Fitbit Charge 5 Fitness Tracker Steel Blue

Id been looking to get a Smart Watch to both track my runs and show routes, not need to charge every night, and have an ECG function as heart issues are a concern as I get older. The Charge 5 does everything I need it to do from a functional perspective and does give a lot of other data I wasnt expecting.The watch itself is fairly minimal with a swipe functionality. Almost all features require a iPhone or Android to use the Fitbit App, there doesnt seem to be any way to view metrics online. Some of the functions of the watch/app are behind a subscription wall, but nothing I considered essential. Though it did come with a 6 month trial on purchase.The watch itself will help you manually or even automatically log workouts, watch your heart rate through the day, sleep ... MoreId been looking to get a Smart Watch to both track my runs and show routes, not need to charge every night, and have an ECG function as heart issues are a concern as I get older. The Charge 5 does everything I need it to do from a functional perspective and does give a lot of other data I wasnt expecting.The watch itself is fairly minimal with a swipe functionality. Almost all features require a iPhone or Android to use the Fitbit App, there doesnt seem to be any way to view metrics online. Some of the functions of the watch/app are behind a subscription wall, but nothing I considered essential. Though it did come with a 6 month trial on purchase.The watch itself will help you manually or even automatically log workouts, watch your heart rate through the day, sleep metrics, display phone messages, etc. It also supports payments directly from the watch. Battery life I think is very good within this category as I can use it for several days without needing a charge depending on usage. Water resistance has been fine as Ive showered and been swimming with it without issue.In terms of run accuracy, its more or less on point, though it will show you in yards or houses from time to time on the map if you are running along a road.The available watch faces you can change through the app seem fairly limited and none are quite to my taste. Replacement bands can also be a bit pricey, but overall fit is comfortable even with the base band.Overall happy with the purchase and price.

Very good watch if you are fitness minded or have plans to improve physical fitnessPrice-wise was within my budget as i was skeptical to how much value it would addHas a built-in GPS which tracks your movements. I also like to track my steps and distance traveled when I'm out doing fitness activities. A lot of features are standard across these devices.One of my reasons for choosing this device was that the watch doesn't dig into my hand if i lift it up. And the simplicity of the design also appeals to meI like how the watch will remind you to move every now and then. Working in an office setting, this is really helpful for me as i'm prone to working through breaks and not separating myself from my deskI like the animated notifications when you achieve ... MoreVery good watch if you are fitness minded or have plans to improve physical fitnessPrice-wise was within my budget as i was skeptical to how much value it would addHas a built-in GPS which tracks your movements. I also like to track my steps and distance traveled when I'm out doing fitness activities. A lot of features are standard across these devices.One of my reasons for choosing this device was that the watch doesn't dig into my hand if i lift it up. And the simplicity of the design also appeals to meI like how the watch will remind you to move every now and then. Working in an office setting, this is really helpful for me as i'm prone to working through breaks and not separating myself from my deskI like the animated notifications when you achieve milestones like walking x amount of steps or distance. It really helps motivate me to continue with the fitness journey. Its a nice reward when you're 10-20km from home and need to push through to get to the finish lineFurther down the line when i get more experience with it, i'm planning on adding a credit card to the fitbit app to make purchases with itThe fitbit app experience is ok. I wish it would communicate with Google fit app so all of my activities and progress are in one place. If there is a way, i need to find outOverall, very satisfied with my purchase. Only touched the surface on what it can really do but for now it gives me basic feedback on how active (or inactive) i am and reminds me to continue pushing to improve my physical (and consequently) mental well being

Very unhappy with my "upgrade" to a charge 5. The main problem is that the heart rate sensor is widely inaccurate. On a leisurely drive of 20 minutes I received about 30 zone minutes as it showed an elevated heart rate. Again this was a leisurely no stress drive. I often get zone minutes just sitting down. While i understand the concept of zone minutes and would be fine with it as extra information, I don't like that it has replaced giving the actual minutes of exercise although you can see that on a desktop computer but not on your phone app. Why can't that also be included on the phone app. The zone minutes are a meaningless number. I understand the concept but if I get 100 minutes is that 50 at cardio pace, 100 at fat burn or some combination. Also, I get about ... MoreVery unhappy with my "upgrade" to a charge 5. The main problem is that the heart rate sensor is widely inaccurate. On a leisurely drive of 20 minutes I received about 30 zone minutes as it showed an elevated heart rate. Again this was a leisurely no stress drive. I often get zone minutes just sitting down. While i understand the concept of zone minutes and would be fine with it as extra information, I don't like that it has replaced giving the actual minutes of exercise although you can see that on a desktop computer but not on your phone app. Why can't that also be included on the phone app. The zone minutes are a meaningless number. I understand the concept but if I get 100 minutes is that 50 at cardio pace, 100 at fat burn or some combination. Also, I get about a third of my exercise from a stationery bike. On the charge 3, I put the tracker in my pocket and shut off the heart rate and got credit for the recorded steps and active minutes. On the 5, you can't shut off the heart rate so sometimes it shows zero pulse while sitting in my pocket so I get no activity minutes although I do get credit for the steps but usually it somehow records a crazy high heart rate during the exercise which of course distorts the zone minutes and I assume also distorts many of the premium features such as readiness and perhaps your overall fitness score. If they would bring back the active minutes, and allow you to shut off the pulse meter that would partially solve the problems. I can "live with" the fact that it wouldn't show the correct total of zone minutes.Also don't like the lack of buttons as the display responsiveness to tapping it is poor.On the plus side, I love the new display especially when outside as it is much easier to read

An inaccurate, unpredictable, garbage-bound-gadget at best

If you’re thinking of buying a Charge5, think first of going out to your front yard and setting fire to $150. — mainly because you will get the same result. DON’T DO IT— YOU WILL WASTE YOUR MONEY. The pulse rate monitor is highly inaccurate as I’ve tested it against commercial heart rate monitors. —often off by 25-40 BPM or more. The pedometer is also highly inaccurate as somehow I’m able to achieve 10,000 steps on a ‘day off’ while laying around the house. The calorie burn estimator is ridiculously inaccurate as it claimed I burnt over 750 calories on a 3.5 mile stroll over a weekend. The GPS tracking feature kills the battery in less than a couple hours (brand new), so tech support tells you to turn it off. —okay, so why do you have the feature if it ... MoreIf you’re thinking of buying a Charge5, think first of going out to your front yard and setting fire to $150. — mainly because you will get the same result. DON’T DO IT— YOU WILL WASTE YOUR MONEY. The pulse rate monitor is highly inaccurate as I’ve tested it against commercial heart rate monitors. —often off by 25-40 BPM or more. The pedometer is also highly inaccurate as somehow I’m able to achieve 10,000 steps on a ‘day off’ while laying around the house. The calorie burn estimator is ridiculously inaccurate as it claimed I burnt over 750 calories on a 3.5 mile stroll over a weekend. The GPS tracking feature kills the battery in less than a couple hours (brand new), so tech support tells you to turn it off. —okay, so why do you have the feature if it drains the battery and you’re just going to tell us to shut it off?!?!The workout detector apparently takes a few days off a week as it missed several strenuous workouts, logging zero zone minutes for the day. The watch, on the other hand seems to be the only thing that does work. I’m tired of ‘resetting’ ‘re-synch’ and ‘re-try.’ This unit is garbage; hence why the price has dropped twice since release. The quality and accuracy of this Charge5 is so poor, I’d even hesitate giving this thing away for free—On may 12th of 2023, I threw the Charge 5 away. "WHY NOT RESELL IT OR GIVE IT TO SOMEONE WHO NEEDS IT?" you might ask....Because it's junk and it does not work as advertised. If you have any kind of a serious fitness tracking need, this is NOT recommended. For instance, after 300 high intensity jump-ropes and 20 marine burpees immediately following, it said my heart rate was 71. --IMPOSSIBLE. Manual measurement of my pulse was 151. Tech support offers the same thing any time you contact them.- Reset the unit- Resync the unit- Tighten the wristband- Loosen the wristbandSo I gave it the 'ultimate reset' by dropping a 50 lb kettle bell on it and tossing it in the trash so no one else would have to deal with it again either. I have no idea where the 4 and 5 star reviews from this item come from--it's a toy for people who walk around in gym clothes but never go to a gym, I suppose. --I don't know.

Battery issues

Reviewing after having this the Charge 5 for over a year. I'm a previous owner of the original Fitbit Charge and Charge 2. The Charge 2 lasted me years without any issues. When Charge 5 came out with all these features, felt it was time to upgrade. Initially, Charge 5 was awesome. No complaints and very happy with the battery life lasting 5-7 days, depending on the activity use. Just recently after the 1 year mark, I started having battery draining issues. The battery would literally drain within 2-3 hours. I ended up contacting Fitbit support via chat and we did all the troubleshooting for them to determine I had a bad battery. They said they'll send out an email within a day. That same evening, I received an email stating since I'm out of warranty, they'll only ... MoreReviewing after having this the Charge 5 for over a year. I'm a previous owner of the original Fitbit Charge and Charge 2. The Charge 2 lasted me years without any issues. When Charge 5 came out with all these features, felt it was time to upgrade. Initially, Charge 5 was awesome. No complaints and very happy with the battery life lasting 5-7 days, depending on the activity use. Just recently after the 1 year mark, I started having battery draining issues. The battery would literally drain within 2-3 hours. I ended up contacting Fitbit support via chat and we did all the troubleshooting for them to determine I had a bad battery. They said they'll send out an email within a day. That same evening, I received an email stating since I'm out of warranty, they'll only offer a minimal discount to buy another Fitbit product. I ended up googling Fitbit Charge 5 battery drain and came across a large number of posts about this being a known issue without any resolution. Sometimes it occurred within a short period time after purchase, while others had it happened outside warranty. I can't justify spending more money to get another defective product. I would encourage others to look at another fitness tracker.

Inaccurate and leads to increased body fat.

1. Inaccurate heart rate - when exercising, I'll be out of breath, heart pounding, can't speak, gasping for air and my Fitbit Charge 5 will register 80 bpm. Sometimes it registers increased heart rate and other times it won't. I would say it misses about 60% of strenuous exercise heart rates. Makes tracking exercise expenditure difficult.2. Inaccurate calorie burn - Fitbit Charge 5 says I burn 500 calories walking around the grocery store for an hour but only 60 calories doing an hour of HIIT training at super-high intensity. Leads to over eating on non-exercise days and under-eating on high-intensity exercise days. I noticed an increase in body fat % following the calories tracker in Fitbit. My pants are a little tighter in the waist as well. Using this tracker ... More1. Inaccurate heart rate - when exercising, I'll be out of breath, heart pounding, can't speak, gasping for air and my Fitbit Charge 5 will register 80 bpm. Sometimes it registers increased heart rate and other times it won't. I would say it misses about 60% of strenuous exercise heart rates. Makes tracking exercise expenditure difficult.2. Inaccurate calorie burn - Fitbit Charge 5 says I burn 500 calories walking around the grocery store for an hour but only 60 calories doing an hour of HIIT training at super-high intensity. Leads to over eating on non-exercise days and under-eating on high-intensity exercise days. I noticed an increase in body fat % following the calories tracker in Fitbit. My pants are a little tighter in the waist as well. Using this tracker has set me back.3. Readiness score is based on exercise and other factors; however, because the Charge 5 does a poor job tracking activity, daily readiness score is disconnected from actual readiness. I'll have a score of 98 readiness the day after doing HITT. When I try to exercise I'm unable to give the intensity needed for an effective workout.4. Calories tracker - doesn't always capture the calories you enter. Sometimes I'll enter, say 200 calories, to log a snack. Later on, I'll look at my calories when planning dinner and the 200 didn't register - leading to overeating. Then after adding dinner, the 200 calories from earlier in the day will register, and all be 200 calories over my target. Did I mentioned I've been gaining body fat using this device?I've since gone back to manually calculating my BMR and manually tracking calories to get back on track.Not only does this product not work - it actually inhibits you from achieving your fitness goals. Do you have a fitbit, track you stats, making exercise and eating decisions based on the device and app, and aren't seeing results (or worse - gaining unhealthy weight)? It's because the device is not accurate and encourages over eating.

Mediocre band for price approaching that of a smart-watch, saved by a few health features.

After formerly using a Samsung Galaxy Fit and a Xiaomi Mi Band 6, I was expecting to be getting a much better experience with the Charge 5. But it actually feels like I'm stepping back in time with this band for well over twice the price. Functions and available apps are horribly limited (e.g., where is a weather app?), the automatic exercise detection barely seems to work, battery life is half that of the other bands, and you have to pay extra for sleep tracking. The screen seems to lag with the touch input and is hard to control. The nice screen is limited in it's usefulness by limited apps and faces... this is a gross underutilization of good hardware. Why not at least have the ability to upload a photo for a watch face like Xiaomi? The Fitbit pay ... MoreAfter formerly using a Samsung Galaxy Fit and a Xiaomi Mi Band 6, I was expecting to be getting a much better experience with the Charge 5. But it actually feels like I'm stepping back in time with this band for well over twice the price. Functions and available apps are horribly limited (e.g., where is a weather app?), the automatic exercise detection barely seems to work, battery life is half that of the other bands, and you have to pay extra for sleep tracking. The screen seems to lag with the touch input and is hard to control. The nice screen is limited in it's usefulness by limited apps and faces... this is a gross underutilization of good hardware. Why not at least have the ability to upload a photo for a watch face like Xiaomi? The Fitbit pay function is the one smart-watch feature that the competing lower-cost bands don't, and it works well. The form factor is nice too... it's a really thin band without the thick bezels the competition uses. The EKG feature is neat, but after getting an "OK" result the first day I had the band, I'm not sure it adds any more value past that point. The AFib monitoring is cool, but now that I know I don't experience AFib, I don't think it will be that helpful moving forward. So overall, this is a basic-function mediocre fitness band with a few health features that could be good for people at risk for cardiovascular problems. The sleep tracking accuracy has been rated as top-of-class as well. If those features don't appeal to you, a lower-cost band will likely be a better choice. And if you're paying $130 already plus a premium subscription for the Charge 5, I'm not sure why you wouldn't just go ahead and pay a bit extra for a smartwatch.

More features than I need

Probably should do your research before buying. There are many Fitbit models and this one may or may not be the best one for you. I'm just a regular non-athlete and I bought it mostly to track my sleep instead of apps where I have to guess my sleeping and waking and type in the numbers myself. It seems to be pretty accurate about it. It's noticeable when you wear it, but not uncomfortable. The band is simple and it's easy to wear or remove the device and it stays on. Out of the box, the attached band is the one that fits a female wrist so men may have to attach the second band that fits a male-size wrist. It's pretty easy to swap out bands and they offer other colors/textures. Some may also prefer the model that looks more like an actual watch. I just wanted ... MoreProbably should do your research before buying. There are many Fitbit models and this one may or may not be the best one for you. I'm just a regular non-athlete and I bought it mostly to track my sleep instead of apps where I have to guess my sleeping and waking and type in the numbers myself. It seems to be pretty accurate about it. It's noticeable when you wear it, but not uncomfortable. The band is simple and it's easy to wear or remove the device and it stays on. Out of the box, the attached band is the one that fits a female wrist so men may have to attach the second band that fits a male-size wrist. It's pretty easy to swap out bands and they offer other colors/textures. Some may also prefer the model that looks more like an actual watch. I just wanted something as simple as possible without a lot of fancy features that my smartphone already does. The charging cable is particular to this device so don't lose it. It's not really clear on the device what the battery level is. You have to use the app. But battery life is decent. As I bought this with the onset of winter, I haven't used it to track walking and biking that I do in the warmer months. But it has a GPS built in so I'm sure it will do great at that. It's probably not so great at tracking the other type of workouts I do. For some reason, there's only room in the app/device to track 5 or so types of workouts when I rotate between 8 to 10 different kinds. It also won't let me both track an exercise and use the stopwatch feature. There are some other features the watch does but I am dubious about the value and/or don't need them. Supposedly you can track heart rhythm, your relaxation level, and (for women) your menstrual cycle. Probably won't use any of those, but it's OK for what I do use it for. Finally, the companion app on your phone can provide useful summaries on a daily or weekly basis.

Not good for swimmers.

I swim every other day, varying about 1,500 to 4,500 yards, but basically for more than an hour at a time. At first I thought it was my fingerpads not being recognized on the touch screen. It got to the point that I couldn't swipe to the screen where I could select "swim" since it defaults to run (followed by bike and then swim). Then I started to have issues double tapping it to end the swim timer. Finally, it didn't recognize any amount of tapping, shaking or resetting and developed this blue highlighted outline on the face even when there was no display. I called the customer service and they were perfectly receptive and sent me a new face ( just the face, no new strap) after washing new through a couple of troubleshooting exercises. I'm a little wary of using it ... MoreI swim every other day, varying about 1,500 to 4,500 yards, but basically for more than an hour at a time. At first I thought it was my fingerpads not being recognized on the touch screen. It got to the point that I couldn't swipe to the screen where I could select "swim" since it defaults to run (followed by bike and then swim). Then I started to have issues double tapping it to end the swim timer. Finally, it didn't recognize any amount of tapping, shaking or resetting and developed this blue highlighted outline on the face even when there was no display. I called the customer service and they were perfectly receptive and sent me a new face ( just the face, no new strap) after washing new through a couple of troubleshooting exercises. I'm a little wary of using it again in the water, but that's my primary exercise, so it's not quite doing the job I wanted it to do. I start the "swim" selection before I start my sets, but I would like it to track my heart rate while I'm in the water. Online reviews share that it might be the warm shower that's loosening the rubber seals, and not the usually cooler pool water. Apparently the Advance Sense Fitbit is more amenable to water exercises, although they're all supposed to be water resistant to 50 meters. I don't know how that translates to lap swimming for up to 2 hours, but I will find out.

Works great!

It’s been so awesome having this. It’s honestly helped me to get moving more and to understand the intensities of my workouts, especially when I strength train! I’m happy with all of the different metrics it tracks. And I am happy with the GPS. I typically had to guess what my lap mile was, but with the GPS there’s so much I can see now with my pacing, and no more guessing how many miles I’ve ran. I don’t have issues with this being on throughout the day. It only turns on when I specify that I’m jogging. The GPS does lower the battery life, but so far it hasn’t been enough to make a significant difference. I can still go more than a day before I need to charge it again after using it.I also like the notifications to move. It’s made me realize just how sedentary I ... MoreIt’s been so awesome having this. It’s honestly helped me to get moving more and to understand the intensities of my workouts, especially when I strength train! I’m happy with all of the different metrics it tracks. And I am happy with the GPS. I typically had to guess what my lap mile was, but with the GPS there’s so much I can see now with my pacing, and no more guessing how many miles I’ve ran. I don’t have issues with this being on throughout the day. It only turns on when I specify that I’m jogging. The GPS does lower the battery life, but so far it hasn’t been enough to make a significant difference. I can still go more than a day before I need to charge it again after using it.I also like the notifications to move. It’s made me realize just how sedentary I am during the work day. I’ve really picked up my movement since purchasing this item.My only issues have been that a couple of times I had trouble syncing it to my phone. But that hasn’t been enough to frustrate me. And the only other thing I wish I could change is when I’m exercising and it notifies me that I’m moving from fat burn to cardio then to peak, I wish I could tap on it to go away so I can see the other details. Sometimes those notifications stay up for a bit too long, which I’m quickly trying to see details on my bpm or pace.Overall, it’s a great product and it’s really helped with improving my healthy lifestyle. There’s so many positives I can say about this Fitbit, so I highly recommend to anyone with an active lifestyle or someone trying to live an overall healthy lifestyle.