Fitbit - Charge 5

I have a fitbit, my wife has an apple watch. Her apple watch is far superior at being a smart watch. My fitbit is far superior at being a fitness/health tracker. It barely functions as a smart watch. (note: I have a charge5). Both are perfectly competent at being watches. If you just want a watch, get a watch.

Mine more reliably tracks sleep, O2, breathing, and a few other metrics than my wifes apple watch.

For reasons, we have a separate pulse oximeter and my watches figure tends to be more accurate than hers when compared to the dedicated device. Her watch is absolute shit at tracking breathing and often as either no or absolutely impossible data, whereas mine is fairly consistent and reasonable.

Charge 5 is fine, but some refs will yell you to take it off.

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.

Late to the discussion here and not sure what you ended up doing but I’d say it depends on if you have an iPhone or not because of what Google is doing in the near future. From what I’ve read, in order to have full functionality of your Fitbit work with your phone, you’ll need an Android phone. I think this is specifically for the Fitbit Smart watches so not necessarily the Charge which is more of a tracker still.  Either way you’ll have to switch to a Google account from the Fitbit account to use the thing, I think that was supposed to be this year but just read February of 2026. Like many other replies here I’ve been using a Fitbit for close to 10 years (currently Charge 5) for many of the same reasons - smaller design, price, don’t *need* my watch to be a phone, and the battery life is hard to beat which is about a week.  I always forget when I charged it last!   Worst thing with my previous Charges is they didn’t last long, 2 years tops.  Even out of warranty, Fitbit gave me something like 40% off for a new one so that was an easy decision to stick with them.  My Charge 5 has been the best of this experience so far but, I’ve had it for a while now so at this point I’m wondering when it will mysteriously stop working.   I have an iPhone so when my Charge 5 dies I’ll be looking at an Apple Watch simply because I don’t trust Google to require an Android phone for full functionality of the Charge series in the future.  I feel like Google is making Fitbit users with an iPhone decide between switching to an android to still use their Fitbit or leave the Fitbit brand.  My first “real” job 15 years ago came with an iPhone so at this point it would be too much of an inconvenience to switch to Android for any reason.  

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.

My seventh Fitbit died last week (from Luxe to Versa to Charge 5 and 6, this was my second in-warranty replacement), white line on the screen to no screen at all within 24 hours. So with some Target credit I decided to go with a Garmin Instinct for $200. The GPS is much, much more accurate (even when not paired with my phone), the app tracks a lot more information than the Fitbit app did and takes up a third of the space on my phone. I miss the constant step updates; the Garmin just updates every minute. That's about the only drawback.

I've been with Fitbit for 5 years. I have to charge 6 right now. I don't like going a day without it. Last year while camping I broke my Fitbit 5. On that same day I went to the closest Best buy and bought a Fitbit 6. Once you get used to having a Fitbit, it's very addictive in the sense that it helps you keep active and moving. It's not a lot of money for a lot of benefit, especially when you're trying to stay healthy.

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.

This is a query I posted somewhere else here... Perhaps you might be able to help?  I've had the Bip 6 for almost 2 weeks now. I have worn it dominant and non dominant. I have worn it next to and opposite a Fitbit Charge 5 I also own. Been through all suggested online (AND via the so far OUTSTANDING Amazfit CS!!). The step counter, and therefore mileage/calorie count, is not even close to what the Fitbit tells me. Yesterday, with both strapped to an ankle for s***s and grins (last try just to make sure it wasn't a problem with my wrists....lol), I had 12000+ steps on the Fitbit and 7000+ on the Bip 6. Today, mowing grass, 7066 on the Fitbit, 2954 on the Bip 6. Before I return this and go back to the ol' Protrek and Fitbit, does anyone have any thoughts on this? I like the watch otherwise. Morr stuff than I might ever need but damn.... $70! And it IS feature rich. Thanx folx!

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've got a Fitbit charge5, I'll recommend it as the device you want your enemies to use/buy. Wear it swimming (it's allegedly waterproof) it'll fail.  Wear it where there is no cell service (camping or out of country,) and it will fail. Countless battery issues, that they won't replace as degradation is expected. Sync your device with a Google pixel, good luck. You'll need to force stop the app every day before it'll sync.  Support will gaslight you, and make you jump through a bunch of hoops to get a warranty replacement (and they'll charge you for premium while you wait the 4-6 weeks for the replacement to arrive.)

Charge 6 (and Charge 5) built in GPS is absolutely terrible.

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.

yes I know, I already had a fitbit charge 5 and it was perfect for me but... it broke after 1 year. It's not an isolated incident and the 6 has the same issue. I don't want to pay that much money every year to buy a new fitbit.

If you only want to measure distance, I count my laps in my head. I don’t think it’s easy to do, and I do lose track of a few laps every now and then. Overall, I’m quite sure my count is good, or I swam more laps than I counted (when I lose track, I try to start again from the last count I remember). I used to have a FitBit in 2024, and the battery was good (something like Charge 3 or 5 I think?). The screen slowly died away, and eventually, the entire watch’s system died after a few months of swimming. The watch was bought in 2018 or 2019, and I hadn’t used it much before 2024.

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.

If there's a discount or discount code, then yes, buy a Fitbit while they're still available. That's exactly what I've been doing. I started with a Fitbit Charge 3 with a fading screen, upgraded to Charge 5, which had a battery that died.Now I just bought a Versa 4 because of the discount. Off-brand Amazon smartwatches are not worth it. They are not as accurate, and the Amazfit has privacy issues.Pixel watches are expensive. Garmin and other brands are beyond budget and too big to wear during sleep to track sleeping metrics.

Fit bit charge 5. Doesn't show tide but is durable and small. The shocks tide features only tell you if it's going up or down and is not really that useful.

Yeah I've heard that in a couple videos I've seen on YouTube. I have no frame of reference for comparison since the fanciest fitness watch I've used before was a Fitbit charge 5, but now that I'm more seriously getting into running, I'd like to have some mapping options. I'm still on the fence on whether I really need full offline maps or if I could get by with the breadcrumb trails. I enjoy backpacking & I'd like to be able to go on outbound runs/hikes from the main campsite, so having more full maps could be nice, but I suppose I could make do with breadcrumb trails as long as I download any relevant route beforehand.

Recently had the same thing happen with my charge5. Second Fitbit that failed after a couple years. I landed on the Garmin Venu S3. There was a labor day sale and I got it for under $400. I love it.

I've had a Fitbit for years since the original HR in 2014 (currently have the charge 5 and have had it a little over 2 years). It works fine. Records sleep, steps, workouts, battery lasts about a week if I don't use GPS tracking (which I do when I go on runs). No altimeter on my model (so no elevation/flights tracking). No real social aspect anymore (step competitions don't really exist for example) and many in depth features locked behind premium app subscription. Definitely switching to something else soonish. Garmin seems great but more than I want to spend. Personally I'm probably switching to a Coros. Not quite as built up ecosystem-wise as Garmin but fantastic battery life (weeks) plus they have everything I want and for cheaper. Garmin if you want a "do it all". Coros if you want similar but cheaper and not as flushed out, Samsung if you want something more smartwatch leaning than fitness tracker (but can do both). Apple watch if you're iOS bound (SE is a good value), plus a million other off brands fitness trackers that are cheap but will get the job done.

I’ve got a Charge 5 and I’m debating this because I’d like to get a smartwatch that looks less like a fitness tracker. The main things I care about are in the moment heart rate monitoring, quality of sleep tracking, and not needing to charge it every day. Every time I look into this it sounds like Fitbit still comes out on top with sleep tracking, but I’m apprehensive about whatever AI integration is coming down the pipeline.

I had a Fitbit charge 5 (it fell off my wrist and I lost it). That one is sort of discreet with the screen off and I didn’t feel too silly also wearing a MW on the other wrist. It has a bracelet profile… they have the #6 version out now. They’ve had some QC issues but they have a warranty and they are relatively cheap anyway.

I would only because they are relatively cheap compared to the other premium options. However after I lost my Charge 5 this summer I got a Garmin watch. I had an episode of Afib a couple of years ago so I want a thing that has ecg option, and the charge 5 would do it but it sucked at it and would take multiple tries. My Charge 5 died during the first year so I had it replaced under warranty, the replacement had a faulty clasp that would fall off so that got replaced under warranty too. My third one like I said fell off my wrist somewhere outside. My wife’s Luxe battery died within the first year but she waited too long after warranty period to contact them and couldn’t get it replaced. They could glean that info when she contacted them, but didn’t want to replace it for her (which is technically fine because of the warranty limits, but customer service wise is not good if they can tell their product is defective). That’s why I went with the Garmin. So for less than $100 knowing it might break within a year or two it’s probably a fine trade off. I am enjoying the extra data and features the Garmin watch has though, so I’m happy with the switch but it was much more expensive.

My Charge 5's screen just went black for no reason. There are a couple fixes for it but none of them worked for mine. Fitbit only offered me 35 percent off my next purchase so I will not be going back.

Given my charge 5 just crapped out after a year and 5 months, I'm feeling pretty burned. Seems to be a common issue with that model

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 bought a charge 5 in 2023, it was working perfectly for 1 year and then suddenly it stopped working, got a replacement and had no other problem. Now 1 year later, the replacement also suddenly stopped working. At this point it's not covered anymore by the warranty. Looking on the internet, it seems that many people have the same problem, it just stops working after 1 year. My suggestion: buy it if you are ok with it lasting as long as the warranty. Also my suggestion: buy something else.

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.

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.

Fitbit was pretty awesome till Google took them over. Now we can’t do competition with others and the app sucks. My charge five suddenly has terrible battery life and never tracks my heart rate correctly. It also wiped out my nearly 600 day streak for no reason. I’ve started wearing my Apple Watch lately. So sad about the Fitbit changes.

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 had a Charge 5, the battery pooped right after the warranty ended. My activity I do the most is running, so I went with the Forerunner 255s (small wrist). I love my watch so much more than any Fitbit I had. It took a few days but I got used to the menus and using the buttons to start and end activities. It has a MIP display, great battery life.

I've been a Fitbit user since 2021. I used a Charge 4, and am reaching the end of life on my Charge 5. My next move is a used garmin or fitness ring.

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.

My charge 5 started malfunctioning after only 2.5 years, just out of warranty. It would just crash every time I touched or synced it, so it became unusable. Personally really disappointed by that, but I do find them too useful not to replace so I got the Inspire 3 for €60 last week. I like the app functions and that they are small, I don’t want a big watch on my arm and don’t want to have to charge it too often. Fitbit still wins in that regard, so I went for it reluctantly.

I owned the Charge 5 for a couple of years, during that period I had to get it replaced in the very first month as the screen went black and battery would die in a few hours. The replacement lasted a little over one year and started behaving erratic. As it did so past the warranty period, Fitbit did nothing, recommended that I retire it to e-waste. Curious to know if Charge 6 is any better. Thinking to get either PW3 or the Charge 6. I really loved the Charge 5 while it worked, but hated the fact that it didn't last very long, felt like a waste of money.

I have been using Fitbit for 11 years now and I’ve never had an issue with daylight savings time. I simply link my Fitbit to my phone and I get the time from the phone. I currently use a charge five and love it. My only issue is the most recent update which screwed up the hourly activity display

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.

I had a fitbit charge 5 and later a 6 and like you I couldn't stand the Googleization that was happening. Garmin doesn't have a direct competitor to the Charge which I thought was unfortunate. There is the vivosmart but it's a very outdated product IMO. So I ended up with a Venu 3S which has a relatively small screen and I absolutely love it. It tracks all the same activities but does it better IMO. Battery life is better especially when tracking a hike or something. The Charge would maybe last half a day and died on my multiple times tracking long hikes. There are so many more metrics you can see and configure on your watch face which wasn't customizable at all on the Charge other than the 15 or so default options, which all mostly sucked. Not all of the garmins can do the ECG thing but this one does. There are a few negatives - the interface isn't as simple and intuitive. Obviously it's larger but I've got used to it. The sleep tracking doesn't seem quite as accurate and it rarely recognizes if I take a nap in the afternoon. And lastly it's a lot more expensive. I've been very happy with the Garmin, I'll never go back to Google/Fitbit.

I also had troubles with my fitbits breaking in less than a year of use. I did not misuse it either. After several charge 5 and charge 6 breaking and when the warranty ran out I gave up on them. 

I’m on my 2nd Fitbit in 5 years. I currently use a Charge 5. The tracking has significantly helped me improve my sleep, my cardio fitness and my activity levels. I am far healthier than before I started using it. It’s also far more intuitive and useful for tracking than my spouse’s Apple Watch. More comfortable as well

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.)

I had a charge five that died after about two years. And I just bought a charge six on a promotion for 99 bucks. I weighed it versus Apple Watch and other brands. And for me for under 100 bucks it’s doing everything that I need. I can monitormy heart rate, my sleep, my spo2, my calories burned. I can be granular and log food and water that I drink. All this without the premium upgrade. I know that they’re offering it for free for six months, but I don’t wanna be tied to any subscription that cost as much (or more)as the watch over the course of a year The heart rate variability, and the EKG scan is helpful. But I’m sure like anything else. A lot of it is personal preference but for me for 99 bucks I’m happy with the purchase of the charge six

Same here. I've got a Charge 5, think it's 2 years old. I just need it to do the basics well. And long battery life. I've looked at AmazFit fitness trackers in Consumer Reports. That's about the only alternative at that price point. They cost less than Fitbits.

I just got Huawei band 10 but I'm weary of swimming with because of really bad experience with fitbit 5 charge that turned out to be garbage 2 of them got water in it after swimming in 4' shallow pool. So you guys are saying that Huawei is good to swim with it so far I like this watch way better than fitbit 

I just went through the exact same thing last week. I've had nothing but issues with Fitbit this past year and my Charge 5 wouldn't connect, then wouldn't charge. If was a piece of garbage. Fitbit told me they'd give me 35% off my next watch but I was done with them for good. I wish I would've bailed earlier as my last few watches have all had issues. I did a lot of research and didn't want to spend much. Long story short, I ended up buying the Vivoactive 5. The 6 didn't offer any updates that I needed and the 5 was on sale for a very good deal. I'm one week in and I absolutely love it so far. Wish I would've switched sooner. Bonus: I've been wearing the Vivoactive 5 for 6 days now and my battery is at 59% still. Some of the apple watches and Galaxy are like 24 to 48 hours of battery. I'm going to get at least 10 days, maybe even two weeks out of a charge.

I've had the charge 2, charge 4, charge 5, and charge 6. All died in 2 years or less- and because I either wore it in the ocean, pool, or shower.  For the charge 6, I also purchased a 3rd party warranty and so am getting money refunded to me.  I'm in the same boat of not wanting to go back. The only reason I stayed with fitbit so long is because of the smart wake feature. I've lived without it for almost 2 months now- but I have 8 bands and 3 chargers. I feel I'm invested in Fitbit, but their brand is dead, and all resources are going to the Google watch now. 

I just got a Charge 6 and loving it like I did my Charge 5. Fitbit is just exactly what I want, so it works for me. My only complaint over the years is that I miss having an altimeter.

When my charge 5 died earlier this month I’d had this very debate with myself as to whether I’d get a charge 6 or something else. Given the state of Fitbit, the fact that Google is quietly sweeping the whole product line under the rug and will likely not even make new models, I decided to splash out a bit more and get the Apple Watch SE3 since I’m already on the Apple ecosystem with my phone. It’s only downside has been the much worse battery life compared to Fitbit, but it does everything I want and a bit more, so I’m happy.

Obviously no fitness tracker is truly BIFL, but I'm assuming you're after something made well that will last. I've worn a fitbit since around 2017 and have always liked them. That they will go a full week without charging which is important to me, I've always ruled out an apple watch for that reason. My first one (Charge 2) lasted 5 years before it broke (physical damage, I smashed the screen). The second one (Charge 5) lasted 18 months before it wouldn't turn on and was replaced under warranty, that replacement lasted about the same and was replaced under warranty with my current one, a Charge 6. It's a great watch, but after two Charge 5 failures I worry about how well they are made. If this one fails I wouldn't buy another unless it lasts several more years, which is what I would expect from any watch.

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.

I wouldn't after the platform died. I still use it now because I have my 3rd watch left and working. I moved on to Samsung Watch 7. The community is why I made it to 3! Once this one die, I won't buy another one. I do like my Charge 5, I had 2 other Charges as well. It's worth saying it works just fine for me. I lost 30 lbs in 3 months using it combined with Myfitnesspal. I am using it now but I wouldn't buy another one. It broke every 2 years. That's way too often. But the community was more valuable and now I can use my Samsung via some connections on fitbit or anywhere else. 🤷🏾‍♀️

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.

You have to remember that Fitbits are manufactured and sold by the hundreds of thousands. It's inevitable that some small number of people are going to have a problem with theirs. It's no different for any other consumer electronics product. You always play the odds when you buy any tech, but odds are that yours will work as advertised. The Fitbit brand has taken a lot of heat since Google bought it. But considering the competition, I'm not surprised that Tom continues to rate it high. I've been very happy with the three Charge models I've bought since 2016.

I've had my Charge 5 just over four years, and it's still working fine. Roll of the dice, I guess. Some people had firmware issues at first. Went through at least three firmware updates, as I recall.

You can check your version number in settings/device info/ system info. My Charge 5 version is 57.200001.194.91.

I'm in wait-and-see mode. Will stick with the Charge line as long as I can.

Are you able to get adjustable straps. I have bigger wrists and I just had my fitbit charge 5 crap the bed. I see people going to Garmin for longevity.

I’ve been a loyal Fitbit user since 2018, and unfortunately, I’m writing this review out of frustration and disappointment. This is my third Fitbit watch. The original one worked fine, which encouraged me to upgrade. However, that was the last time I was truly satisfied with a Fitbit product. Despite Fitbit’s marketing claims that their watches are waterproof, that has not been my experience. My second device, the Charge 5, stopped working after I spent a short time in a kiddie pool. It was barely submerged, and I took all the precautions, yet it still failed. I gave the brand another chance and purchased the latest Charge model only for it to stop functioning after I ran through the sprinklers with my kids once. When I reached out to customer service, all they could offer was a discount toward another replacement. No refund, no proper resolution,just the opportunity to buy yet another device that may not last. This is unacceptable, especially for a company that promotes its product

I’ve been a loyal Fitbit user since 2018, and unfortunately, I’m writing this review out of frustration and disappointment. This is my third Fitbit watch. The original one worked fine, which encouraged me to upgrade. However, that was the last time I was truly satisfied with a Fitbit product. Despite Fitbit’s marketing claims that their watches are waterproof, that has not been my experience. My second device, the Charge 5, stopped working after I spent a short time in a kiddie pool. It was barely submerged, and I took all the precautions, yet it still failed. I gave the brand another chance and purchased the latest Charge model only for it to stop functioning after I ran through the sprinklers with my kids once. When I reached out to customer service, all they could offer was a discount toward another replacement. No refund, no proper resolution,just the opportunity to buy yet another device that may not last. This is unacceptable, especially for a company that promotes its product

My Charge 5 died, it kept getting notifications to enable tap to pay which would drain the battery until it stopped turning on a few days later. Since then I’ve switched over to Garmin. I loved the sleep tracking on my Fitbit and I miss the accuracy, it’s not as good on my Garmin vivomove trend. However, it’s fantastic not having to pay a subscription for important features!

I went through 3 charge 5’s, customer service replaced one completely then the others at discounted rate. Definitely before alphabet/google bought them. I have a charge 6 and it’s a lemon too. Waiting for it to completely die and I think I’m going to Garmin.

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!

Garmin swim 2. Gives you pretty accurate yards that you can see while swimming. My Fitbit charge wouldn’t show distance until I stopped and synchronized with my phone after. Also, wet touchscreen on the Fitbit is useless.

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

I like my Inspire a lot. I had issues with the last Charge I had but the Inspire has been great (I’m over the two year mark! My charges didn’t last much more than 2 years). The battery life is much better too. I’ve read articles that Fitbit app is being replaced on all android phones. To me this could imply a major refresh. If true - I’d say it’s a perfect time to get in!

How old is your Luxe. My charge is doing the same thing - but I've never had a fitbit make it past 18 months - 14 months is the average. Mostly I've had every iteration of the charge.

I use a Fitbit charge but I take it off during rolling. There is someone at my class that uses a whoop with a bicep strap and he likes it. I asked if it ever slips or causes any problem and he said no. He's been using for training for 2 years now.

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.

My Fitbit charge died. But u ended up with another one. I don't need half the stuff they track. I really just want steps/ miles, hr, 02, sleep stats. And I certainly don't want to have to pay a fee to get what I want

I don't believe you're going to find anything that fits those requirements. Heart rate monitoring while swimming is very difficult and only the most expensive garmins would I trust that it's being accurate. My recommendation would be a Fitbit Charge, I think that's going to be the best bet, it meets all of your other requirements and will track heart rate outside of the pool.

This. I was a long time Fitbit user with several Charges and a Versa. Switched to Garmin after Fitbit started to go downhill. My Garmin vivoactive 5 has been a great experience and I haven't looked back.

Honestly for the price point I would not get a fit bit. I had a charge and versa 2 or 3. The product wasn't great. The features struggled to work outside the basic health tracking and after a 2.5 years it was getting finicky about charging. I got a Samsung galaxy 6 instead. It was about the same price as a versa. All the advertised features work consistently without a fight. It is a much better product. Like you said they're phasing out the fit bit so if I were you I would go with the same brand watch as your phone for ease of use or something like a Garmin.

I’ve been using Fitbit for years. I’m currently on my second Versa Lite (had to buy a 2nd on eBay). I upgraded a few years ago to a Charge something, but the music controls didn’t work, so I returned and turned back to the Lite. It’s starting to require more frequent charging, which is a bummer. I’m starting to consider other options, but everything seems to have such a short battery life!

I had a Charge before actually (before the screen died and Google said tough luck). It was good for daily HR but I found every kind of activity tracking was really poor unless you had GPS on, and then it chewed through the battery like crazy.

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 :(

Before I got more seriously into running, I really liked my Fitbit Charge. The best thing about it is that it would detect my activities automatically. So it knew if I went for a walk, went for a run, went for a bike ride, without having to tell it that's what I was doing. It counted my steps and tracked my heart rate 24/7, and it would tell me how many minutes I spent in each heart rate zone every day/week. With Coros, it doesn't track much at all unless you tell it you're about to do a workout. So I think Coros watches are best for analyzing workouts and training for events like races, FitBit is better as a general fitness tracker.

I wear a Fitbit charge cause it's under 100 bucks on sale and it gets rated as pretty reliable/ accurate. I agree with what you are saying and agree they have been consistently downgrading the app.

I use a withing pad under the mattress to capture sleep date and also a fitbit charge watch. I have sleep apnea too.

After one too many bad experiences with Fitbit customer support, I've been switching to the Garmin ecosystem. I have a Garmin Lily that's easily lasted me twice as long as the Fitbit Charges I used to get and still going strong.

I’m not familiar enough with Garmin+ to know. Honestly kind of a newcomer. Had a Fitbit charge for many years.

FWIW I've had a couple of Fitbits (an Ionic and a Charge) over the years, they were OK-ish at tracking things once you started workout tracking on the watch. But I was never sure how accurate they were being on my wrist with my forearm muscles moving and my wrist changing positions a lot during a yoga class. I eventually stopped using them as I preferred to just go by how I felt during or after a class (and the Ionic developed a weird software bug where it couldn't even keep the current time properly FFS). It's not what you asked, but, a friend swears by a chest strap as a better way to track effort. She is into those medicine ball, burpee, battle rope, yoga, movement type workouts.

Fitbit charge with a sweatband over it to prevent scratches

I had 3 Charge’s that all died in less than 18 months. This last time, instead of buying a new Charge 6, I bought a Garmin VivoActive 5. The size takes a bit of getting used to, but I’m happy to have broken up with FitBit for good.

Good fitting running shoes! I have a pair of Saucony Hurricane 24s that I like, but they're a bit pricey (looks like around $150 when I Google them but they were a gift so I'm not entirely certain) Prior to those I had a pair of New Balances, just a basic clearance pair of running shoes, and they were also very comfortable. Ideally get yourself 2 pairs of different brands/models so you can rotate which is good both for your feet/ankles etc and for the longevity of your shoes. Also, a high quality sports bra! I have some Shefit bras that I really like, they're great high support sports bras, a couple of cons though: They're not super extended sizing, I wear a 2x traditionally and I'm in their biggest size. It is adjustable though, so I think I could still fit if I was a 3x, but probably not beyond that. They're also pretty pricey, though they do often have some less popular colors on clearance. I'm also a big fan of Nike sports bras, and if you wear plus sizes, check Ross! They frequently have Nike sports bras in plus sizes (and probably in other sizes too, but I don't check bc I don't wear them lol) the options are a bit more limited, but it's great if you need enough bras to get between laundry days and don't wanna drop $400 on fancy sports bras all at once. You don't need a fitness watch, but they can be nice and motivating, I'd recommend starting using Strava, then if you decide you want more features you can start shopping around for fitness watches. I personally have a Garmin Forerunner 55 and I love it, I've also had a lot of fitbits and I don't recommend them. I've used the Fitbit charges, and all of them have malfunctioned within a year. The forerunner is a little pricey but it's comparable to a lot of Fitbit models price wise, and they frequently go on sale around holidays! You can shell out for a better model of Garmin but imo it isn't worth it until you're a little more advanced! I almost never find myself wishing I had a model with more features, tbh. I also am a strong supporter of thick authentic socks. I have some thick Nike and Columbia socks (also from Ross) and they're a life saver, nothing is a motivation killer like having blisters all up on the backs of your ankles. As for a running vest, I personally think they're super useful, since women's clothes so rarely have decent pockets. I like to have my keys and phone and I don't wear my glasses but need them with me, plus an inhaler, it can be a lot for just your pockets, but it depends how long/far you want to run and how much you plan on bringing with you. If you expect to be running over an hour I would recommend fueling and having water with you, and then a best would be beneficial. But it's really a personal preference when you wanna get one. The best thing you can have is a community of support behind you, and a GOOD WARMUP AND COOL DOWN ROUTINE! It's very important to prevent injury!