Sliding into an October already filled with watches and wearables, the Fitbit Charge 3 — which hits shops at present, beginning at $149 (£130, AU$230) — guarantees to be the corporate’s finest basic health tracker. And but: Fitbit already has a watch, the Fitbit Versa, that does a number of the identical issues (and a bit extra) for simply $50 extra.
Confused? Don’t be concerned, I am right here to assist.
I’ve solely been sporting the Cost Three for a few days, and a full evaluate is coming. However this is what I can let you know within the meantime, primarily based on my early expertise to date.
It is a cozy, basic-feeling health band. Not like larger-screened watches, the Fitbit Cost Three retains to a thinner, vertical-screened look, similar to its predecessor. The included rubber band feels tremendous snug and is available in two sizes out of the field. Extra bands embrace a woven nylon one — not unhealthy, however I did not prefer it as a lot because the Versa’s woven watch band — and a perforated rubber sports activities band, which is kind of snug. I did not strive the Horween leather-based bands, as a result of I would not put on leather-based bands with a water-proof health tracker anyway.
The bigger show and touchscreen make a distinction. The bigger grayscale OLED is crisp and simpler to learn, and reveals extra textual content for messages. The true touchscreen lastly permits swiping between totally different app capabilities, or swiping up or down for notifications and health stats.
The aspect pressure-sensitive haptic button is very nice, and vibrations are robust. As a substitute of a bodily button, you squeeze an indented space of the metal case to rapidly entry settings, or pause or cease exercises. The vibrations really feel stronger than earlier Cost trackers.
Navigation is a bit of bizarre, although. Swiping to options just like the timer, alarms, the breathe-relax mode, and even beginning a exercise appears like a number of fiddling. It is simpler to quick-start an train with the Versa.
It is waterproof, ultimately. This tracker is bathe and swim-friendly, which the Cost 2 wasn’t. That is an enormous deal, and matches the Ionic and Versa watches.
There are apps, however only a few. Name them modes or apps or no matter you want, however there’s an Train mode, a Calm down mode, climate, an alarm, a stopwatch and timer. Fitbit may add extra apps sooner or later, however there is not an app retailer just like the Versa or Ionic.
There are watch faces, however only a few. Once more, there are a handful of watch face types that blend stats and time, which could be chosen from the Fitbit telephone app. However there are no others, not like the a whole lot of enjoyable Versa choices.
It would not have Fitbit’s further teaching app. I do not use Fitbit Coach and I am not wild about subscription companies, however it’s not even accessible on the Cost 3. The Versa has a Coach app and some free exercises included.
There’s optionally available Fitbit Pay, however no music storage or distant playback. A $20 step-up version contains NFC-based Fitbit Pay and an additional strap, which is not a foul deal. Fitbit Pay would not work with as many banks as Apple Pay, Google Pay and others, although… it nonetheless would not work with my bank card, which is from a fairly mainstream US financial institution. Additionally, for music-workout individuals, understand that not like the Versa and Ionic, which may retailer MP3s sideloaded from a PC, and likewise do primary remote-control music playback from music on a telephone, the Cost Three would not have any music help in any respect.
Coronary heart charge’s been a bit of bizarre on my evaluate unit to date. As at all times, getting always-on coronary heart charge stats is useful… however to date the readings run excessive. I like Fitbit’s immediate coronary heart charge readings. However my resting coronary heart charge is studying quite a bit greater to date than my precise bodily pulse, or what the Apple Watch on my different wrist tells me. I am going to report extra on this as I maintain sporting the Cost 3. It is arduous to inform what is going on on.
Nowhere close to as feature-rich because the Apple Watch, however it does have higher battery life and sleep monitoring. The Apple Watch Sequence Three has music, optionally available mobile, a speakerphone, headphone help, a microphone for Siri and the Sequence four even has an EKG and fall detection. However the Apple Watch prices extra ($270 and up), solely has a day and a half of battery, and would not have baked-in sleep monitoring. The Fitbit Cost Three guarantees seven days of battery life (to date three and counting), and may monitor sleep, and it prices far much less.
A full evaluate will come within the following week or so as soon as we have examined extra.
0 Comments