Altimeter / Floor Counter for Charge 5?

[marcusdeshaun]

Does Charge 5 have an altimeter or some other way to count floors climbed? I bought the Luxe without fully investigating all the specs and want to make sure. 

[Rich_Laue]

@Peavely without the needed hardware, no there will not be an upgrade. 

[Sosk]

no, I'm not discouraged. I meet my goals every day. It just disappoints and puzzles me that Fitbit has chosen to delete a function in an updated model.

[estux]

It so sad to discover this after start using my new Charge 5, I am already regretting the purchase. This will be my last Fitbit device.

[MichaelGazeley]

Me too. I ‘upgraded,’ realised stair counting was gone, and immediately went back to my Charge 4. What an unbelievable decision to leave out Stairs, which has been on every version since Day One. 

[Caz525]

My feature suggestion "add altimeter to charge 5" is still open for voting, you can't comment as they turned comments off but if you vote and it gets enough votes, they may add it again to a future model. 

[HikinMama]

This is highly disappointing. and silly me to think that since that floors was on all the previous models I had, it would be on this one too with all the other bells & whistles.  

[Sosk]

I TOTALLY agree with you! I don't understand the logic of that at all!

[grtoro]

I expected to have the ability to count floors. It is kind of ridiculous that this ability was removed. The accelerometer (together with the GPS) can be used to count floors, perhaps with some error. Fitbit seems to be quietly removing features.

[RogerAuwers]

I have a brand new Charge 5 -- at the end of day 1 it counted all my steps and tracked other "stuff" but my staircase count is still at zero. When I synch with my phone it shows the stair counter, it just shows zero.  I did a live chat with Fitbit and they told me to do a restart to "fix" it.  That did not work, but it was interesting that they told me there was a "fix", not that it would not ever count stairs.

[MichaelGazeley]

When I added a Charge 5, the stairs were removed altogether. Only on ‘downgrading’ back to a Charge 4, did they ‘come back.’ 

[Rich_Laue]

Do people today, really go out and buy something this expensive, without doing any research? Tyen complain because the unit doesn't have an option they feel should be included. 30 seconds of research, before purchasing would have prevented frustration. 

@grtoro gps does not work inside buildings. 

@Caz525 without the needed hardware, it is unlikely that stairs will be added to the Charge 5 

[t.parker]

@Rich_Laue I would risk and say that majority of people don't do the research and that's why certain things should be written on the box of the product (and if this wouldn't help, then I don't really know what would, I know that some people wouldn't bother to read the text on the box either). In this case, I think people just don't expect that Charge 5, the successor to the Charge 4, could come without a feature of its predecessor. In an ideal world, the next model has what the previous model offers plus more. However, since Versa 2 (where swimming feature downgraded) and Versa 3 (where music feature downgraded) the customers who have been with Fitbit for many years should know better and do all the checks rather than rush to preorder. 

[fionac]

@Rich_Laue 

Quite.   Of all the functions I could happily do without it was the stair count. I always found it totally inaccurate and it was the one blob on the app where I never minded what colour it was.  I guess whatever floats your boat, but there are functions I'd miss far more.  

[Rich_Laue]

We do not know why they removed this, however we know more hardware was added to a smaller package. The trade off night have been size over functions. 

Since the community is full of many stair count complaints, this may have helped in the decision 

[Rich_Laue]

@t.parker have you read the box, I just looked at the Luxe and Versa 3, no where does it mention a windows or MAC computer.. 

[t.parker]

@Rich_Laue what does it have to do with it? I haven't seen those boxes, I don't stash every single Fitbit.

[DenMarko]

Dang that sucks. I just assumed it came with. My other Charge's all did oh well. I do like the Charge 5 though.

[Rich_Laue]

@t.parker you never saw the Box on display that the tracker is packed in? On the box it has the requirements of the phone needed to setup the tracker. 

[MichaelGazeley]

If more functions are added year to year, and the existing functions kept with each new model released, one doesn’t assume suddenly things will move BACKWARDS. But anyway, FitBit has lost a lot of credibility by doing this, at least with me. 

[t.parker]

@Rich_Laue i buy all my watches from Amazon (easier to return in case of issues). Never from "physical" store. I have never seen Luxe or Versa 3 box (you explicitly mentioned those models) because never bought them. I know there are requirements of the phone but still I don't understand what is has to do with altimeter with which mobile phone has nothing to do 🤔.  I am confused now. Sometimes, the information must be written in bold letters so people won't have doubts. I do read reviews and do my research, I never pre-order but wait a few months until product matures so I know whether it's good enough and for me box could be as well as blank. But majority of people are impulse buyers, can't change that. To be honest, even if on the box of Charhe 5 it was written "it doesn't count floors" you would still find number of people who didn't read it.