I have a Fitbit Charge 4, I was happy with it until Google bought Fitbit and decided to make everything worse. Before Google bought Fitbit, you could easily view the max heart rate you had during an exercise, now you can't. It only has the heart rate graph, so to see your max you have to flick through and try to catch the highest peak on it. When using the gps function, you used to be able to see your maximum speed, now you can't. If the gps drops, the only way to resync it on a charge 4 is to end the exercise and start a new one splitting your exercise in two. No problem before google, when you sync it, you would get two of the same. Since Google, it doesn't seem to hold both, if you do that, when you sync it, you lose the first half. App also randomly gets stuck syncing for no reason, never did that before Google. Since Google bought it, I've also had to remove it from fitbit and pair it again multiple times for various reasons, before Google bought Fitbit, I had never had to do that.
No idea why Google bought Fitbit and then decided to make the app/device worse, but they did. I've had it for over two years, so I think I will just replace it to get away from the trainwreck Google turned it into.
There's so much choice I'm a bit lost on where to go now. Use case is basically the same as the charge 4, so:
I use the GPS to map cycle rides with heart rate & speed. Not telling me where to go, but once you are done, the app puts it on a map. GPS is built in to the watch, although it can use the phone as well if you want. I want to be able easily view all stats (so max heart rate, max speed, average etc).
I use it for exercise in general, so select exercise, do it, end it, get all the stats for that session.
I have it on most of the time, so it tracks resting rate, sleep, oxygen etc (or so it claims).
I'm guessing the latter two most fitness watches do, the gps is the most important for me and has to be reliable. I don't use or care about smart features like controlling your phone, viewing messages, etc. Other thing I would like if possible, everything is online for the fitbit, you can't sync to the phone app if you offline, you can't view anything offline as it doesn't have any local storage. Being able to sync from watch to phone and view everything when offline would be nice if possible.
I have around £200, but if it's really worth it, I can put up with the charge 4 for a bit longer and save some more.
Thanks.
No idea why Google bought Fitbit and then decided to make the app/device worse, but they did. I've had it for over two years, so I think I will just replace it to get away from the trainwreck Google turned it into.
There's so much choice I'm a bit lost on where to go now. Use case is basically the same as the charge 4, so:
I use the GPS to map cycle rides with heart rate & speed. Not telling me where to go, but once you are done, the app puts it on a map. GPS is built in to the watch, although it can use the phone as well if you want. I want to be able easily view all stats (so max heart rate, max speed, average etc).
I use it for exercise in general, so select exercise, do it, end it, get all the stats for that session.
I have it on most of the time, so it tracks resting rate, sleep, oxygen etc (or so it claims).
I'm guessing the latter two most fitness watches do, the gps is the most important for me and has to be reliable. I don't use or care about smart features like controlling your phone, viewing messages, etc. Other thing I would like if possible, everything is online for the fitbit, you can't sync to the phone app if you offline, you can't view anything offline as it doesn't have any local storage. Being able to sync from watch to phone and view everything when offline would be nice if possible.
I have around £200, but if it's really worth it, I can put up with the charge 4 for a bit longer and save some more.
Thanks.
Last edited:
