Fitbit Charge 4 Fitness Tracker with Built-in GPS, Heart Rate Monitor, Sleep & Swim Tracking - Black/Black (Includes S & L Bands) | Perfect for Running, Swimming & Daily Activity Tracking

So this is my 3rd smart wearable device I have owned. I have had the original Moto 360 and I currently have the very old (in electronic years) Huawei watch. I will start off by saying that this Fitbit Charge 4 is way more comfortable than the previous two device. Once on your wrist you will forget that it is there except when it buzzes on your wrist for notifications. Speaking of notifications, they work very nicely without being over bearing. You can choose and select from which apps you want to get notifications on, for example all I care about is notifications from WhatsApp, Messenger and my Emails so that is all I have it set to. You also will get notifications about you activities which you can also change if you feel your getting too many. I left all settings at their defaults and I do not find I get to many notifications. I walk 5 days a weeks and workout 3 days a week and the Charge 4 automatically tracks my walks perfectly. As for my workouts it doesn't seem to know when I am doing pushups or pullups and of course it will not pick up the fact I am doing planks but that is ok as I doubt I am burning a lot of calories from my 3 day a week workouts as it is more for muscle toning and trying to keep a flat stomach in my old age.Sleep tracking on the Charge 4 is very nice! I have had a sleep study done about 7 years ago and they said I stopped breathing 4 times during the night of the test but that it was not severe enough to warrant a CPAP. This tracker has a SP02 sensor so in the morning I can check to see how many times my blood oxygen dropped low during the night and so far it has only been a couple times over the 17 days since it has started tracking my sleep. So that makes me feel a bit better knowing I really do not have a Sleep Apnea problem. It would be nice if Charge 4 gave you more detailed blood oxygen information, like percentages during the night, but that might something to due with the fact that this is not a medical grade device and they do not want people thinking that or they don't want to have to go through the process of getting certification for it which would cost a lot and effect the cost of the device. Also it does not have OnDemand for SP02 reading, it only checks it at night. It would be nice if they added OnDemand SP02 checking. From reading over on the Fitbit forums it might be added in the future so that would be a big plus, especially for runners.The Charge has 24/7 heart rate monitoring and they use this along with movements to track your sleep and give you a really detailed Sleep Score. It will show you REM, Light, Deep sleep and time awake during the night. From what I can tell it is mostly accurate as it seems to match up perfectly to when I have gotten up to go to the bathroom or let the cat in or out etc. and the REM seems to match up to when I was dreaming the times that I woke from my dreams for what ever reason and checked the time. If I ever do another sleep study it would be neat to check the results verses the Charge 4 but I feel it gives you a very good idea of how your nights sleep was. When my score is high like in the 80s I feel refreshed in the morning but when it was low a few times (73) I felt tired and needed a long nap in the afternoon to recharge. Speaking of naps, it will track your nap so long as it is over 1 hours but will not give you any detailed info about your nap like it does for night time sleeping.Functionality wise, I like how the Charge 4 wakes when you lift you arm. My Huawei watch is hit and miss when I raise my arm but the Charge 4 seems to be about 95% of the time. The touch to wake screen I wish was a bit more sensitive, it works fine after it has been woken from lift to wake but if the Charge 4 has been a sleep for a while and you try and tap to wake I find I have to tap it a few times. This effect me when I am using the Stop Watch feature to time my planks, I can not lift my arm to wake it during planks and trying to tap it to wake it to see if I have hit my time on the Stop Watch can be a pain.Scrolling on the watch is smooth and fast but they need to fix the firmware so that once you leave the main menu, say to go into settings, you can not swipe right to go back, you are forces to press the haptic button to go back which is a pain. I started a Feature Suggestion to get it added over on the Fitbit forum so feel free to up vote it.The display is crisp and bright and easy to read even outside. With my Huawei watch I could not see anything on the screen while outside. The font is large enough that I can see most of the information without my glasses on so that is really nice as I only put them on for reading and of course take them off when I am exercising.About the only I miss from my Huawei watch is music control. You should be able to pause / play and skip tracks of whatever app is playing music on your phone. Not sure why they didn't add this in yet as the Charge 4 is always connected to the phone via Bluetooth so it should be able to do it with a simple firmware update. Even cheap bands out there have this simple feature.The other feature missing but I do not miss is a mic for Google Voice command and a speaker to take calls on your wrist. While it is cool to do this to show off who really want to talk to your wrist to ask Google something or worse to try and have a conversation with someone that everyone around you would be able to listen in on?As far as battery life, they claim 7 days and I am seeing that. I think even 8 days are possible. There is an option to have the screen stay on longer when it wakes but that seems to take a day off the battery life. There is also a Feature Suggestion to add a Always On Display AOD over on the Fitbit forum to the Charge 4 but I think the battery would take too much of a hit if they added it. I think Fitbit did a good job with features and battery life with the Charge 4 as it stands now. Maybe in the Charge 5 with a larger capacity battery they could then add a AOD and maybe a color display that is even bigger but with the current battery technology I think they did a good job with the Charge 4. I like only having to charge mine once a week. Note: I have my Charge 4 set to GPS Mode Dynamic as I have my phone with me when I take my walks. If you leave your phone at home the Charge 4 will automatically use its built in GPS which will drain your battery faster. So keep that in mind if you like to take your walks and runs without taking your phone. One week soon I will try a complete week without taking my phone with me and will update this review with how long the battery lasts so you can get an idea.The other thing I really like about the Charge 4 over others out there (I was looking at the Garmin Vivoactive 4) is that the band is changeable! As you can see in my photos I have 3 different bands, two came with the Fitbit Charge 4 Special Edition and I purchased the Fitlink Stainless to give it a "Classy" look.When you get the Charge 4 it will be on an older version of firmware, which just means it needs to be updated, you can not force it to update and so you have to wait for it to update. Mine took 20 hours to finally say there was an update available. I have read it can take two days. So be patient. I know that this sucks but I think they do it that way as to not drain the battery on the Charge 4. I kept the Fitbit app open and manual synced the Charge 4 (in the app) as often as could while on the charger to get it to show the "Update Available" in the app on the phone, so if you are impatient like I am you could give it a try.Well that about wraps up my review of the Fitbit Charge 4 SE. I hope this review helps others out there. I will update the review as I use the Charge 4 more and will adjust the ratings up or down as needed.Note: I was not given this product to evaluate. I paid for it with my own money so my review is not bias in anyway.Updated March 9th 2021, I can see why everyone is leaving Fitbit and heading to anyone else but Fitbit... they have very bad tech support, firmware updates take forever to roll out, and to this date they have not turned on features that they advertise on their very own website. Shame really as I really like the Charge 4 but without support and timely updates to be it is not much use.Update May 13th, They finally got two new firmware updates rolled out and now nightly SP02 average and nightly skin temp variables are working on the C4. Unfortunately there is not many other choices out there in the world at this moment that has all the feature in such a nice small form factor. Believe me I wish there was as Fitbit (Now Google owned) has a lot to be desired as far as support of their products. So if you are looking for something NOW, then yes the C4 is the way to go unless you can wear something bigger on your wrist to bed at night. Let all hope that new wearable tech from other companies get released in the next year to two so that we have better choices to buy. I have raised the star rating to 2.5 (they only let you choose 2 or 3 so subtract 1/2 star from what is showing) :-)I purchased this when my Charge 2 started having issues tracking my heart rate during cardio/peak exercise and no longer showed my stats "live" in the phone app (I had to track by looking at the watch each time or forcing a sync). I had a few issues getting the new one to work well with my heart rate too but once I figured it out it worked well. I'll go into what worked and what didn't at the end of my review, because without the heart-rate feature I would rate this a 2... but WITH it, I love the thing and give it a 5.Spotify: I have not used this feature and have no interest in it. I tend to watch streaming shows during my workouts because it's 8,000 degrees outside most days in Texas and I would rather be inside with the AC.Swimming: I am very excited about this feature, but with the current COVID situation I haven't gotten to test it out yet. I like the idea of being able to track my swims as well as my runs though and can hardly wait to try it out. That said, I HAVE worn it in the shower a few times because I forgot to take it off and it survived that with no issues.Comfort and Weight: This thing is significantly lighter than the Charge 2, and the band is easier to change out. It makes it more comfortable to wear while sleeping.Sleep Tracking: This is one of my favorite features, and I like the addition of the oxygen variation tracking. I was hoping that the oxygen tracking would be more than just sleep, but hey, it's nice to know I don't have sleep apnea. The feature basically tells you if you have "high" or "low" variations in your oxygen, and for the most part mine are low. The rest of the sleep feature tracks Awake time, REM time and Light vs Deep sleep. It provides an average trend for your sleep over time, plus a "benchmark" and a "sleep score" so you know how you did. It's helped me be more mindful of my sleep and improve the quality.Heart rate: This tracks my heart rate well and tends to align closely with my treadmill's tracker. I had trouble getting it to read me consistently at first at higher zones, but keeping the watch just below the wrist bone one notch tighter than I normally wear it + using the phone app to look at my heart rate rather than regularly checking the watch helped. That, and I use the watch's exercise app to track the workout now rather than letting it auto-detect like I used to. No issues since.Cardio fitness score: I like knowing where I rank with average and seeing my numbers slowly improve as I get more fit. I wish that there was a feature I could turn on to track pregnancy, however, because your resting rate goes up significantly when pregnant and it lowers your score.Female health tracking: I used to use Fitbit for this. It works well if you keep up with it, but I have another app (Ovia) that I preferred to use once I was trying to conceive.Active Zone Minutes: This feature annoyed me at first. You get twice the minutes for being in Cardio or Peak, and I didn't care to know how many "extra" minutes I got, I wanted to watch my "actual" minutes of workout. Well, at the end the app tells you how many "actual" minutes you get for the workout anyway and as long as you somewhat pay attention to the time (or use your treadmill to track it) you'll know while you're working out too. I get why this is a feature - being in cardio or peak is better than being in fat-burn for calories and workout quality so it encourages you to beef up the exercise, but I was being cranky and resistant to change.GPS: If you do go out and run, GPS eats your battery for lunch. But it's cool to see where you've beenBattery: When not using GPS, it's awesome. SO much better than my previous fitbit.Texting and Calendar: I like having the texts in a block instead of scrolling by like on the Charge 2, and the Calendar is always nice. Sometimes you're not with your phone and a tap from your watch to remind you you've got a meeting or an appointment is really handy.Hourly reminders to move: I used this less when I was in the office every day but now that I am pretty much perma-telework it's great. Even if I'm in a meeting I can get up and move and I feel accomplished when I get 9/9!Customizable clock face: Being resistant to change, I liked that I could put the "classic" watch face on my new Charge 4. I appreciate being able to see my step count, heart rate, date and time all at the same time and none of the "new" ones did that for me. The closest one had a sort of circle thing that tracks how close you are to your step count goal but that's not a feature I care as much about so I went back to my old ways.Automatic exercise recognition: I used to use this all the time, but when the Charge 4 was also losing my heart rate, I started using the exercise tracking apps and that seems to help. While it does auto-recognize my exercise that only works if it can read my heart rate properly.Fitbit losing my heart rate:So, when I do my treadmill runs I like to be able to have the app open and watch my count and heart rate there rather than having to look at the watch over and over. When my Charge 2 stopped doing that, I got into the habit of checking my wrist regularly only to find that my heart rate had stopped tracking and I wound up spending most of the workout adjusting the watch to get it to read. It was disappointing to do the full workout and not get "credit" for that work. Yeah, I know, I exercised anyway but I like seeing the trend and the data.So, I bought the new Charge 4 to fix that issue, only to find that it had issues tracking my heart rate as well. After much finagling, I figured out that my new habit of constantly checking my watch was the issue. To resolve that problem, I eventually found that if I used the "exercise" watch app and set it to "treadmill" plus use the Fitbit phone app to watch my heart rate rather than the watch, I have 0 issues getting it to continue tracking my heart rate. I also tighten the band one notch each time and leave it snug just below my wrist bones so it doesn't move so much, even when I sweat.Here's the stuff I tried that didn't work, just to save you some time:1) Turning the watch upside down2) Moving the watch higher on my arm and tightening it. My watch tended to slip around more the further it was from my wrist3) Moving the watch lower on my arm and tightening it. My wrist bends made it lose my heart rate less frequently here, but it still lost itI've been a Fitbit user for a number of years, originally having the Flex 2 and most recently the Charge 3.I found, as others had on the internet, that my Charge 3 was becoming increasingly frustrating and pretty useless when calculating my running and cycling distances. Growing ever frustrated, I switched to the Charge 4 on hearing Fitbit had introduced an in-built GPS, in the hope of having relatively accurate data.On these grounds, I am not disappointed. The GPS is really very good, particularly for what you pay. Having tested in on a number of different runs and cycles, predominately in woodland, I've found that it's very accurate (particularly in comparison to the Charge 3).I'm not so bothered about the Spotify or pay features (if you're UK-based), which I know others are grumbling about. In my opinion, if you want these sorts of features, you should look for a smartwatch. I find these sorts pretty gimmicky / useless if you're looking for a fitness tracker which isn't designed to be a smartwatch. I've also not had the technical issues which some seem to have.The battery is definitely nowhere near as good as the Charge 3. I suspect this is because of the GPS - which they DO advertise. I've noticed I'm having to plug in my Charge 4 twice at least twice as frequently as the Charge 3 (going for at least 3 runs and 2 cycles with GPS per week). This can be a little jarring if you're used to the battery of a Charge 3, but considering the size of the device with GPS running, I think people are being too harsh on the battery life.All-in-all, I'm pleased with the device. Fundamentally, it's not going to let you run or cycle for 4+ hours using GPS (particularly in GPS challenging scenarios). If this is a problem for you, look elsewhere, but be aware you're not going to find a device which is as slim and powerful. I'd recommend this device if you're looking for a slimline activity tracker which is GPS enabled, it reads your heart-rate, has a sleep-tracker and connects to a clever app. The price and quality seem to be near-unrivalled in the field, so I really do think there have been some overly strong criticisms of this device.Voller Begeisterung habe ich (Besitzer der Charge 2 und eigentlich sehr zufrieden) mir die Charge 4 gekauft, denn endlich gabs hier die 2 Dinge, die ich bei meiner Charge 2 bis jetzt vermisst habe: GPS im Tracker und eine gewisse Wasserdichtheit. Als der Tracker ankam, wollte ich sofort loslegen. Bedienungsanleitung war nicht in der Verpackung, aber der Hinweis, dass ich über die App in meinem Smartphone den Tracker hinzufügen soll und dort durch das Menü geführt werde. Also startete ich meine App und - tja, die erkannte, dass ein neuer Tracker in der Nähe ist, aber - mein Handy hat leider nur Android 6.1. Und somit konnte ich den Tracker nicht installieren, nicht ausprobieren, denn der Tracker braucht mindestens Android OS 7,0. Tja, jetzt habe ich die Hardware, aber nicht die Software. Zu blöd, dass man das erst rausfindet, wenn man den Tracker zuhause hat. Also zur Warnung an alle: Erst mal checken, ob das Betriebssystem auf dem Handy passt. Wäre ja zu schön gewesen, wenn das schon vorher in der Werbung für den Charge 4 irgendwo gestanden hätte. Ach ja, und die Armbänder, die ich mir zum wechseln gekauft hatte, können natürlich auch nicht angebracht werden. Vielen Dank auch dafür.A single 10k run (c. 1 hour 20 minutes, incl. warm up and cool down) took the battery from 60% to 9%Absolutely no chance of using this to track a half marathon, then...Update:. Battery life seems to have become a bit better after a firmware update. However, it's the distance tracking that's now making it unusable. It's widely optimistic, with every run coming in 15-20% over the actual distance, checked against maps and Strava!Got this for fact was waterproof and had built in GPS.Initial set up frustrating appeared to be stuck on set up screen, but what I realised was to return to home screen, (watch face) you need to gently hold either side of the screen – this is also the key for everything else – if you are in one of the menus just hold both sides of the screen and you go back one level in the menu – finally getting back to the main screenEasy setup, multiple display options, easy to use, GPS appears to be as accurate as apps such as ‘Map My Walk’ using the phones GPSIf using the auto detect activity the GPS does not activate, (so if you want a map, which is why I got it), you do need to manually select the activity you are doingDisplay easy to read, depending on watch face and your eyesight, even in sunlight, rapid menus and intuitive once you get over the initial ‘how do I get back to the watch face’ GENTLY HOLD BOTH SIDES OF THE SCREEN.Battery after two days is down to 56%, but that is probably down to me playing with it constantly finding all the bits and pieces it can do.Overall delighted with it, (so much so just bought the wife one as well)Nice neat device, has extra apps, including the contactless payment which was a doddle to set up, that I may or may not use in the future but does everything I hoped and would recommendHave now had the charge 4 for a few weeks, still delighted with it, but have noticed a couple of things, if using the GPS for long periods (like a 4 hour walk), this does seem to drain the battery quickly and needs charging every couple of daysAlso a couple of times after starting the exercise going the tracking has switched off, but I think this was due to me having the strap too tight so when putting my hand into a press up position, I was touching both sides of the screen, and it was going back to main screen.I bought my first FitBit and at first, the screen wouldn't respond so couldn't be connected. I left it for a day and hey presto, it came to life. However, the strap then broke and it fell off my wrist whilst cycling and was smashed.So, I order a new one and same again, the screen won't respond so can't be paired. Maybe I'll leave it another day again.Either way, they just haven't been tested properly and aren't robust if they won't stay on your wrist!