I bought the Charge5 in October 2022. The price was €108,50, not cheap, but I thought it was worth given its features and nice design.
In May 2023 the device died, black screen and there was nothing I could do to restore it. I complained to customer service and received a free, new device, as the warranty was still in place. Good response from Fitbit.
But the device was a bit temperamental. The monitoring of sleep was random, I used it the same way all the time but many days it said there was no data. The SpO2 monitoring was almost inexistent, only very few days I got some data.
Another disappointing bug had to do with the access from my Android phone. I introduced the same email and password used successfully with my IOS tablet, but the stubborn response of the app was that the email / password was incorrect. Really strange.
The final mishap came last week, when the screen of the device kept locked showing the time and the distance and didn’t change when I tapped or swiped it. I tried everything, resetting the device pushing the button three times, removing the device from the app and adding it again, with no results. Ah, and the 100% charged battery was drained in less than 6 hours.
I wonder if there is a way to return the Charge 5 to life. Or, as the warranty has surely expired, maybe it’s time to buy a new device. It seems that the Charge 5 is no longer sold, now they offer the Charge 6 instead, with a price tag of € 160. My question is, should I try this new model, or would it be more reasonable switching to a different brand, given the poor reliability record (or my bad luck) with Fitbit devices?
Moderator Edit: Clarified subject
