Charge HR (FB405)

I've bought off brand ones and they never hold up. I've been wearing the HR/Charge one's for years. 2 years ago my husband bought all our kids their own. One's a runner, one has anxiety, the other is working on military. Heart rate monitor is sleep tracker is the biggest thing for all of them. Quality holds up, customer service is pretty good.

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.

My experience with the Charge line of Fitbits has been mostly positive. I bought my original Charge HR nearly 10 years ago (May 2016), and have only had to upgrade twice. The HR lasted 2-1/2 years. I replaced it with a Charge 3 in November 2018, then a Charge 5 in October 2021. The Charge 5 is now 4-1/2 years old and still going strong. I briefly considered switching to Garmin until I saw all the reports about its poor sleep tracking. Just my opinion, but I've concluded for now that switching away from Charge is premature. I'm going to hang in as long as I can, hoping first to hear more from Google about its commitment to trackers. Plus, I've got 10 years of historical data built up in my Fitbit records. Also, my opinion again, but it seems to me that the tracker market generally is overdue for a significant technological leap. New devices, new features, new brands? Things in the tracker market have been pretty static lately, wouldn't you say? A mature market? I doubt it.

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.

Fitbit is dying after been merged with google. I am a fitbit addict since 2017, so it's 8 years of tracking. I am a big fan, as it helped me a lot with weight control. I had Fitbit Charge HR from 2017 to 2020, Fitbit Inspire HR from 2020 to 2023 and Fitbit Inspire 3 from 2023 till now. Inspire 3 is a perfect device from the Hardware PoV. Sensors are accurate, it has a lot of sensors for the size (SpO2, Skin Temperature, HR) and the ios app was always good. BUT the device firmware is crap. They messed up with the interface and since 3 years they don't offer a heavy stat screen. So you can't see distance, steps and pulses at the same screen. They only make it worst, as now with the newest firmware, you have another stupid thing hiding part of the screen when you want to see something that shows that is not connected to the phone or something. As I am for long battery life and simple tracking (I can't have a tracker that needs charging every day like the smart watches), I am considering moving to Vivosmart 5. Hardwarewise is a downgrade (has similar specs to inspire 2 with half the battery life) but I am kind of fed with having a tracker which misses the obvious: stat screen! The concern is raised by users on their forum since 2022 and they just don't care.

Had a Fitbit but got fed up with their refusal to show eg. the past month, rather than just the calendar month. It means that if its a Monday or 1st of the month, you get graphs with one point on, and cant view short-term trends/progress. So I moved to Garmin, and Polar. On non-subscription, comparing Fitbit HR, Venu2 and Polar Unite (all budget models) I found: Fitbit - best for its sleep analysis graph, and viewing long-term trends. Basic activity data, but not enough if you are training seriously. Poor charging and battery life. Garmin - best for activity analysis, excellent range of data and well presented but not v.detailed sleep breakdown. Lots of extra linked facilities. Good battery length and charging. Polar - phenomenal for sleep analysis EXCEPT it's not good at recognising time spent awake in middle of night. Rotary graphs are a bit weird. 2 day battery as I keep HR & HRV on. Website page as well as app, for extra data analysis. But most concerning is the fact that they don't agree, not even vaguely, leaving me to wonder whether the whole thing is a con! For example, last night's REM, in order as above: 1h 5min , 29min, 1h 37min. And today's energy usage so far: 955 Cal, 1,008 Cal, 1139 Cal. So which should I believe? Are they making money out of fictitious data?

Had a Fitbit but got fed up with their refusal to show eg. the past month, rather than just the calendar month. It means that if its a Monday or 1st of the month, you get graphs with one point on, and cant view short-term trends/progress. So I moved to Garmin, and Polar. On non-subscription, comparing Fitbit HR, Venu2 and Polar Unite (all budget models) I found: Fitbit - best for its sleep analysis graph, and viewing long-term trends. Basic activity data, but not enough if you are training seriously. Poor charging and battery life. Garmin - best for activity analysis, excellent range of data and well presented but not v.detailed sleep breakdown. Lots of extra linked facilities. Good battery length and charging. Polar - phenomenal for sleep analysis EXCEPT it's not good at recognising time spent awake in middle of night. Rotary graphs are a bit weird. 2 day battery as I keep HR & HRV on. Website page as well as app, for extra data analysis. But most concerning is the fact that they don't agree, not even vaguely, leaving me to wonder whether the whole thing is a con! For example, last night's REM, in order as above: 1h 5min , 29min, 1h 37min. And today's energy usage so far: 955 Cal, 1,008 Cal, 1139 Cal. So which should I believe? Are they making money out of fictitious data?

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.