Heart Rate Graph on Surge

[Loulou88]

Hello,
I am just curious as to why the heart rate graph is so unprecise. On the graph the number of bpm is not a fixed scale ( for example 50, 60, 70, 80bpm) and the time of day is also very unprecise. The bpm scale is different every day ( one day it starts at 50 and jumps to 115 with no precision in between, and the next day it starts at 48 and jumps to 63 with no precision or numbers or bars im between) You can never see with precision where
your heart beat lies at a given point in the day. Since the HR is calculated all day it would be easy to create a useful, more pecise graph I would think. Anyone have an answer to this?

[SunsetRunner]

Are you speaking of the Dashboard? Or phone app? The Surge has nothing to do with how data is presented.

[bbarrera · Accepted solution]

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@Loulou88 wrote:
Since the HR is calculated all day it would be easy to create a useful, more pecise graph I would think. Anyone have an answer to this?

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I'd be surprised if Fitbit responds. My *speculation* on why - if I was the Surge product manager, and I knew that PurePulse had accuracy issues on some exercises and for some people, then I would likely have the developers make a pretty graph and de-emphasize precision.

At one point after the Surge launched, the elevation graph was de-emphasized. Its kinda useless now. And cyclists complain that it is completely inaccurate. Not surprising that Fitbit now presents a pretty elevation graph that is mostly useless (because the elevation data is not accurate for some segment of users).

[Loulou88]

I am speaking of the phone app, but the graphs on the dashboard and apps are so unprecise that the information is pretty useless. For those seeking to use the watch as a very simple health tracking device to stay motivated, that little precision is fine. For those who invested in the Surge, which is just as expensive as many other big brands of GPS/ wrist heart rate watches, in order to track their training and performance it is very disappointing.

[bbarrera]

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@Loulou88 wrote:
For those seeking to use the watch as a very simple health tracking device to stay motivated, that little precision is fine. For those who invested in the Surge, which is just as expensive as many other big brands of GPS/ wrist heart rate watches, in order to track their training and performance it is very disappointing.

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Very well said and I completely agree. While losing weight Fitbit was a great motivator, but my opinion of Fitbit changed once I was fit and started training to improve performance. These days I'm focused on TrainingPeaks and Strava, and could care less about my step count (it really doesn't matter given my training program).

[SunsetRunner]

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@Loulou88 wrote:
For those who invested in the Surge, which is just as expensive as many other big brands of GPS/ wrist heart rate watches, in order to track their training and performance it is very disappointing.

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If you're using the Surge (or any other fitness watch to date) and the phone app or dahsboard as the only tool in your fitness toolbox to track training and performance, then yes, you'll be ultimately disappointed because there will always be something you want to track or see or measure that they don't do.

It's no different with HR straps, and phone apps with GPS. The data visualization isn't great. Endomodo, which I've used for a few years, has gotten much better (maybe because Underarmor bought them?), but for the longest time their app sucked - well it still does, but their website has gotten a lot better at presenting data.

I imagine, with time, Fitbit will too. Or, they lose market share and fail, and we all will have paid a couple of hundred dollars for a very expensive HR monitor experiment. Caveat Emptor.