score measurements when worn this way.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The Inspire 3 is waterproof to 164 feet, so you can safely wear it in the pool. If it gets wet, be sure to take it off and allow your skin and the device to dry before putting it back on. (Failure to heed this warning resulted in skin irritation when I was testing the Inspire 2.) I didn't experience any irritation with this model, but I was careful to remove it after sweaty workouts.

For fitness and health tracking, the Inspire 3 features an accelerometer, an optical heart rate monitor, and red/infrared sensors for overnight blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements. The Charge 5 builds on these capabilities with an integrated GPS as well as electrocardiogram (ECG) heart rhythm and electrodermal activity (EDA) stress sensors.

The Inspire 3 and the Luxe offer a nearly identical feature set, but the latter sports a more attractive stainless steel case and foregoes some battery life in favor of a thinner design.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The Inspire 3 offers the longest battery life of any current Fitbit device. It's advertised to last up to 10 days on a charge like its predecessor, despite the display upgrade. My testing, however, reveals a slight decrease instead. Battery life depends on settings and use, of course, but eight days of power per charge is a more realistic expectation with normal use. Enabling the always-on display drops battery life to about three days.

In testing, the Inspire 3 still had 50% battery life remaining after four days of normal-to-heavy use, and 43% after five days. This was with the always-on display disabled. In comparison, the Inspire 2 retained 60% juice at the five-day mark. The Garmin Vivosmart 5 and the Amazon Halo View both last around six days on a charge, comparatively, and the Charge 5 stayed powered for 3 days with its always-on display enabled. The Luxe offers around five days of battery life between charges.

The Inspire 3's short charging cable includes a module that snaps onto the bottom of the tracker and plugs into a USB-A brick. Fitbit does not include a USB power adapter in the box, which is pretty standard for wearables these days. The Inspire 3 takes about two hours to fully charge.

Getting to Know the Inspire 3

The Inspire 3 is compatible with mobile devices running at least Android OS 9 or Apple iOS 14. To set it up, you need to download the Fitbit app on your phone if you don't already have it.

Fitbit plans to transition its platform to use Google accounts later this year. After 2025, you will need a Google account to continue using your Fitbit device, but until then you can still use an existing Fitbit account.

(Credit: Fitbit)

I had a tough start setting up the Inspire 3 because the Fitbit app kept crashing on my iPhone 14. The Fitbit Support account on Twitter indicates that its services have been impacted several times this year, which may have played a role here. Once the Fitbit app was back up, I had no trouble connecting the watch.

Inside the Fitbit app, tap your profile image > Set Up a Device > Inspire 3, then follow the on-screen instructions. During the setup process, you'll need to enter a four-digit security code in the app that appears on the Inspire 3's display.

The Inspire 3 connects to your phone via Bluetooth, so it must be within about 30 feet to sync data and notifications if you have them enabled.

(Credit: Fitbit)

To enable call, text, and app notifications on the Inspire 3, go to your phone's settings menu, tap Bluetooth, tap the information icon next to your device, and enable Share System Notifications. Then, from the Today tab in the Fitbit app, tap your profile picture > Inspire 3 > Notifications, and toggle the ones you want to receive. In testing, text and app notifications came through without issue.

The Inspire 3 is easy to navigate using taps and swipes on the screen. To wake the display, firmly double-tap the screen or rotate your wrist toward your face.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

From the clock face, swipe up to see the tracker's battery percentage and a daily snapshot of your health and fitness stats. This includes steps, distance, Active Zone Minutes (a Fitbit metric for weekly activity tracking), hourly activity (step count that hour), heart rate, sleep, SpO2, period prediction, and exercise (number of days vs. your weekly goal).

To access your apps, swipe left and right on the display. The Inspire 3 offers the following apps: Alarms, Exercise, Find Phone, Notifications, Relax, Settings, SpO2, and Timers. There is no app store and the tracker cannot run any third-party apps.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

Swipe down from the clock face to access settings, including Sleep Mode, Do Not Disturb, and Find Phone. Previously limited to Fitbit's smartwatches, the Find Phone app is a useful addition to the company's tracker lineup. As long as the Inspire 3 is connected to your phone via Bluetooth, your handset will emit a loud noise when you press the Find Phone button.

To go back to the previous screen, swipe from left to right. To quickly go back to the clock, press the haptic buttons on the left and right sides of the case.

Fitbit Inspire 3 Workout Tracking and Accuracy

The Exercise app supports up to six activity shortcuts on the device at a time, including walk, run, bike, swim, workout, and treadmill, all of which are preinstalled. Other available shortcuts, which you can add to your tracker via the Fitbit app, include bootcamp, circuit training, elliptical, golf, hike, interval workout, kickboxing, martial arts, outdoor workout, pilates, spinning, stairclimber, tennis, weights, and yoga.

That list is fairly limited, and while you can always use the general "workout" tracking option, you might not like it if your favorite activity is missing. I personally wish there were shortcuts for indoor rowing and HIIT.

(Credit: Fitbit)

While tracking a workout, you can tap the screen to scroll through various data and metrics for the session depending on what you're tracking. For outdoor walks and runs, it shows and tracks your distance, time elapsed, Active Zone Minutes accrued, pace, average pace, heart rate, calories, steps, and the time.

The Inspire 3 lacks a built-in GPS, so it must connect to your phone to accurately track your pace and distance during outdoor walks, runs, hikes, and bike rides. This isn't a problem for me since I usually have my phone on me during outdoor workouts, but it may be a drawback if you prefer to leave your phone at home. The Amazon Halo View doesn't have an internal or connected GPS, so it doesn't keep track of your pace and distance during outdoor activities even when connected to your phone.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The Inspire 3 quickly connects with my phone's GPS when I start an outdoor workout on the tracker. After tracking an outdoor GPS workout, the Fitbit app will display an intensity map of your heart rate zones and pace throughout the route.

If it's not connected to your phone's GPS, the Inspire 3 will still estimate your pace and distance for outdoor workouts, but these measurements aren't exact. For example, I tracked a run on the Inspire 3 without GPS and it calculated that I ran 1.25 miles when I really only covered 1 mile.

If you're primarily interested in tracking outdoor workouts, I would opt for a wearable with a built-in GPS. But if you plan to track a mix of indoor and outdoor workouts and you're fine toting your phone for the latter, the Inspire 3 should suit you.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

For the most accurate heart rate readings, Fitbit recommends wearing the tracker higher on your wrist for a tighter fit during workouts. Occasionally, I will look down to check my heart rate on the Inspire 3 while tracking a workout and this metric will be blank. Fitbit says to stay still for 10 seconds when this happens so the tracker can get a reading, but that advice is impractical for certain workouts.

During workouts, measurements from the Inspire 3's optical heart rate sensor can sometimes be low compared with the Apple Watch Series 8 or a chest strap monitor.To test the accuracy of its heart rate readings, I tracked three separate one-mile outdoor runs on different days with the Inspire 3 on one wrist and the Series 8 on the other. The Inspire 3 was way off on the first two runs, but reasonably accurate on the third.

The Inspire 3 keeps tabs on your heart rate 24/7 (Credit: Fitbit)

On the first one-mile outdoor run test, the Inspire 3 measured my average and max heart rate at 137 beats per minute (bpm) and 162bpm, respectively, while the Apple Watch Series 8 reported those metrics at 176bpm and 190bpm. On the second one-mile outdoor run, the Inspire 3 measured my average and max heart rate at 134bpm and 169bpm while the Series 8 reported those metrics at 174bpm and 187bpm. On the third one-mile outdoor run, the Inspire 3 measured my average and max heart rate at 169bpm and 192bpm while the Series 8 reported those metrics at 178bm and 195bpm.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

For an 8-minute spinning workout on the Carol 2.0 bike, the Inspire 3 said I reached a max heart rate of 134bpm while the more accurate Carol chest strap reported that metric at 159bpm. For a one-hour heated yoga sculpt class with weights, the Inspire 3 recorded my max heart rate at 177bpm, which (again) seems low.

In my reviews of the Amazon Halo View and the Garmin Vivosmart 5, I noted similar accuracy issues with their heart rate readings, so this problem isn't uncommon among affordable fitness bands. Overall, I'd take the heart rate readings from most affordable wrist-based wearables with a grain of salt, and be aware that they might be low at times. If you start to feel faint or dizzy while working out, slow down or take a break regardless of your heart rate reading on the tracker.

Fitbit Inspire 3 Sleep and Health Metrics

Even the most basic fitness trackers these days monitor more than just your activities. The Inspire 3 also tracks your sleep and overnight heath metrics such as breathing rate, heart rate variability (HRV), skin temperature, SpO2, and resting heart rate (RHR).

The Fitbit app graphs and explains each of these overnight metrics, and makes it easy to interpret your results. It also offers useful tips to help improve your sleep, like limiting alcohol three hours before bedtime, since it can suppress REM sleep, "which is key for memory and mood," the app says.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

After wearing it to bed for the first time, the Inspire 3 said I slept for 7 hours, 5 minutes and earned a sleep score of 80/100 (good). The Sleep Number 360 i8 Smart Bed generally corroborated those findings, measuring my sleep duration at 7 hours, 41 minutes for a sleep score of 84/100 that night.

Fitbit calculates your nightly sleep score based on your sleep duration (which accounts for 50%), restoration (25%), and stages (25%). Be sure to tap into the restoration section (within the Sleep tab of the Fitbit app) and pay attention to the Estimated Oxygen Variation graph, which approximates changes in your blood oxygen saturation the previous night. If it often shows high variations, this could indicate breathing disturbances during sleep and may warrant a discussion with your doctor.

After tracking your sleep for at least 14 nights from the first of each month, you'll receive a Sleep Profile with insights about your sleep habits and trends.

(Credit: Fitbit)

All other overnight wellness measurements are available in the Health Metrics section of the app. Here, you can view 7- and 30-day graphs of your breathing rate, HRV, SpO2, skin temperature, and RHR for free, but you need a Premium subscription to see 90-day trends, as mentioned.

On the first night I wore it to bed, the Inspire 3 measured my average overnight breathing rate at 14 respirations per minute (rpm), average HRV at 46 milliseconds (ms), average SpO2 at 94%, and average RHR at 57bpm. For that same night, the Sleep Number 360 i8 offered a similar average RHR reading (55bm), but significantly different results for my average breath rate (11rpm), and average HRV (77ms).

On a different night, the Inspire 3 and Sleep Number 360 i8 offered similar results for these metrics. The Inspire 3 reported an average breathing rate, HRV, and RHR of 14rpm, 45ms, and 57bpm, respectively, while the i8 smart bed measured those metrics at 13rpm, 46ms, and 56bpm.

(Credit: Fitbit)

After wearing the tracker to sleep for at least three nights, you'll start to see skin temperature variation data in the Health Metrics section.

Like other wearables with this feature, such as the Oura ring and the Apple Watch Series 8, the Inspire 3 needs a couple of nights of data to establish your baseline skin temperature, after which it will report whether you were running hotter or colder than usual, and by how much. Though the Inspire 3 lacks a dedicated skin temperature sensor for this task, a feature that is available on the Sense 2, it uses existing sensors to surface your nightly skin temperature variation, a Fitbit spokesperson tells me.

The first time the Inspire 3 calculated my result for this metric, it said I was running 2.2 degrees hotter than usual, a pretty significant increase, but I actually was feeling lousy that night. The following night, when I was feeling better, my temperature was only elevated by 0.1 degrees.

"Factors that may cause skin temperature to vary nightly include changes in room temperature, bedding, circadian rhythm, menstrual cycle, or the onset of a fever," the Fitbit app states.

The Inspire 3 only supports overnight, not on-demand, SpO2 measurements (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

When it comes to SpO2 monitoring, the affordable Amazon Halo View has a leg up with support for on-demand readings, a feature that is also available on some smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 8 and the Garmin Lily. The Inspire 3 only measures your blood oxygen saturation level while you sleep, and the SpO2 app on the tracker disappointingly has no functionality beyond displaying your nighttime average for the previous night. Fitbit SpO2 doesn't measure or display values lower than 80%, which are displayed as

When you're feeling stressed, you can open the Relax app on the Inspire 3 to follow a guided breathing exercise. The Relax exercise is set to two minutes by default, but you can adjust the duration from one to 10 minutes. The Fitbit app also offers a daily Stress Management score based on your sleeping patterns, overnight health metrics, and physical activity to help you quickly gauge how your body is handling stress that day.

(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)

The Inspire 3 doesn't let you log water intake from the tracker itself, a feature that is available on the Garmin Vivosmart 5, but you can record your H2O and food consumption in the Fitbit app. Opening the mobile app on my phone every time I eat or drink seems like way too much work, however, so I generally don't use these features. If you have a menstrual cycle, you can use the Fitbit app to log your periods, record symptoms, and view estimated ovulation windows. On the safety front, the Inspire 3 also supports high/low heart rate and irregular heart rhythm notifications.

The Best Budget-Minded Fitness Band

The Fitbit Inspire 3 stands out as the most affordable tracker in Fitbit's lineup. Its design still screams basic unlike the pricier, jewelry-inspired Fitbit Luxe, but we appreciate its eight-day battery life and bright, colorful touch screen that can stay on all day. The tracker's simple interface and well-designed companion app make it easy to monitor key fitness and health metrics, including your steps, heart rate, calories burned, sleep, and overnight SpO2, though its heart rate readings aren't always accurate. We wish it included integrated GPS, which would let you leave your phone behind during outdoor workouts, but at least route tracking is accurate when connected to a phone. If you can increase your budget by $50, the excellent Fitbit Charge 5 features a larger screen, an integrated GPS, an electrocardiogram app, and Fitbit Pay for mobile payments. Even so, the Inspire 3 is the best sub-$100 fitness tracker we've tested, and our new Editors' Choice among entry-level models.