Fitbit Charge 2 Review - Review 2022

The Fitbit Charge 2 ($149.95) is the best new fitness tracker nosotros've tested in some time. It automatically tracks your calories burned, distance traveled, heart rate, steps, and slumber, and a new mode helps you lot render your breathing to normal afterward a workout. There's no built-in GPS, but you tin can connect your phone to aid capture running routes and summate lap splits. And the display is modular, so yous tin can pop it out and identify it in a multifariousness of different bands. Basically, it does everything the Fitbit Charge 60 minutes ($85.11 at Amazon) could practice, with more features and an improved blueprint. It offers the all-time residue of condolement and functionality you'll observe in this cost range, making information technology our new Editors' Choice for midrange fitness trackers.

Design and Display

In terms of design, the Charge 2 is similar to the Fitbit Alta ($90.32 at Amazon) . Information technology'southward basically a silicone ring with a rectangular OLED brandish module in the middle. In that location'south a single button on the left side of the brandish, and a born continuous optical heart charge per unit monitor underneath.

Similar the Alta and the Fitbit Blaze ($229.94 at Amazon) , the Charge two has a modular pattern, and then you can pop out the display and swap it into different leather and silicone bands. A unproblematic push button-slide mechanism pops the display module right off the ring. The bands come up in three sizes: Small (for wrists 5.5 to 6.five inches in circumference), Large (6.5 to 7.7 inches), and Twoscore (7.7 to 8.ix inches).

For $149.95, yous get the Charge ii with a stainless steel frame and a silicone band in black, blue, plum, or teal. For $179.95, you can get a Special Edition model with a gunmetal frame and a black band, or a rose gold frame and a lavender band. Additional bands cost $29.95, while leather straps in brown, pink, and indigo cost $69.95.

Like the Charge 60 minutes, the Charge two uses a watch-manner buckle design, so it's like shooting fish in a barrel to fasten around your wrist. Information technology'due south not nearly equally slight and stylish equally the Misfit Ray ($59.97 at Amazon) , but it's a lot more discreet than the bulky Microsoft Band 2 ($59.99 at Amazon) or Fitbit's ain Surge ($218.90 at Amazon) .

The tracker'due south rectangular OLED display is a lot larger than the Charge HR's tiny one-line screen, at 1.3 by 0.8 inches (HW). It allows you to view multiple lines of information at once, and letters and numbers are legible and sharp. The display is still monochrome, though, and can announced faint and reflective outdoors in straight sunlight (there are no settings to adjust screen brightness). It also attracts fingerprints easily, an outcome shared by the Fitbit Alta.

To control the Accuse ii, you use a combination of the physical button on the side of the display and tapping the brandish itself. There are five screens you can bike through: Fourth dimension of Day, Heart Rate, Activities, Stopwatch, and Relax. The primary screen shows you the time of day, the date, and a fitness stat. On the Heart Rate screen, yous can tap to view continuous or resting center rate. On the Activities screen, you tap to cycle through biking, elliptical, running, weights, treadmill, and workout; agree the button and you'll commencement to runway the activity.

On a full charge, the tracker lasts about five days, which is on par with Fitbit's other devices. As usual, y'all get a proprietary charger, and then you'll need to buy a replacement if you lose or interruption it. Each Fitbit device uses a different charger, and so you can't use the one that came with your Charge ($87.seventy at Amazon) or Charge Hr, which is frustrating. During my time with the Charge ii, I charged it nigh twice per week.

The Charge 2 is resistant to rain, sweat, and splashes. However, you lot'll want to keep it away from pools and showers. If you want a fitness tracker you can swim with, consider the fully waterproof Garmin Precursor 735XT ($449.99 at Amazon) or the Misfit Polish 2 Swimmer's Edition ($139.99 at Amazon) .

Pairing, Features, and Performance
To pair the tracker, y'all need to download the free Fitbit app on your Bluetooth-enabled Android, iOS, or Windows device and create an account (if yous don't have one already). Information technology's uncomplicated, and I connected the Accuse two to a Samsung Galaxy S6 ($114.94 at Amazon) in just a few seconds. Once paired, the tracker automatically syncs with your mobile device whenever information technology's in range, though you can manually sync besides.

Equipped with a 3-axis accelerometer, altimeter, optical middle rate monitor, and vibration motor, the Accuse ii tracks your active minutes, calories, distance, steps, heart rate, and sleep. Additionally, it offers regular reminders to get up and move, a characteristic first introduced to Fitbit devices with the Alta (the Bonfire recently received this power in a software update). After about an hour of inactivity, the Accuse 2 volition vibrate and display a graphic that tells y'all to walk 250 steps before you lot return to your seat (a number that you lot can adjust in the Fitbit app).

There is no built-in GPS, but like the Alta, Blaze, and Accuse HR, you lot can connect the Accuse 2 with the GPS on your telephone to meet existent-fourth dimension stats on your run, like distance and step. Doing and so is easy—brand certain the Fitbit app is open up, and await a few seconds for the GPS and telephone icons to prove up at the top of Charge two'southward brandish.

See How We Test Fitness Trackers

Fitbit's app is one of our favorites, and some recent updates make information technology even better. At present yous can view your cardio fitness level, which is basically a breakdown of your centre rate data (resting, boilerplate, and elevation) and estimated VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise). Fitbit says information technology offers guidance in how to improve your cardio fitness, but so far it's just basic communication like, "Increase the intensity of your exercise." Still, the power to see that kind of data is valuable, and you tin compare information technology with other users in the Fitbit customs.

Like the Alta and the Bonfire (merely different the Accuse HR), the Accuse 2 automatically tracks exercises similar basketball game, biking, hiking, running, and more. But it takes upwardly of 10 to 15 minutes to register you're doing an activeness, then if y'all just want to go for a quick jog, yous might be done before the Charge two fifty-fifty notices that yous're running. In testing, I preferred to manually rail exercise past property down the side button.

New to the Accuse 2 is a Relax way, which is a guided breathing exercise based on your heart rate y'all can do after a workout. Y'all select betwixt two- and v-minute sessions, in which you lot match your animate to a contracting and expanding circle on the tracker's brandish. A pixelated wave at the bottom of the screen indicates your real-time middle rate. As you inhale and exhale, your heart rate (and the wave) undulate, then you can see the effect of your breathing. The goal is to reduce feet, stress, and return your heart rate to normal afterward a conditioning. I institute this feature effective, fifty-fifty when I wasn't running. On the omnibus, train, at work, or any other stressful surround, it's relaxing to focus on the Accuse ii's display and just breathe.

Another big addition can be found in the Charge 2'southward Activities screen: Interval Workout. When toggled, it sets a length of time you want to be agile, as well as a rest time after, and the number of intervals you want to attain. When each fourth dimension is upwards, the band vibrates to alarm you lot to move to the next stage of the workout. This is my favorite new characteristic on the Charge 2, since runners can use it to create intervals for sprint training without backing out of an activeness to start a stopwatch—just set your preferred times in the app so train, rest, and repeat.

As for accuracy, I feel confident in the Accuse 2's ability to deliver consistently reliable results. In testing, the tracker provided altitude and step measurements consistent with what I'grand used to seeing on the routes I typically walk and run. Heart rate results were likewise largely comparable with my ain pulse checks. Sleep tracking is authentic equally well, though dissimilar the Misfit Ray, which analyzes calorie-free and deep sleep, the Charge ii merely records when y'all're asleep, awake, and restless.

Left to right: Fitbit Charge HR, Fitbit Accuse ii, Fitbit Blaze

Besides fitness features, the Accuse two tin brandish caller ID information, calendar reminders, and text notifications, provided your phone is nearby. That doesn't put information technology on par with full-fledged smartwatch like the Apple Watch Series 2 ($269.00 at Amazon) , but it does hateful you lot won't need to pull your telephone out of your pocket quite every bit often.

You can choose a variety of clock faces for the Charge 2's display, and switch between horizontal or vertical text layouts. My favorite is a vertical digital display that stacks the fourth dimension of day, date, and two stats (similar steps and continuous eye charge per unit, for case) on superlative of one another in an easy-to-view style.

Conclusions
The Fitbit Charge two does everything our previous Editors' Choice, the Fitbit Charge 60 minutes can, while adding a larger display, guided breathing exercises, idle alerts, interval preparation, and interchangeable bands. You don't get congenital-in GPS like you exercise in the Fitbit Surge, just then again, y'all can ever connect your phone—and you're paying nearly half the price. But put, you won't find this combination of features and performance at this toll in any other device on the market place. And then if you're looking for a reasonably affordable, total-featured fettle tracker, the Charge ii is an excellent pick, and our new Editors' Choice.

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Further Reading

• Fitbit Launches Charge four Fitness Tracker With GPS, Spotify, Slumber Tracking
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• Top-Rated Fitbit Inspire 60 minutes Fettle Tracker Is 30 Percent Off Today
• 24 Hours With the Apollo Mood-Altering Wearable
• Salvage $128 on Garmin'south Premium Forerunner 935 GPS Watch

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/activity-trackers/11975/fitbit-charge-2-review

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