Since I reviewed the Fitbit Sense I have had it attached to my wrist basically ever since. It is an absolutely fantastic watch with some extraordinary features and a good battery life. The only issue is that $450 is a lot of money to spend on a watch. Even if that watch is filled to the brim with features.
If only there was another watch with a lot of these premium features but with a lower price tag. Oh hello Fitbit Charge 5, when did you walk in the room?
Living that slim life
The first question will be your personal style. I definitely like the chunkiness of the Fitbit Sense, it has that classic Smart Watch style. Though it is hard to deny that the sleek look of the Charge isn’t appealing. The smooth line as your eyes follow the band to the watch back to the band is pretty awesome.
This watch will appeal to different people in different ways and I can’t tell you your style is wrong. I mean I am a dad rocking the sneans combo with a Last of Us T-Shirt so who am I to judge? The watch’s interface is built beautifully to use within limited space so have no fear, the loss of real estate isn’t lost when using the device.
If my stubby fingers can use it, then you’ll be sweet.
Battery is life
Before I tested out the Fitbit Sense I was used to terrible smartwatch battery life, examples being the Oppo I got a day out of and the Samsung Galaxy watch I could get two days out of (sometimes).I didn’t know how good life can be with a watch that doesn’t need to be charged every night and now I can’t turn back.
The Charge 5 doesn’t have the massive battery life of the Sense, but I easily got between four and seven days out of a full charge. This is pretty impressive when you think about how little the device is, and charging once a week or so is pretty damn reasonable.
Of course it retains one of those useful features that I loved when using the Sense. When the battery level dropped low I got an email and a notification on the app on my phone saying to charge it. When you get this alert, you still have at least a day left of battery life. This is bloody brilliant because you won’t be caught out with it dying halfway through a workout.
Well unless you ignore it. If this is the case then stop ignoring your emails, your grandma is getting worried.
Walking through life
With previously used watches the steps were all over the place, with many days they reckoned I walked 10 steps. Even at my laziest I can walk from the bed to the couch which is more than 10 steps. This kind of tracking is where the Fitbit is king in the industry. The Charge 5 continues to make this a part of your life.
With a sedentary job that has me at a desk for hours on end, those prompts to get moving are actually kind of useful too.
The one omission is it doesn’t have an altimeter so it doesn’t pick up how many floors you have walked up. Not the biggest deal, but a thing if that is important to you.
Living a stress free life
OK maybe not a stress free life, but you can see how stressed you are.
What is impressive is the premium features slipped into this watch. Things like the NZ ECG app which first featured on the Sense is included here. You can also do things like the EDA scan which checks the electrical charges in your skin to tell if you are stressed.
To do this you put your hand over the watch for a minute and you close your eyes and chill for two minutes. The process of doing this for a test tends to wind up creating my most stress free moments. This is because I try to regulate my breathing and before I know it, I am ready to get back to being stressed at work.
Sleeping through is the best kind of life
What is cool is that it picks up a lot of info throughout the day and night. It generates scores based on how well you slept including in the different states. With a six month old in the house who hates sleep it is anyone’s guess on how accurate it is. I know that the Sense did a good job of picking up when I had a shit night’s sleep but when all your sleep sucks it’s hard to tell a better one from a worse one.
It wasn’t always perfect but it was pretty good. I then combined info including your exercise and heart rate to give you a health score for the day. This cool feature has it balancing multiple important aspects to live a balanced life.
Charge your life
The Fitbit Charge 5 is an excellent watch for the price. Some premium features make this one a no brainer for someone looking in that price bracket. At $299 it has a great battery life, a heap of cool measurements, and is super comfy to wear. It doesn’t let you control your music could be a minor annoyance. Though I image most do that with their earbuds now anyway. There are some cool features behind the Fitbit Premium paywall like the Daily Readiness score too, but these aren’t essential.
On the whole when it comes to features for money, you would be hard pressed to find a better option.