help menu

Join us on the Community Forums!

  • Community Guidelines

    The Fitbit Community is a gathering place for real people who wish to exchange ideas, solutions, tips, techniques, and insight about the Fitbit products and services they love. By joining our Community, you agree to uphold these guidelines, so please take a moment to look them over.

  • Learn the Basics

    Check out our Frequently Asked Questions page for information on Community features, and tips to make the most of your time here.

  • Join the Community!

    Join an existing conversation, or start a new thread to ask your question. Creating your account is completely free, and takes about a minute.

Not finding your answer on the Community Forums?

Cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Charge 5 suffering from the same lack of lasting quality?

Replies are disabled for this topic. Start a new one or visit our Help Center.

‎05-30-2023 05:04

‎05-30-2023 05:04

I am curious.

So far i bought 3x Charge 3, 1x Charge 4, 1x Versa 2, 1x Versa 4 and 1 DeLuxe.

It seems that Fitbit has built in programmable obsolescence at 2 years :

the first 3 lasted 25 months and the screen became scrambled. The second 3 had a dim screen, but the HR sensor died before the display became completely unreadable. The 4 is now having a barely readable display inside the house. 3 out of 4 Charge came unusable in the first 2 years... This is bad quality or... The Versa and Deluxe did not reach 2 years yet, so, no comment on them

but i searched posts about problems at 2 years or less. It seems that most models are plagued with it. Any of you are experimenting long-lasting quality problems on The Charge 5? On any newer models?

 

Best Answer
0 Votes
2 REPLIES 2

‎05-30-2023 06:24

‎05-30-2023 06:24

I started with the original Charge and went through 3 of those because the band/case peeled off. The last one lasted 5 years before it wouldn’t hold a charge. I next had a Charge 3, but I cracked the screen. It still works fine and I used it for 3-4 years. Next was the disaster called the Sense. 2 years and nothing but problems and poor tracking of anything. It had a great alarm, though. I now have the Charge 5 (1 month) which has pros and cons. Pro is that it’s 100 billion times more accurate than the sense. Cons are very slow sync, shorter battery life and no altimeter for floor tracking like my other Charges. I’m finding the sync issue may be due to low battery. It gets very bad when at or below 40%. The shorter battery life may be due to GPS usage. Still working through a few things. Overall, I’d say 3-4 years average, except the Sense. Still works, but I stopped using it because I’m trying to lower my blood pressure. 

Best Answer

‎06-02-2023 01:50

‎06-02-2023 01:50

I bought my Charge 5 about 6 months ago. I am not completely satisfied with it (e.g. my old Honor Band 5 tracks steps far better), but I thought I will subscribe for premium after the trial is over. 4 days after I payed that ridiculous fee, my app sent a low charge warning (minutes before the battery was at about 65%) and the band was dead shortly after. I started to charge it and the screen was dead too. I tried every trick from the forums but nothing worked. The battery only lasts about 20 hours (the same as the Pixel Watch). I sent it for repairs but I think I will get rid of it even if they return it in working state and buy a better alternative (probably something from the Garmin Fenix series). From what I see in the forums and reviews Google is actively removing features from Fitbit devices so people will biy the Pixel Watch. In addition there are a lot of issues with the hardware itself and the price is ridiculously high considering they charge you for functions hidden behind Fitbit Premium.

Best Answer