This is my 2nd Charge 5 in two years. My first one started experiencing the “bright screen” which, according to many forums, is the telltale sign of functional death for the device. This happened after close to two years. After contacting Fitbit they offered me a 35% discount on a new device (as the original warranty is only 1 year) so I purchased another one. The issue I have (and have had, even with my first device) is the number of times and length of time it takes to sync the tracker to my phone. This oftentimes takes me anywhere between ten-fifteen minutes of swipes down on the app in order to finally sync. It almost always times out on the first few tries. Also sometimes it half syncs (caloric and exercise data, but not sleep data) and then I need to swipe again to sync which inevitably turns out. I don’t understand how a device that’s meant to track as much biometric data as this is intended to do has so many issues syncing properly. The experience is terrible and completely negates the benefit of tracking data after sleep, after exercise, etc. No other device that I connect to my iPhone has these issues connecting and syncing. It’s a horrendous user experience to have to wait for the device several minutes and often even give up on syncing since I need to get on with my day. Of course I tried all the normal fixes (3 pulses of USB cable, resetting watch, reinstalling app) but no fix is permanent and after a few syncs, it acts up again. It’s only been a few days since I received it and I’m already quite regretful having spent good money after bad (even with the discount) and I hope my experience really benefits others considering the Charge 5. Until Fitbit/Google acknowledges and fixes this issue with a firmware update, I strongly recommend people look elsewhere.
