Fitbit Charge 5
[{'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'The fitbit charge 5 is not eligible for return even if you have amazon prime(For safety reasons, items containing flammable liquids or gases can’t be returned to Amazon) so only buy this with the knowledge that you will not get your money back if anything goes wrong. If you have no plans on paying for the fitbit premium subscription then do not buy this as they are very careful not to tell you that half the features of the watch don\'t work without it. The health metrics dashboard is part of the subscription so without that you don\'t get SpO2 monitoring, heart rate variability, skin temperature variation, breathing rate during sleep or 14 out of the supposed 20 exercise routines. There is more outside of the withheld features like not being able to turn off gps(the options are dynamic, using the gps built into the watch and just your phone), location services, being auto enrolled into some social club, fitbit selling the data they collect even though it\'s not a free product(you MUST agree to this in order to setup the watch) and by default having the watch set to send you all sorts of emails but I guess I get upset about that more than other people these days. If you are still ok with that then I can say the watch itself is comfortable to wear. The screen is a bit slow to respond and the image is on the soft side but it\'s bright enough that sunshine doesn\'t bother me. I do have a lot of missed inputs(I can swipe 5 or so times before the watch reacts) and also it will register incorrect inputs like moving down when I swipe right. A smaller gripe is that fitbit can\'t seem to decide on what material the charge 5 is made from. The amazon page says it\'s stainless steel but the fitbit website where I originally found this on still says it\'s made of aluminum. The watch is lightweight though. This is about all I have to offer now. I\'m stuck with a watch that won\'t do half of what I bought it for and in my mind amazon is beyond complacent. Until very recently amazon owned fitbit which makes it seem like this scenario was intentional. I have a product that won\'t work unless I pay essentially a rental fee(formerly to amazon) and I can\'t return the near useless product because it\'s now considered to be "hazardous" by amazon. I actually bought the charge 5 as a second chance for fitbit after directly buying a charge 4 from amazon(no third party) and RETURNING IT IMMEDIATELY as I payed for a new watch but was instead sent a used model with a screen that was scratched to heck and gunk left on the sensors from the last customer. I doubt that the charge 5 is somehow way more dangerous than the charge 4 and therefore is unsafe to take back to the warehouse. Both watches were safe enough for the warehouse to send them to me and amazon tried to scam me with the charge 4 but I was able to send that back so the way I see it now is that they just factored that into a predatory business model. I have one last thing before I forget. If you didn\'t know you can look around the add to cart button and under it you will find the amazon return policy. On first glance you will see that it says REFUND OR REPLACEMENT AVAILABLE but make sure you hover the mouse over it because that is not actually amazon saying that it can be returned. I honestly don\'t remember if I ever noticed that before but I certainly will remember from now on.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-3 review-rating', 'review_body': 'UPDADE 4 (final):\nFitbit introduced the recovery score as part of the premium service (means monthly fees). It’s not as good as I’d hoped. Very generic and seems to rely on resting heart rate and HRV only. It’s a bit of a disappointment. I am keeping the 3-star rating. There are better health monitors out there, but this one is well-rounded. (and priced) enough to be a contender.\n\nUPDATE 3: I am just going to sum things up after two weeks of use.\nPROs:\n*Great screen, can be easily viewed in very sunny conditions.\n*Great for working out. Provides extensive metrics as you work out and seems accurate.\n*Very good sleep tracking. Silent alarms (can be setup to avoid waking you up from a deep sleep).\n*Decent heart rate monitor. Step tracker. Calorie count, etc. All these inherent features work well.\n*Holds charge forever.\n\nCONs:\n*No recovery rate metrics, as promised by Fitbit yet.\n*The screen is blinding at night. No way to tone down the brightness.\n*No longer counts stairs climbed for some reason.\n*Does not have actual body temperature readings.\n\nI\'ve learned how to estimate my recovery rate, based on resting heart rate, sleep quality and HRV. Still, wish that metrics was provided by Fitbit, as promised.\n\nUPDATE2: Look like they made the black version FULLY RETURNABLE for whatever reason, so buy in confidence.\nOne more issue to report: the screen does not seem to have an ambient light sensor and the "sleep mode" does not automatically turn on. I find myself waking up in the middle of the night to a blinding screen that lights up the room. Not great!\n\nUPDATE1: some have mentioned problems with the device being non-returnable. I followed up with Amazon on the issue. It is returnable, IF you experience performance issues or the device itself is defective or otherwise problematic. It seems like all versions but Black are fully returnable, so it must be a glitch. Talk to Amazon, if you experience an issue. They are extremely helpful.\n\nI am now into the 4th day of testing and it looks like there is some calibration going on in the background, as readings are getting a bit more accurate. I wish the temperature sensor would provide nominal values instead of an evaluation on how much it changed from the day before. I hope Fitbit hurries up and releases the Readiness Score feature.\n\nThese are my initial impressions and I will update this review, as my experience living with Charge 5 allows me to better evaluate it. I have and regularly use Biostrap and Apple Watch. I am mostly interested in my sleep and recovery data and Apple Watch doesn’t do any of that, while Biostrap is useless for tracking workout. You cannot have it all, apparently. I was hoping that this Charge 5 can reasonably handle both tasks in one device.\n\nTo my great disappointment, Fitbit released Charge 5 without the promised Daily Readiness Score, which would basically indicate your recovery score after you wake up in the morning, telling you how your body is really doing, and whether you should go hard or easy on yourself for the rest of the day. It’s a great way to modulate your workouts and properly recover without overstressing your body. The Biostrap is excellent for that very reason (see some of my dashboard pics). That’s what I wanted out of this Fitbit and they didn’t deliver. There isn’t even a timeline for when the feature will be available.\n\nAnother missing feature is the ECG, but I am neither here or there on that one. Charge 5 also no longer shows you how many stairs you\'ve climbed, which is disappointing, since Charge 4 did. After using it for two days, I am noticing that sleep time recognition isn\'t accurate. My Biostrap gets it right, down to a minute, while Charge 5 can be off by hours. Better turn it on yourself in the settings before bedtime.\n\nSpeaking of settings are adjustments...the lack of physical buttons means that you\'ll be scrolling up/down/left/right on a small screen all day long. It can get frustrating and menus aren\'t all that logically laid out. Another things that\'s poorly laid out is the dashboard, which is supposed to give you a snapshot of your metrics at a glance. You have to go through multiple screens (and some are not easy to find) in the app to get to various points of data. All of that should be viewable on one screen. AND you must use the phone app to view detailed info. Most of it isn\'t available on the web interface.\n\nAs it stand today, I would rather spend extra $20 and get an Apple Watch SE, which would be a superior tool in just about every respect until Fitbit delivers on the Daily Readiness Score. I’ll have to see how my experience with Charge 5 evolves, but I am giving it very generous 3 start for now…'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': '1) THEY REMOVED THE ALTIMETER (stair tracker)\nI was starting to love the extra data features until I started looking for my flights climbed… and it’s gone! It no longer tracks your flights climbed! Which, as an avid Hiker, is extremely important to me! I’m returning it and going back to my charge 2. (And YEA, it’s returnable, they accepted and refunded me)\n\nThe only reason I keep Fitbit even though I have an Apple Watch is bc the altimeter, battery and sleep tracking are superior to apple. However, now that they removed the altimeter I just can’t justify keeping the 5!!!!\n\n2) I don’t like that you can’t customize the colors of the different watch faces. I don’t want bright neon colors on my wrist in order to see all the stats on the main screen.\n\n3) I upgraded from the 2, so I’m not sure when this charged, but I don’t like that I have to now use the watch to set my silent alarms instead of just busting the Fitbit app. It takes so much longer to set up.\n\n4) the side bars are finicky, sometimes they don’t register that you’re pressing them while taking ecg reading.\n\n5) the screen scratches VERY easily!\n\nConclusion: all in all, if it had an altimeter I would have kept it; if they bring it back on the 6, I’ll buy that. My favorite workout is stair climbing and hiking, so the altimeter is important to me.\n\nOriginal 9/27/21\n\nIt took over 3 hours to finally finish the update. It kept stopping midway through. Going to sync or change the clock face and it keeps saying connection lost non-stop. I’ve already reset and reconnected everything. My only guess is that they rolled out the charge 5 without the app being ready for it? Not sure but super annoying to (4 hours later) still not be able to complete set up'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'What a freaking waste of time and space. Just pulled it out of the box and set it up and it wanted to do an update, which is expected. But after it failed multiple times and after following FitBits\'s instructions I now have a piece of plastic that just blinks the Fitbit logo. Not a great way to start an "improved" Charge series. Will be sending it back.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Apparently I’m one of the customers that received a non responsive, blacked out watch.\n\nEmbarrassing. First time dealing with this brand, leaves a bad mark. Thought this was a quality brand'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I pre-ordered directly from Fitbit and waited a month to receive. I would encourage you to check out the fitbit community forum for comments from other purchasers. This device was either released prematurely or simply has horrible design. It has required overnight charging every day I have worn it. Per Fitbit troubleshooting recommendations, I have disabled several of the apps (apps that frankly were a part of the appeal of the device in the first place, such as GPS) and this made little difference. Additionally, several of the features advertised for this device are actually "pending" and will not be available for several months! The final kicker is that I contacted Fitbit today indicating a desire to return the device for replacement or refund (trust me, I am not the only consumer with buyers remorse) and was told that the request needed to be reviewed by "higher support." I have worn Fitbit watches for many years and have always been very happy with them. It now appears that Fitbit/Google may not stand behind their product.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-4 review-rating', 'review_body': 'UPDATE May 2022: I\'m still a big fan of this product and have made a few updates to my initial review(s), but the bottom line is that it\'s held up to initial impressions. I ended up knocking off a star just because there are a few improvements that can be made, but it\'s still very solid.\n\n==============================\n\nI purchased the Fitbit Charge 5 as an upgrade from my Charge 3. I skipped the Charge 4 since I didn\'t really need/want the new features of that model, but the allure of a color display with the same lengthy, weeklong battery life was enough to make me upgrade to the Charge 5. I won\'t cover all the features of the Charge 5 since there are plenty of other places that go into great detail, and I may update this review after I get more use out of it.\n\nWHO SHOULD BUY A FITBIT CHARGE?\nThe Fitbit Charge is great if your primary use is as a lightweight fitness tracker. I prefer the Fitbit Charge over the Apple Watch and other smartwatches due to its lightweight nature, weeklong battery life, and my lack of need for fancier smartwatch functionality. If you like the extra bells & whistles of a smartwatch and don\'t mind a heavier watch that needs to be charged every day or three, then you may want to skip the Fitbit Charge. Also, if you\'re a die-hard Apple user who needs integration with the Apple Health app, then you\'ll also need to look elsewhere because there\'s no data flowing between the apps in either direction; thankfully, the Fitbit app is quite good and does integrate with a number of other apps.\n\nIS IT WORTH UPGRADING FROM THE CHARGE 3/4?\nIt mainly depends on how much you value a better, color display. The MSRP on a Charge 5 is $180 (though, I\'m sure the sale price will drop during the holiday season), while the MSRP on a Charge 4 is $150; though, at this point, everyone\'s selling the Charge 4 (and 3) well below MSRP, especially if you buy refurbished.\n\nIMPRESSIONS:\n- Initial setup was fairly smooth. I had to connect it to the charger to get it started up. Transitioning from my Charge 3 to the Charge 5 in the app was easy enough. There was a firmware update notice (the firmware enables the EDA sensor), and that update was a little buggy & required a few attempts before it succeeded (at one point, I needed to reboot my Fitbit).\n- ECG monitor became available via firmware update 11/9/2021. I had some connection issues while trying to run it but got it to work eventually. I don\'t have any arrhythmia issues, so while it\'s a nifty feature, it\'s ultimately useless for me.\n- The Daily Readiness Score also became available 11/9/2021. It\'s only available for Premium subscribers.\nIt takes 4 days before it starts functioning & a couple weeks to "tune". Overall, I\'d say this is not terribly useful. If you work out on a consistent basis & get a decent amount of sleep, then it\'s always a great day to work out! That is, you\'ll remain in the Good to Excellent range (30 & above). For reference, I typically work out 4-5 days/week spending 30-40 min on cardio & 30-40 min on weights, which ends up being 110-160 Zone Minutes on those days when combined with whatever other Zone Minutes I rack up when not working out. But if you take a week off or so & return to working out, then you may dip below 30 into the Low score range where it says you should prioritize recovery. I also noticed that if you forget to wear your Fitbit to bed, it can throw off your score; it sent my score plummeting for no good reason otherwise.\nAlso, perhaps not surprisingly, the Readiness Score seems to be primarily reflective of your cardio workout. It will classify my "Activity" as "Light" on some days when I spend a fair amount of time on weight training that doesn\'t really sustain an elevated heart rate (and less on cardio).\n- There\'s no longer a "home" button on the side of the display to "Return" or access additional menus. This took a little time to adjust to, but I\'m generally okay with it, especially since the touchscreen is noticeably more responsive than the Charge 3. Now, you must swipe right to return to the prior screen, and you can also double-tap in most cases to return to the home screen; though, the double-tap can be finicky. Would I prefer to have a "home" button again? Yes. (Now, the sides of the device used for the EDA sensor & ECG monitor).\n- The display is much, much better than the Charge 3/4. Brighter with much higher resolution. and of course, color.\n- The display has 3 brightness settings; however, the difference between dim, normal, and max is rather subtle; they\'re all pretty bright, and this is unfortunate because it\'s a little too bright for dark rooms in my opinion. I liked the dim, auto, and normal settings on my Charge 3 much better. Hopefully, this is something that will be fixed in a future firmware update (assuming, the Charge 5 still has the sensor that allows for an "auto" setting).\n- The "up to 7 days" battery life is not a lie. The battery life lasts me about a week with my brightness set to "normal", which is the same as my old Charge 3. I do not use the built-in GPS nor the always-on display (both of which are a significant drains on the battery), but I do average 6-8 hours/week of active exercise time. And, since the "dim" brightness setting is bright enough for me, I use it all the time, which translates to even better battery life. Pretty amazing considering the brighter, color display.\n- The Charge 5 does a better job of automatically turning the display on at the turn of the wrist. My Charge 3 wouldn\'t always turn on or would require me to turn my wrist more than what felt natural. The Apple Watch is still superior with regard to automatically turning on when looking since there is a slight delay with the Charge 5 after turning your wrist (and, it still doesn\'t always turn on).\n- The wrist band that\'s included is a nicer feeling silicone material instead of the plastic one that came with the Charge 3/4. The "small" strap on the Charge 5 band is also smaller than the "small" on the Charge 3/4. On the Charge 5, I use the last or next to last notch on the band (i.e. the strap is basically at its largest, most expanded size), but with the Charge 3 strap, I still had 3 or 4 empty notches to work with. Not a big deal since they include small & large bands, but something to consider if you purchase additional bands. I did end up purchasing the Sport band, which does have more notches to work with. Be sure to use Fitbit\'s sizing tool on their website before purchasing extra wrist bands since they do vary based on which one you get.\n- The heart rate monitoring is nice & accurate like the Charge 3. I run on a treadmill with a Tickr X (1st gen) chest strap, and after the first few minutes of running when my heart rate is more stable, the readings between the Charge 5 & Tickr X are either the same or only off by a bpm or two. It\'s less accurate when doing sprints/HIIT since it tends to lag behind the Tickr X, but it\'s still in the ballpark (albeit, delayed).\n- The EDA sensor seems like a waste for me. Along the lines of the guided breathing exercises in the Charge 3, it\'s just something that I don\'t care to use, and I question its accuracy/validity anyway.\n- I\'m not sure if this was introduced with the Charge 4, but there\'s a daily Stress Management Score now. The number seems fairly meaningless, since it\'s somewhat of a mystery as to how it\'s calculated. Yes, Fitbit tells you what the general parameters are (heart rate, sleep, activity) & premium members get to see how the sub-scores feed into the overall score (see below), but in the end, it just seems pretty meaningless to me.\n- I think this may have changed with the Charge 4, but it no longer tracks the number of floors you\'ve climbed (no big deal as it was wildly inaccurate), and it counts Active Zone Minutes instead of Active Minutes now. Fitbit\'s website has more details on Active Minutes vs Active Zone minutes.\n- There\'s 23 clock faces to choose from. Most of them only display one stat (e.g. HR, steps, etc.) at a time (though, you can usually cycle through them all by tapping the screen), which is unfortunate. Hopefully, they\'ll add more data-rich clock faces, but overall, it\'s nice to see them making use of the colorful, higher resolution display.\n- The charging cable functions a lot better since it magnetically clips to the Fitbit (like an Apple Watch does to its charger). I believe it\'s the same charging cable as the Fitbit Luxe.\n- My Charge 5 somewhat regularly (once every day or two) has trouble syncing with the app. It has gotten better over time & usually just requires me to refresh the app (by dragging down at the top of the screen of the phone app). At worst, I\'ll need to restart the app, and once I had to restart my Fitbit device itself. Overall, not a big deal. Just an occasional annoyance.\n\nFITBIT PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP:\nI generally dislike paying for subscriptions since the cost of them can add up to something pretty substantial over time. The Fitbit Premium Membership isn\'t exactly cheap at $10/month or $80/year; though, you get 6 months for free with the purchase of your Charge 5. If you actually use many/all of its features, then it may be worthwhile, but for me, it isn\'t (i.e. I won\'t be paying for membership when my free trial runs out in a week or so). The Daily Readiness Score & Health Metrics Dashboard are the only premium features I routinely looked at, but I question their overall usefulness/practicality. Here\'s a rundown of what you get for your money:\n- Daily Readiness Score: see comments above in IMPRESSIONS section - in short, not terribly useful.\n- Health Metrics Dashboard (see attached pic): graphs/data for Breathing Rate, Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Skin Temperature, Oxygen Saturation (SpO2), Resting Heart Rate (RHR). The RHR data is already available for non-Premium users & you can view you most recent SpO2 reading on the device, but the rest of the stats appear to only be available to Premium members. The graphs are actually kinda crummy; there\'s two types: 1) one graph allows you to vary the time scale to view 7, 30, or 90 days, but you have to visually line up the dot with the values on the y-axis to determine the actual reading for each dot, and 2) another type of graph shows 7 days at a time with individual readings on the graph, but you can\'t change the time frame/scale of this graph. It would be a lot nicer if they made these graphs larger & interactive (so you could change the time scale on the fly & tap on the data points to see the reading).\n- Wellness Report: You can generate a PDF wellness report to be emailed. While it provides a summary of HR, weight, activity, & sleep trends over the course of 1, 3, 6, & 12 months, it\'s lame that you can\'t just view this directly in the app.\n- Stress Management Score details (see attached pic): extra details on your score including the sub-scores that feed into it: Responsiveness, Exertion Balance, & Sleep Patterns.... still not sure how meaningful any of this is.\n- Sleep Score details (see attached pic): there\'s a different detailed view of your sleep score; you get sub-scores for Time Asleep, Deep and REM, and Restoration, but I believe all the graphs are the same for non-premium users, so I\'m not sure that this offers much more insight that the non-premium view does; I suppose you get to see how much each sub-score accounts for the overall score.\n- Instructional stuff: There are various workout routines, guided meditations, food programs, & sleep programs you can look up & do.\n- Games & Challenges: You can participate in various fitness games/challenges, which might motivate you to work out more.\n\nOverall, I think the Charge 5 is a nice upgrade from my beloved Charge 3, and for me, it was worth paying the extra bucks.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Missing functionality right out of the box. As others have pointed out the GPS and heart rate function can’t really be used simultaneously. The SPo2 and the body temp were my key factors in purchasing the watch as the earlier versions of the watch handle the basic functionality this has. I have to say as a “health tracker” there are many reasons to be disappointed in this watch. To be fair there are many good choices out there right now however at this price along with the premium monthly up charge pushes this watch into the price range of an Apple Watch. So sadly I’m going to return it and purchase the apple product. The issue with most of these companies once they are acquired is to sail along on minimal enhancement and hope that people are too lazy to try new products by other manufacturers. Amazon is coming down hard on this market and unless Fitbit does something great soon the Amazon watch will be better cheaper and have easier to use interface with more relevant health metrics.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'FitBit has lost its glory. This Charge5 was released too early. It’s far from a finished product. They advertise EKG, but you cannot use EKG because it’s “coming soon”. It advertises oxygen saturation stars, but you only get one average reading during sleep & it’s not continuous or on-demand. No more stairs climbed stats. Most exercises trackable now require subscription. More and more state keeps moving to subscription. I will go back to my AppleWatch and leave this toy for my child since that’s what it is. You cannot return this item. Once you buy it you’re stuck, per Amazons return policy. Buyer beware. Major fail from FitBit product release. I will file a dispute with my credit card company.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Great features, bright screen and good outdoor visibility, lite in weight, looks great on both sport and professional outfit. Charging slot is better than charge 4.'}]