Many fitness trackers tend to be bulky, with a lackluster design that is lacking in elegance. Fitbit is one of the companies that has understood this problem and their latest generation of devices tends to be better looking than their competitors'. Fitbit Charge 2 is one of their most popular devices - a fitness wristband with heart rate monitoring, multi-sport modes, guided breathing sessions, and interchangeable bands. If you want to know whether it is a good fit for you, and how well it works, read this review:
Fitbit Charge 2: Who is it good for?
The Fitbit Charge 2 fitness tracker is an excellent choice for:
- People who want to improve their lifestyle, and become more active on a daily basis
- Users who have trouble with their sleep patterns, and want to understand more about what is going on and what they can do to fix things
- People who desire a fitness tracker that is well integrated with lots of health and fitness services
- Users who want a fitness tracker with solid build-quality and a pleasant design
Pros and cons
There are many things to love about the Fitbit Charge 2:
- It offers plenty of useful data for understanding your daily routine and what improvements you should make
- Excellent sleep tracking and analysis
- The bands can be replaced with ease. You do not have to buy a new Fitbit when they wear out
- The OLED display provides useful notifications when you are not near your smartphone
- It is more stylish and well built than the previous generation of the same device
- Integration with many fitness and health services, including MyFitnessPal
- Excellent mobile apps that look great and are easy to use
We identified only a few weaknesses for the Fitbit Charge 2:
- It is not waterproof
- The precision of the HR sensor varies more than that of other sensors, depending on what you do, where you are, and how you place the tracker on your wrist
- There is no GPS chip on it, but it can use your smartphone's GPS for more detailed tracking
Verdict
The Fitbit Charge 2 is one of the best fitness trackers that you can buy. We used it for two months, and we also used the previous model, when it was released. The new version is an excellent upgrade from a generation earlier, that takes all the great things from the past, and improves almost all its former weaknesses. One aspect that we appreciated was the much improved build quality. While the Fitbit Charge 2 is not always 100% accurate, the data it provides tends to be consistent. The app ecosystem that Fitbit has created is one of the best in the industry, and it helps users become more fit, sleep better, improve their daily routine, and so on. The integration with many other health and fitness services, increases the usefulness of this device, especially for users who are also into food logging and other similar activities. If you are looking for an excellent fitness tracker, you should consider the Fitbit Charge 2.
Unboxing the Fitbit Charge 2
The Fitbit Charge 2 fitness tracker comes in a good looking white box with the picture of the device on the top.
Inside the white box, there is another black box that contains the Fitbit. This box has nothing written on it, and it opens like a book. Inside you find the Fitbit Charge 2, and the rest of the accessories, nicely tucked in.
When you unbox everything, you find the following items: the Fitbit Charge 2, the charging cable, the warranty, and the setup guide.
The unboxing experience offered by Fitbit Charge 2 is a pleasant one, worthy of a premium product. The package contains everything you need to set up and use the fitness tracker.
Design and hardware specifications
We had Fitbit devices in the past, and we like the fact that newer generation products tend to be more elegant and less geeky. Fitbit Charge 2 looks better than the first version of the same product, and it is more discreet and elegant. Also, the build quality has improved. The wristband is made of flexible, durable elastomer material.
It has a metallic snap-lock mechanism for removing the wristband from the device, that is made of stainless steel. The wristband can be replaced, and you can purchase several, in different colors, to match your outfit: black, plum, blue, and teal. Also, there are three different wrist sizes to choose from: small, large, and extra large. We used the large version, which should work for most average-sized men. You can find a wristband sizing tool, here.
There are also two more expensive versions of the device, which feature premium materials: gunmetal and rose gold. The gunmetal version features a gunmetal stainless steel buckle and frame made with a premium PVD plating process. The rose gold has a 22k rose gold plated stainless steel buckle and frame also made with a premium PVD plating process. To get them, you need to pay an additional 30 USD or 30 Euro.
Fitbit Charge 2 has the following sensors and components: an optical heart rate tracker, a 3-axis accelerometer, an altimeter, and a vibration motor for alerts and notifications. It uses them to provide the following features: continuous heart rate tracking, cardio fitness levels, guided breathing sessions, activity tracking (steps, distances, calories burned, floors climbed, active minutes), auto exercise recognition (running, hiking, biking, and other sports), reminders to move, sleep tracking, alarms, alerts (call, text, and calendar).
Fitbit Charge 2 also features a large OLED touchscreen with customizable clock faces (through the Fitbit app). While does not feature a GPS chip, the Fitbit Charge 2 can use the GPS on your smartphone to collect stats.
Fitbit Charge 2 uses a Bluetooth 4.0 chip to connect to your smartphone, tablet, and other mobile devices. If you need to connect it to a desktop PC without Bluetooth, you need to purchase a wireless sync dongle, separately. The synchronizations can be done in a range of up to 30 feet or 9 meters.
This fitness tracker is sweat, rain and splash proof. However, it is not swimming proof or shower-proof, so you should take it off during such activities. It is a good idea to do the same while washing dishes.
Fitbit advertises a battery life of up to 5 days, and we can confirm that this estimate reflects reality, at least for the first two months of use. The charging time may vary between one and two hours, and it is performed with the proprietary charging cable that it is bundled in the package.
If you would like to read all the official specifications of this product, go to this page: Fitbit Charge 2 Features.
On the next page, you will find details about the Fitbit software and our experience using the Fitbit Charge 2.
Using the Fitbit Charge 2
The Fitbit Charge 2 fitness tracker benefits from the excellent software that Fitbit provides for all its devices. The Fitbit mobile app is available for Android, iOS, and Windows and it has an easy to use interface for managing and tracking every aspect of your daily routine. First of all, the setup process works well, and it involves turning Bluetooth on your mobile device, pairing the tracker, and an automatic firmware update, which is great.
Then you get to see the home screen of the Fitbit app and can personalize it. It is also a great idea to set your goals, your age, weight, what data you want the tracker to show on its OLED display, how you want to be notified, the wrist placement, and other features. Once you are done setting it up, Fitbit Charge 2 starts tracking your daily routine.
The Fitbit application relies not only on the data supplied by the tracker, but also on that provided by your mobile device, the data from other health services that you integrate with Fitbit (like MyFitnessPal), and the information you provide regarding food and water intake. Speaking of integration with other fitness and health services, you can view the full list of partnerships, here.
Your data is synced each time you access the Fitbit application or continuously if you enable the "All-Day Sync" feature. The process is intuitive, and it does not need any work from your side. You only need to keep Bluetooth enabled on your smartphone. Also, we never had issues with synchronizing the data in all the two months that we used it. The Bluetooth connectivity was always top-notch.
Besides the monitoring dashboard, the Fitbit app also has a section dedicated to various fitness challenges that should keep you motivated, a section with workouts for different types of physical exercise, one for accessing the Fitbit community and your list of friends, an another for notifications you get from groups and friends.
The workouts are delivered with the help of another app, named Fitbit Coach, that has to be installed separately. The downside is that this is a premium service with a monthly or yearly fee. However, there are some free workouts included, so that you get basic help in improving your fitness, and get a sense of whether this service is useful to you or not.
Regarding the data you get, you must be aware that it is never completely accurate, no matter what you measure. The upside is that the errors are small compared to the amount of correct data recorded, so the information is meaningful enough to understand how active you are and to help you take measures for improvement.
Speaking of inaccuracies, the heart-rate sensor needs the most care, and the accuracy varies more, depending on where you place the tracker on your wrist, your physiology, and the activities that you are engaged in. Also, we noticed errors with wrongly counted steps, while driving a car on bumpy roads. Each bump in the road was counted by Fitbit Charge 2 as a step, which was funny but also incorrect.
Overall, we are pleased with the tracking options offered by Fitbit, both automatic and manual. Speaking of manual tracking, you can also track activities like running, walking and hiking, using the GPS chip on your smartphone, so that you get more detailed statistics.
A strength of Fitbit Charge 2 is sleep tracking. You get detailed data on your sleeping patterns, and you can also compare your data with other people your sex and age. An interesting report is the one that tells you how much you spend on each sleep stage: awake, light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. It gives you an excellent perspective on the quality of the sleep you get.
Fitbit offers an online dashboard, for people who prefer using their website on a large screen instead of the mobile app on their smartphone. All the essential parameters are loaded on this dashboard, and you can go into more detail with ease. If you are a corporate user who loves dashboards, widgets and having lots of data in one place, you will enjoy the Fitbit website.
Wearing the Fitbit Charge 2 is mostly a pleasant experience. The tracker is easy to put on your wrists and to take off. In the two months that we used it, before writing this review, we did not have issues with rashes or skin allergies caused by it. However, you cannot wear it forever, without feeling the need to take it off for a bit or changing the hand where it is placed. We preferred wearing it on our non-dominant hand because it felt more comfortable and less intrusive.
A neat little feature is also its silent alarm, which wakes you up with vibrations instead of sounds, without bothering your partner. Therefore, you can wake up early in the morning without waking up your partner.
Fitbit Charge 2 can help increase your productivity, with its notifications system. If you do not have your smartphone near you, you can see on the Fitbit who is calling, read the latest SMS that you received, or get reminders about upcoming calendar events.
Fitbit Charge 2 offers a positive user experience, it is comfortable to wear and gives lots of data and insight into your daily routine. While the data it provides is not perfect, it is more than enough to help you get in shape and improve your health and fitness.
What is the most useful data that Fitbit Charge 2 can provide?
As we mentioned in this review, Fitbit Charge 2 does not provide data that is 100% accurate, especially not when it comes to heart rate monitoring. However, it does provide lots of data that can help you evaluate your fitness level and improve your daily routine:
- Good accuracy when it comes to measuring footsteps, and how active or sedentary you are each day
- Excellent sleep tracking and analysis. The heart-rate monitoring feature makes the sleep analysis even better than on other trackers without HR monitoring.
- Great manual tracking for activities like running, hiking and walking, which provide more insight than standard smartphone apps for tracking sports.
What is your opinion about the Fitbit Charge 2?
After reading our review, do you think that the Fitbit Charge 2 has what it takes to be your fitness companion? If you already have this tracker, share your experience with the Fitbit Charge 2, so that you help other readers in their purchasing decisions. Comment below and let's discuss.
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