Blended Reviews For Fitbit Health Tracker

Fitbit Charge 5

Fitbit

Charge 5 is Fitbit’s most advanced fitness tracker to date. It brings some of the advanced sensor technology introduced in the Fitbit Sense to a more affordable wearable.

This includes an EDA stress sensor and EKG heart monitoring, the latter not being switched on when started.

In fact, some of the features of the Fitbit Charge 5 are not yet available. Daily readiness is the other key. This takes a look at your current sleep, exercise, and heart rate variability, and gives tips on whether your body is ready for a big workout or whether you should take it easy.

MORE FROM FORBESFitbit Charge 5 vs. Charge 4: Four Important Features You Must Know Aboutfrom Andrew Williams

Design impressions

There have been several fairly comprehensive Fitbit Charge 5 reviews published, and the answers are mixed.

However, most agree on the surface quality, the most obvious being the switch from the monochrome display of the Fitbit Charge 4 to the sharper color OLED of the Charge 5.

“The text is legible and large enough that I never squint my eyes to see notifications or reach for a magnifying glass, like with the Fitbit Luxe,” writes Lexy Savvides of Cnet.

“I would also recommend the Charge 5 to anyone with a Charge 3 or older. Seriously, the display alone is worth it, ”says Victoria Song from Gizmodo.

DC Rainmaker also says the new band is more comfortable than the Fitbit Charge 4, largely thanks to a redesigned band material. “The band is so much better than Charge 4. Worlds Better. It feels more flexible, fits better, and the material isn’t as stiff. It’s great, ”he says in the review.

However, the Verge review criticizes Fitbit’s decision to remove all physical buttons. This is a purely touchscreen tracker, and The Verge’s Jay Peters found it frustrating.

“Also annoying is the fact that the Charge 5 has no physical buttons, which means that you have to wake up the screen by lifting your wrist or tapping the screen. Many times during my four hour run, I tapped the Charge 5’s screen a few times to wake it up, only to accidentally tap past the last metric I had, forcing me to keep tapping just to get back there where I was before. ”

A lack of physical buttons means you may get used to the rhythm of the Fitbit Charge 5. However, I had similar reactions to wearables in the test.

You want your running metrics to appear on screen at the exact moment you want to see them. Otherwise, a wearable can turn from something that motivates you to run into a hindrance.

Fitbit Charge 5 training tracking

Reviewers are also divided on the accuracy of exercise tracking.

Cnet found the Fitbit Charge 5’s heart rate accuracy to be solid, aside from the shaky results in the first few minutes of tracking that are common with wrist-worn trackers.

“I tested the heart rate sensor against a chest strap, which is considered the gold standard in consumer heart rate monitoring, and was pleasantly surprised at how well the Charge 5 works overall. However, it took two minutes for the Charge 5 to reach the readings on the strap at the start of every run I did. Hopefully a software update can fix that, ”the review said.

However, DC Rainmaker, who does some of the most in-depth tracking of all, found a serious problem.

He writes that with the Fitbit Charge 5 you have to trade the heart rate accuracy for GPS. If the bracelet is pulled too tight, the watch will lose its location signal. When worn loosely, as Fitbit suggests for general wear, heart rate accuracy will be poor. “The Fitbit Charge 5 has exercise problems that I haven’t seen in more than a decade of wearables testing,” writes DC Rainmaker. It’s bloody stuff.

“Ultimately, if you are looking for accuracy this probably isn’t the tracker for you. Or at least it’s not for me. “

Other reviews don’t highlight this issue, suggesting that the reviewers didn’t wear the Fitbit Charge 5 tight enough to cause the GPS fading signal problem.

Fitbit Charge 5 battery life

Impressions about the battery life of the Fitbit Charge 5 depend heavily on the reference point used. Angela Moscaritolo from PCMag seems to be largely satisfied with this and says: “In the test it took three full days, with the always-on display activated during the day.”

Gizmodo’s review suggests you’ll see slightly worse results, “although you can turn on a setting that turns the AOD off while you sleep, you still only get about two days of battery.”

The Fitbit Charge 5 is designed for a week’s use, but in many reviews the focus is understandably on the new “always-on” display mode. This keeps the screen lit when it’s not active, which makes the tracker a better watch while cutting battery life by more than half at the same time.

Final judgments about the Fitbit Charge 5 vary widely, based largely on whether it is viewed as a fitness tracking device for the enthusiast or a mainstream fizzy wearable for those who aren’t too focused on the stats.

Part of the hardcore crowd? DC Rainmaker’s bottom line is that the Fitbit Charge 5 is not for you. It won a PCMag Editor’s Choice Award, however, and Cnet calls it “an easy buy when you want the best of Fitbit’s health and tracking features in an unobtrusive, ribbon-like design”.

The Fitbit Charge 5 is available now for $ 179.95.