20 Best Health Watches For Seniors (2023 Updated)

Pros: I have been using Fitbit devices since 2014 starting with the Flex and they have come a long way. I like their design overall, it’s nice to be able to customise the watch faces, there are so many official and aftermarket accessories available that you can really make your Fitbit suit your style and keep it fresh over the years.

I had hoped that my Versa1 would stay alive until the Versa4 was released but I found myself needing to buy quickly. When you don’t use a smart watch it’s very easy to overlook how useful they are and how attached you become to having one.

As a diabetic I have always tried to stay fit and healthy and Fitbit has allowed me to track patterns and tends in my recovery and just be aware of places I could improve so it was not an option to be without.

The Versa3 is a very good looking device. The soft gold looks expensive and the Fitbit silicone strap is sturdy and well fitted and in my experience they last a long time. The packaging is very nice too and it feels like a beautiful puzzle box to open with all the accessories tucked neatly inside a small package.

You get the watch, two straps, a USB2 magnetic charger and some paperwork and the Versa has come on a lot since the first generation. Connecting to wifi, my phone and all associated apps was fast and easy and I haven’t found signal strength to be an issue at all.

The interface is bright and easy to use and while a few apps have been changed, updated or moved, it still has similar functionality to the original Versa but just faster and easier overall. It comes with Google Assistant features which I haven’t really used and you may or may not see the point of this but as someone who dislikes taking phone calls anywhere too public my experience with the voice features is minimal but apparently they are quite good!The Versa has a nice clear screen, the logo is missing from the front which makes it feel bigger than it is and only one ‘button’ on the left side, which isn’t a pressable button but a capacitive strip that buzzes when you squeeze it.

I always wear my Fitbit with a bumper screen protector so I am not sure about screen toughness over time, but the rounded edges and small form factor mean that the Fitbit feels compact and neat on your wrist, the sensors on the rear also seem to make good contact with my skin and no irritation has occurred at all while wearing it.

In general use I have been getting about 3 full days battery life, but I tend to pop mine on the charger while I take a shower so I rarely leave it charging until 100%, the charging via the cable is fast and the magnetic pebble is cute and very easy to use, I also like how I can charge it without needing to take the bumper off now, with my old Versa it had to be clipped into the charger which was awkward.

I believe if you disabled the GPS which is inbuilt, lowered screen brightness and other notifications you could squeeze 4 full days out of it. Overall the Versa3 is a very attractive smartwatch, it has a limited set of features compared to more specialist devices out there, but for the average non-athlete it is ideal as it’s easy to get to grips with and looks very stylish.

The screen is bright and crisp and the customisation gives it lasting appeal. Cons: -I prefer the squarer design of the Versa1. Many of the clockfaces and apps have not been optimised for the rounder bezel/screen of this version yet so it can feel like the screen is not fully utilised which is a waste.

As you often have to pay a small amount for the watch faces it can feel a bit of a cheat. -The capacitive button was a real mistake. It is a my biggest criticism. As it relies on skin contact, you can activate it if you bend your wrist too far back while sleeping or exercising and that can do things like start Google Assistant up, or pause an exercise.

So it would be better to have a clickable button to prevent this. I activate it alot while I am sleeping as I roll onto my arm and I find that this can deplete the battery. – Some good features have been removed such as the 2GB built in music storage, the Treasure Trek game and the ability to order your exercise choices inside the desktop/mobile app.

I have found workarounds or noticed that the features are utilised differently in some cases, but you may find this a deal breaker. -Still very limited apps and pay options exist, and the ones I found on the Vers3 were identical to the ones for my original Versa so they were slow and clunky as hadn’t been optimised.

-The strap connectors on the sides of the Versa3 are little tension based clips with plastic sliders. I have found that my strap frequently comes out of these connectors. So far it hasn’t caused me too many issues but it can be annoying, they should design a better mechanism.

-No included power brick, just a cable. The charger is good quality but v small so you might want to purchase a backup for trips or work.

I have owned a couple other FitBits and two Microsoft Bands (no longer made) and this is the worst of the bunch. My Fitbit Versa was a few years old and was starting to act up, so I figured I’d upgrade to the Versa 3.

The biggest problem is that it constantly becomes unpaired with my phone. This happens at least once a day and many days it’s multiple times. I have to reset it to reconnect and this brings me to another issue.

The “button” is not a physical button but a sensor of some sort and it is very difficult to hold it down long enough to get the Fitbit to reset. The unpairing is annoying and inconvenient at best, but has caused other problems as well.

When unpaired, the watch doesn’t keep time accurately. I use it as my alarm in the morning and on more than one occasion the Fitbit was several minutes slow. Fortunately, I use a backup alarm, or I would have been late to work.

The other problem with the button is that it is very sensitive and depending on where you wear the Fitbit, you can unintentionally trigger the button and actually start changing settings and such just from walking or moving around.

The Fitbit also freezes from time to time and is buggy – there are times where you cannot pull down your text messages, they just don’t show up. Also, the screen is very sensitive and warm shower water will cause it to activate and start scrolling through settings and different functions.

On the positive side, when it works, it works well. Even with all the problems, if I pay close attention I can keep on top of it and keep it working – it just takes several resets a day and frequent monitoring to see if it’s paired and telling time properly.

Also, the alarm is great because it uses a quiet vibration that wakes me up but doesn’t disturb my wife. Battery life is impressive, it’s comfortable, and seems pretty durable, but that is all overshadowed by the Fitbit just not working properly.

Pros: The battery life alone makes this purchases worthwhile. A full week of charge even with all my daily activities. Being able to record my sleep is a function lacking on the Apple Watch. Fitbit now gives you an overall score and it compromises of various things such as sleep, stress levels and heart rate- which is really handy when you’re training to ensure you’re taking care of your body.

It’s a slick design and tbh doesn’t look any different on the wrist. I had a Fitbit years ago and when I got my Apple Watch I always found myself comparing the two. Glad to be back. Cons: It’s very much an Android platform.

The design functionality is a bit clunky and not really as “sexy” as Apple Watch- it’s hard to explain if you haven’t had an Apple Watch. The Watch faces are very limited and I’m unable to add my own photo to use as Watch background.

This might just be the case on my Versa 3. My watch strap feels a bit cheap on the wrist and I might look into seeing if I can swap it for something that’s not fitting of the face of the Watch. Some of the premium video that’s your paying for are really good, but there is no option to report feedback.

I attempted to do a kickboxing video and they kept panning on the surroundings instead of the instructors. I gave up 5min in as i couldn’t keep up with the instructions or instructors it just wasn’t clear enough and you couldn’t see what the instructors where doing as the green-screen background was more important.

I was looking for a fitness watch for my wife to replace her reliable 12-year old Polar watch with LCD screen. The feature she most liked about that old Polar was that whilst running it was possible to have the heart rate display occupying full-screen in large easy to see digits.

Interestingly (and frustratingly), NONE of the YouTube fitness and gurus EVER mention this issue. Cannot wait until they hit their 60s! I know that “a certain competitor’s” watches do have this feature but do not like their lousy battery life.

So, purchased the Garmin Venu SQ thinking that I could install an alternative watch face (WRONG) with large digit heart rate filling the screen whilst in an activity (partly right). I knew that if it did not work for my wife that I was happy enough to keep it and would go ahead and purchase an “Xxxxx” Watch for her (which is what we have done – she is not all that concerned about the battery life anyway).

So, I find the Venu SQ to work well. Its battery life is great – close to a week if you are battery conserving in at least a couple of days if you have every single feature turned on. Heart rate is accurate.

Oxygen saturation consistently reads low (I have checked it against a professional device). I can use it doing kettle bell exercises, including snatches. Being rectangular, and not particularly large, I can wear it firmly at the end of my forearm, very near the wrist (probably a bit further towards the hand than recommended by Garmin).

In that position my wrist can be fully extended (dorsi flexed), the top of my hand just touches the watch but not firmly enough to hit the physical button, and as the kettle bell settles on the back of my forearm it does not bash the watch.

The watch faces can be customised a little but unfortunately, unlike higher level Garmin watches, it is not possible to download lots of other watch faces. I probably would not have bought it if I knew that before hand.

Nonetheless, I am quite happy to have the watch. I had a Garmin Forerunner 310XT for many years and loved it, including all the metrics. I am 63 now and whilst I mourned the passing of my 310, I no longer need all of its features and find the Venu SQ does all that I need.

I should have stuck with buying (yet another) FitBit Versa, much as I hate how those break irreparably just after the warranty expires. The Venu SQ is a comparable but very distant second in my experience.

My main complaints: * Battery life is vastly exaggerated. Great the first few weeks, but since then it’s only been good for 3 days max, and that’s with only an hour/day (at most) of actual workout tracking.

* The @#$% constant “searching for Varia lights” message. Half the time I rotate my wrist to check the time, I see that dumb message and have to press a button to just view the clock. I don’t have any Garmin Varia bike lights.

I never will. There is no option to tell the Venu to stop looking for these @#$% lights. Very annoying. * Tiny, tiny fonts and symbols. They really fail compared to FitBit in this regard. * Auto activity tracking.

“Move IQ” is terrible and again, fails greatly compared to FitBit. It usually doesn’t capture activity, when it does it often mis-identifies the activity, and it doesn’t do full-fledged tracking the way FitBits do.

It only captures a fraction of the metrics compared to manually starting/stopping an activity. * Activity pauses lead to activity splitting. If you pause, whether manually or if Move IQ determines you’ve paused, it starts a (15 minute?) tracking pause.

If you don’t manually press the button to resume activity before that period ends, the activity is automatically saved and ended and you have to (if you realize and remember to do it) start a new activity.

Pretty silly if, for example, you’re on a long hike or bike ride and take a lunch break. I don’t want my 3 hour ride to be split up into multiple activities with multiple maps, calorie counts, etc. * Garmin Connect website is okay, but clunky.

You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to just show a basic line chart / time line of metrics. It’s a big mess of sparse dashboard widgets that aren’t smooth to navigate. On the plus side, it’s comfortable enough, the band hasn’t broken yet (after 4 months), and the calorie burn math doesn’t appear inflated like FitBit’s.

The main reason I purchased the Garmin Venu Sq GPS Smartwatch Metallic Orchid is to keep track of my everyday fitness and health levels. It is light and comfortable to wear, has a number of built-in features which can be accessed through a touch screen face and two buttons and more than 20 preloaded sports apps.

You can track pulse ox, heart rate, calories burned, stress levels, menstrual, hydration, and more. It gives me all the tools to track my daily steps, FIIT30, FIITBOX, cycle and pilates sessions, and it also offers a good fitness tracking experience too.

The battery life is superb as I don’t need to recharge for up to six days. Love the built-in GPS. The display is clear and the watch is not bulky or uncomfortable. I download most of my data to the Garmin Connect App on my phone to read any data, and it accurately records the data.

It’s compatible to sync with Android or iOS smartphones. It has smart notifcations for calls, texts, alerts, and more. It has sports apps and workouts to help you optimise your fitness. Absolutely LOVE IT!!.

I previously had the Original Galaxy Watch which was nothing but a glorified notification device and very slow, buggy, and cumbersome to use. I waited to upgrade for 3 more iterations (2, 3, 4) hoping a lot of the bugs would be worked it.

And honestly this watch is still more or less a glorified notification device and is basically worthless if you’re a Verizon customer and use Verizon proprietary apps because you cannot download them on your watch.

For example, if you use the Verizon Messages App and go to start a new message from your watch it requires you to set a different message app as default in order to start a message. What’s the point? Why would Verizon sell something that is incompatible with it’s native proprietary apps? For some reason if you receive a message on your watch, it shows up as being from the Verizon Messages app and you can respond to it, however if you swipe it away there’s no way to get back to it and again no way to start a new one.

So it’s only 1 way compatible or what does this mean??? What’s even worse, I initiated a chat with Tech support who had absolutely no idea whether the Verizon Messages app was compatible with the Galaxy Watch.

The person on the chat promised me a resolution in the beginning and then could not deliver and kept wasting my time asking me to check the app store which I already informed them I had done and was the reason I initiated the chat (i.

e to see if the app was compatible or not). Also, the standalone feature is garbage, if you do try to respond to a message and you aren’t near your watch, it either will not be able to send the message or it will say, cannot send from phone, use watch number instead? What’s the point??? Additionally, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve answered a call on my watch as I’m headed back to my phone only to get back to my phone and find out I can’t transfer the call to my phone (S22 Ultra).

The workout/fitness stuff seems ok I guess but if you want to separately measure your heartbeat you better not move a muscle or it will give you a sensor error, however if you have activated a workout on the watch, somehow it shows as being able to read your heartbeat the whole time no matter how much you are moving, how does this make any sense at all? The individual heartbeat app makes you hold still but the heartbeat monitor built into the workout isn’t the same? So if you haven’t activated a workout and you are doing cardio for example, how the heck can you get a reading without stopping and holding absolutely still? I absolutely love my Galaxy S22 Ultra, I’ve been a Samsung Galaxy Phone user since the Note 3 but Samsung’s Watches seem to be Garbage, and moreso on on Verizon.

My wife has an Apple watch and iPhone 13 (both on Verizon as well) and I am SUPER impressed at how well the Apple Watch works and what it can do (I would get one if it were possible to use it with my phone).

She never has problems and can literally leave her phone at home and have basically the same functionality on her watch from miles away and it uses her phone number (not a watch number). Samsung is INFINITELY far behind on the watch side and needs to step it up BIG TIME and so is Verizon on their Proprietary apps.

After owning this watch for 3 months, this watch has been able to supplement my life’s activities in some way. The main reason I bought it for the purpose of being able to track my exercise and to be used as a golf watch for pin distance.

Upon pairing with my Samsung S9+, all notifications such as text and WhatApp messages, calendar events and call were all actionable from the watch, and mitigated me having to pull out my phone to check these notification.

Things such as email to my gmail account and other application notifications were not available, however as these aren’t really urgent it didn’t really impact me. It has support for many third party applications and native Samsung applications; my Golfshot application allowed for me to check the pin distance from my phone, my F45 workouts were tracked in the Samsung Health with my heart rate and calorie counts for the session available to be viewed on both my watch and my phone, plus the ability (after a bit of fiddling) being able to control my phone’s Spotify whilst connected to my bluetooth headphones (the watch also uses bluetooth).

There’s so many apps you can use such as a compass, stopwatch, Google maps and Samsung Pay, The Samsung Health integration has a wealth of functions, even being able to measure body composition by sending electrodes around your body, providing data on BMI, water mass, bone density.

It also has a sleep monitor which will track your sleeping patterns if you wear the watch while you sleep, I haven’t tried it for the reason below. My only complaint is the battery life. Depending on usage, you’ll find yourself having to charge your watch at weird intervals if you choose to wear it to bed every night.

Given the functions of the watch somewhat demand it to be worn for 24 hours, you’ll just have to pick and choose when you want to go without, which means placing it on a USB charger the size of a 20 cent piece.

Overall it’s a great life assistant. It looks smart, you can choose for virtually an unlimited number of watch faces, there’s an app for everything you want and you can set it up to help you with anything you wish.

I received the Bluetooth version of this watch, and have been using it for a few weeks. There is also a 4G version of it. The watch comes nicely presented in a white box, and includes a proprietary magnetic USB charging pad, so you’ll need a charging block to plug this into in order to charge the watch.

Charging takes 90 minutes with my charger, and a full charge lasts ~2 days (though I’ve not used it for intensive fitness tracking). Battery life is the only downside of this watch for me, though this may be normal for smart watches.

I’ve been using this watch with a Samsung Galaxy S10 – It is not compatible with iPhone. There are certain features that only work with Samsung phones – such as full health tracking (heart rate monitor, blood oxygen level, sleep quality, stress, and body composition).

Unless you’re really into monitoring your fitness, this is unlikely to be an issue – I find basic fitness tracking (steps etc) is perfect for my needs. The watch is comfortable to wear, though I find the rubber strap can get a little bit sweaty (which may be partly due to the UK 2022 Jul/Aug heatwave).

This may not be an issue if you are a regular smart watch wearer already. Before starting the watch for the first time, I’d recommend installing Samsung’s ‘Galaxy Wearable’ app and ensuring that Bluetooth is enabled on your phone.

On starting the watch, it walks you though the Bluetooth pairing process, and then gives a brief interactive demo of how to use the watch (Mostly swiping left/right/up/down to access different feature areas, and is definitely worth paying attention to).

The app allows you to configure your watch – lots of different faces etc. , as well as specifying the apps you wish to use. Other than phone and Messages, I regularly use Spotify and Samsung Pay (as it’s more convenient than using the phone).

I find this watch a very user-friendly piece of tech. If you’re happy to charge it every day or two, I’d definitely recommend it.

This is a fine watch with useful features. In that respect it is much like my Withings, which I also bought at Best Buy. I have worn both at the same time on either arm and compared their readings and initially found that the FitBit seems to count more steps than does my Withings.

The same is true with calories burned. Hmmmm. After a couple of weeks the FitBit seemed to “learn” my movements and began to come closer to the Withings, which I have owned and used a bit longer and even the sleep measurements are closer in their measurements now.

Pulse rate varies wildly with both watches and seems dependent upon the placement of the watch on your forearm/wrist. The FitBit has a Weather feature that is nice. Via the GPS on my Motorola phone (also purchased at Best Buy,,,A trend is beginning to show, LOL!) and will keep track of at least two geographical areas.

Home and work or wherever I happen to go throughout my day. It was reading Celsius until I changed it in the Application on my phone. I am very pleased with all aspects of the FitBit except the battery life which is roughly a week.

Compared to the Withings 30 days, that is a bit weak but overall both watches have their + and – factors and are more than adequate for my needs and I think my needs are honest and reasonable: Accurate time and date, BPM pulse rate, calories burned and given my age (I am a seasoned citizen!), the ECG found on both watches.

You can also enter into the Application on your phone how much water you have drank throughout your day and there is an entry for food consumed. I have used the water feature but not the one for food.

Perhaps one day but I tend to eat the same items every day and as such find it unnecessary. The Exercise mode on the FitBit is quite useful and I primarily use the weight training feature as I have been a physical culturist (a healthy bodybuilder!) for decades now and it keeps track of my pulse, time training and steps.

The goal for my pusle is 100 BPM and I rarely make that but it could be my heart is more efficient that some folks my age? The charging cable is rather short so I will be looking for a longer one soon.

Also, the FitBit and the Withings both seen to collect sweat and dirt on the underside of their bands and the watch body, so be certain to keep them clean as the backside of the watch is where the charging contacts are and they must have a clean surface to make a good connection.

Both of these watches need that so this is not a negative, just a real world observation that should be noted! All in all, I recommend the FitBit without reservation, As I said, I also have and to be honest, also recommend the Withings.

Both are great at what they do and I expect that with time and technology advances, features will become more accurate and when they do so I will upgrade one or both watches to fit my wants and more importantly, my needs.

Trust me. I know what I’m doin’ when I’m reviewin’!.

I purchased this for my wife to replace her Apple Watch series 6. She had some issues with the Apple Watch screen and wanted to try out the Fitbit, but after just one weekend returned it. Bottom line: For fitness tracking it just doesn’t hold up to Apple’s algorithms.

She really wanted to like this watch, but unless you are walking with your hands free it can’t calculate the steps, so forget about putting it in a walk mode and pushing a stroller or shopping cart. Apple’s algorithms can be adjusted to compute this when in “outdoor exercise” mode.

Furthermore, my wife noticed that it was less accurate with heart rate monitoring. She knows her typical resting heartrate and this watch’s systems detected it as noticeably faster, even when at rest.

She actually took it herself one evening and found the watch to be about 20 bpm faster than her actual heartrate. Another use that was important to her was having a second hand as she sometimes needs one to time patients at work.

She had to hunt to find a watch face with a second hand. One thing that my wife did like was the longer battery life, but this was not enough to compensate for the deficiencies.

I purchased this watch with a discount code that FitBit gave me when my former watch conveniently broke shortly after the warranty was up. From the time I got this watch, I had nothing but problems. The thing glitched constantly, and I was always having trouble getting it to charge and turn on.

In addition, FitBit never fixed the problem that when you sweat, the heart rate monitor is completely inaccurate. I’m soaking with sweat in the middle of a CrossFit class out of breath and my heartrate is 70? I don’t think so.

Finally, after a couple months it broke so bad that even FitBit support could not help me fix it. They told me I could return it under warranty and that they would send me a new one when they got it.

I asked them to send me a Versa instead because this watch is such a POS, and they told me they could only replace it with the same watch. Well, that was two months ago. I have followed up biweekly and they still claim that my return is in the FEDEX system and has not gotten to them yet.

They won’t send me a new one until the returned broken watch is back in their warehouse. In conclusion, I spent hundreds of dollars on a product that barely worked when I did have it and now I haven’t been able to use the product at all for 2 months because FitBit’s customer service is horrible.

Not only would I not suggest this product, I do not suggest any FitBit products. After being a long term customer, I will be making the switch to a different smart watch.

Physically, the watch itself is pretty nice – good size, fairly comfortable to wear, lightweight. The app and integration with your phone feel like an afterthought. Notifications are okay, but setting up some of the Fitbit specific features (like wallet, or whatever it’s trying to do with Bluetooth) is far from slick.

Battery life is good for two days, less if you track an activity. Then there are two major negatives. Firstly, the screen is almost impossible to see with polarised glasses at most angles – especially if you want to glance down whilst on a bike ride, or even a quick glance whilst driving.

It’s pretty much useless for tracking rides in that respect. Secondly – you can’t wear it in your right wrist. That’s right – if you’re left handed, get used to constant accidental presses of the one button on the watch until you get so annoyed you just disable it.

This is a $200+ watch that’s been out since Aug ’20 and still doesn’t support wearing on both wrists. I just assumed that it would have that functionality like every other smart watch in the world, but I was mistaken.

All it requires is a software update to flip the screen 180° for us lefties, but apparently sending me an email when my watch is low on battery was considered to be a more important feature.

Disappointing product. Not for anyone who is serious about actually tracking exercise activities. The GPS is a joke. Takes forever to connect and still loses GPS on at least 30%-40% of runs or rides which means elevation gain is no longer tracked and syncing activity with other fitness tracking apps like Strava is not possible.

Additionally, the tracking is not accurate or precise in the least. My girlfriend and I both have the Charge 4 and run together on the same route but get significantly different total mileage. I’ve spoken with FitBit customer service but, aside from advising you to unsync/resync your watch, they have no substantive solutions.

Battery life is quickly deteriorating as well. Lost nearly 40% over the course of an hour run most recently. Could not count on it lasting through any extended activity. Not a lot more frustrating than having your watch lose GPS or simply die halfway through your outing.

Oh, and the charger is a bit flimsy as well. One of the two prongs broke off about two months after purchase so when your watch does die in the middle of your exercise, you can charge right up as soon as your new charger is delivered.

In short, if you are just looking for a step counter and heart monitor that displays the time and doesn’t take up a lot of room on your wrist, this watch is a moderately effective, albeit expensive, tool for that but nothing more.

If you have any interest in actually tracking your exercise activities, don’t waste your money on the Charge 4.

This watch is hot garbage. My boyfriend got me this watch for my birthday because I’m pretty active and was telling him that I wish I could monitor my HR during my workouts, as it would push me to work harder.

And it did, for the 2 weeks it actually worked. After the first 2 weeks of constant wear, the sensor would just drop in the middle of my workout. Or I would be doing steady cardio and my heart rate would go from 145 to 89 in a matter of 30 secs.

I would move the monitor up and down on my wrist to different spots or take it off, wipe it off, and it would pick back up and my heart rate would shoot back up to 125 or higher. I thought maybe I was wearing it wrong so I googled suggested wear.

I found tons of users who experienced exactly what I had, and even saw they tried the same troubleshooting (moving it, wiping the sensor). Those people called customer service who told them it was a software issue, and to fix it, you have to do a hard reset whenever it acts up.

Save your money. This watch is garbage and not worth it. Purchased a Garmin on Friday, this one is going in the trash. You’re better off buying one of those step counters that you clip on your clothes.

That’s about all of the benefit you’ll see from this watch.

FitBit charge 4 This review is after using the device for a year. I know we get excited when we get a new product and go ahead and rate it GREAT but forget to circle back after actual use of it for longer than 6 months.

So I’m writing this review after wearing the Fitbit for one year and two months with the following observations:PRO:Super sleek cool little trackerEasy on and offDecent tracking ability of steps, sleepingGreat battery lifeCONS:You can expect this product to last about one year with regular non strenuous use.

You will have to replace the band after 6 months +$20Then again after 6 months +$20And then the tracker will break in the part that connect the band to the unit and you will have to replace the whole thing again +$150 You will not receive any support from Fitbit even thou it’s a manufacturing defect that is brought about as an issue in countless reviews posted here.

Bottom line: I wish I read the reviews prior to purchasing this product and not gotten blinded by the 4 out of 5 stars overall review. If you dig deeper you will see this product has a one year life-line and it’s designed to break right after your warranty expires.

With the money initially invested plus the bands you will have to buy, you will be out $200 and no Fitbit. Unless you purchase it again, of course!You ( and I!) could have invested in a low level Garmin with a real warranty.

Would not recommend the product and giving it 2 stars for battery life and sleek design. Hope this helps you in your decision.

Charge 5, started using early October. In general, I like it, and some things have gotten better since the first frustrating week in October, but there are still issues. I bought it mostly for heart rate monitoring while bicycling, and that seems to work well.

But I really wanted it to seamlessly integrate with Strava app, and that is still disappointing. I learned to be comfortable with it on my wrist. The first week was rather uncomfortable now I hardly notice it.

Except for the battery percentage, the screens are readable, and youll learn what all the swiping left, right, up, and down, does. Mine still has some issues:UPDATE 2/5/22: Step counter works better if youre walking and swinging your arms normally.

If you are carrying something or looking at the watch or gripping a handrail or walker or pushing a stroller, etc. , you arent going to get accurate steps. Syncing issues continue GPS connectivity is still unreliable.

1 battery indicator on iphone app no longer registers correctly. Tiny greyed-out battery percentage indicator on the Charge is more accurate but is nearly invisible without a magnifying glass. 2 my device cant maintain bluetooth connection to iPhone app.

This makes syncing difficult and time-consuming. Even after turning on/off bluetooth and restarting device. 3 integration with Strava for exercise biking is confusing and weak. Sometimes, when using phone setting for GPS, recording works great other times it drops out even over the same route where it worked the day before.

So I have to activate Strava as a back-up, sometimes ending up with duplicate activities if Fitbit works. Just delete the Strava activity if the Fitbit one works, you say? Theyre not really duplicates though: Strava data is much more accurate than Fitbit, but Fitbit provides the heart rate, which is why I bought it.

So I lose something if I delete either one. But if I keep both, it shows inaccurate record of my exercise activity. Grrr. If I set my device for B.

In this review Ill explain what I noticed most about this watchapp thats not often mentioned in others as much. While this is a pretty decent watch given its size, it does lose a star for its inaccuracy of the heart rate at times.

Its great for sleep monitoring and probably the best in the industry. But, as I mentioned the heart rate monitor when Im using a bike or something it doesnt really capture the high heart rate spikes like you would with lets say an Apple watch.

In those devices it will tell you your highest heart rate spike and lowest, which is pretty useful in some scenarios. Also, when using the bike and looking at the watch then looking back at the app. It doesnt really display all the info you saw yourself while looking at it.

Its almost like it takes the average of the highest and then shows that instead. I dont use the GPS feature and I wouldnt really recommend it either as its a battery drainer and inaccurate at times. As for resting heart rate and anything below 120bpm, it will be pretty accurate.

I usually performed tests with an oximeter beside this. The sleep monitor is the best in the industry from everywhere I looked so theres not much to nitpick about that. The app is a money grabber like everything these days making things you purchase into a subscription based purchase.

It does have a lot of info on it without the subscription so I still do without it. The HRV heart rate variability thats rather new to the device is a take it for what you will kind of deal? Im not sure how accurate it really is, but still neat.

Also wish you could know your oxygen percentage at any time similar to the ECG, but maybe some day in a subscription near you. By the way. The ECG should also be taken with a grain of salt. I cant seem to get any rating other than an inconclusive, haha.

Comfort: no complaints the strap is nice and the screen is good in most situations. Screen: good size but touch sensitivity could be a little better as some had.

Ill start with this, because its high on my list of criteria: Its been 8 days, and only today did I need to recharge the Fitbit Charge 5. During the 8 days, I went to the gym twice, for 1 hour each time, and also practiced soccer twice, with my child, for about one hour each time.

I still need to learn to use some of the exercise/activity tracking functions, but one thing I notice is, if I retroactively record time spent exercising, it will synch it with my actual vital stats from that period.

This is very useful for me, because I nearly always forget to start tracking. Sleep tracking is mostly accurate, but I noticed there were some occasions when it did not detect that I had awakened during sleep time.

I like the added SpO2% function, as it gives me clues about my breathing during sleep. I cant be certain, but the nightly readings feel accurate. The other tracking features are also useful, such as the stress gauge and the usual heart rate tracker thats also in the charge 2.

Ive worn it in the shower every time, and it seems to be fine. I see no sign of damage. Using the water lock feature is helpful, so water splashing onto it does not activate other functions. Ive been using the text notifications and alarms features steadily.

Im rarely without my phone, so notifications may not be as useful. However, the alarm feature is nice. Ive used a daily alarm to help wake me up every workday morning, and one-time alarms to tell me when my breaks end or generally, when I should get back to my desk.

Alarms are basically gentle buzzes on the wrist. They work as effectively for me as sound alarms although I use that, too, for morning wakeups. I appreciate that there are about 20 display faces available for this newest version, but I was able to find, really, only one that suited my needs for displaying information without needing to tap anything else If youre curious, the basics I need are clock, step count, and heart rate.

Sadly, only one display face shows all.

Very limited display and options in the app. I basically just needed a heart monitor with a focus on being just that. Fitbit and every other major brand seem to have fallen prey to just being a social media manipulation tool for people to get false clout from strangers and people that genuinely could not care any less about anything.

Anyways, opinions, run on sentences, and feelings aside, the device is just awful. While making sure to follow the usage guidelines, it would report my heart rate to be anywhere from dead to about to be dead.

I could be relaxing, sitting completely still, and it would report my heart rate to be sky high. On the flip side, I’d be deep into an intense workout, and it reports that I am sleeping. Umm. wut? I understand that light based heart monitor tech is not the best, but this thing is definitely a no go for people committed to getting/staying fit that are wanting as close to real results.

Would work great for people that want to post their fake gains on social media. Also, due to its design with both sides doing some unknown function, the screen would keep flipping on me after making contact with my skin during natural wrist movement.

For example, I want to check my rate midst workout and it’s telling me to lock it or it’s on a different stat I can’t give a care about. I just wanted a Bluetooth heart monitor. Seems that devices with dedicated functions like that just don’t exist in this world anymore.

Additionally, I scoured online forums and kept coming to the same conclusions. Fitbit knows about these issues, and admits no fault in their design. Their suggestions are to reboot the device or factory reset it for re-calibration.

Did not work for me, nor the people in the forums. No proper support. In conclusion, don’t waste money on this device or any major brand found in electronics stores (unless you wanna display your fake gains online).

You’d probably have better luck with some questionable device from some back alley doctor that wants to wire you up as a guinea pig.

I had a Charge 2 and was looking for a new device since the screen on my Charge 2 cracked. I was looking for something functional, no bells or whistles, so I picked up the Inspire 2 while on sale for $89.

As great as this device is, the design ruined it. As a short person, my wrists aren’t as wide as others. For some reason, the bands don’t turn downward where it connects to the device. This was the same with the large and small band sizes.

(I’m guessing it’s because the device is deep?) The band sticks out a bit and then turns down. The problem with that is: the distance from where the band turns down on the top strap to where the band turns down on the bottom strap is longer than the width of my wrist.

This meant the watch kept getting knocked out of place and I’d constantly have to adjust it to view it comfortably. The other issue is the distance from the bottom of the device to the bottom of the screen.

I’m guessing this is done to protect the screen from cracking due to the depth of this device. However, that distance on someone with a narrow wrist is an issue. When I straighten my arm and hand, the bottom of the screen is at the level of my middle finger, so if I want to read a text, I have to turn my arm that extra bit to view the top of the message.

Compared to the Charge 2, reading texts on this device is very uncomfortable. The band clasp is plastic which I can see breaking down the road and the charging cable is only 25 cm (10”) long which is way too short.

For comparison, the charging cable for the Luxe is 52 cm (20”) long. I’m very disappointed the Inspire 2 didn’t work for me! It had everything I wanted and the 1 year premium trial was the icing on the cake.

With all the lockdowns Ontario has been through, I was really looking forward to the premium membership. I hope Fitbit sees this review and keeps short people in mind!!.

The FitBit is an excellent tool for motivating one to overcome a sedentary lifestyle. It’s fun to see the “fireworks” and feel the buzzes when one reaches 10,000 steps in a day. The array of features is impressive.

You can tell the device what type of exercise you’re about to do — from running to biking to swimming (with the water-lock feature). Statistics like distance, calories burned, time in activity are all recorded for you.

I use the FitBit app on my Android phone to track my progress and review data from previous days. You can use the app to record other types of data not viewable on the device, such as hours of sleep, stress level, even “mindfulness” (if you’re into that).

A couple of minor quibbles: The readout of statistics (steps, pulse, zone minutes, etc. ) on the main screen is tiny and displayed for only a second or two, making it difficult for those who don’t have optimal vision.

I chose this model because I like the way it looks while wearing it, so I mostly rely on the app to review my stats. The rubber wrist strap is very comfortable but takes practice to fasten. Beware! I once got a blister from wearing the device too tight.

After I learned how to properly wear the device, this has not happened again. Overall this a great product.

I did a fair amount of research and went to the Apple store before buying and am very pleased with the Versa 2. Setup was easy and worked without any issues. My understanding is that the watch collects the data which is passed to your SmartPhone resident FitBit app and to the FitBit cloud under your account.

Some parameters are setup on the app while some are set in the watch and I seem to recall but can’t be sure that there were a couple of parameters which could only be setup by logging into your FitBit account via a browser.

Battery life is excellent and I have measured the batter drain a couple of times and it consistently draws 1/2% per hour which equates to 8 day battery life as promised by FitBit. I bout this mainly for the continuous heart rate monitoring and gym exercise tracking.

The heart rate as measured by the FitBit is very accurate. I wanted to be able to display my current heart rate continuously while exercising which the Apple watch couldn’t do. FitBit does have an optional subscription which shows a little more info and more historical info.

Without the subscription some health metrics are only displayed for the last week but if longer historical info is needed you could record it in a spreadsheet. The silicon watch bands are OK and adequately comfortable although I think that an elastic band might be more comfortable.

The display is large and is easy to read. I need reading glasses to read but I can see most of the data on the watch that I’m interested in without using reading glasses. I like the physical button on the side which takes you to the previous screen somewhat like a home button although the touch screen sensitivity for swiping between screens works well.

The screen organization and navigation on the watch is largely intuitive and works well. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) on both the watch and the app are well thought out and executed. FitBit sells both watches and trackers.

A tracker is smaller than the fitness watch and doesn’t perform all of the Smart Watch non fitness functions. For me the fitness tracker screen is too small and swiping is more cumbersome (you have a shorter distance to swipe).

I bought a FitBit Luxe tracker for my partner because she wanted something that looked more feminine and was smaller. I tried her tracker and solely due to the size would have returned it if I had bought it for me.

I briefly considered the Versa 3 but didn’t see any functionality that justified the higher price. If I was a runner and didn’t run with a Smart Phone in my pocket I would have seriously considered the Versa 3.

The Versa 3 has a GPS received built-in while the Versa 2 uses your phone’s GPS receiver.

Generally I’ve been really pleased with this, but there have been a few annoying issues so lost 1 star. On the positive side of things, the watch is lightweight and whilst isn’t small and inconspicuous it sits nicely on the wrist (I’m female with quite tiny wrists and was a bit worried it might look like a big black box balanced on my wrist but it absolutely doesn’t).

I love the rose gold colour and this looks lovely with the blush strap, and it’s been super easy to set up, pair with the app and navigate all the settings. It synchs well, and provides a good range of information.

The charge lasts me around 4 full days and recharges really quickly so you don’t lose out on too much activity! On the negative side of things, the range of free (ie not via Fitbit premium) mindfulness exercises is really poor at only 2: I’m getting quite bored of these already after just a month, but really can’t justify £7.

99/month for more variety! I recently travelled to Europe and it would not switch time zones despite trying several times in settings in the app and following all the necessary directions: this was quite frustrating as it also meant I lost my clock face that measures oxygen saturation.

As I was in high altitude I was interested in this data and impact on my activity. Final negative is that one morning it “recognised” my 300 meter swim when I’d only got out of bed and made a coffee! Hasn’t done this since so I’m assuming this was a blip.

Overall I’ve found this a much more affordable first foray into smart watches than the Apple Watch, and whilst of course it’s not as sophisticated, for me, I feel that it offers a good range of excessive types and gives enough information for now.

I personally don’t feel Fitbit premium is worth the subscription fee so haven’t bothered taking advantage of the 6months free offer that came with the purchase. This had a price offer when I purchased so was good value and as always, great customer service in store (Cheadle) from JL.

Bought the Versa 2 after noticing declining/inconsistent heart rate readings specifically in indoor spin classes. Seems like each watch I have declines in quality (charge 2 from 2017-2019, versa lite from 2019-2020 when heart rate monitor completely died and Fitbit thankfully send a replacement, then versa lite #2 from 2020-2022, at which time I HOPED Fitbits software would have improved on the notorious failure of heart rate monitoring on stationary bikes).

The versa 2 was quickly and noticeably the worst of all Fitbit watches I’ve tried so far. I go on a daily fast-paced walk where my heart rate is average 123 BPM. In spin class, my heart rate will hit my “peak” zone for about a minute, then will drop from about 170 to 94 BPM with no decrease in my effort.

This is when I am gasping for air and sweating profusely, and I’ll tell you I certainly don’t break a sweat on my walks with 123 average BPM. I think this is my third product review ever, which tells you how severely disappointed I am in FitBit’s inability hear customer concerns and invest in R&D to fix this problem.

Obviously I will switch back to my three year old versa lite and return the versa 2. Apple Watch was also a great alternative but one thing I appreciate about Fitbit is the app interface and sleep monitoring (superior to Apple Watch in those two ways).

Anyway, don’t buy the versa 2, it’s very pretty but functions poorly in comparison to earlier Fitbit products (but they ALL have very poor and inconsistent heart rate monitoring on a stationary bike- no matter how dry you keep your wrist, how much you try not to obstruct blood flow on the handles, how far up your wrist you wear it, etc.

etc.

Really disappointed. I had the Fitbit Alta for years but I wanted something that kept track of my spin classes. I was told thru FITBIT that the Luxe tracked spin. The presentation was lack luster as the Fitbit representative kept mentioning the Luxe was like jewelry.

Jewelry jewelry. Ok we get it. But honestly it’s little difference in looks from my 10 year old Alta. I still don’t understand why she kept thinking this look like expensive jewelry OK but anyways my main problem is it doesn’t keep track of spin for goodness sake‘s that’s what I wanted second of all I have to tap this watch so hard to get it to wake up there’s no sensitivity adjustment after two weeks this thing is going back I’m done with Fitbit I’m just going to another brand their customer service is terrible their chat I guess it must be people working from home that really represents several products because the chat seemed confused about which form of Fitbit I had and what the Luxe was able to do.

The booklet that comes with the watch is useless it doesn’t go through step-by-step they really direct you to their website you go to the website and they want you to go to the community so another words they’re passing the buck from their own representatives to Fitbit owners and Fitbit owners well they’re not paid professionals and they don’t really care what your problem is which I totally understand so the bottom line is don’t waste your money on the locks maybe there’s a higher brand or a higher model that works better but this locks oh and it keeps losing Bluetooth I have to keep reloading the app it’s just it’s just a pain in the neck don’t buy it save yourself the grief I went through it for you.

I own a versa 3 and I love it but I gradually started removing it at night because it’s not very comfortable when sleeping. I did not expect this to be as nice as my versa 3 but I was excited to be able to use it at night to track my sleep.

My mom has also been wanting one so I felt like a larger watch would not be comfortable for her so I ordered two. The positives of this watch, it looks good, it’s sleek and comfortable so you don’t really notice that you are wearing it.

The small display makes it a little more challenging to set it properly, but I don’t think it’s a deal breaker for me. After playing with it a little I figured it out and it now works the way I want it to.

So the negatives. The deal breaker for me is the continual issue I’m having with the band. I did need to switch to the larger band, and it continues to fall off. I did not have this problem with my versa 3.

I hear it click in place and when I tug on it it’s sturdy but by the end of the day, a simple movement will make if fall off. I’ve worn it for about a week and it has always stayed on at night while I’m sleeping except last night it did fall off.

The other issue is not being able to have the convenience of seeing everything on the screen. I did try about 3 different watch face choices until I found one that I really liked and would give me everything I need with a simple scroll.

Yes, it’s not ideal having the smaller screen but that’s not the deal breaker for me. I do wish fitbit would make upgrades to allow you to seamlessly switch between watches. I would absolutely keep this watch if that were the case.

This would be my watch when I want to dress up and it would also be what I wear to bed. Otherwise, I would wear my versa 3. I think I’m sending both watches back and going back to my versa. I know I don’t want to keep mine mainly because of the issues I’m having with the band.

I’m not sure it’s worth letting my mom try it for that reason and also because it can be a little finicky. Since she’s older she will not take the time to play with it to get it where it needs to be.

I was very much aware that this was the second time this was on a tsv so that speaks volumes, but the price was worth giving it a try. Some people are complaining about the band not being white, well I don’t think it was ever described as white and it certainly didn’t look white on the screen.

I do love the color of the band, it’s a great neutral. At the end of the day when compared to my versa 3, the only advantage it has is it’s considerably more comfortable to have on when sleeping. I don’t know if my bad issue is a flaw with this watch.

If that’s the case, I do recommend this especially if you go into the purchase understanding that it can be a little annoying to setup but once you figure it out, it works quite well.

I couldn’t make up my mind whether I wanted to invest in a Fitbit—But the Luxe, at around $100 was a realistic price point considering what feedback you can get on your fitness stats. You can also opt in for the Premium addition—which I did—to try out for maybe one year—depending on how I like it.

Here you can peruse a catalog of Recipe ideas—fitness/health tips—Exercise Videos by category and more! Since I’m tracking my steps through the Noom app. —I was also able to sync that data to the Fitbit—which was a plus! Fitbit gives you calories burned after a workout, And you can tailor/input your choices of physical activities to Up to Five.

I also bought this Fitbit for a summary analysis of my Sleep Hygiene. It was pretty eye opening—(pun intended)—since I’m a Very Restless sleeper. The feedback you receive includes: How many min. /hours of Time Awake—Light Sleep—Deep & REM.

It’s Not perfect—so, it doesn’t make allowances for Interrupted Sleep or the Total including breaks in sleep—as it only records a minimum of three hours of Uninterrupted Sleep. Logging my meals was another reason I bought the Fitbit.

You can input customized dishes—Or look up the calories. Logging is pretty straight forward. You input your Water Intake by How Many 16oz. bottles or 8 oz. glasses you drink per day for hydration. Simple.

Fitbit also includes an Alarm Feature (which gently vibrates while wearing on your wrist at night). I didn’t think I would wear it to bed—but I tend to forget it’s even on. There is also a Stopwatch, and other stats that can be tracked—as standard on this Fitbit Luxe.

One of the few Cons I would say—more of a nuisance—is that (for me) the little black loop that secures the Fitbit band often comes loose, And sometimes falls off. They do provide you with a spare wrist band in the box (without loop).

I received one of these as a Christmas gift last December and returned it because it was so much more difficult to use than other cheaper trackers i have had in the past. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for and i finally grew weary of the cheaper trackers being so grossly inaccurate.

So. i recently bought this Charge 4 and am determined to use it, not because i need or want so many of the features which are of no value to me, but because of the high ratings i see from other reviews about its accuracy which is my top priority.

I am old and have several health problems. When i work out I need accurate information readily available to monitor primarily my heart rate, so i dont exceed my target rate for any extended period of time.

Unfortunately, i am having a very hard time getting the face of my Charge 4 to open up without having to tap on it multiple times, and that isnt easy while on a treadmill going at a fast pace. I also dont understand why Fitbit couldnt provide a color face option so i could see the info more easily.

I do like that they provide many options for what shows on the face when you open it up. I have been reading the user manual to try and tweak several areas of the setup options, but i need to do a much better job of that and ask Fitbit for help if I continue to struggle.

Finally, the charger for my Charge 4 sucks compared other trackers i have owned which are much easier to accurately connect to the tracker. i realize that Fitbit wants its own proprietary charger like Apple, but I prefer other trackers where the end of the tracker fits into a USB port to charge.

I havent been able to remove the strap from the tracker without fear that i will have to pull so hard i break something. Fortunately, the small strap which came installed on the tracker is just barely large enough for me.

Overall, this charger is much more complicated than i need or want, but i will probably keep it because of its accuracy. I had previously bought an off brand which was much simpler to operate and synch with their app, but it turned out to be junk.

totally inaccurate. it was geared toward Seniors which is why i bought it. why doesnt Fitbit try to provide a tracker or two geared to Seniors which is simpler and easier to operate? If they do I’m not aware of it.

Had my first Versa 2 for barely over a year before the Alexa and mic stopped working. Reached out to Fitbit about it and they told me that because it was out of the year warranty, they wouldn’t replace it and offered me a 15% discount on a new watch.

I decided it was an inconvenience I could deal with instead of spending another few hundred dollars on a watch. Fast forward about 6 months and my watch stopped working completely. The screen went black and wouldn’t turn back on, despite being fully charged the day prior.

If I plugged in the device, it wouldn’t stop vibrating, to the point where it would get very hot unless unplugged. I attempted to reset it and reached out to Fitbit again. They did send a replacement device, however, it took over a month for the new device to be delivered.

This was around March or April of this year. It is now November. The replacement has worked well up until 3 days ago. The only thing that would appear on the screen was the Fitbit logo. I tried unsuccessfully to restart the Versa 2 and also reached out to customer service.

They were also unable to help me and recommended I email Fitbit about the trouble. They told me there was nothing they could do as my device is out of warranty and offered me a 15% discount on a new device.

I let them know that my current Versa 2 is less than a year old and they told me that they base their warranty off the original device, not the replacement. They again offered the 15% off and told me there was nothing else they can do as I’ve exhausted all other ways to try to fix my current device and they cannot send me a replacement.

Super frustrating to drop several hundred dollars on something I feel you should be able to expect longevity from for them to conveniently stop working just outside of the warranty period and have Fitbit not stand by their products.

Definitely not getting another Fitbit device. Not worth the money or headache.

This watch is really comfortable to wear, even for long periods of time or to bed. I normally don’t wear bracelets or watches much because they bother my wrist, but this rarely ever does. The charge lasts a long time so I am not constantly recharging it, and the bands are changeable.

I wear the bands in the smaller size and they fit well. I love how this tracks my steps and my sleep, as I have been using it to try to improve my sleep habits and track how much I walk daily. It connects to the app pretty well and has features to set timers, stopwatches, silent alarms, etc.

It has a weather feature, but that doesn’t work until you have synced the watch to the app each day so I don’t really use it. I wish this device had an option to play music as I work out, but otherwise, I really enjoy it I did have an issue at one point where my watch band ripped (it must have gotten caught on something at work).

Since it was still in the warranty, Fitbit sent me a new band with minimal hassle at no charge, so that was good too.

Charge 3 is great when it works & while it lasts. These things are pre-programmed to die after the 1 year warranty expires (planned obsolescence) so they can sell you another one for nearly $200. At these prices you’d hope they’d last at least 5 years! I have a 30 year old Timex sports watch in my jewelry box that still runs, but my fit-bit’s have only lasted 20 to 26 months & I’m not alone in this experience! Fitbit admits the problem is in the hard drive, but won’t cover it.

You’d think after this many years they’d have the “bugs” worked out, but the “bug” has been put there intentionally- so it’ll never be “worked out”!!I’m a 5’3” tall, homebound, woman with low to normal weight- so it certainly doesn’t receive any heavy duty use & was fully charged routinely according to the instructions! Because of suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis- (ME) & postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), I use it to track my heart rate & sleep.

Initially I had problems getting it to sync with the Bluetooth- so for months I couldn’t get any of the app information without spending hours of trying one fix after another & repeating the processes until at some point it magically worked! Then, I enjoyed about 8 months of it working like it should until the screen abruptly went black! None of the “fixes“ worked- so I gave up & had to look at my iPhone app to see what was going on! Then it wouldn’t take a charge, but after purchasing a new charger for a hopeful fix, it still didn’t work.

So I threw it out & reluctantly purchased another one! I’m looking for a different company this time!.

The screen is a bit brighter than the Charge 2, but it’s still a little hard to see in direct sunlight. It seems to be behaving now, so time will tell how it compares in accuracy to the charge 2. Definitely needs more watch faces.

Update 1. Fitbit charge 3 failed suddenly, after 4 days. Returned and received a new one from Amazon 2 days later. New one works as the other. So far. I hope it was just a fluke, but I am seeing people having issues thru reviews.

Perhaps it was released prematurely and they are working out the bugs. They have stated (Fitbit) they will have more watch faces soon that include the date. I like this new version of the charge and I think it will be an improvement if the bugs are worked out and it lives long enough to prove it.

Anyone thinking of buying a Fitbit Surge at this stage of the product’s lifetime should assume that it will require a new battery, if not immediately, then in the near future. The Fitbit community website has many comments from Surge owners who had the batteries expire after just two years or so.

Fitbit does not offer a battery replacement service. Replacement batteries are inexpensive but it is a very fiddly job to fit one. If you own a soldering iron with a fine tip and a set of small torx drivers, and if you are confident doing such work, then you could have a very useful fitness tracker with a wide range of capabilities.

Other things to note include the requirement for Android 8, or above for the mobile application and access to the M$ store for the windows application, officially. Unofficially previous versions of both applications might be available elsewhere.

In summary, the Surge is a technological marvel with terrible battery life, so well worth the effort of fitting a new battery.

Almost all of the features on this fitness tracker work very well, are accurate and the software interface is easy to use and informative. I’ve been using the Fitbit Surge for just about a month. I’ve used the GPS tracker to track my runs around a paved pathway at a local park and it is spot on for distance and pace.

I’ve also used the watch at the gym while running on the treadmill (NOT in GPS Mode). I like that the watch has an option specifically for a treadmill run/walk since most of my cardio is done in the gym on machines.

The watch also gives you the option to add various cardio machines to the watch for easy access and selection (for example: Elliptical, treadmill, spinning). It even has a “weights” shortcut for tracking your calories burned while weight training.

The HEART RATE monitor is also pretty accurate. I’ve compared its HR reading to the built in heart rate monitors on the treadmill, bike and elliptical machines at my gym while I’m working out and it’s spot on with their readings.

It is important however to follow the users guidelines of positioning the watch on your arm about 3 finger widths from your wrist to get an accurate reading while exercising. I’ve noticed that while exercising, if the watch is positioned closer to your wrist, the HR monitor doesn’t work very well (if at all), but just hiking it up 1″ – 1.

5″ on your arm fixes this issue. The CALORIES BURNED feature is awesome. It really keeps me on track with my diet and reinforces the importance that if you want to eat more, you need to be more active to remain in your optimal calorie range.

I log my food on the Fitbit website every morning and throughout the day keep track to make sure I’m creating a 1000 deficit by the end of the day by being more active throughout the day. In my opinion, this is the best part of the watch especially if you’re DIETING and trying to LOSE WEIGHT.

Features that need improvement: The BACKLIGHT – it’s very dim and depending on the lighting in the room, the watch face can be hard to read. CONNECTIVITY & SYNCING the watch to your devices (ie. your computer or mobile phone) is limited.

Fitbit provides a USB DONGLE for those who wish to SYNC the watch with their COMPUTER/LAPTOP but I’ve tried several times and it just doesn’t work. This is an issue that Fitbit has acknowledged on their message boards but apparently still have not fixed.

If you are planning to SYNC your Surge with your mobile phone, make sure you phone is compatible (as my HTC phone is not). The Fitbit Surge seems most compatible with APPLE devices. I’ve had to SYNC my watch using my iPod and iPad as it will not sync with any of my other devices.

Overall, this is a great fitness tracker and aside from the issues I”ve listed, this is a great fitness tracker. I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

I had a very difficult time setting up this Surge!! After I took it out of the package, I clicked on the home button, and the screen display said “configuration” and showed the Fitbit web site. It would not go past this screen, no matter which button I pushed or whether I plugged the Surge into the charger.

I went to the Fitbit site and figured out how to dowload Fitbit Connect to my computer (my mobile devices are too basic to support Connect), as well as how to set up my Fitbit account. I had plugged the dongle into my computer’s USB port, and figured out how to sync the device to the computer, but the screen on the Fitbit I previously described would not go away.

I tried several methods to clear this – I reset up the device, went through the Help screens, plugged in the charger as well as unplugged it, uninstalled Connect and reinstalled it. Several times my device would have a failure with syncing with my computer (which by the way operates under Windows 7).

I finally contacted Fitbit Customer Support by phone. This was a 52 minute call with a support technician who I had a hard time understanding. We finally figured out that there was a software update that my Surge needed, and the only way to get to that download was by setting up my Fitbit as if it was a new device.

This option was available through the Main Menu, which was accessible only by clicking on the Connect icon near my computer’s time display in the lower right corner of the screen. The download did take the 5 minutes or so as stated on screen, and this time the update did not disconnect or have an error.

A key was keeping my tracker very close to the dongle plugged into the USB port. After the update finished, the clock function showed on screen and all was well. In my opinion, Fitbit should not be sending out devices that are not current with updates.

This is a fantastic smart watch. I bought it mainly for blood pressure monitoring. I was a bit dubious about the watch’s accuracy which turned out to be unfounded. I measured my blood pressure using the watch and at the same time with a medical grade sphygmomanometer.

I was pleased with the accuracy of the watch. Great product.

The watch is outstanding. I’m on a monitor tagged in three places around my heart. I’m 72 with 4 stints. When working I need to stay under 122 PM pulse. The watch makes it a piece of cake. Thanks guys ! KW.

I like the face size, easy to read plus the hearth rate monitor is great. It also monitors other body health option. ie; temperatures plus more. Meets my expectations.

The watch itself if gorgeous. It’s the perfect size and looks so sleek on my wrist. The software is super polished and slick with very snappy performance. The haptics are AMAZING – my previous WearOS watches would just weakly buzz and I would frequently miss notifications.

It’s much stronger and more precise on the Pixel Watch – it almost feels like someone is tapping your wrist. Battery life so far as been fantastic and has lasted all day with no problem. I also love the Fitbit integration – it offers a lot of health insights within the Fitbit app.

The heart rate sensor is super accurate and continuously updates at all times so you don’t have to refresh it. The ECG feature is also really cool. Overall, the Pixel Watch is a major improvement coming from my Fossil Gen 6.

In love with this watch! I have had many android watches, Samsung, Motorola, fossil to name a few. This is by far the best one! It runs all the apps I need for work and the watch face! It also has everything I love from fitbit! I use to switch between a android watch and a fitbit but no more! It also is just a beautiful watch with a amazing screen resultion.

Plus it’s easy to scroll around. It’s just a great watch.

The things I loved from my FitBit Versa2 with all of Google built in. Assistant, Maps, Music, it’s all here. A really nice watch. Looks great, easy to use. No bugs or glitches and it works fast!Battery life even with always on display is no problem at all.

Charging is very quick too.