Fitbit Charge 3 Review

Just by looking at the Charge 3 you can notice how much better it looks when compared to the Charge 2. The bezels of the display are smaller, the band design is mesmerizing, and the display is larger and equipped with greyscale OLED. The display of this tracker is almost 40% larger than its predecessors, and instead of having to use just taps to navigate through the menu, this fitness tracker allows you to use it like you would use any other touchscreen. But this is where most of the Charge 3's problems arise. The touchscreen is not intuitive, and it fails to respond most of the times, even when your fingers are completely dry, leaving you frustrated. The Charge 3 has a little pressure-sensitive button on the side. The Charge 2 had a physical button there, so this is a welcomed change that improved the looks of the Fitbit Charge 3. It also seals up the display, making the Charge 3 more resistant to water.

This Fitbit tracker wraps around your wrists rather comfortably. The backside of the device houses the sensors, and they do protrude just a little bit, but it's nothing that should bother you too much. The tracker is 11 mm thick, but it's lightweight and ergonomic, making you forget you even put it on your hand in the first place. Wearing this tracker without taking it off, even when you go to bed, makes perfect sense, as it will not bother you. The device can pop out of the band if you press on the two release buttons on the side. This makes cleaning the band simple, plus you can choose some of the many band designs available to change your style from time to time! This fitness tracker actually comes with more than one band, and they are different sizes so you can choose one that is a better fit for you.

Charge 3 has a plethora of features, some of which are remarkable, while others could be worked on. As we mentioned above, this Fitbit fitness tracker has a touchscreen display, where you have to use a combo of taps and swipes to go where you want to. This might seem a bit too complicated, but it's actually quite intuitive, and you should learn to navigate the menu very fast. As you begin swiping, you will come upon the features the tracker has. The apps the watch has are as follows: Exercise, Relax, Timers, Alarms, Weather And Settings. If you want to see your stats, you just have to swipe upward to see the number of steps you've taken (just like a pedometer), the distance you crossed, the calories you've burned, and your sleep duration.

One thing we should mention is that this fitness tracker does not have a GPS tracker. This is problematic, especially when you consider the price of the tracker. But if you connect the tracker with your phone, the tracker will rely on the GPS of your device to provide you with valuable info. You will know if the device is ready to go by looking at the screen and seeing whether it managed to connect to your phone. Here is where one more issue appears. Although the fitness tracker is compatible with all iPhones, it fails to connect to some Android devices, which is why you must check the compatibility list. Charge 1 and 2 had the same problems, and we're disappointed to see that Fitbit has not fixed this. The Charge 3 is a waterproof fitness tracker, and so it has the ability to track your swimming. It tracks the distance you crossed, the lap time, and that's pretty much it.

The Fitbit Charge 3 has a battery that is said to last up to seven days without you having to charge it in between. This is just two days longer than the Charge 2 lasts, which is an improvement because those two extra days can really make the difference. But, if you use a lot of the features throughout the day, chances are that the battery won't last as much as Fitbit claims it does. The fitness device does charge up pretty fast, so even if you do have to charge it from time to time, at least it won't last for a long time and you'll be able to go back to what you were doing when you took it off.

A fitness tracker is rendered almost useless without the app that comes with it. The Charge 3 connects via Bluetooth to the Fitbit smartphone app. By doing so, you get to upload all of your valuable data to the app and see it sprawled out in colorful graphs and useful numbers. The home screen of the app tells you just how close you are to reaching your daily activity goal, and any other goal you set for yourself. The tracker does not allow you to look at your previous exercises, so you will need to use the app to do so, and you can access both the exercises you recorded manually and the ones the tracker recorded itself. This fitness tracker does an excellent job at recognizing when you are active and what's the activity you're [performing right now, so the data it collects there will be accurate. The tracker also determines the quality of your sleep. Truth be told, this is not a very accurate feature, but there isn't a single tracker on the market that can accurately track your sleep, because the sensors have not been developed - yet. Once connected to your phone, you can expect to receive notifications on the fitness trainer that are related to your phone, like messages and missed calls. The weather will also be updated, and you can see what to expect from the day just by glancing the watch face. Some users report that the tracker fails to notify them of incoming calls and messages and that the responsiveness was flaky at best, so don't rely on it if you have an important call coming up!

You cannot rely on fitness trackers unless they are accurate. What good are the numbers you see if they do not show you the true picture? The Charge 3 is equipped with a heart rate monitor, a feature many users adore. It really is nice to know what your heart is up to throughout the day, and how it handles your day-to-day life. But many people report that the Charge 3 does not have an accurate heart rate tracker. It's worth noting that the Fitbit Charge 3 does a marginally better job at measuring your heart rate when you are resting, as opposed to when you're sweating it out. This could be because people do not place the watch where it's meant to be when they are exercising. You must keep the watch two fingers above your wrist, and clas it tightly to ensure precise results. This is the only feature that struggles with accuracy though, and you can really rely on any other number the Charge 3 shows you proudly!

The Fitbit Charge is one of the priciest fitness trackers you can get, costing up to 200 dollars. Truth be told, there are much cheaper alternatives out there that do the job just as well as the Charge 3 does. Garmin offers fitness trackers that have a similar price point. The Fitbit Charge 3 does have a myriad of features that re well-deserving of the praise they get, but there are some aspects of this tracker that ruin the whole picture. The Fitbit Charge 3 still has very similar issues when compared to the Fitbit Charge 2, something that should have definitely been fixed when the price is almost double the amount! We're not saying that the Charge 3 is not worth your time, we're just saying that it's better to think before you plunge and get the Charge 3 without looking at the alternatives.

The Fitbit Charge 3 is an impressive fitness tracker, although it comes with its own share of issues. The design of the tracker is great, as it has sleek lines and a large yet simple display. The display itself is a touchscreen, which is different than what the Charge 2 had. Although that sounds cool, the reality is slightly different, because the touchscreen is not reliable, and it fails to respond more often than not. The Charge 3 has many features that make it worthwhile though. It's waterproof and capable of tracking your swimming, it tracks your sleep cycles, your pace, the distance you crossed, how many steps you've taken, and much more. But it is not equipped with GPOS, and the heart rate data could be more precise. The battery lasts up to one week, if the watch is not excessively used, and it charges up pretty fast. The watch can connect to any iPhone model, but it will have issues with a lot of Android phones. The app is excellent, just like it always was. The tracker is quite pricey, and we believe that Fitbit could work on their trackers more before slapping on a price tag such as this one!