Review - Fitbit Charge
Well, I'm sure most of you have read my Misfit Shine review and revisit. I really wanted to like the Shine I really do go for the underdog, but it just wasn't meant to be. So shortly before our family trip to Walt Disney World (see Fridays post). I decided to go with the Charge and not the Charge HR (with built in heart monitor). I debated for a while and talked to a lot of people and for what I wanted it for it just didn't seem worth the extra. I also picked the Charger over the higher end models because receiving texts and other info like that just isn't that important to me.
First off, let me just say this, the Charge was only 129 dollars, the Shine was 99 dollars, not a huge price gap. Some other reasons I went with the Charge are that it has a fully functioning Windows Phone 8.1 app, an actual website that you can check your stats on and a thriving community. Let's face it, Fitbit and Garman probably have the two largest communities when it comes to workout gear.
The packaging was not nearly as fancy to me as the packaging the Shine came in, but it was still nice. I opened the package and took out the Charge. It looked nice and felt solid, nicer than the Shine in both of those categories. The documentation was better also. Although, I don't like that it has a special charging cable, I mean really why can't people just use micro USB? The other drawback is charging, the Shine I was using had a CR2032 watch battery in it that lasted 3 or so months.....of course the Shine worked like crap so yeah I guess its a moot point. The Charge came with about half battery, so I thought I would set it up before I charged it. I did also notice right away that is has a nice easy to read screen and with the single button you can cycle through all the info, which is nice.
I hooked it up to my phone and setup the app. Then went to the website to fine tune a few things. It was pretty easy and intuitive and didn't take long at all. I put it on and wore it for two days before the trip then for the whole Disney trip. All in all the batter lasted just about a full 7 days, it was showing low battery the last day but it hung in there until I got home and charged it again. To me that's pretty good but then again the Shine took a CR2032 watch batter and lasted 3 months......of course it worked like crap so yeah the category still goes to the Charge.
I could bore you with technical details and what not, but I'll skip it, I'm not good at it and all I can really tell you is the following, the Charge works great, the battery life is good, the display is nice and easy to see, it has an alarm function, it vibrates when you hit your goal, a great website, works on all three phone platforms, can also be synced on a laptop or computer and has a comfortable stylish band and the overall look is pretty slick also. So yeah there it all is in a nutshell. My wife has the Garmin equivalent and its not bad, but I prefer my Charge so I can say after three weeks with it, that I recommend it.
As always thanks for reading and I hope I helped you out a bit.
-John