My Fitbit Inspire 2 for Walking Pros and Cons without Premium

Ryan C April 01, 2022
My Fitbit Inspire 2 with the "Stats heavy," clock face. I'm standing on a compact treadmill.
My Fitbit Inspire 2 with the "Stats heavy," clock face. I'm standing on a compact treadmill.


Well, I've used my Fitbit Inspire 2 for walking for a couple months now, so, I thought I would give a few pros and cons of my Fitbit experience. Just a quick note, I'm not a premium member of Fitbit. 


Pros - Fitbit Inspire 2 for Walking without Premium 

  • Good battery life - By far, the number one reason why I got the Fitbit Inspire 2 was for the battery life. I had battery issues with my last activity tracker powering down during my longer walks. I have no complaints about the Fitbit Inspire 2's battery life. I charge it every couple of days within my daily walking routine, and every time I put it back on the charger, the battery is usually around 80%. That's fine. 
  • Wrist bands are Comfortable - I was optimistic with the Fitbit Inspire 2's slim wrist band, and so far, the band is comfortable for walking, even at night while sleeping. 
  • The "Stats heavy," clock face is my favorite for walking - I enjoy the "stats heavy," clock face for all-around walking. The "stats heavy," clock face shows the time, steps, heart rate, calories burned, and distance in kilometers all on one screen. I don't have to scroll up or down while walking. It's more useful indoors during treadmill walking because the display brightness isn't the best outside. 
  • Real-time step count - During my walks, I notice the Fitbit Inspire 2 tracks the steps in real-time. I thought that was cool, it's nice to see my walking steps without hitting refresh on the Fitbit app all the time. 
  • No GPS - I'm not a fan of GPS within my activity tracker or watch for everyday walking in the city. I find GPS drains the battery too fast making me lose data. Although, If I was hiking deep in the mountains, I would definitely have a GPS device around. The Fitbit Inspire 2 has no GPS in the activity tracker itself. There is a way to sync the GPS with the phone, which I don't use. 

Cons - Fitbit Inspire 2 for Walking without Premium

  • The display is tough to see when walking outside on sunny days - Unfortunately, even with the Fitbit Inspire 2's "dim screen," set to off, the display is hard to read. I didn't really have high expectations for the Fitbit's screen in direct sunlight, no big deal.  
  • No simple way to change the screen to dark mode on the Fitbit app -  I'm a fan of a dark mode on my treadmill walks. The Fitbit Inspire 2 doesn't have a simple way to turn the app screen on my phone to dark mode. 
  • 30-day trends for health metrics only available for Premium - Since I like to walk every day, it's interesting to see all my heart metrics, but unless I have FitBit premium, I can only see one week of my health data such as breathing rate (BR), heart rate variability (HRV), skin temperature and rest heart rate (RHR). So, I only get a seven-day trend, not a fan. 


Does the Fitbit Inspire 2 Have a "Treadmill Mode," for Walking  

There is a way to get to the treadmill exercise option in the Fitbit Inspire 2 by going through the Fitbit app.
  1. Open the Fitbit app and click on the profile icon (account) in the top left corner.
  2. Once you are on the account page, there should be an icon with the Fitbit Inspire 2 activity tracker. Give that a click. 
  3. On the "Inspire 2," page, scroll down to the "exercise shortcuts," click
  4. Once in the "exercise shortcuts," there should be a "plus sign," in the top right corner. Click 
  5. From the plus sign, there should be a list of exercises to choose from.
  6. Look for the treadmill and select it. 
  7. At the bottom of the selection page, there should be text that says, "Add to Fitbit Inspire 2." Click
  8. Now the "treadmill mode," should show up on the Fitbit Inspire 2's exercise section. 


How Good Is the ”Auto Recognize Exercise,” for Walking on the Fitbit Inspire 2?


A list of walking stats from my Fitbit Inspire 2, "auto recognized exercises."
Fitbit Inspire 2, "auto recognized exercises," for walking.

It's ok. Above are the "auto recognized exercises," from my Fitbit Inspire 2. To give some context, I don't select any exercises when I'm walking or doing, let's say, squats. I just let the Fitbit Inspire 2 figure it out. Above are the "auto recognized exercises," the Fitbit picked up. So, the above image shows the Fitbit picking up my walks. I would say it's doing an a-ok job. But, the Fitbit will only pick up my walks longer than 15 minutes. As for my squats, the Fitbit doesn't pick up anything. 

Do I Have Any Syncing Issues Between the Fitbit App and Fitbit Inspire 2

Overall, I've had no major issues. Sometimes no data is displayed in my weekly "Stress Management," score. For example, I would get data on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but no data Friday, then Saturday and Sunday are fine. Not sure why. Shoulder shrug. 

Why Don't I Use Fitbit Premium? 

I don't want to pay for the Fitbit Premium subscription service. I think I'm just overwhelmed with all the subscription services out there. I'm not saying I would not ever get Fitbit Premium, just not now. 

What About the Discover and Community Areas for Walking on the Fitbit App, Are They Any Good?

I haven't used anything in the Discover area or Community area in the Fitbit app at this time (April 2022). I have scrolled through though, the walking community sits at 3.5 million members, wow. 


You can check out the Fitbit Inspire 2 on my Amazon shop.

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