I have been using an OG Fitbit Sense for 3 years and have been consistently stoked with it. The watch just seemed to keep going with no issues until I took it off at some point with it low on battery, and I cannot for the life of me find it.
So it seemed like as good a time as any to try out a new Fitbit, so with the Fitbit Charge 6 releasing recently, it was time to see if it would charge me.
As an accessory
Having used Sense for a long time, I was very used to the big square on my wrist. The Fitbit Charge is the thinner version of a FitBit that looks a lot more like a fitness tracker. It looks nice and sleek, with the watch itself being as wide as the band. Initially, I wasn’t sure how I would adapt to the smaller look as I was so used to the chonky boi versions, but it took me a couple of hours to get used to it.
As a smart watch
The biggest selling point for Fitbits for me is that it is a hardware-agnostic smartwatch. Being able to check texts on my watch, see who is calling, etc. is a godsend. Keeping track of who texts had gotten annoying for the weeks that I didn’t have a watch.
The screen is thinner, so I wasn’t sure it would work as well as a fitness tracker, but I was wrong. When you start it up, it has a nice big clock on it but doesn’t have things like the date. Jumping into the Fitbit app, I quickly found a watchface with the date on it, and I haven’t looked back.
Then there are things like receiving texts. This unit has been designed for people wanting a tracker, so the initial settings have stuff like text alerts turned off. A quick flick of the setting, and I was viewing my texts and incoming calls on my watch again.
Now, I will say this isn’t the best way to view texts. It has a tiny screen, so it isn’t the easiest to read. But with that, the person is sending a text, and the first few words are enough to determine if I need to pull my phone out of my pocket urgently or not. If I see wife and the words toddler needs to be, that phone is coming out of my pocket. If it’s spam text from Dominoes about their latest “exclusive” deal, deleting that text can wait a few seconds.
As a fitness tracker
My god, Fitbits have come leaps and bounds in the last few years. I loved all the features in the Sense, but the accuracy has improved a lot. The old Sense would pick up that I had started a workout 10-20 minutes into it. The Charge 6 picks up the brisk walk from the train station to the office.
Given that the Charge 6 isn’t the priciest watch, it’s pretty shocking how many features are packed into this thing. Looking at the sleep score, I was hoping it was wrong, as I don’t get a lot of sleep. I went and had a look at a night when I had a kip before the Nix played at midnight. when I woke up to watch the game and went back to sleep. Yep, it was absolutely bloody spot on when I dozed off, when I woke up, and later that morning when the Scouts woke me up.
The activity tracking, body stats, and sleeping information are really incredible given the price of this watch. And as always, it’s insanely easy to view and dig into the stats on the Fitbit app.
Should you get one?
Honestly, I was cynical about how this would stack up after using the bigger, albeit older, Fitbit Sense. Now, having used it for a couple of weeks, I am seriously impressed. With its surprisingly loaded feature set and comfortably getting 8.5 days from a charge, for $290, the Fitbit Charge 6 is a damn fine watch.
Most of the built in apps are based around the Google suite like YouTube music, which is fine if those are your services.
