![]() ![]() ![]() I used the Fitbit Charge 4 to monitor several runs and short walks over the course of five days. The quick answer to this question is well enough, but it’s a long way from the best GPS tracking wearable we’ve tested here at Expert Reviews. ![]() The biggest new feature, however, is the addition of GPS so it’s worth examining how well it's been implemented. READ NEXT: The best Fitbit to buy today Fitbit Charge 4 review: Performance And, second, that those extra time credits for activities in your cardio and peak zones might encourage people to indulge in too much high-intensity exercise at the expense of lower intensity exercise when a balance between the two is what you want to aim for. The only things I’d be concerned about is that, first, Active Zone Minutes as a concept is a lot less simple to comprehend than a step count. It certainly makes more sense from a general fitness standpoint than the much more arbitrary step count measure. However, counting the “time in zone” towards a daily or weekly target in the same way as a step count is a new idea and looks to be quite a sensible one. It's what serious athletes and fitness fanatics have been doing ever since the technology to measure heart rate became widely available. Tracking your fitness using heart-rate zones is no new thing. As before, it’s a fitness band with an inline display – not quite as slimline as the Fitbit Inspire HR but certainly more svelte than the Versa 2 or the Versa Lite watches.ĭo a mild, ten-minute workout mostly in your fat-burning heart-rate zone (zone 3, normally), for example, and you’ll earn ten Active Zone Minutes towards your daily 30-minute target up the intensity to your cardio and peak heart rate zones (usually defined as zones four and five) and you’ll get double credit for any time spent in those zones. To re-emphasise, there isn’t a huge amount new on the design front with the Fitbit Charge 4. Fitbit Charge 4 review: Key features and design The Fitbit Charge 4, then, is at the upper end of the price scale for a product of this type. The ludicrously good-value Amazfit Verge and Verge Lite both have GPS and start at a price of £75 the Honor MagicWatch 2 in its 42mm guise can be had for £120. If you don’t mind considering a smartwatch as well, there are further options available to you. Garmin’s Vivosport band (£100) is also considerably cheaper than the Charge 4, although it’s important to note that it lacks the Fitbit’s swim tracking abilities and it has a smaller, fiddlier display. If it’s a fitness-tracking wristband with GPS you’re after, you have the Huawei Band 3 Pro or the Huawei Band 4 Pro to choose from, both at prices less than half that of the Fitbit Charge 4. ![]() So what else is available for the Fitbit Charge 4’s asking price of £130? Turns out there’s quite a lot. The Fitbit Charge 4 also adds Fitbit Pay, a feature only previously available on the Fitbit Charge 3 Special Edition, comes with the ability to control Spotify playback and adds a new way to track your fitness: Active Zone Minutes, more on which below.įitbit Charge 4 review: Price and competition The only other current Fitbit wearable with GPS is the ageing Fitbit Ionic smartwatch neither of the firm’s more affordable Versa and Versa Lite watches has it, nor does the outgoing Fitbit Charge 3 or any of the cheaper fitness trackers. The big news is built-in GPS and this makes it the very first of Fitbit’s fitness bands to have the technology. When it comes to features, however, there are upgrades and they’re significant. The Fitbit Charge 4 follows a pattern established by the company over the past few years, in that it doesn't look all that different from the model it replaces – the Fitbit Charge 3, which launched in October 2018. READ NEXT: The best fitness trackers to buy today Fitbit Charge 4 review: What you need to know So why would you buy the new Fitbit Charge 4 in the face of an avalanche of cheap rivals from China? Fitbit thinks the addition of GPS and a selection of other features is enough to persuade customers away from the bargain bin. But times, they are a-changing and there are now plenty of firms producing Fitbit-style products that do a similar thing for less cash. This is the company that turned step tracking from niche pursuit into a global obsession, a metric – much-derided – that underpins the success of the fitness technology industry today. Fitbit was the first big name in activity trackers. ![]()
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