Fitbit makes stacks of things — from scale and smartwatches to wireless headphone — but mostly , Fitbit makes fitness trackers . It ’s sold tens of millions of them , and it keeps relinquish new ones even asinterestin its trackersdeclines . Just this month , Fitbit upgraded its most popular fitness tracker line ever , the Charge , with an improved touchscreen and water resistance , and allow me recount you , the unexampled cathexis 3 is excellent — if all you ’re looking for is a casual seaworthiness tracker . Its upgrade presentation makes it easier to practice . The new “ swimproof intent ” offers much - needed peace treaty of mind for a gadget you ’ll likely sudate on and shower with . It has everything you ’d bear to encounter in an casual physical fitness tracker . My only hesitance in recommending one is this : Is a introductory fitness tracker really something you desire in 2018 ? Well , is it ?
Fitbit commission 3
WHAT IS IT ?
Left: The new Charge 3 displaying a butt-ugly “😘” emoji, Right: The heftier Charge 2Photo: Harrison Weber (Gizmodo)
The quintessential fittingness tracker gets a touchscreen and water resistance .
PRICE
$ 150
Photo: Harrison Weber (Gizmodo)
care
Touchscreen modernizes the Charge and is super soft to navigate
NO ilk
Left: Old Charge 3, Right: New Charge 3Photo: Harrison Weber (Gizmodo)
It ’s boring . Fitbit is n’t doing enough to keep its trackers interesting as smartwatches slip the show
For Fitbit and fitness tracker fans , the $ 150 Charge 3 is a real test . Fitbit has proven its quintessential fitness tracker can still get better . But as smartwatches rise more equal to and , in some sheath , affordable , is Fitbit doing enough to keep us concerned ?
Beyond its two big upgrades , there are a few more noteworthy alteration . The Charge 3 is slimmer than the Charge 2 , and its screen is lustrous and bigger—“40 percent ” bigger , accord to Fitbit . There ’s still a button on the side of Charge 3 , but this one is “ inductive ” and veil ; it ’s responsive and buzzes with just a bit of pressure with your thumb . The stamp battery life on the gimmick should last seven daylight , Fitbit say , and indeed I ’ve only charge it once since I got my hands on it . The touch screen on the Charge 3 looks crisp from any angle and is enough responsive , but it does n’t expose colors . This is mostly ok , but boring , and it fall short when the equipment tries displaying an emoji someone ’s texted me .
Photo: Harrison Weber (Gizmodo)
What else ? Fitbit tell the 3 ’s eye charge per unit tracking is better , and it now has a SpO2 sensor to estimate how much oxygen is in your blood . That sensor helps it “ track new health indicator , like sleep apnea , ” say Fitbit . I detest slumber with anything on my wrist , but the equipment can track your eternal rest , as well as the usual selection of exercises like biking , swim , running , walking , and yoga .
There ’s also guided respiration and in - house “ apps ” on the gadget like weather , a timekeeper , and alarms . voyage around these option on the gimmick is a cinch , which was a squeamish surprisal , but there ’s not a whole lot there for you to play with . Were you expecting more ?
Technically speaking , the Charge 3 should meet most if not all of your daily fitness trailing needs . If you think something ’s missing , you might just want a smarter or more specialized gadget . For running , I ’d like GPS , GLONASS , metre tracking , and Strava reinforcement , and while it would be nice to find all that in the Charge 3 , that ’s a lot to ask from a equipment which — I know I ’m repeat myself here — is for casual , mundane utilise and cost $ 150 .
Top: New Charge 3, Bottom: Old Charge 2Photo: Harrison Weber (Gizmodo)
But I did n’t always feel this way .
Just a few months agoI even called GPS a John Major omissionfrom the Charge 3 when hearsay first babble up . And surely , GPS would scratch the itch that ’s go me to seek some Garmin scout , but after spend weeks with the Charge 3 , I no longer believe any single missing feature is the problem . My only business organisation is that most physical fitness trackers now just seem too boring , as smartwatches eat up into their share of the mart . Despite Fitbit ’s success in making the thrill 3 better than the 2 , Fitbit has n’t done much to make its quintessential tracker any more interesting or fun .
Day to day , wearing a Charge 3 is a caboodle like using any other tracker , like the Charge 2 or even theWithings Steel HR Sport . In the forenoon I trounce it on and only mark it at times — when my earpiece buzzes and a notice pop up up , when I have n’t moved for an hour , and whenever I take to retard the time . Fitbit has done some piece of work to automatically detect not only when you ’re practice but also what you ’re doing . So while you could manually tell it to track a run , you could just bulge out running instead and tell it when you ’re done . At first this made me a snatch nervous — like it would n’t give me credit for my hard - pull in use , but it worked as advertised . As for expression , I have n’t vex compliments on it ( as I did with the Steel HR Sport ) , but Fitbit has made some advance in make its trackers less visually cheap over the age . It looks alright and could look better .
This past Saturday , I bear the Charge 3 for my first one-half marathon , and while it help me keep tablet on my metre , and buzzed when I vex 10,000 steps , I never expect it to accurately track my aloofness without relying on the Global Positioning System from my phone , which I did n’t carry with me . To my surprisal , it got kinda cheeseparing ! The Charge 3 ’s guess , based on my steps and approximate stride length , was off by only 0.78 geographical mile .
As an digression : I had bother have the weather to synchronize on the Charge 3,as have others . That appeared to get magically fixed after I update the gadget the other day , but then few days subsequently I take on the issue again .
As with all seaworthiness trackers , it ’s nice to be able to see how many whole tone I ’ve taken throughout the week . The optional hourly reminders to move have belike helped me net a twain thousand redundant step here and there , but I ’ve discover them progressively easy to brush aside — and less gluey next to novel motivational system , like the rings on the pricier Apple Watch . Fitbit offers fun ways to vie with friends with its app , but unlike a few years ago when my parent and some friends used Fitbits , today many of those the great unwashed seem to have given up on the idea , or switched to smartwatches and more specialised devices . That ’s why I did n’t pass time with the social features in the app , but you might have a unlike experience . Plenty of multitude still apply Fitbits .
As an routine tracker , the Charge 3 does everything it take to do . But as with everything in biography , it could do more . Fitbit could cater to the more niche demand of jock , and it could continue prod its Charge line towards smartwatch district every few years . But unless Fitbit has some brand new musical theme in mind for what quotidian fittingness trailing can be — and no , it did n’t add up up with anything meaningfully new this time around — then does n’t it stick out to grounds that few and fewer people will persist in buy these things ?
You could argue the committal to writing was on the wall when Fitbit launched the$200 Versa smartwatchlast year , priced only a bit higher than its nicer tracker . And when the companyrepurposedan old blueprint to get parents to buy a tracker for their child , it sure as shooting looked like Fitbit was hightail it out of ideas , or that it did n’t need to spend too much clip on another tracker . Thepress release for the Charge 3reads in part like a foiled argument for the fitness tracker ’s relevancy .
The fitness tracker is still here . Nobody knows that better than Fitbit , which practically owns the market . But Fitbit tracker sales are fall . That ’s part of why Fitbit islosing money , however , the chunk of its sales that come from smartwatchesis grow . And theVersa is middling honest ! In June , Fitbitcalled it“the fastest selling production in Fitbit account . ”
All this is to say that no matter how much more refined Fitbit can make the Charge , the fittingness tracker just is n’t as exciting to masses as it used to be . I ’d contend it ’s get stale , but I do n’t carry everyone to agree with me .
If you ’re still happy with your old Charge but think it ’s clock time for a unexampled direction , this is a somewhat dependable upgrade no matter if you ’ve got a Charge HR , a Charge 2 , or something similar . If you ’ve never really gotten into fittingness trackers , but require to dip your toes in the scene , then certainly — try this one out . But the lunar time period has already turned towards smartwatches , and there ’s nothing I can imagine that Fitbit could dream up to stop this shimmy in the long running . The marquise merchandising gunpoint for seaworthiness trackers has increasingly come down to price , and for now that remains a good rationality to avoid fancier trackers and smartwatches . If price is a major factor for you , you might just need an $ 80 Fitbit Alta , or the $ 130 Alta HR for your daily trailing pauperism .
Still , at $ 150 , the Fitbit direction 3 ’s cost feels more than bonnie . I brook by my point that this really is the chance fitness tracker , hone . But while that may have been an exciting idiom a few days ago , in 2018 it ’s start to feel like a affair of the past .
README
If you get laid the previous Charge , you ’ll love the new Charge . Otherwise , we ’ll forgive you for falling benumbed .
The care 3 does n’t break new ground conceptually , but the touch CRT screen and water resistance are welcome upgrades .
Fitbit ’s budget smartwatch is way more interesting and not a ton more expensive , at $ 200 .
Fitness Trackers
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , skill , and cultivation news in your inbox daily .
word from the future , delivered to your present .
Please take your desired newssheet and relegate your electronic mail to upgrade your inbox .
You May Also Like
