Last month, Fitbit Versa 3 and Sense owners started getting notifications to download a mandatory firmware update. The problem? Overheating batteries. In an official user notice, Google (which owns Fitbit) notes that the firmware update would “reduce the consequence of artillery overheating and trim artillery capacity.” Affected users, of which Google says location is simply a “limited number,” were besides eligible to use for a $50 credit.
Technically, fixing this benignant of problem is simply a bully thing. You don’t want batteries to overheat and pain a customer — and the charismatic announcement besides notes that this rumor doesn’t effect each Versa 3 aliases Sense devices. However, affected users person reported connected Fitbit’s forums and subreddit that the update dramatically reduced their devices’ artillery life.
Multiple users person complained that devices that utilized to past anyplace betwixt 2-6 days now hardly past a azygous time aft updating to the caller firmware. Some person said the simplification has now made their devices useless. Others are upset that Fitbit is only offering $50 arsenic an appeasement.
In its notice, Google does statement that the firmware update will consequence successful the artillery lasting “for shorter periods betwixt charges and [users] whitethorn request to complaint [their] devices much frequently.” However, to smartwatch users, there’s a large quality betwixt charging much often and charging daily. Many group who opt for Fitbits do truthful precisely because the brand’s smartwatches are known to past longer than a azygous day. The Verge reached retired to Google for further details, but the institution declined to adhd immoderate further commentary beyond the charismatic notice.
It’d beryllium 1 point if this was a uncommon one-off. However, Fitbit was conscionable fined $12 million aft its Ionic watches’ batteries overheated and burned 78 users. And while it’s unrelated to overheating wearables, it surely doesn’t thief that Google precocious issued a akin firmware update capping artillery capacity tied to a $100 in installments for its Pixel 4A phones.
Meanwhile, a suit revenge successful 2022 alleges that Fitbit’s problem wasn’t constricted to the Ionic. The plaintiffs claimed the rumor besides impacted the Versa Lite and a Versa 2. The suit besides included photos of burns that group said came from their Fitbit Blaze, Inspire, Inspire 2, Sense, and Versa 3 devices. The latest firmware update seems to validate that artillery overheating astatine slightest was a problem pinch the Versa 3 and Sense.
These sorts of artillery complaints pinch Fitbits aren’t new. Peruse the r/Fitbit subreddit, and you’ll find years’ worthy of Fitbit owners questioning if their devices are burning them aliases conscionable causing tegument irritation. There are besides galore threads of users pondering sudden, accelerated artillery drain. Almost each these threads besides item difficult experiences pinch customer support. In different words, this astir caller lawsuit conscionable underscores really this has been a problem for rather immoderate clip — an rumor exacerbated for longtime Fitbit users by a messy modulation period since Google acquired Fitbit.
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