These Fitbit deals beat waiting for Black Friday

Black Friday 2021 could prove a great time to find a deal on fitness tech. Last year, many of the best Fitbit trackers and watches saw cuts ranging from $20 to $70 off, including the Fitbit Ionic, Inspire 2, Ace 2, and Charge 4.

Keeping that in mind, you can judge early Black Friday deals and decide if you want to snag them on sale now or gamble on a deeper discount later. They were slim pickings in October, but we’ve already seen major discounts on the Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Inspire 2 in early November, up to 40% off. Given how good these deals are, as well as recent supply chain issues, you really should consider taking an early deal instead of hoping for something better.

Still, we expect to see much better deals in the weeks ahead and will keep this post updated when new early Black Friday Fitbit deals arise. For now, check out the best of what’s available now.

Where to find the best Black Friday Fitbit deals

Last year, we saw the majority of the Black Friday Fitbit deals on major retailer sites, such as Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and B&H Photo. And only a couple of deals were exclusive to a single retailer; most discounted Fitbits had the same prices across multiple sites. Case in point, you’ll find the current 40% off sales on Sense and Inspire 2 on all four sites.

So don’t worry about the “best” site for Fitbit deals. Fitbit is likely to keep its sales prices strictly regulated across all of them; so just pick your favorite tech retailer, look for a great deal, and buy one without worrying about shopping around. Your only alternative is to shop directly from Fitbit.com; the company tends to offer the same deals as retailers, but with extra incentives like free spare watch bands.

• Amazon: Great site for deals on new and old Fitbit models
• Best Buy: Running Black Friday price guarantee on wearable tech throughout all of November
• Walmart: Always a consistent spot for Black Friday deals
• B&H Photo: Great deals, less competition for limited stock
• Fitbit.com: Buy directly from the manufacturer for free goodies

When do the Black Friday Fitbit deals begin?

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen sporadic deals on the Sense, Inspire, Ace, Ionic, and Charge series of Fitbits. But only recently have the deals been truly worthy of Black Friday, with discounts on newer models up to 40% off.

Last year, the best deals only began about a week in advance; but Fitbit is starting its best sales much earlier this year, hoping to get consumers to buy ahead of time and avoid shipping delays. The deals right now are probably among the best you’ll see on the Inspire 2 and Sense; so while you can wait and hope for something better, the Black Friday discounts likely won’t go much further down based on last year’s numbers.

That being said, the truly “best” Fitbits like the Charge 5, Versa 3, and Ace 3 have yet to see major discounts. So there’s still reason to wait if you’re looking for a specific model. Whether you wait or pull the trigger now, we do expect to see great Black Friday Fitbit deals during the last week of November.

Black Friday Fitbit deals: Fitbit Inspire

The Inspire 2 is Fitbit’s lightest and longest-lasting fitness tracker. It has a 10-day battery life and a year of Fitbit Premium included. But its predecessors, the Inspire and Inspire HR, also help you keep track of your steps, sleep, and overall activity with built-in water resistance for swimming — at a lower price.

We recommend the Inspire 2 over the Inspire HR because it has faster touchscreen performance, 24/7 heart rate monitoring, and a newer Bluetooth standard. But neither is particularly fancy, with no built-in GPS, storage, or NFC. You’ll want to look at other Fitbits for a more standalone experience.

Already cheap at full price, the Inspire 2 series recently got a 40% discount with an early Black Friday deal. With Active Zone Minutes tracking, on-device guided breathing, sleep tracking, and other useful tools for health and fitness, it’s a great deal if you don’t need a large screen. If you want a watch you can strap on and quickly forget about, maybe Black Friday will inspire you to give the Inspire 2 a try.

Black Friday Fitbit deals: Fitbit Charge

Among the best fitness trackers across all brands, we list the Fitbit Charge 5 and Fitbit Charge 4 as our top two picks, hands down. If you find either of them on sale, and are serious about getting fit, you’ll want to snatch up that Black Friday deal while you can.

The Fitbit Charge 4 is sort of a ‘tweener device. It’s more than a basic tracker, and yet not a full smartwatch. Whatever you want to call it, you have to consider it an amazing value. At this lowered price, you’re getting built-in GPS and NFC for contactless payments, HRM and SPO2 sensors, multi-sport modes, automatic workout-tracking, and week-long battery life. Compared to the Charge 5, the Charge 4 lacks an AMOLED screen, ECG and EDA sensors, and the 5’s more attractive design, but it’s much more affordable.

In other words, the Charge 5 looks better and has slight upgrades under the hood, but it’s too pricey for most people looking for a fitness tracker. But thanks to Black Friday, you’ll hopefully see it for a more mid-range price, making it more tempting. Meanwhile, the older, Black Friday-priced Charge 4 will remain more affordable, if you want to prioritize cost over looks.

Black Friday Fitbit deals: Fitbit Versa

The Fitbit Versa line has some of the most popular smartwatches on the market. 2019’s Versa 2 still holds up as one of our favorite cheap fitness smartwatches, with its built-in music storage and mic for asking Alexa questions.

Still, it’s last year’s Versa 3 that truly takes the cake as a quality fitness smartwatch. It adds 5ATM water resistance, built-in GPS, Google Assistant, a speaker so you can take phone calls, an improved HRM, and other software improvements. Unfortunately, all these great features add up to a rather expensive wearable; thankfully, that’s where Black Friday comes in. Last year it was just $30 off during Black Friday, but we’re hoping it’ll be at least $50 off this holiday season. Also, keep an eye out for bundled Fitbit Premium deals.

Black Friday Fitbit deals: Fitbit Sense

The Fitbit Sense was the company’s first “premium” fitness smartwatch, marketed as a wholistic health wearable. It has sensors to measure your electrodermal skin activity, temperature, and stress levels, and it can also take an ECG reading to determine if you have atrial fibrillation. It’s these extra health-tracking features that make it pricier than the Versa 3.

We’ve already seen an early Black Friday deal of $100 off the Sense, and we’re unlikely to see a better deal anytime soon. If you want proper health tracking — better than what a typical wrist HRM can give you — but don’t want to empty your wallet, we’d recommend grabbing that deal now.

Black Friday Fitbit deals: Fitbit Ace

If you want to get your little ones more active and involved in friendly competitions with family and friends, the Fitbit Ace series is a great, affordable option. The new Fitbit Ace 3 has an 8-day battery life, rugged water resistance for swimming and wear-and-tear, and regular reminders to get 60 minutes of activity or go to bed on time.

So far, we’ve only seen the Fitbit Ace 2 on sale. This model has only five days of battery and fewer customizable watch faces, but otherwise has the same software and durability as the 3 — and is likely to cost less. Whichever Ace you manage to find on sale, neither will steer you or your kid wrong.