Will Charge 5 have a Gyroscope?

[Giampi71]

I can't see the gyroscope mentioned as part of the sensors of Charge 5 (It was present in Charge 4).

Can you clarify thanks?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Rich_Laue]

Nope, as your fellow fitbit users we know about what you know. We both have read the same release. 

[Rich_Laue]

Neither do I, as probably every other user. 

[Giampi71]

Obviously I was asking a clarification to a moderator, not to a fellow user.

[Ziga]

@SilviaFitbit I think that the Gyro should be present since its needed to turn on the screen when you lift your arm to take a look at time/data. If that sensor was removed it would be a major turnoff .... hope this is not the case since Ive already preordered 🙂

[Giampi71]

@Ziga unfortunately that's not the case: Versa 2 and 3 don't have a gyroscope but they both have auto light on when turning the wrist.

[t.parker]

@Ziga that can be done with an accelerometer only.

[Ziga · Accepted solution]

@t.parker that would mean any random fast movement of the hand would turn on the screen ? 

[t.parker]

@Ziga no, data from the accelerometer isn't random. The data from each acc axis are gathered over time and recognized (or not) as a gesture. I have implemented such gesture recognition based only on acc in the past. No need to use a gyro.

[N8teGee]

As @Giampi71 mentions both the Versa 2 and 3 haven't got a Gyroscope, but work fine with the screen wake gesture. So this can't be used as evidence of the presence of a Gyroscope.

I think the biggest issue with not having a Gyroscope is the ability to properly track swimming lengths (at least on the fly). Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not a swimmer) but this is why the Sense is able to track laps, but the Versa 3 isn't. 

[t.parker]

@N8teGee Fitbit never said anything but looking at competitors, one of them admits that it improves swimming tracking performance, improves reps counting (for ie. weights), and improves distance and direction calculation. Interestingly, when looking at Garmin watches without gyro it comes up that Forerunner 245 (no gyro) does track laps (on-screen), intervals, and detects rest period (the auto-rest feature) but it doesn't support OW swimming. Gyro doesn't seem to be an essential sensor to count lengths however it seems to be improving the accuracy. On the other hand, the sensor seems to be very important for open water swimming (due to GPS + water issue, so no gyro = no OW).

[N8teGee]

@t.parker Interesting, thanks for sharing that information. I seem to remember that some of the fitbit devices that lacked the Gyroscope were able to determine the laps after the event (within the Fitbit app). Perhaps the lack of Gyroscope + lack of processing power is why these particular devices were unable to do it on the fly (with accelerometer alone), whereas the app was able to process the data or even send it to Fitbit's servers for processing. Maybe I'm completely off the mark though 😁

Either way it seems favourable to have a Gyroscope for multiple reasons. 

[Giampi71]

I don't know about Garmin but let's see for Fitbit

Fitbit Ionic - gyroscope - swim lap live tracking

Fitbit Versa - gyroscope - swim lap live tracking

Fitbit Versa Lite - no gyroscope - no swim lap live tracking

Fitbit Versa 2 - no gyroscope - no swim lap live tracking

Fitbit Versa 3 - no gyroscope - no swim lap live tracking

Fitbit Sense - gyroscope - swim lap live tracking

Fitbit Charge 3 - no gyroscope - no swim lap live tracking

Fitbit Charge 4 - gyroscope - swim lap live tracking

Fitbit Charge 5 - ????

To me it is evident that, in the case of Fitbit, the discrimant is the presence of gyroscope. But, once again this is another assumption by users as Fitbit always lacks official replies (like for distance tracking algorithm to say one)

[Rich_Laue]

No @Ziga these and all fitbut's use the acceleromator is used determine when to turn on.