Charge 6 heart rate is inaccurate

[wonaldng]

As an avid walker who previously owned a Charge 4, 2 x Charge 5's and now a Charge 6, I have to register my disappointment in the heart rate monitor in the new watch. Numerous online reviews and user comments point out how this is the 'most accurate heart rate monitor of any activity tracker'. That might be the case but I believe Fitbit and Google have done a terrible job of preparing customers for what this actually means.

For people who aren't runners but moderate to vigorous walkers going from the Charge 5 to the Charge 6 means that the heart rate tracker during exercise and the activity zone minutes are now meaningless compared to all the activity recorded on the previous versions of the watch.

More specifically my complaint is:

• monitor takes much longer to get into the 'Moderate' zone when starting a walk
• monitor drops from Moderate to Light zone much more frequently
• overall the watch now reports more than 50% less Activity Zone Minutes than in previous versions of the watch - without any changes to exercise
• have gone from regularly recording over 500 minutes a week of Activity Zone Minutes to less than 250

As others have said, this is incredibly de-motivating for people who use this watch to record, track and measure their exercise regime. I imagine this goes for all people who exercise with this watch and not just walking.

If the new watch is much, much more accurate than Fitibit/Google should have considered warning customers, informing them and even resetting, removing or even re-labelling all previous Activity Zone Minutes when customers move to the Charge 6. It's a completely different heart rate!

No follow-up required, this is just a compliant and expression of disappointment. Personally I am changing the Fitibit app UI and the Charge 6 clockface to diminish or not even show Activity Zone Minutes anymore. It's too off-putting to find I'm making half the progress I was on the Charge 5.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[JohnnyRow]

It sounds to me like you might be confusing the accuracy of the heart rate with the heart rate zones.  You keep saying the heart rates are not accurate but your whole arguments never actually mention heart rates, but just zones.  Granted, you might expect them to correspond, but at least admit that you are making that big jump and comparing two different things.

Why not make the complaint that you are getting different amount of times in zones with the Charge 6, or else compare heart rates with both models?