Full disclosure, I ordered the Fitbit Charge HR only after I gave up on Jawbone fulfilling my preorder for the Up3 and once I realized the Fitbit Surge was like having a VCR strapped to your wrist. Further complicating my decision was the reviews that were all over the place on Amazon. Either people loved it or they thought it was the biggest piece of crap ever. I am writing this review to try and offer a realistic perspective for those looking to buy the Fitbit Charge HR.
First, disregard the reviews from all the "personal trainers" and "hardcore" gym goers out there. It's amazing how everyone becomes a trainer or gym rat when reviewing a piece of workout equipment. Wrist based heart rate monitoring is still in its infancy and if, and I stress if, you are so hardcore that a possible 5-10 beat variation is so critical then you need to stay with chest based HR monitoring for awhile. The Charge HR isn't for that. Not to mention, I haven't seen that it is off like others have said. I was skeptical and I have a Garmin Running GPS watch with a chest HR strap and I see the two being pretty consistent.
Second, I cannot stress enough the quality of the Fitbit app and web based dashboard. They are motivational and intuitive and they give you goals to shoot for. I have yet to see any sync issues or any of the other nonsense I have seen in other reviews.
Finally, $150 is a lot of money but it less than other comparable products out there. To me this is the perfect entry level device. If you like the concept and are disciplined, then you can upgrade to another device. if you are trying to get a snapshot of what you are doing on a daily basis and how you can make some life and fitness improvements, this device is a perfect way in. If you are a "personal trainer" or just "crushing it" beyond what the Charge can handle, you should probably do another set of burpees, stick with chest strap HR monitors and save your "insightful" reviews for Flex magazine.
Bottom line; the Charge HR is well worth the money. No product is perfect but this one does perform as promised. Amazon has the best customer relations of any company out there so if you don't like it you can send it back anyway. I hope this review helps. I know when I was looking, these reviews can be ridiculous, contradict and misleading. Give it a shot! You won't be sorry!
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From the manufacturer
Fitbit Charge HR.
Mobile & Online Tools
- Sync stats wirelessly and automatically to your computer and 120+ leading smartphones—including Android, iOS and Windows.
- Set goals, log food, see progress, analyze trends and earn achievement badges through your mobile and online dashboard.
- Share and compete with friends and family on the leaderboard and in New Fitbit challenges.
Wireless Heart Rate + Activity Wristband
Make every beat count with Charge HR—a high-performance wristband with automatic, continuous heart rate and activity tracking right on your wrist. See heart rate all day and during workouts to get more accurate calorie burn, reach your target workout intensity and maximize training time. Track steps, distance, floors climbed and sleep quality and more, and stay connected with Caller ID and time of day on display. Charge HR also wirelessly syncs to your smartphone and computer so you can monitor your trends and get the motivation you need to push yourself further—every step, every beat, every day.
- PurePulse Heart Rate.
- Activity Tracking.
- Auto Sleep + Silent Alarm.
- Exercise Tracking.
- Caller ID.
- OLED Display.
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PurePulse Heart RateGet continuous, automatic, wrist-based heart rate monitoring and see simplified heart zones—with no uncomfortable chest strap. |
Activity TrackingTrack steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, floors climbed and active minutes. |
Auto Sleep + Silent AlarmAutomatically monitor how long and how well you sleep and set a silent, vibrating alarm. |
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Exercise TrackingRecord workouts in Exercise Mode, then see detailed workout summaries on your smartphone. |
Caller IDSee call notifications right on your wrist when your phone is nearby. |
OLED DisplayBright display shows daily stats and time of day right on your wrist. |
Compare with similar items
 | Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity + Sleep Wristband, Black, Pedometer, Small/Large | Fitbit Charge 3 Fitness Activity Tracker, Graphite/Black, One Size (S & L Bands Included) (Renewed) | Fitbit Charge 4 Fitness and Activity Tracker with Built-in GPS, Heart Rate, Sleep & Swim Tracking, Black/Black, One Size (S &L Bands Included) | WHOOP 4.0 with 12 Month Subscription – Wearable Health, Fitness & Activity Tracker – Continuous Monitoring, Performance Optimization, Heart Rate Tracking – Improve Sleep, Strain, Recovery, Wellness | Garmin vívofit 4 activity tracker with 1+ year battery life and color display. Small/Medium, Black. 010-01847-00, 0.61 inches | |
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| Customer Rating | (43375) | (17486) | (1311) | (56065) | (55) | (2940) |
| Price | $106.50 | $114.99 | $98.96 | $145.99 | $239.00 | $79.27 |
| Sold By | ShoppersplaceMS | TechStation | A4C Online | Aventura Mall | WHOOP AUTHORIZED | Amazon.com |
| Battery Life | 72 hours | 48 hours | 7 days | 7.0 days | 5 days | 1 years |
| Battery Description | Rechargeable | Rechargeable | — | — | — | 2 x SR43 user replaceable |
| Brand Name | Fitbit | Fitbit | Fitbit | Fitbit | WHOOP | Garmin |
| Color | Black | Black | Graphite/Black | Black/Black | Onyx | Black |
| Compatible Devices | IOS & Android | iPhone 4S and up, iPod Touch (5th generation), iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad mini, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, Samsung Galaxy Note II, Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy S4 | Smartphone | Smartphones | Smartphone, Tablet, Laptop, Desktops | Smartphone |
| Screen Size | 1 inches | 1.04 inches | — | 1.5 inches | 4 inches | 0.61 inches |
| Item Dimensions | 6.9 x 0.83 x 0.45 inches | 0.6 x 0.38 x 8.2 inches | 1.63 x 4.04 x 8.9 inches | 9.72 x 1.13 x 0.49 inches | 7.1 x 1.1 x 0.4 inches | 7.4 x 0.37 x 0.75 inches |
| Item Weight | 0.80 ounces | 3.20 ounces | — | 3.53 ounces | — | 0.96 ounces |
| Material | Oled | elastomer | — | — | — | — |
| Sensor Type | Wearable | Wearable | Wearable | Wearable | — | Wearable |
I wish I'd liked it, but there are MAJOR problems with the Fitbit HR Charge
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2016
After much online research of fitness trackers that have a heart rate monitor component, I decided to purchase the Fitbit Charge HR. I decided to go with fitbit despite having read some reviews indicating it was not as accurate with heart rate monitoring as a chest strap would be (such as paired with a polar or garmin activity tracker), but I really liked the idea of not having to wear the strap and I liked the style of the fitbit much more, so I went for it. I was very excited to open up the package, and get started... and that's about when my excitement over this thing ended. I really wanted to like this item... but I cannot believe how terrible this product is at completing even the most basic tasks... like tracking steps or distance...not to mention heart rate. I rarely take the time to write a review on amazon... I am doing so because I was so surprised at how terrible this product turned out to be! I was able to sync it to my phone easily... this is THE ONLY PRO I can offer for the Fitbit. From the very first time I put it on and for every time over the course of an entire month, I could not get it to track steps accurately...for example, I drove in the car and gained over 500 steps while sitting in a car for 7 minutes. Walking just 20 steps would give me 120. I read the entire online manual, tried making adjustments as suggested (changed the dominant/ non-dominant hand setting, measured and tried manipulating the setting for length of my stride)... these adjustments only made the fitbit inaccurate significantly in the other direction... I got on the treadmill and jogged 3 miles... fitbit said I'd covered 1.25 miles. At this point, I was curious as to how many miles would be equivalent to 10,000 steps… I was shocked to find that this should be 5 miles… because on the day that fitbit said I’d walked just over 10,000 steps, it also said I’d covered only 1.5 miles… (you can see this in the screen shot of my fitbit stats)…I don’t understand how that’s mathematically possible? I’m a 5.5 person, with normal stride, moving arms at normal rate, no reason it should be off like that. Another day, I’d logged over 6,000 steps, but fitbit said I’d only covered .03 miles. I attempted to resolve accuracy problems through fitbit customer service… which I found nearly impossible to locate contact info for. On the entire fitbit website, you are constantly directed to the fitbit “community” which is other users of the product (which I did try, but did not get any suggestion that helped) or you are directed to read the FAQ’s or manual….VERY difficult to find actual contact info for customer support. I had to do a google search for fitbit customer service, which is when I found out that they direct customer service thru twitter… (I thought that actually quite hilarious really… limiting all complaints to 144 characters!) This was when I began to understand the full story of what I now think fitbit is all about… all image, but no real expertise in the product…it’s just a pretty package. They are very responsive to you on twitter, suggesting you read the manual… but if that doesn’t work, they want you to resolve your issue offline, asking you to contact them via email to open a “case number”…which I did. After a few days, they responded with (direct copy and paste of the message they sent):We're sorry to hear that your having data discrepancy on your steps and mileage with your Charge HR.Thank you for trying different troubleshoot to fix the issue prior to contacting us. We'll be willing to assist you with this matter.Upon checking, we had confirmed in our system that your Charge HR last sync was 25 minutes ago via Android with a medium battery level.In the meanwhile, if you haven't already done so, please review our troubleshooting article. If you're still unable to sync after following the step-by-step instructions, please let us know.Please note that if you recently upgraded to OS 6.0 (Marshmallow) you must have location services turned on to sync your tracker. With this latest update, Google changed the permissions for Bluetooth syncing, requiring the use of location services. We are hard at work trying to find a work around for this new change from Google to ensure you can sync your tracker. (end of email response)This response just made me laugh…I had NOT had any trouble with the tracker synching… and also, I do NOT have the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update on my phone… and I DO have location services turned on at all times. Up until this point… I had assumed that somehow it must be me that was the problem…something about the way I move that’s not able to be picked up accurately or something. But when I got this email where they acknowledged my complaint about the inaccuracy of the tracker, stated they’d be handling it, and then in the next sentence, completely avoided addressing it and instead brought up something that was not a problem for me and that I did not complain about…I started to see that maybe there is another thing going on with this company.At this point, I decided to give up on the idea of tracking steps and instead just focus on heart rate monitoring since that was really the reason I’d bought it and I didn’t feel like going through however many more emails it was going to take to figure out the step thing anymore. Only one problem…I kept finding that the heart rate monitor was very unreliable… sometimes it seemed to function well and record my heart rate for the duration of a work out with accuracy (as compared to the heart rate monitors on the treadmills)… I’d have a nice set of stats/details to look at afterwards in order to compare workouts. Other times, it would show my heart rate on the tracker (during my work out), but then later, when I went to look up my workout stats online or on phone app, it would show the workout was logged but it didn’t capture my heart rate (and of course… not my steps or distance either!). On one of those work outs, I was jogging outside and tracking my run with “map my fitness” app on my phone… I have the exact date and times matching on that app’s log and my fitbit log… you can see for yourself in the screenshots that I included, map my fitness says I ran (actually it was just a walk) for 1.87 miles and it calculates over 4,000 steps… fitbit says I’m either a zombie or the heart rate tracker didn’t work and it logged zero steps and miles on this exact workout date and time. By the time I had decided it was time to return the fitbit because it was not able to do anything at all that I would have expected it to do, my daughter’s activity tracker had arrived (a Garmin Vivofit) and so I decided in one last attempt to determine…is it the fitbit or is it just something funny about the way I move that makes it so inaccurate at tracking my steps and distance… I decided to test the Fitbit HR charge against the Garmin Vivofit 2 (she didn’t order a chest strap, so no heart rate monitoring possible on this Vivofit). I put one on each wrist and jogged at my normal pace for 2.75 miles on the treadmill (according to the treadmill). Garmin said I’d taken over 6000 steps and jogged 2.73 miles. Fitbit said that during that workout, I’d added just over 3700 steps and covered less than half a mile. Case closed… the Fitbit HR Charge is the thing that’s not working… not me or the way I move my arms or my legs or my ability to sync or operate activity trackers…it’s Fitbit that doesn’t work correctly! Thank you Amazon for letting me return it!! And it looks like I’m ordering a Garmin Vivofit 2 with a chest strap! One other strange thing that started to happen with the fitbit… the last 2 times I wore it for a full day, I noticed that my arm was getting very sore and achy. The first day, it wasn’t connecting in my head that it would be related to the fitbit, I was just assuming my arm was tired or I’d slept on it wrong or something. The next morning though, it was worse, my arm was really sore and felt like it was burning from the inside… only the arm where I wore the fitbit, right about the spot where it sits was hurting. So I took it off and it took the entire day for that pain to go away. I decided to look up online to see if anyone else had had such a strange problem after wearing the fitbit… guess what… there are many people who’ve had this problem…some suggest it is related to radiation from the electromagnetic field that is created from the constant Bluetooth communication/ synching between the fitbit and the computer or cell phone. I am not qualified to propose any reason why it would cause my arm to hurt so much, but I do know that it certainly would have prevented me from wearing the tracker, even if it was accurate, if that pain would have persisted… so it’s something to be aware of if you’re considering a fitbit.
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2016
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