Just some background to let you understand where I come from. I own a Garmin Fenix 5 and also a cheap Amazfit activity tracker smart watch, kind of at two side of the spectrum. I used toe wear the Fenix 5 everyday but then it was a bit heavy and I realized the battery life was wearing down a bit, so I started saving it more for when I am actually doing exercise or some real sport activity. I also found the Fenix 5 too big and heavy for like soccer or basketball. It’s actually dangerous to have it on. So for a while Amazfit was my daily driver, but then it can’t be synced to Strava.
So I was thinking of an alternative, then the Fitbit Charge 5 came out during the holiday season in 2021. It looks like a pretty good daily driver. It looks slick, small but with all that I wanted. It got wrist heart rate monitor, it got GPS, sport profiles I can use, the Fitbit app seems to have a lot of function and has good reviews. It has good battery life, 7 days. I actually though about Apple Watch but the one day battery life doesn’t track sleep because you would have to charge it at night to use it in the morning. Oh yea, people say Fitbit is great for tracking sleep. So I finally bought it when it was on sale at US$119 from the MSRP of US$179, so I just went for it.
SET UP
Contrary to some reviews, I found it very easy and intuitive to set it up. I think some of the people who complained are not so tech-savvy. It was pretty easy. You just have to charge it up, download the Fitbit app on your phone and it synced, no problem. It only took about 10-20 min to set up.
PRO:
I really like the form factor, it’s very light, the silicon band is soft and comfortable on the skin. Sometimes I forgot it’s even on my wrist. I got the black one so it’s kind of discreet and not getting much attention, I like that.
The screen is very clear and I can see under any weather due to its brightness. It can be connected to the phone so you can get texts and even emails. I would vibrate when you get a call. It looks nice.
CON:
I was disappointed with the battery life. I find it difficult get even 5 days out of it for one full charge. I don’t know how someone can get 7 days out of it. I think I almost got 6 days after the first charge even when I turned off syncing, turned off always on screen and etc. The worst thing was the inconsistency of the battery. I would take it off and it would be 43% battery and a few hours after it would drop to 18% battery. What happened? I don’t know why it used up more battery when I took it off with no GPS on. Sometimes I took it off for shower and went to sleep without it. I wake up in the morning and put it on and it would be dead. What happened? What was it doing. I turned off syncing, bluetooth, connection with the phone. It was just weird how much battery it drains when taken off.
It also uses a lot of power when you use GPS from the Fitbit. I had a 10 minutes bike ride to town and it went from almost a full charge to 81%, and after the ride back and by the afternoon it went down to 43%. I took it off for a few hours and it dropped below 20%.
Under my usual usage, I get around 2-3 days of battery.
I also found the Charge 5 screen never turns on when I turn my wrist to look at it. I have to tap it every time to read the time or see how fast I was going from the GPS.
You can save some power by connecting the Charge 5 to your phone’s GPS, it seems to use half as much battery if you use the phone for GPS.
The touch screen is good but I actually prefer Fenix 5’s physical button or AmazFit’s more responsive screen. And I don’t like how sport tracking is on the third screen and require two swipe at the screen to get to and swipe down. I found it distracting to do while riding my bike. With my Fenix 5 and Amazfit, it’s very easy to set up the watch to track my exercise. I could do it without looking at the those watches, but not with the Fitbit Charge 5, I have to make sure the screen responded. I am also disappointed at the amount of sport profile you can keep on the device.
Honestly I think the Garmin Venue Q is a better activity tracking device at around the same price. They were actually the same price during the holiday season sale, but I like the smaller profile of Fitbit Charge better.
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