Recently I got a Fitbit Charge 2 HR. If you are not aware of the quantified fitness thing... well in a nutshell it is all about keeping score. If keeping score is something that motivates you and your are interested in getting more fit, or maintaining your fitness etc... well you probably already know about these. But if you don't... it is a widget you strap on your wrist and it counts things. For the charge it counts your "steps" and it counts your heart rate (hence the HR). In addition is does some light duty as a smart watch... but really... its shouldn't quit its day job. While counting it can also do things like track various activities for uploading to your tracking service of choice and linking with info from other devices.
The Good:
Heart Rate Heart Rate Heart Rate. Ever since I first started using a heart rate monitor riding my bike I found myself interested in having something that tracked it in general. As opposed to the "step" tracking your HR is a MUCH better form of tracking your activity levels and quantifying your exertion and seeing your progress. Is it perfect? Far from it. Is the HR tracking of the charge perfect? No... but it is pretty dang good. For me the killer feature here is tracking lower impact activity tracking through the day and tracking resting rate over night while I sleep. Capturing rate during lower impact activities like walking, going up a bunch of stairs etc... helps produce a better estimation of how much energy (Calories) I have burned. The resting rate calculation over night shows progress in general cardio fitness and can help show when you are over stressed or perhaps that crappy feeling is tied to more than just an off day. When you get ill your resting rate tends to go up a bit... over training is somewhat similar in that you have stressed yourself physically so much your body is working much harder to make needed repairs and is not keeping up in general.
General user interface and motivational reminders/rewards. This is the digital monkey bit... and it definitely goes for 'cute and helpful' rather than negative. IE if you miss a window it doesn't berate you etc... just pushes forward to the next. Link with the phone and app is pretty seamless and the app is pretty slick and allows you to look at as much or as a little of what the device is capable of tracking/calculating as you like. According to other reviews I read it is not quite as 'robust' on all its capabilities as say Garmin Connect and Garmin's competing device(s) but hands down it is more user friendly. So if you are not a super stat freak and just want the dang numbers done for you this is definitely the way to go. Otherwise the Garmin may deserve a close look. For me... Garmin connect is a usability abomination despite is capability... and the design/bulkiness of the most direct competing device with the Fitbit was not what I was looking for in daily wrist wear (which I do not like that much to begin with).
The So So:
Step tracking... well it is better than a phone in that it is on your wrist and therefore not subject to being left on a desk etc... But step tracking in and of itself is not exactly top notch 'science' when it comes to fitness. The concept is that if you are generating motion that triggers step detection for enough time per day (10k "steps" is the general standard) then you are meeting WHO recommended levels of activity per day to avoid being to sedentary. The concept is good... the tracking not so much. as long as you are treating it more as a relative indicator of your activity level rather than as gospel ( I got 10 k I can stop etc...) then it is useful. Especially in concert with the HR tracking. If you are "stepping" but never getting your HR up you are not accomplishing much. Not talking VO2 Max levels here or anything, but you should be well up in your cardio range for a decent amount of activity level (2+ hours a day) to really be seeing the benefits. And really... and low impact levels this will help you feel better but it is not likely to drop to many inches on your waistline unless you are in such a state that this level of exercise is challenging for you. Once it becomes routine you have to find ways to push harder to continue to see results.
The form factor... Seeing the new smart watches it seems this thing could be thinner and that really is the only major complaint I have about it and it isn't to bad, hence the so so section. That said the styling is relatively low key (unless you decide to go for the more flashy colors/bands etc...) and it does its job.
Battery life: Solid 4 days... 5, maybe 6 pushing it. Here is hoping one day something like this can last as long as a regular dumb watch.
The smart watch functionality. Well... if I were judging it just as a smart watch I would have this in the bad section. But... this is kind of a bonus feature from my perspective. I did factor it into my decision to buy it as I really wanted calendar, email and text notifications (well get text and calendars at least) from my previous experience with an android wear device. Being generous I would call the capability here... functional. Two things really hamstring it. First it can not do general notifications from apps. It can only support text and calendar notifications. Two, the screen is so small it has to scroll the notification. And it will only show it once, with no way to run back through recent messages (at least not that I have figured out yet...). Combined with the short screen on time and iffy activation and its a pretty hit or miss affair. For me it mostly boils down to the wrist vibration and type of notification received more than the actual content. I often can't feel my phone vibrate in my pants this has proved useful.
The Bad:
The screen. The size is problematic, but only as a 'smart watch'. For its core functionality the screen size is more than adequate, when you can see it.... which you pretty much cannot in sunlight (Fatality). So... tracking activities and telling your what you are doing... if you can see it. Inside this is no problem. But out on a bright day it is damn near impossible to see it.
Proprietary charger.... ACK. Hate collecting charging accessories specific to one device. Granted I don't exactly want a usb plug in either due to the last problem. But if you have to do a specific charger make it self align with magnets for slap on and slap off charging. The clip on this one with the hole for the button at least helps you make sure you have the right end for the pins aligned but it is kind of fumble around until the batt icon comes on the screen to get it going.
Not waterproof. It is getting less and less acceptable for electronics to be at the mercy of water. Granted this is not going to have problems in the rain... but it is highly recommended you do not shower with it. Imagine Charge 3 will cover this one. But at least it is more or less splash proof.
Screen time. The lift/tap to activate is aggravating. This is an obvious compromise to achieve the multiple day battery life but it is still seriously lacking. What ticks me off most about this bit is that there was a device coming to market from pebble that in theory solved this issue with the Pebble Time 2 that had better activity tracking and e-ink. In theory that could have allowed for HR monitoring ala the charge with an always on (and significantly larger) display of the Pebble. Alas Fitbit bought Pebble and immediately canned the time 2 device. Here is hoping the next charge or blaze device from Fitbit brings in the Pebble e-ink expertise and we get a much more user friendly screen.
Conclusion:
Do not let the bad stuff throw you off. This tech is in its infancies and as such still has a lot of growing pains. All in all this device is a good little monkey for reminding you when to get up and take it for a walk and keep your desk bound sedentary behind moving somewhat at the office. A lot of studies are coming out showing some pretty strong links between long periods of being sedentary and health issues. While I have not used just the get up and move and overall step counting to up my activity levels, I can definitely say I feel better through my day of work when I feed my monkey what it wants. It is helping me break my "flight operator" have to stay at my post mentality to desk work and get me regularly moving around... and I think better on the go anyway. This 'smart watch' functionality is iffy but a useful bonus. Also... this is something that could improve with future updates.
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