Because I move around so much, the screen often flashes on, and it’s as bright as one thousands suns in the dark. That said, I find the Charge 3 distracting at night, too. But you can see the more detailed analysis from the two most recent days here, where I wore the Charge 3 instead of the Alta to bed. And depressing, though I’m not surprised, as I sleep terribly. The sleep tracker is vastly improved, even without the SpO2 data. The heart rate tracker provides an overview of your resting heart rate over time, plus shows how activity changes things: You can see the big hill I run up each morning, and the resulting cool-down, very clearly in each day’s graph.

The heart rate monitoring is interesting, though I’ve only had the wearable for a few days. You can quickly get back by pressing a small inductive button on the left side of the display.īut what I was really interested in was the device’s additional and improved tracking capabilities. Now, it supports swiping in addition to touch, and it’s more pleasant to look at, based on a side-by-side comparison with my wife’s Charge 3. The Charge 3 also has a larger and better monochrome display than the Charge 2. (This last feature will be enabled next month.)

(The Alta does not provide heart rate tracking at all.) And this is the first Fitbit wearable with a SpO2 sensor, which will let the device estimate changes in blood oxygen levels and help track new health indicators, including sleep apnea. Its calorie burn and resting heart measurements are more accurate than those of its predecessor. It’s waterproof, for starters, so you can use it to track swimming too. I don’t like any of that, for sure.īut there are, of course, advantages: The Fitbit Charge 3 is far more capable than its lower-end sibling. And while the strap that came with the device is much nicer-looking than the Alta’s, it also has a more complicated, watch-like buckle8, which makes removing and refitting it more tedious. It’s also much heavier, and more noticeable throughout the day. No worries there: I’m looking for fitness tracking only.Ĭompared to my Alta, the Charge 3 is bigger, much bigger, or about twice as wide on my wrist. But I’m not sure if I can deal with the size and heft.įitbit announced the Charge 3 back in August and I immediately preordered the base version, which costs $150 and doesn’t offer the Fitbit Pay capabilities found in the $170 Charge 3 Special Edition. It offers important improvements over the Fitbit Alta I’ve been using for over two years.

The Fitbit Charge 3 sits in an interesting space between a basic fitness wearable and a true smartwatch.

Fitbit charge 3