Fitbit Charge activity band review – track your progress in real time

Fitbit is one of the most popular brands of activity trackers in the market and the company has just released the latest version – the Fitbit Charge.

We’ve been using the Fitbit Charge for about a week and it’s easily one of the best fitness bands we’ve used.

The whole idea behind wearing a device like this is to get an overview of your movements, sleep quality and calorie intake.

Having this information gives the user a way to monitor their fitness and a starting point to achieve a health goal.

The product has a quality feel with an adjustable strap. We needed the large and even when it was fastened on our thick wrist it still had room to make it looser if we wanted.

The thicker top edge is where you’ll find the display which can show you the time, the steps you’ve taken, distance travelled, calories burned and flights of stairs climbed.

A small button on the left side of the product allows users to find out the time – that’s the first thing you see so you can leave your watch behind – followed by steps, calories and flights climbed.

The time doesn’t display when you turn your wrist or tap the screen.

It has a slightly wider band than the best-selling Fitbit Flex – mainly for the fact that it needed to fit in the display rather than just indicator lights of the previous model.

But it’s still pretty narrow and by no means as wide as a standard watchband. It’s still pretty discreet on your wrist.

Having it on your wrist all day, and all night, gives the Fitbit Charge a front row seat to all of your activities and your sleep.

The onboard sensors counts all of your movements and can even estimate how far you’ve moved, your active minutes and how many flights of stairs you climbed.

You can set goals and receive a notification when you hit the mark.

And because it’s linked to your smartphone it can tell you when you’re receiving a call.

The name of the caller scrolls across the screen to let you know who’s calling without even having to take your phone out of your pocket.

It helped us catch calls we might have missed because we were in a noisy environment and our smartphone was sitting in our back pocket.

You won’t get messages and other notifications because the screen is just too small to display that amount of content.

And when it’s time for bed, the device can also detect you’re ready to snooze and then track your sleep as well including hours slept, times awakened and sleep quality.

There’s also a silent vibrating alarm so you can wake up without disturbing your partner.

On the calories side, this is information you need to input yourself either manually or by scanning the barcode on the packaging.

Logging your food and drink like this adds up the amount of calories you’re eating each day so it can be put up against the amount of calories the Fitbit Charge band says your burning.

With this information you can see what sort of “calorie budget” you’re working with and see if your activity is matching or exceeding what you’re eating.

Obviously this is critical information if you’re trying to lose weight and get into shape.

The Fitbit Charge on its own is a quality product but what makes the offering even better is the excellent FitBit app that it works with.

The app rewards users with badges so you can celebrate your milestones.

The app runs on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets as well on Mac and PC computers.

Another strength of the device is the battery life which has lasted seven days with up to 10 days possible. What helps the battery longevity is the fact the display is only illuminated when you press the button.

Fitbit Charge is available in a number of colours – black, slate, blue and burgundy.

VERDICT

The Fitbit Charge is an excellent device that can keep up with all of your activities and give you the big picture of your heath.

It is well-designed, works with a fine easy-to-use app and one of the better, if not the best, activity bands on the market today.

Fitbit Charge

Price: $149.95