Charge 6 get or no?

[hubuh]

I had the inspire 2 for years but that battery has finally given in, wondering if the charge 6 is worth the high price.

Main features I’ll use:

All the heart tracking features Sleep tracker Maybe the google maps feature

Reviews are mixed online with people saying it disconnects from Bluetooth often and will get stuck, someone said that it won’t show the time or heart rate while walking please confirm if this is true, people said the battery dies after a couple months usage.

Positive reviews say the heart tracking is better than when they used an Apple Watch, bad watch faces, very similar to a heart tracker for a fitness device.

People who have the charge 6 please confirm or deny these statements or add your own statements. Honest reviews and a conclusion on whether it’s actually worth buying. Thanks

[DramaQueenDiva]

I've never had the issue with the time or heart rate not showing while doing ANYTHING so I'm not sure where that person is getting their information.  I've had mine since release and the battery is still ticking, so not sure where that person got their information either or what they did to it.  

I don't have an Apple Watch, so can't comment on that, but I'm not thrilled with the selection of watch faces.  This is just personal taste for me.

[Triletics]

@hubuh disconnecting from BT - yes and that can be seen while using GPS in 'Phone' mode. Sometimes GPS connection is lost because of that and never reconnects (it's not the phone losing connection as other apps tracking the route on the phone experience no GPS issue). That makes me think it's the tracker disconnecting from the phone.

"someone said that it won’t show the time or heart rate while walking" - false and this is likely a user error. While walking or doing any other activity you can tap the screen to switch to other fields. Time and HR are there. Some people try to swipe which doesn't work. You need to tap.

"people said the battery dies after a couple months usage" - it's been a couple of months since release. My Charge 6 (both shortly after release) still holds charge and no issues here however I've seen reports of trackers dying much sooner and this is likely to be a hardware issue and they should be replaced.

HR is and isn't better. Depends on the case and what you track. It is true that Charge 6 is able to pick up higher HR easier than previous models but it seems like it came with a cost - sometimes it mistakes steps for HR (and it does it almost for all my runs so I'd say, for me, it's the worst tracker for running).

[SunsetRunner]

In my experience. Heart tracking is good with no issues up to walking as long as you wear it correctly (e.g. not too loose). For running, you need to wear it a bit higher up the arm and tighten it as much as it is still comfortable to prevent running cadence interfering with the heart rate monitoring (a common issue among all trackers or watches, especially those more on the budget side). If you do that, it is fairly accurate and comparable to the results you get with Polar Verity Sense heart rate monitor which is considered highly accurate.

I think sleep tracker is very accurate, I was actually amazed how it was able to pick up wake up moments while me remaining in bed during the night. I have been impressed by it.

Have not tried google map feature.

There have been synching issues but nothing of particular concerned. Works fine at least 95% of the time. Never had issues with tracking my walks or runs. Just keep in mind that if the battery is too low, it will stop tracking. Which is what happened to me once.

Fitbit 6 Charge was introduced about 3 months ago. So, not sure about battery dying. But battery needs to be charged fairly often compared to similar products. Every 4 or 5 days.

[Dkt2299]

DO NOT GET. The HR monitor does not work.  I’ve had Fitbit’s for 6+ years.  The Fitbit Charge is awful.  It won’t record a HR over 90 bpm- if while rucking uphill in the snow for 45 mins.  This is is useless.  Save your money.  Buy a Charge 5.  At least that worked.  

[cassiehs]

For anyone looking for real reviews: I don’t want to use YouTube Music to control my music while jogging! Do not buy if you use Apple Music. I already had to create a new Google Account that I DID NOT want. I have used Fitbit for many years. I will not purchase another because of these changes. Flexibility must have been messed with their bottom line. 

[BayparkL]

I’m not very happy with the Charge 6 except for the much better display and battery than the Charge 4. Sleep data is often missing. Text notifications rarely work. Same with the phone notifications. Seems I’m always restarting it and the app to try to get it to work. 

[NotSmiling]

No, too many problems with Charge 6.

mine won’t stay paired.  Has to be paired several times a day.

[Bex174]

During sleep, my charge 6 (using for 4 months now since release and battery is fine)  records my sleeping heart rate as zone minutes, giving me thousands of zone minutes a day. This is the WORST tracker and can’t even change the heart rate zones manually. Will need to switch back to my charge 4 until it quits and never get another Google product if this is the kind of tech they are capable of putting out. I was really disgusted I had to use a Google account in order to use the watch, which you don’t find out until you’re setting up the watch. 

Doesn’t record sleep data if on a cruise ship, so I don’t know what the other user is talking about unless they are on a massive ship that barely moves. 

I never had a problem with Bluetooth, but after posting this, I wonder if I will. 

when I first got the watch, I couldn’t find an alternative strap I liked since they changed the configuration since charge 4. I am allergic to the strap and get blisters and welts leading to open sores on my wrists if I wear the tracker for more than a few days at a time.  I have not been able to access shopping for several months, so for other users who find this post, beware and look elsewhere outside the Google family for a tracker. This charge 6 is garbage (which I am sure is on purpose). 

[lmg474]

If you expect this device to reliably track heart rate exceptions (high/low) and record them on the app like what it's supposed to do, look elsewhere. Support on this issue is pathetic. Most don't even know the feature details of their product and do nothing to go and find the answers.

[SunsetRunner]

An update to my comment. After about 3 months of using it, I sold the Charge 6. My reasons have nothing to do with the quality of the tracker but the Premium feature. In my experience, Charge 6 is a very capable fitness tracker that offers reliable measurements and useful features. I have no complaints about it, but quite the opposite. I liked it. Of course, I cannot judge on its reliability after using it for only 3 months, but again, in my case it worked well. There's been a lot of issues with the Fitbit app though. But was tolerable. It is the Premium subscription model that makes no sense to me and for as long as Google will keep implementing it in the current way, Fitbit is not an option for me. You cannot sell a product with features you then expect the customer to keep paying for unless you want to do something like Whoop is doing. I have no idea how anyone would find this acceptable. It is ok to charge for content that it is unrelated to the device's functions such as workout or mindfulness video and audio content, recipes etc. but not for functions which are an integral part of the device. Now, Charge 6 is definitely worth the price it is sold for, but not worth the price of the Premium subscription. Like, lets say you buy the device as a 2 year investment. In UK the starting price for Charge 6 was £139. That money as 2 year investment definitely worth it. But that's not the actual price of Charge 6 as a 2 years investment. The actual price for a fully functional Charge 6 over the period of 2 years is £330! As a 3 year investment it is £426! At these prices we are talking about smart watches on a completely different level that Charge 6 is not even meant to compete with and with all functions enabled. In other words, at this price Charge 6 makes no sense at all. It would even make more sense to buy Google Pixel watch without Premium. Still a much better investment than Charge 6 with Premium.

[CrystalBullet]

I don't recommend the charge 6 either

• The premium subscription doesn't to anything useful from what I can see, it just confuses users
• They auto renew the subscription and refuse to refund it even if you request immediately
• The workout detection doesn't work about 20% of the time
• When it does detect the workout it detects the wrong thing and their is no way to correct it
• Sleep length is calculated in the cloud and only available 15 to 30 minutes after you are out of bed
• Smart wake always triggers at the start of the time range even if you are deeply sleeping
• The wrist band disconnects at least once a week with a Fitbit band, just a matter of time before you loose it
• Odds are it will die right after the 1 year warranty as previous generations 

[Chelleshor]

Bluetooth does not stay connected to phone. Super annoying!

[Resilent]

I have a hard time recommending the charge 6 at all. I've had one wristband that disconnected from Bluetooth all the time, and the battery would just drain to the point of being unsuable. Support replaced the device, but the issue remains with this new one. When Bluetooth disconnects from the phone, the battery drains swiftly, and there's no notification of it happening (would be helpful!). This device isn't as bad as the last, it's useable, but it's really disheartening. Only thing that seems to help it keep connection is to fully charge to 100% and restart, that can last up to a day before the disconnection cycle kicks in. Or it could, the issue is getting progressively worse it feels. I need to keep a new spreadsheet to track it.. I'm hoping it is just something that can be fixed with a software update as they mentioned it before, but I wouldn't know. 

Never had a problem with my charge 2, my ole reliable. It's certainly put me off trying "new technology". 

[CGinger]

Do not buy the charge 6!! Hands down the worst fitbit I've owned! (I've had 3) The distance and heartrate tracking is very poor. Distance for any activity (especially running which is my most common) is always tracked far higher than actual no matter the setting. Heart rate tracking is all over the place  - sometimes higher, sometimes lower - than expected. 

[Insomnia_4559]

now I know why I barely have any sleep logged.

[EllRoni]

I loved my Charge 2 but the 6 stinks.

[Edword]

had mine a month Glitch sleep data normally does not show in the watch. The strap falls off. The GPS is rubbish. Notifications often fail possibly due to the blue tooth not staying connected. The sleep data is good but I think you could get that buying an old inspire as its sleep data is its best feature. Its looks nice generally does the job, if rock solid reliability is what looking for then its not ideal otherwise its not to bad

[Handeman]

No, don't get it.   The Charge 6 I have is the second Charge that just died on me.  Got a notice it was a 20% power which should be good for a day or more.  Put it on the charger and 40 minutes late it said it was at 5% power.   20 minutes after that, it was totally dead.

My charge 5 did the same thing.

I'm shopping for something else.

[Jennieen]

I switched to the inspire 3 and really like it. Much better reliability. Most of the same features and costs less.

Jennie