Review: Fitbit Charge 3

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The new Fitbit Charge 3 fitness tracker may look like a dead ringer of its predecessor but closer inspection reveals a thoroughly refined and rethought personal fitness device. Now touting 7-day use on a single charge, the Fitbit Charge 3 is the wearable you can wear 24/7 and which you can even swim with.

The Fitbit Charge 3 has undergone a Zen makeover. The design is sparer and more unobtrusive, the buttons are now capacitive and the display and menu are simplified so that you’re only two or three swipes away from starting an exercise, reading notifications or checking the time.

Built form lightweight but durable aerospace-grade aluminum that has a smooth slightly curved case and a durable Gorilla Glass 3 cover make this one of the tougher Fitbits in the market.

The range of bands and materials and designs offered by Fitbit ensures you have everything from sporty to stylish, depending on your mood and need. I particularly like the perforated sport bands as well as the sleek Horween leather bands that can be easily switched out without tools.

The Fitbit Charge 3 now has a larger touchscreen which self-adjusts to various lighting conditions.

The monochrome display is easy to read and navigate and is not laggy at all. Battery life is outstanding, I first charged and wore my Fitbit Charge 3 review unit on Saturday evening and it is still at 40% battery now and it is Friday afternoon.

Granted, I’ve not used it for rigorous exercise tracking or gone on runs, I still have all the confidence that it will last the 7 days on a single charge that Fitbit claims.

For folks that travel a lot, not having to carry a charging dongle for short trips is super convenient.

One of the reasons I loved earlier Fitbit trackers was for sleep tracking. The Charge 3 does an even better job at tracking how you sleep. It helped me compensate for jetlag from a recent long-haul flight. Through Fitbit’s metrics, I was able to assess if I was getting enough quality rest.

The 24/7 Heart Rate tracking is also beneficial and supposedly helps calorie burn. You can also determine resting heart rate as well as heart rate zones for optimal fat burn when you work out.

Fitbit Charge 3 offers exercise guidance from 15+ exercise modes like run, bike, swim, yoga, circuit training and more, set a goal and get real-time stats during your workouts to keep getting better.

One particular feature many people will appreciate is the automatic exercise recognition which senses movement through time and determines what it is you’re doing,

One of the biggest fails of fitness trackers and smartwatches is the amount of time it takes to hunt for the right exercise.

With the Fitbit Charge 3, getting to the activity you want is two to three swipes away. If you forget to do that in the heat of your workout, the Fitbit Charge 3 will supposedly figure it out.

The above are all landmark features of a great fitness tracker and for $199, the Fitbit Charge 3 is really the culmination of years of software and hardware development from Fitbit. No other tracker can compare with the Charge 3 feature for feature in this price point.

Fitbit goes over and above fitness tracking and integrates a sweet selection of smartwatch features in the Charge 3. Notifications and emails look good on the Fitbit Charge 3’s screen. It helps that the monochrome display is easy to read and better for text. I’m impressed by how this fitness tracker handles notifications and look forward to the upcoming update that will allow quick responses.

These are all well-though features that reinforce the Fitbit Charge 3’s place as premiere fitness and health tracker for the majority of users while adding useful, but not overwhelming, smartwatch notification and response features.

The key features I use a smartwatch for aside from fitness tracking are updated weather information, notifications and time and alarm features. The Fitbit Charge 3 fulfills these criteria at a price that most users will find acceptable and with an industry -leading 7-day battery life.

 Rating: 4.5 out of 5