Fitbit - Charge 5

I had 2 Fitbit charges (4 and 5) and both died at around 2 years. Currently using Xiaomi Band 9 and loving it so far.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend any Fitbit product. I’ve used them off and on for ten years and quality has never been great, and has been getting worse every generation. My wife got me a Fitbit Charge 5 for Christmas 2022 and it just completely died a month ago; not even two years, and I always take good care of my devices. Fitbit has become purchase annually or bi-annually then throw away junk devices. Their quality is crap. I started looking at cheap Garmin devices to replace my dead Charge when I saw the Apple Watch SE. With Black Friday deals, Amazon has the 44mm screen watch at $179 and the 40mm watch at $149. At that price, Fitbit, Garmin, no one else has anything near the quality or features. I just received my Apple Watch SE 44mm today and it is so far beyond anything I could’ve gotten from Fitbit or Garmin at even double the price I paid.

I already have the Samsung Watch Ultra, along with the Polar Vantage V2, so once my Charge 5 dies, my Fitbit days are done and over.

I switched to a Garmin vivoactive 5, and it is way more complicated than my tried and true charge 5. The changes that fitbit has been making and my going through 2 charge 5's in 2 years made me switch. I got it on sale a couple weeks ago and have been playing with it, I just miss the familiarity and user friendliness of Fitbit. But I'm not going back.

Had a charge 5 for over 3 years. Battery was still lasting a week but felt the last half of the battery was dying a bit faster than before. The charge did pretty much everything I really cared about for just day to day stuff. I have an Apple Watch but the short battery life just kills it for me for every day but I will use it if I’m going somewhere. Was mostly happy with the charge 5 as a simple fitness tracker, biggest complaint was comparing the heart rate on it vs Apple Watch or polar monitor the charge way overestimated once I was at about 70% max heart rate. I had heard the 6 had a better algorithm for heart rate and they had a ok sale for Black Friday so I figured I’d grab one. So far so good, need to do a head to head with my old one and see if the heart rate is different. I didn’t abuse my 5 but didn’t baby it either. Wore it most every day for over 3 years and the biggest issue I had was having to reset it to get it to sync again but that seemed to have gotten better recently to. I know I see people saying theirs didn’t last a year but I can’t say that was my experience.

I had a Charge 5 before who died after I started to swim, but my Charge 6 is quite OK, after more than six month since purchased including swimming three times per week. HR checked in parallel with the blood pressure monitor and looks fine. 7 days batter is a blast. All other indicators looks. OK. If you are more in sport than in health tracking I guess that Charge will not satisfy you need, but if are a mainstreamer user focus more on health the device is quite OK.

I have had both the Garmin Vivo and Charge 5 and I am an android user so Apple watch is out for me. Durability wise Garmin but not sure how that compares to the Charge 6 as they fixed alot of the issues that the Charge 5 has. But wearing and comfort. Hands down the Charge 5. I have gone thru 2 charge 5 over the last 5 years and would still buy the charge 5/6 over Garmin for the comfort. The Charge 5/6 is much thinner on your wrist and surprisingly that makes a world of difference

I've had both a Charge 5 and Charge 6. The Charge 5 died less than a week after the 1-year warranty expired. The Charge 6 died about a month after the 1-year warranty expired.

Why no one is talking about FIT bit charge 6/5 , it's having pretty much all the same functions as if whoop , was on fitbit 5 for a while only issue I faced was if the strat it gave be skin burns

Why no one is talking about FIT bit charge 6/5 , it's having pretty much all the same functions as if whoop , was on fitbit 5 for a while only issue I faced was if the strat it gave be skin burns

I always did second-hand Fitbits (Charge 5 was my latest,) until I realized that I was paying more for an old used Fitbit when compared to a Xiaomi Smart Band. Currently have the 9, should maybe have gone for a Pro. Do I love it? Nope. It shows a lot less than my Fitbit, or I have no clue how to use it. But I really only want to see my steps and sleep. What I realllllly want is an Apple Watch, but wtf. Even used.

I had the charge 5 and if I got really sweaty it would stop tracking my heart rate completely. Do you get super sweaty and it mess up?

I'm using Fitbit Charge5. I think the current version is 6 tho. Does everything I want, has its own GPS so I don't need to bring my phone when I run, has suica, sleep tracking, battery life is around 1 week so it only needs to be charged on the weekend. Around 16k when I got it few years ago. Might be closer to 20k now, but you get what you pay. Anything below 5k will be Chinese junk that will turn into ewaste in a few months.

The EKG on both the Fitbit Charge 5 and Charge 6 doesn't work. Avoid both. I own them. (regrets)

My Vivoactive 5 records it fine while swimming. So did Fitbit Charge 3 and 5, I had in the past. But I like Garmin a lot more then Fitbit, as Fitbit got much worse since Google bought them.

I had 2 fitbit charge 5's and both of them had an unreliable AF heart rate monitor. Also they get damaged easily and with even the slightest damage they're no longer waterproof and then even sweating too much can kill the device. It's a glorified pedometer but that's it.

My Fitbit Charge 5 worked great for this. Any reason why Garmin doesn't?

Fitbit is going the way of the dodo bird, thanks to Google. Garmin seems to have cool stats and community features that I'd like to take part in.

I’ve had a Charge 3, a Charge 5 and got a Charge 6 a few months ago. It’s been fine, does everything I need and battery life is great.

Data seems comparable to the charge 5 it replaced. The wristbands that came in the box were bad - the large was too big on the first notch and the small sat on the second to last notch and not secure - quickly replaced with bands from Temu which fit both the Fitbit and my wrist better

I have a charge 5 and it lasted around 2 years. However I am gonna go with charge 6, just because I like the tracking features and when it was working correctly, battery lasted for days not worrying about it and keeping my steps tracking. I would though, buy additional warranty this time.

I have one and I enjoy it. I find the heart rate tracking much better then my charge 5, I use it most for tracking workouts, steps, and my sleep and I find it does all of these well

I just went from the charge 5 to a pixel watch and I honestly kind of hate the pixel watch. It's very intrusive out of the box and battery life just sucks. I have had to shut off so many notifications. Even after shutting off all notifications except for messages and chat and setting the vibration to minimum and audible notifications to mute with only tap to turn on the screen I get less than 2 day battery life (36 hours tops) & it's brand new. Fitbit Integration is poor as well way less settings in the app. The heart rate monitor works as good I wore both for a while and they were exactly the same. The only points I give the pixel watch for are I can wear it on my heavily tattooed arm and still have HR work. I only really want activity and Heart rate tracking. The rest I am happy with using my phone for. The Pixel watch does so much stuff I don't really care about and it's costing me too much battery time. I have another week in my return window and currently I am leaning on sending it back.

I use my fit bit charge 5 and just use "outdoor work" as my category. It's the only one I've found that fits my wrists as I don't like the big ones. It does a good job of traking the exercise.

This will be my (M70) third fitness watch. My first one, from a now defunct manufacturer, was about $40 and served me well until it overheated while charging, which I noticed just in time and burned my fingers unplugging it. My next was a Fitbit Charge 5, and fuck that thing. It was always annoying: charger didn't want to connect, app didn't want to update stats, most of the "features" weren't usable unless you paid for an app subscription, etc. Still, it served me ok for two years, then it got to where it needed recharging every day, and after the last app update it just started shutting down at random times. None of this has made me decide "I know, I'll pay $500 for the latest Apple Watch or Garmin and it will solve everything". Because I personally know a couple of people who own Apple Watches, and they suffer as many problems as I did with my fitbit. No Thanks. The most important features for me are accurate heart rate and blood ox readings. After that, reliable functioning (like connecting, staying connected, the fitness app, Apple Health app compatibility) matters. I don't care if I have an Amazfit, a Mi Band, or another brand: I just want an under-$100 fitness watch that works without drama, and won't tell me (M70) my heart rate is 120 when it's actually 160, because not dropping dead matters most. Any feedback appreciated.

Just bought it when it dropped. Gotta be better than my fitbit charge 5, it was shutting off several times a day, and the only way to restart it was to plug it in to charge.

I would recommend a Garmin Instinct 2 or 2S (the S is just the smaller version but it's the one I prefer). It's simple but powerful. It doesn't have all the high-end features, but it has more than I ever use. But the reason I got it is because it's *not* touch-screen. I had a FitBit Charge 5 before switching to Garmin, and that watch went nuts if any water touched the screen. Whether it was run or sweat, it became almost unusable. Also, I run in sub-freezing temps in the winter, and the last thing I want to do is take my glove off so I can interact with my watch. But since I brought up the Fitbit...my first fitness tracker was a FitBit Charge 4, and that thing was pretty awesome as a beginner piece. I gave it to a trailrunner friend and she still uses it years later. I'd recommend the Charge 4 over the Charge 5 because the Charge 5 lost the altimeter in favor of being super waterproof, and I never really forgave FitBit for that, as a trail runner.

fitbit is worst, charge 5 bricked just after warranty. Customer support says no repair , no replacement , so total loss.

After I got a Fitbit Charge 5, I handed down my Garmin Vivosmart 4 to my daughter (her Fitbit Luxe had died), and now I kinda regret it. I recently managed to find a new-in-box Vivosmart 4 on eBay, but if I hadn't I'd probably have switched to the Vivosmart 5. (I had tried the Vivosmart 5 right when it was released, and strongly preferred the VS4, but if I hadn't already had a VS4 I'd probably have been content with the VS5.)

My charge 5 is 2 years old and fantastic. There's a lot of hate about that device, but it's been accurate compared to my chest monitor, cheap, and the battery lasts a week.

It functions well as a step counter and sleep tracker, but the GPS isn't fantastic, and a lot of the 5s and 6s don't make it past the end of the warranty period. I'd probably not recommend it, and instead suggest one of the Fitbits with a different design.

My Charge 5 still lights up, so not worth it for me.  Bought daughter a Garmin Venu Sq2 for Christmas (so I can see if I like it).  I'll likely move to it if I get tired of my Charge 5, or if it dies.

I recently got a Garmin Vivosmart 5 to replace my Fitbit Charge I had for many years. Can’t believe I just made the switch, personally, the Garmin blows the Fitbit out of the water!

Ya, I went through 2 fitbit charges before giving up and buying a pixel watch.

My wife and I had six different charge devices over the years. They all die just after the warranty! I really like the product but they don't last. Incidentally, the last one I bought I got the two year warranty. The product died after the first year and was replaced and then the replacement died 3 months after the warranty. Unless you want to buy one every year or so... don't but the fitbit Charge.

you are probably right and tends to be the end result. You are generally better off sticking with the more well known brands. Ignoring blood pressure your cheapest option for what you want is fitbit charge - but does include a screen - but reasonably small.

fitness bands I feel are more for health based reasons as generally their hr and gps isn't great for activity (fitness bands are like amzfit band, huawei band, fitbit charge etc). They have started to increase smart functionality and are getting closerto a smartwatch. Smartwatches are more for either companion to your phone (enabling phone features on your watch) - wear os on android or apple watch on iPhone - they can replicate a lot of what the fitness watches offer but its via 3rd party - so not an complete eco system. Then you get yoru fitness brands - garmin, coros, polar and suunto - where their focus is health, fitness and training metrics and analytics - the bonus of these wattches is long battery life and sport specific metrics. And there are the others which are a sort of cross between wear os/apple watch and the fitness watches - huawei , amazfit, xiaomi etc (and loads of chineese branded watches in this category) - these watches can provide great value for money, however health, fitness and training metrics can be much more hit and miss than the fitness watches. As to which is best for you would depend on your focus and what you want a smartwatch to do - yours post seem to be all health based - its worth noting that no watch is a medical device and while some components may have a form of medical approval (fda etc be advised that the type of medical approval sign off doesn't make them a medical device its just confirming they can provide to a specific level - which isn't necessary a medical level that hospitals etc can use). From a health perspective any all of these watches can work for you including fitness bands - just depend on the level of detail and what features you want. Personally I would suggest a fitbit charge for you or alternatively the pixel watch 3 (assuming you have an android). Why fitbit - they give a fair amount of depth to their health metrics and they provide an easy to understand level of insight to their data (note if you want stress detail and sleep score detail you will need a sub). PS - this will provide you with most of the stuff you wanted plus up to 7 day battery life. If you wanted all those features (except blood pressure) in a very classy package you could look at a withings - however I feel they are a bit hit and miss on some of their results, and while you do get a cut out screen note you will have to consume most of your data with the app. So why would you get a watch for health features: Sleep - I pefer one that focuses on recovery as duration is generally fairly accurate for most, sleep stages to a degree is a waste of time (no watch can accurate distinguish between light & rem - even sleep clinics struggle) - thus how a sleep aids your body in recharging makes sense to me - this is a focus for oura, garmin, whoop, polar and to a degree fitbit - garmin is the best at incorporating sleep into other features. Stress - the impact to your body's ANS - can be useful driver with other metrics to show how your body is reacting to various inputs (i.e. high stress during sleep can suggest you coming down with an illness/injury/over training - incorporating this into other metrics like training readiness can help you reduce training and instead maybe take a recovery day enabling your body to recover/have more energy to fight an illness - effectively reducing the chance of injury/illness. This is great summary by garmin of what each health metric is and what it offers and why you might want to track it. Not all garmins have all these features but most do, and most of the other watches have similar features but not to the same level of detail. [https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/garmin-technology/health-science/](https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/garmin-technology/health-science/)

I have used a Fitbit Charge as my smartwatch for years. I think I'm on my third one and I only need to charge it about once a week. And with this latest one I got, it now has navigation and texting, two things I was missing in the past. It's smaller than even the 41mm Pixel and has everything I need. I'm with you ... just can't give up the battery life for a pixel watch.

Fitbit is fitness tracker. All the other options you mentioned are way more expensive smart watches. I still think Fitbit is good for general health tracking. Plus I really like sleep tracking and found Fitbit Charge comfortable to wear in bed compared to watches.

Why not just stick with the Fitbit Charge? My Fitbit also measured the little things. But it also picked up on too much. Garmin prefers to count little steps as "accidents" such as typing on a keyboard. If you are using it to win a challenge, then Fitbit might be better for you. But if you want it for running or workout suggestions, then Garmin is better.

Yes I left Fitbit when they got rid of Fitbit Bingo :(

I've been using one for the better part of 2 months now. Same use situation kinda. I use it for time, timers, and sleep tracking. I had a fitbit charge before it that was great until it died. I wasn't going to drop another $100-140 for a watch to last a little over a year again. The watch pro 2 is awesome if you are willing to accept it's compromises. On the latest firmware, it duplicates notifications for me. It can and will disconnect from your phone if you go out of range or close the companion app. It likes for you to leave that in the background and have the connection notification in your notification shade (on Android at least, I am unsure of iPhone behavior). Neither of those are that big of a deal to me. What annoys me is when you set timers; you cannot leave the timer screen. The crown can accidentally stop the timer if it catches on clothes while you're moving around. I wear long sleeve rash guards at work and when it's raining; the wet rash guard sleeves will interact with the touchscreen and stop my timers, because again you can't leave the timer screen. I've already given feedback about how I'd love to have them modify the timer software's behavior. You *should* be able to send it to the background and go to the home screen. But as of right now it isn't designed that way. I've found a few screens where it remains on 24 hr time despite me setting it for 12 hr. Basically, it's got issues that can be patched with updates. I charge it once a week (a full 7 days). The battery life is AMAZING. I've only found one review that accurately describes the watch pro 2. It's a middle ground between fitness tracker and smartwatch. My Fitbit did not let me customize anything besides a watchface; it didn't do phone calls. It did last as long between charges. With the watch pro 2 you can have 4 "widget" screens in addition to the watchface. They have 4 spots per screen and they have widgets for each corner or a larger widget that takes two spaces (top or bottom). It has a "app menu" for anything you can't find a widget for. I don't regret buying mine. For the price point it's phenomenal.