First of all if you get a new Fitbit, get it at Best Buy, Cost Co, Amazon... someplace that has a 2-3 year extended warranty for around $20. You will probably need it at some poing.
Although there are a lot of happy Charge and Charge HR users, I don't recommend them. Sync, band breaking, losing the tracker... I don't know much about the Alta, except it doesn't have a heart rate monitor.
As for the Blaze and Surge I own and use both. It really depends on what you want to do with your tracker.
For me the deal breaker between the Surge and Blaze is the gps function. The Surge has built in GPS tracking and is between 101% and 99% accurate on milage and pace times. Everyone that has a Blaze is limited to GPS accuracy of their phone. I have used my Blaze on a iPhone5c, and a iPhone6s. My wife had a Andriod Note 3 and now has a iPhone 6 plus. Every single one of them the gps was around 97%-99% accurate. While 3% doesn't sound like that much, it means that pace times would be off by 30 second to a full minute per mile. I'd walk a mile and my Surge would say 1.00 miles, hers would say .92.
The odd part is I walked with Mapmywalk or Runtastic on my iPhone my Blaze would always show less mileage as Mapmywalk or runtastic. All three are using the same GPS tracking on the phone! It doesn't make any sense.
I use the tracking heavily to know if I'm getting stronger and faster. Right now I'm gett my average pace time to under 15 minutes per mile. When I was using my Blaze for walking, I just lost all motivation to walk faster because I could not trust the pace and mileage the Blaze was reporting.
Biking was just as bad. Mileage just wrong.
Now if you don't care about pace time and accuracy then the Blaze is an awesome tracker. Swappable bands, tracker can fall off unless the band breaks, nice color display.
I just wish it had a low power always on feature so you didn't have to flick your wrist or push a button. On a bike being able to see your time, mileage without the danger of trying to get your screen to turn on would be a nice feature. The surge is always on, so another plus for the Surge when on a bike.
Bottom line it depends on what you want to do. I wear my Blaze nearly all day long. I use it to track my weight lifting. But I use my Surge to track my walks and my bike rides.
I find the Blaze is a lot more confortable. The Surge has a history of the band breaking, and at some point I'm going to have to purchase a new one (I didn't get a extended warranty). I'm hoping Fitbit will come out with a new tracker with built in GPS functions from the Surge.
Or I'm hoping they fix the GPS trracking on the Blaze using pass through.
I have provided a ton of feedback and info to the support at Fitbit, and was simply told they are aware of the issue and have passed on my info to the dev team. I'm not holding my breath. It's been out for six months and there are tons of people comlaining about the distance and pace are wrong.
John | Texas,USA | Surge | Aria | Blaze | Windows | iPhone | Always consult with a doctor regarding all medical issues. Keep active!!!
