I have a love hate relationship with the Fitbit Charge 5. It has major health tracking features that are super useful on a day-to-day basis. However, there are a few things about it that don’t have me sold on it just yet.
In this article I want to share my honest thoughts on the Fitbit Charge 5, and if I think it’s worth buying over other fitness trackers.
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Fitbit Charge 5 Hands-On Review
What’s in the Box?
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Straight out of the box the Charge 5 comes with the device itself, an additional band, the Fitbit charger, and a quick start guide.
Design
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Similar to its predecessor, they stuck with a slim band design. This is coupled with a new vibrant display that is 2x brighter than the Charge 4’s and is now in full-color.
Sensors
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In this new generation, they’ included a number of sensors to the device. These include;
- A Heart Rate Monitor
- Infrared Sensors for Oxygen saturation
- Skin Temperate Sensor
- Multipurpose Electrical Sensor (For EDA Scanner & ECG App)
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Overall, it is a simple device, that has a very sleek look with features that pack a punch.
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The Pros
One of the biggest Pros of the Fitbit Charge 5 is it Health and Fitness Tracking Capabilities. From device perspective you get an overall view of your health metrics, all from your wrist.
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For example, on the home screen, you can tap through the basic fitness metrics such as number of steps, heart rate, calories burnt, miles walked etc. In addition, you also get access to your standard phone notifications such as texts and calls.
As you continue swiping up, you get access to other metrics such as how many hours you’ve stood up and been active during the day, and how many hours of sleep you had the night before.
There are two new features that have been added to the Fitbit Charge 5. One, is the ability to activate the EDA Scan and the second, is the Fitbit ECG App.
EDA Scan
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The EDA Scan evaluates your skin’s sweat levels that indicates the body’s response to stress by detecting tiny electrical changes called electrodermal activity (EDA) responses on your skin.
ECG App
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The ECG App is used to measure the electrical activity of the heart to evaluate the heartbeat for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). In layman’s terms, it asses any heartbeat irregularities that may show up.
Finally, you also have the ability to use your credit/debit card to make payments with Fitbit pay, once you’ve uploaded the card to the Fitbit App.
This leads me to what I think is the biggest strength of the Fitbit Charge 5 (Not the device itself); the Fitbit Mobile App.
Fitbit Mobile App
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This is one of my favorite four fitness Apps. It is like the Gold-Standard of fitness Apps out there. The App is the central hub for all your health and wellness stats. It gives you a good sense of how healthy you are throughout the day and throughout the week.
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You can actually dig even deeper into the individual health metrics that you care about most. For example, you can take a more specific look at your sleep score to really understand how much time you spent in individual sleep stages. Additionally, you can also see the amount of time that you were asleep versus awake.
Even more, you can access your readiness score, that takes into account your amount of activity, your recent sleep and your heart rate variability. This info is used to determine how ready you are to take on your day.
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I can honestly not cover everything that the Fitbit Mobile App has to offer in this article. However, if you want an in-depth look at the Fitbit App and its capabilities, let me know in the comment section.
Overall, it’s an amazing App that not only shares your summary of health stats, but if you sign up for the Premium Membership you get a ton of extra features as well. These include; Workouts, Wellness Programs, Meditations, and guide programs to help push you in the right direction, to improving your wholistic well being.
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