The Fitbit Charge 4 ($150 at Best Buy) has every little thing you want in a health tracker for beneath $200. It lastly contains built-in GPS to trace outside exercises independently, it has higher coaching instruments for athletes, and it matches many of the similar smartwatch options right into a slimmer bundle than the dearer Fitbit Versa ($185 at Amazon). It’s my favourite Fitbit but. If you are on the lookout for a health tracker than behaves rather a lot like a smartwatch with out the additional bulk, the Fitbit Charge 4 could be the proper match. 

LikeGlossy, minimalistic designHeart fee zone notificationsCompatibility with iOS and AndroidSleep monitoring and evaluation

Don’t LikeLow visibility in direct sunlightNo fast reply for messages on iPhoneShorter battery life than the Fitbit Charge 3

Added options with out the added bulk  There are loads of nice wearables for athletes, just like the Garmin Forerunner 945 and Suunto 3, which have far more health chops than the Charge 4, however they don’t seem to be essentially the most trendy. The $150 Charge 4 (£130, AU$230) is a tracker I’ll fortunately put on 24/7 due to its smooth, understated design. If you are acquainted with the Charge 3 ($116 at Amazon), the brand new model would not look a lot completely different — it is simply the tiniest bit bulkier in your wrist.  The display screen can solely show in black and white, however I like that it is almost half the dimensions of a conventional smartwatch, such because the Apple Watch ($399 at Apple), and it additionally does away with bodily buttons. Instead, you management the Charge 4 with a mixture of the touchscreen and by urgent the left aspect of the tracker to navigate settings. The touchscreen is not as responsive and it takes a couple of seconds to gentle up if you increase your arm to wake the display screen, however I ultimately received the place I wished to go. The solely time the lag actually bothered me was whereas I used to be working and wished to shortly look at my stats with out taking my eyes off the highway. Like the Charge 3, it is also laborious to see the display screen in direct daylight. 

The common Charge 4 is available in three completely different colours with silicone sports activities bands, however the Special Edition, or SE, model that I examined out additionally comes with a woven band choice for $20 extra. Straps are straightforward to swap out (in contrast to the Versa 2 ($200 at Best Buy), which has difficult toggles) and in the event you’re upgrading from the Charge 3 you can use these bands on the newer tracker. There are additionally a bunch of third-party strap choices out there to customise your look.  The Charge 4 is comfy to put on all through the day and would not dig into my pores and skin once I tighten it up throughout a run. You can even put on it to mattress. Like different Fitbits, it additionally tracks your sleep. I will not go so far as to say that it is comfy to put on in mattress, however no less than I did not need to rip it off in the course of the night time like different trackers.  The Charge 4 pushed me to run quicker As a primary health tracker, the earlier Charge fashions already checked many of the bins: measuring steps, energy, flooring climbed, coronary heart fee and distance (utilizing your cellphone’s GPS). But that wasn’t sufficient for extra severe runners like me. I’m certainly not an elite athlete, however I do run regularly, so having a built-in GPS is excessive on my want listing. The GPS permits the Charge 4 to map your route throughout an out of doors stroll, run, bike trip or hike with out having to depend on your cellphone. 

I’ve gone on a couple of runs and the Charge 4 has given constant distance readings on the identical route with and with out my cellphone. You can even see a warmth map of your route on the Fitbit app, which additionally signifies the depth at which you had been working primarily based in your coronary heart fee.  The solely different Fitbit gadget that provides built-in GPS function is the Ionic ($199 at Amazon) watch, but it surely’s now over two years outdated and I discovered it too huge and ponderous to put on regularly.
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The Charge 4 tracks over 20 completely different actions, from biking to yoga. It’s additionally water-proof as much as 50 meters just like the Charge 3, so you need to use it for swimming. You can program as much as six train shortcuts on the Charge 4, however you do have to decide on them and sync from the cellphone app. You can even set it to trace your runs routinely, and set objectives for issues like tempo, distance or energy burned earlier than you begin every exercise.  GPS just isn’t the one instrument for athletes. The Charge 4 has added a brand new metric known as Active Zone Minutes, which makes use of your coronary heart fee zones to find out the depth of your exercise. The purpose is to have 150 lively minutes logged by the top of every week, however you possibly can improve or lower the goal primarily based in your health degree.  Just a few years in the past, Fitbit began breaking out coronary heart fee information into coaching zones for every exercise, primarily based on age and weight. After a exercise you possibly can log into the cell app and see how lengthy you had been in fats burn, cardio or peak. The Charge 4 provides real-time coronary heart fee zone notifications so you possibly can take motion throughout your exercise.  I needed to push myself a lot more durable than regular to get my peak coronary heart fee alert to pop up on the display screen (you additionally get a buzz in your wrist if you attain every zone). I spotted I’d been overestimating my effort and it was useful to have the Charge nudging me to get out of my consolation zone. I can see this being a superb coaching instrument in the event you’re trying to break your private file in a race. Battery life takes a success The solely draw back about having GPS on the Charge is that it will gobble up your battery rather a lot quicker than on the Charge 3. Fitbit says the Charge 4 can last as long as seven days on a cost, however I barely made it to day 4 earlier than having to plug it in. I did not thoughts having to recharge after 4 days, however in the event you’re trying to get essentially the most out of your battery life (and are planning to make use of it at night time) I might suggest turning off the GPS when it is not in use. You’ll simply have to recollect to do that after your exercise. You can do that from the train shortcuts on the Charge. Just swipe up from an exercise that makes use of GPS, like working or biking, and toggle it off.  Sleep monitoring has some severe advantages  I’ve by no means gotten a lot out of monitoring my sleep previously. With a 6-month-old child and a toddler waking me up at odd hours of the night time I used to be scared to even see my stats the following morning, not to mention get graded on my sleep. Each morning, the Fitbit app offers you a Sleep Score primarily based on every little thing from sleep period to sleep levels, coronary heart fee and variations in blood oxygen ranges, aka SPO2.  After a couple of nights of testing, it is truly offered some helpful information about my sleep habits. For starters, I’ve gotten a passing grade (above a 60) each single night time, regardless of waking as much as nurse my infant. The app advised me it is regular to spend as much as 45 minutes awake every night time, which was comforting. It additionally offers you recommendation on methods to enhance your rating, like retaining your bedtime constant, no matter how late (or early) it’s. 
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Everyone can see primary info within the app, like how a lot sleep you get and its high quality, however Fitbit Premium subscribers get entry to coronary heart fee and blood oxygen information. I did not see something out of the abnormal in my chart, however I can see this function being extraordinarily useful for individuals who suspect they could have a extra severe sleep-related situation like sleep apnea. In that case it could be price the additional $9.99 (£8.99, AU$15.49) a month for a premium account.  There is one foreseeable draw back: With all this sleep information I fear that I’d turn out to be depending on the Sleep Score to really feel energized in the course of the day. That is, a low Sleep Score might subconsciously make me really feel drained, although I felt like I received a superb night time’s relaxation.  More than only a health tracker The Charge 4 goes past well being and health monitoring with a couple of sensible options up its sleeve. It mirrors each notification you will get in your cellphone whether or not you have got an iPhone ($699 at Apple) or an Android cellphone, however solely Android customers will be capable of reply to messages with preprogrammed fast replies.  You nonetheless cannot retailer music onboard to take with you on a run, however in the event you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber, it is possible for you to to make use of the Charge 4 as a primary wrist distant to pause and skip tracks. There’s no quantity management although.  It now additionally features a new agenda app together with the present timer, alarm and climate apps.  You’ll be capable of arrange Fitbit Pay in your wrist and use the Charge 4 on any tap-to-pay cost terminal because the tracker now comes with built-in NFC (beforehand, you had to purchase the particular version Charge to get Fitbit Pay). Sadly it nonetheless would not have as many financial institution companions as Google or Apple Pay and was not suitable with my major financial institution (US Bank), so I could not try it out. I’m additionally quarantined at residence, so most of my funds are made on-line anyhow, not at brick-and-mortar shops. 
Everything you want in a tiny bundle The Charge 4 does rather a lot contemplating it is primarily a health tracker. But you do not find yourself saving that a lot in comparison with a smartwatch like Fitbit’s personal Versa 2 (the common Charge 4 is $50 lower than the Versa 2, which solely has related GPS).So the value alone just isn’t cause sufficient to decide on the Charge 4. For me, it is about getting every little thing Fitbit provides, together with GPS, in a slimmer bundle than the Versa 2. The Charge 4 is my favourite Fitbit so far.  First revealed on May 18.