It’s fair to say that the Fitbit Charge HR has been the best selling and most popular Fitbit since it was released. The well put together wearable with a sleek design and heart rate monitor was an absolute stand out device for people who wanted a dedicated fitness wearable. The Fitbit Charge 2 is the follow up to the Charge HR, featuring a screen that is now 40% larger and coupled with increased functionality it improves upon the original in every way.
The first thing that is noticeable with the Charge 2 is the screen size. The 40% increase over the Charge HR is a significant increase and it immediately pays dividends. More screen real estate means more information to display. Tap the screen or raise your arm and you’ll get the date and time as well as how many steps you have currently done, taps on the screen will then start to show other information such as heart rate, Km’s walked, calories burned, stairs climbed, time active and progress on daily goals. All this without having to push the button on the side. With the charge HR I tended to check my progress on the app more than on the screen but now that larger screen gives me extra space to quickly check my progress. Pushing the side button will take you to other pertinent information like heart rate, exercise program (more on that soon), stopwatch and guided breathing (more on that soon too).
Apart from the larger screen the design of the Charge 2 is the same as the Charge HR. A nice grooved wristband that comes in a few different colour flavours. I liked the design of the Charge HR but with that bigger screen now taking up most of the wrist it feels much more like a slim watch than a dedicated fitness wearable.
Anyone familiar with Fitbit will be familiar with the user friendly app that accompanies a Fitbit wearable. I won’t go into too much detail since that side of things you will already know, suffice it to say that everything that was there in the app is still there and works seamlessly with the Charge 2, syncing via bluetooth. I did have some syncing issues at times with the Charge HR but have not run into any issues syncing with the Charge 2.
So what does the Charge 2 do that the HR didn’t? Well quite a bit actually.
Multi-sport mode is one of the biggest and best features of the Charge 2. From the app you can select the main activities you like to do, choosing form 19 of them including things like running, weights, biking, even sports like tennis. Once you’ve selected the activities they will sync over onto the Charge 2 and with a few presses on the button of the Charge 2 you’ll see a screen that has an activity on it, a quick tap will cycle through the activities you put on the device and then a long press of the button will see the Charge 2 tracking how you are doing with said activity. For me my go to activity was weights. It’s great to see functionality for tracking fitness go beyond the basics of running and walking. Once I started my workout I could tap the screen and see how many calories I’d burnt and how the heart rate was doing.
Following on from multi-sport mode is an interval timer which is great for high intensity workouts. The app plays a part in this through selecting things like intervals and rest times. Once that’s all setup then the Charge 2 will be more than happy to keep track of your progress. It’s these small additions to the functionality of the device that shows Fitbit continues to find ways to improve and cater to people who want to track their activities outside of the stock standard options.
Following on from that, another nifty addition this time around is using Pure PUlse technology to track cardio fitness. This is delivered by analysing data of the wearer and giving them a VO2 Max score. VO2 Max basically takes your resting heart rate, analyses it against your other key stats and then spits out a score to tell you wear you fall between Fat Bastard and Superhero levels of fitness. OK so it’s actually just a rating between poor and excellent but you get the picture. Thankfully my score was just in the range of you ain’t Fat Bastard but you sure as hell ain’t a Superhero by any stretch of the imagination. Unfortunately I now need to put more fitness work in if I want to convince myself that I am in fact, Batman.
Another nifty feature is Fitbit’s commitment to helping people relax. This comes by way of guided breathing sessions, all available with a few presses of the button on the side of the Charge 2. You can select from a 2 minute and 5 minute guided breathing session, from their Charge 2 will coach you through the session using on screen prompts and waves to tell you when and how to breath. Admittedly I thought it was gimmicky at first but once I put it through it’s paces I found it really helpful. When you spend a lot of time playing games and reviewing products it equates to some really late nights and going straight from gaming or working on a computer to trying to sleep is not ideal. I used guided breathing to help me relax straight after those situations and it really helped to induce calm and bring my body back to a more natural relaxed state. I didn’t get to sleep straight away after using it but it was definitely faster than not using it.
So there you have it, that is the main run down on the Charge 2. Fitbit have managed to take their best selling fitness wearable and make it better in every way. The larger screen coupled with increased functionality make this a fantastic fitness wearable. I tried hard to find faults with it, even thinking increased screen size and functionality would ruin battery life yet here I am having not charged it in four days and their is plenty of juice still left in it. If you don’t have a Fitbit then this is the perfect device to start your fitness wearable journey. If you have the Charge HR then even still, the additions to the Charge 2 make it well worth your money if you want to upgrade.
Fitbit Charge 2 is currently available for pre-order through the Fitbit store for $269.95 NZD.