When Was the Fitbit Charge 5 Released?
Google announced the Fitbit Charge 5 on August 25, 2021. You can order the 2021 Fitbit Charge from Fitbit.com. For reference, the first three Charge devices came out about every two years: November 2014, September 2016, and then October 2018. The 4th iteration was released in March 2020.
Fitbit Charge 5 Price
Fitbit released past Charge devices at $149.99, but this one is $179.95. It includes 6 months of Fitbit Premium, for both new and returning customers.
Fitbit Charge 5 Features
This Fitbit adopts some of the same features as the previous model, including built-in GPS and tracking for things like sleep and other activities. There are 20 exercise modes and an app that tracks your heart rate. The Charge 5 app provides information if a user’s heart rate is above or below a certain range. A Daily Readiness Score describes your level of fitness fatigue, heart rate, recent sleep quality, and what you can do to remedy any issues. Here are some other features:
Contactless payments: You can use Fitbit Pay directly from the watch. This is really convenient because you can leave your phone elsewhere, but still make purchases when you’re out and about. Quick replies: Your phone can receive notifications on the watch, and if you’re using Android, you can take advantage of quick replies. Stress management: The Charge 5 comes with an EDA sensor that measures the body’s stress level via sweat glands. It will suggest what you can do to help lower stress. Temperature tracking: If you have a premium membership, Fitbit Health Metrics makes it easy to check your skin temperature. With more and more people justifiably concerned about their health these days, recording skin temperature variations is a huge plus. This was previously included with the Fitbit Sense only.
Not everything made it to this Fitbit, though. Here are some ideas that we’re hopeful will arrive on the Fitbit Charge 6, if there ever will be such a watch:
Music controls during workouts: The current Fitbit Charge doesn’t let you control your music while recording a workout. When it seems you’d need that freedom the most—with your phone presumably unreachable while exercising—playback isn’t allowed. Hopefully, this oversight is fixed in the next Charge, especially since it seems like a simple software update is all that’s needed. Additional music streaming service support: Not everyone likes to use Spotify Premium, so it’d be great to see the Fitbit let you control music from alternative services like Pandora, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Deezer, etc. Longer battery life: The Charge 5 and 4 have a 7-day battery life, which isn’t bad but doesn’t compare to other wearables like the Galaxy Fit2’s supposed 15-day life. An upgrade in this department would help with GPS draining; Fitbit claims that the battery can hold out for several hours with continuous GPS usage, but some reports claim that it takes a 30% hit on less than one hour of use.
Fitbit Charge 5 Specs and Hardware
Not much changed between the last couple of Fitbit Charge devices. The button on the side and the grayscale screen are the same, and the size and weight between the Charge 3 and 4 are basically indistinguishable. To have three devices looking and feeling awfully similar would have been a bummer. Unfortunately, that’s essentially what has happened. One physical change, however, is with this Fitbit’s screen; the display is twice as bright as the Charge 4, so it’s easier to see on sunny days. The device itself is also 10% thinner than the Charge 4.
The Latest News About Fitbit Charge 5
You can get more wearable and smartwatch news from Lifewire; here are some of the latest stories around Fitbit:
