Fitbit Charge 4 review

Our Verdict

With GPS and new wellness features, the Fitbit Accuse 4 is the best fitness tracker for most people.

For

Authentic, fast GPS
Large community of users
Skillful design

Against

No onboard music storage

Tom's Guide Verdict

With GPS and new wellness features, the Fitbit Charge 4 is the best fitness tracker for most people.

Pros

+
Accurate, fast GPS
+
Large customs of users
+
Good design

Cons

-
No onboard music storage

The $150 Fitbit Accuse 4 is but the company'due south 2d device with GPS, and, when combined with a congenital-in heart rate monitor, it helps provide a much more than accurate measure of your running, biking, and swimming.

Fitbit Charge four specs

Water resistance: 50 meters
GPS: Yes
Heart rate sensor: Aye
Display: 1 inch, 160 10 100-pixel touchscreen
Contactless payment: Fitbit Pay
Battery life: 7 days/5 hours continuous GPS

Considering that several of the best cheap fettle trackers — all which cost less than $100 — have GPS, it's been a long time coming for the Fitbit. During my time testing the Accuse 4, I was fortunate enough to exist able to run outside in the suburbs, keeping a good distance from anyone I encountered. But the Charge four has some other slap-up qualities too, including enhanced sleep tracking and a new fitness metric, to allow you know if you're getting enough exercise.

Be sure to read the residual of our Fitbit Accuse 4 review to notice out what else we like about ane of the best fitness trackers yet, besides equally our Apple Watch Serial 3 vs. Fitbit Charge 4 and Fitbit Versa 2 vs. Fitbit Accuse 4 face-offs to meet the benefits yous'll get with a traditional fitness tracker over a full-fledged smartwatch.

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Since launching the Charge 4, Fitbit has updated it to include two new features: Smart Wake tin sense your sleep patterns, and accommodate your wake time (up to 30 minutes), so as to avoid waking y'all while you're in a deep sleep. Dynamic GPS can sense when your phone is nearby, and use its GPS, rather than the Accuse 4's GPS, in gild to conserve bombardment life.

Fitbit Charge 4 review: Cost and release date

The Fitbit Accuse 4 was released in April 2020, and is available on Fitbit.com, as well as at online retailers including Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart. It'south available in black or rosewood (a deep purplish scarlet) for $149; a special edition, with a woven black/granite reflective band, is bachelor for $169.

We're expecting the price of the Fitbit Charge 4 to drop over the side by side couple of months as its successor, the Fitbit Charge 5, has now been released, with an ECG and EDA sensor, as well as a color AMOLED touchscreen. Read our Fitbit Charge 5 review here.

The Fitbit Accuse 4 starts at $149.95 with either a black, rosewood and tempest blue/black wrist band. A Special Edition Charge 4 costs $169.95, and comes with a granite reflective/blackness woven band.

Fitbit Charge iv review: Blueprint

I'll be the starting time to admit that when information technology comes to smartwatches and fitness trackers, I similar big, honkin' devices like the Garmin Fenix six. Just at that place'southward something to be said for the graceful Charge 4. For one thing, it's a lot lighter, and so you well-nigh forget that it's on your wrist.

Fitbit Charge 4 — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The Accuse four looks almost identical to its predecessor, the Charge 3. Both accept a like rectangular pattern with a grayscale OLED touchscreen, and a replaceable band that wraps around your wrist. A single touch-sensitive surface area on the left side of the Charge 4 acts as a Back button. Previous generations had a physical, argent button, and while the impact-push works well, I miss the silverish color accent.

The Accuse iv's touchscreen was piece of cake to read in all but brilliant sunlight, and responded quickly to swipes, except when my finger was sweaty; then, it didn't work at all. That'south pretty typical for most touchscreen devices, though. Still, the small size of the Accuse four's screen did arrive a flake more than difficult to read while I was running and my caput and arms were moving.

Both Charge devices will employ a like-size wristband, and then Charge 3 owners who want to upgrade but like their old band will exist able to easily swap them. All you have to practise is press a push button on the underside of the strap where it connects to the device.

Those with smaller wrists may besides find there'due south a gap at the edges, where the Charge 4 connects to its strap; when my wife tried on the Charge 4, this gap was noticeable, though the device was secure.

Fitbit Accuse 4 review: Active Zone Minutes

With the Accuse four, Fitbit is introducing a new fitness metric chosen Active Zone minutes. The tracker will mensurate the time you spend in target eye rate zones, and track your progress toward the goal of 150 minutes per week. It'south the recommended minimum from the American Center Association, Centers for Disease Command, and Globe Wellness Organization.

You get double credit for the amount of fourth dimension you spend doing vigorous activity. The Charge 4 will summate your target center charge per unit zones based on your age and your resting heart rate; as your overall fettle level improves, the Charge iv volition automatically recalculate those zones.

Active Zone Minutes comes on Fitbit'due south smartwatches now, too. Our Fitbit Sense review and Fitbit Versa 3 review explain more about how the characteristic performs on newer devices.

After Fitbit calculates your heart charge per unit threshold for Agile Zone Minutes (mine was 116 beats per minute), the app shows a chart of your middle charge per unit, and the time you spent in each zone (Fat Burn, Cardio, and Height). Although I only spent 23 minutes in the Cardio and Peak zones (136 bpm and higher), I was awarded 46 minutes of credit. I'll take information technology!

Fitbit Charge 4 review: GPS and running performance

The near notable new feature of the Fitbit Charge four is its built-in GPS. The Charge 4 is only the second of Fitbit's devices, and the first of its fitness trackers to have this feature. (The company considers the Fitbit Ionic to exist a smartwatch.) Many of Fitbit's rivals have had GPS in similar trackers, and because devices like the Garmin Precursor 35 running watch now cost less than the Charge 4, it'southward near time GPS became mandatory in trackers that cost more than $100.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the Accuse iv picked up a GPS signal; on my commencement run with the device, information technology took nigh one-half a infinitesimal, but after that, information technology acquired the satellite in seconds. That's what I get with the best GPS watches, and was happy to see it here, too.

By default, the Charge 4 has six do shortcuts loaded: Run, Wheel, Swim, Treadmill, Outdoor Workout, Walk. Within the Fitbit app, though, you can choose from 16 other activities ranging from yoga to kickboxing, even interval workouts.

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I liked that during my run, the Charge iv would buzz my wrist when I moved from one heart rate zone to another. However, I wish it would have besides buzzed afterwards each mile. If you take headphones hooked upwardly (through your smartphone), the Charge 4 will requite you sound cues to this effect.

Later on the Charge iv synced with my phone, a map of my runs showed upward in the Fitbit app, forth with data for stride, meridian, heart charge per unit zones, and calories burned. Even improve, the app overlays this data forth your route, so yous can se precisely where you were huffing and puffing.

Looking at the data, there appeared to be a couple of instances where the Charge 4'due south heart charge per unit monitor was a bit tardy in its tracking; my middle charge per unit would suddenly jump up 10 or 20 beats per minute before settling into a more than consistent pattern. Overall, though, the center rate tracking seemed pretty consistent.

Fitbit Charge 4 review: Sleep tracking

The Fitbit Charge 4 uses an SpO2 pulse oximeter sensor (as well plant in the Accuse three, Versa, and Ionic) to ameliorate help yous sympathise your sleeping patterns. A new Restoration metric shows not but your eye charge per unit while sleeping, merely also your restlessness and estimated oxygen variation; if there'south a lot of variance, it could exist linked to animate issues such equally sleep apnea.

The first night I wore the Accuse 4, it said I didn't fall comatose until nearly 12:xxx a.m., a half an hour or and so after I dozed off. I must've been tossing and turning a lot. Even so, my oxygen levels remained pretty consistent. The second nighttime, the Charge 4 idea I didn't fall asleep until 2 a.m. Fortunately, y'all can edit this information in the Fitbit app, to more accurately reflect your remainder.

Fitbit has also brought its Smart Wake characteristic to the Charge 4; the company says it uses machine learning to know the best fourth dimension to rouse you from your slumber, a feature my toddler has perfected without the assistance of advanced algorithms.

Fitbit Charge 4: Spotify controls

Adapting some other characteristic brought over from Fitbit'due south smartwatches, the Accuse 4 will accept Spotify music controls. While you lot'll still need your phone —sorry, no onboard music storage — this should go far easier for you lot to skip tracks and change playlists. This was a nice-to-have feature, only until you can actually download tracks to the Accuse 4, as you tin with the Versa 2, information technology'due south not a feature I'd use regularly.

Fitbit Accuse four: Fitbit Pay

I'll admit, I didn't think much of contactless payment until I became slightly paranoid at touching whatever surface in public. However, information technology's nice to know that I could apply the Charge 4 to pay for stuff without having to put my fingers on a keypad. While non as ubiquitous as Apple Pay or Google Pay, Fitbit Pay works with 500 issuers, retailers in 44 countries, and 10 transit systems worldwide — not that I'm planning to use the New York City subway in the near futurity.

The Charge iv is the first of Fitbit's fitness trackers to have this characteristic, merely it is available on the Versa, Versa 2, and Ionic. Hither is a list of participating banks for Fitbit Pay.

Fitbit Premium

Launched last fall, Fitbit Premium is a $9.99 per month subscription service that offers personalized workouts, health and slumber insights, and coaching from trainers.

While not express to those who purchase the Charge iv, Fitbit is currently offer a xc-day free trial of Fitbit Premium, besides as 40 new pieces of gratuitous content in the Fitbit app.

Fitbit Charge four review: Battery life

Fitbit says that the Charge iv should last up to 7 days in normal fitness-tracking mode — the same every bit the Charge iii, and fairly standard for most fitness trackers — and will last up to 5 hours if you're actively using GPS.

I took the Accuse 4 on a few runs using GPS; a 30-infinitesimal run drained the battery by nearly xx pct. If you were to extrapolate that, you would use up the battery in nearly 2.v hours — half the time that Fitbit claims. That'south not great when compared to GPS watches, but not horrible if you're using the Charge four just to runway your daily runs around the neighborhood.

Subsequently four days of wearing the Charge four, plus ii half-hour runs using GPS, the Charge 4's battery life was down to 24 pct.

Fitbit Charge four review: Verdict

With the add-on of GPS, the Fitbit Charge iv represents a big improvement over the Accuse 3. At present, y'all tin rail your running, biking and swimming equally accurately as yous tin with a bona fide GPS watch. Plus, the Accuse iv has some other excellent features, including wireless payment back up and meliorate wellness tracking.

That said, if you lot're a dedicated runner, yous'll exist better served by 1 of the best GPS watches, such as the $300 Garmin Forerunner 245, equally those devices have larger displays, more than granular metrics and settings and longer battery life, especially when using GPS.

Only at that place's no denying that if y'all want a fettle tracker to precisely measure your exercise, sleep, and other wellness metrics, y'all can't do improve than the Fitbit Charge four.

Michael A. Prospero is the deputy editor at Tom'due south Guide overseeing the home, smart home, drones, and fitness/wearables categories, as well as all buying guides and other evergreen content. When he'south non testing out the latest running sentry, skiing or training for a marathon, he's probably using the latest sous vide motorcar or another cooking gadget.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/fitbit-charge-4

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