Upgrading from my dead Charge 2 to a Charge 5 has been a huge disappointment as I continue to experience a number of problems:
1) It takes a long time to sync. Often I get a failure message. I refresh two or three times to get it to sync. Sometimes I have to turn off my iPhone and restart. This is an ongoing, annoying problem.
2) Long after I've finished a phone call, Charge 5 is still flashing that I have an "Active Call" and I have to manually clear that.
3) Initial heart rate readings during exercise are invariably wrong. While walking on treadmill, Charge 5 said 122 bpm, when treadmill itself (also imperfect but more realistic) recorded 82 (I have a slow heart rate so I never get above 90 bpm when walking on treadmill).
4) Sleep analysis is invariably off; this morning my CPAP machine recorded 8+ hours, the Fitbit 4 hrs 39 minutes. Absurd. I've adjusted the band and there's just no rhyme or reason to the way Fitbit records and registers sleep patterns.
5) Last Thursday I was walking the treadmill, looked at Fitbit, and suddenly it was Friday and the step count had restarted. Inexplicable.
6) Like the Charge 2, the 5 often misses steps for no reason. discouraging when you walk across a room and not a single step's recorded.
I've reset the device several times and these issues don't go away. What's going away at some point is this lame, flawed device, to be replaced by an Apple Watch. Sometimes I miss my Charge 2. At least it was close.
