Fitbit Charge 2 in the Review: tracker with pulse sensor & relax feature

Fitbit's most successful fitness tracker gets a successor. Instead of the previous model, the Charge 2 is only available in one version, namely with an integrated heart rate sensor. Also on board: various tracking and workout functions, guided breathing exercises and finally a design suitable for daylight. The Review reveals whether the overall package is convincing.

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design

With the current generation of wearables, Fitbit is finally moving away from the plastic bomber design of previous years. The hardware of the Charge 2 is also in a plastic housing, but with the shiny metallic sides it speaks the same design language as the Fitbit Alta. The Charge 2 also inherited the mechanism for the lightning-fast replacement of the straps from the Alta – this is practical, for example, to quickly put on a rubber strap for sports to protect the leather version.

With the silver case, the Charge 2 is available in combination with bracelets in black, blue, turquoise and plum. Fitbit also offers the tracker in a rose gold case with a lavender bracelet and in a metallic blue-gray and black bracelet for 190 instead of 160 euros. And then there are lots of accessory straps. Various elastomer rubber variants are available for 30 euros. Leather is available for 70 euros, optionally in brown, soft pink or indigo. Finally, there are countless tapes from third-party manufacturers on Amazon & Co.

While the bracelet can be replaced quickly, you should take good care of the case. Both the display and the case itself are quite sensitive to scratches. After I sanded a Blaze juicy along the wall while bouldering and gave it correspondingly nasty scratches, I would tend to advise against climbing and similar sports from wearing the Charge 2 regularly.

Apart from that, there is nothing against regular wear: the Charge 2 is really very comfortable and, with its 35 grams, does not bother me during the day or at night. I had no problems with skin irritation, although I have always made sure that my trackers keep them dry to a certain extent. When taking a shower, I always take off watches & Co.

Speaking of showers: The Charge 2 is protected against sweat, rain and splash water. However, the tracker is not suitable for swimming – the only swim-capable model from Fitbit is currently the Flex 2.

service

The operation of the Charge 2 is quickly understood. The only mechanical button is on the left side of the case. Pressing the button first activates the health home screen, where the tracker shows the time, date and various other information. Pressing the button again scrolls through various screens, namely heart rate tracking, training, stopwatch, relax and wake-up alarms.

There are other options on the individual screens, which you can scroll through by tapping the tracker. I would have preferred a responsive touchscreen like the Blaze offers here. Because as with the Alta, there are occasionally fingertips that Charge 2 does not register. While this is not tragic, it does somewhat dampen the otherwise very sophisticated user experience.

If you tap it several times, the homescreen shows not only the steps taken so far today, but also the current pulse, the distance covered so far, the number of calories burned, the number of floors climbed, the minutes of activity and the number of hours in which you had previously specified minimum activity.

To the right of the health home screen is a screen with the heart rate. A tap changes between the current heart rate and the resting heart rate. The latter should be seen as a measure of heart health, but more on that later. Next is the training dialog, in which users can start different workouts. The workouts that Charge 2 displays here can be set in the app. The next screen then only consists of a stopwatch, and Fitbit also includes a function for guided relaxation exercises. The duration can be switched between two and five minutes at the touch of a finger.

The individual menu items can also be deactivated in the app and changed in their order. The same applies to the various statistics through which the user browses on the health home screen – and for the various sports. There are also various dials to choose from.

Incidentally, the display itself is not always on. If you want to see the time, you can either press the mechanical button or make a look at the watch gesture. The screen offers sufficient resolution for the requirements, I had no problems with readability in bright surroundings.

Step sensor

As befits a current fitness tracker, the Charge 2 also has a motion sensor on board. This makes it possible to infer the steps taken on the basis of the wearer's movement profile. Like all Fitbit trackers, the Charge 2 counts quite generously here – a walk or a smaller run is enough in addition to everyday office work and a bit of cleaning to get the 10,000 steps. With trackers from some other manufacturers, such as Withings, you have to work much harder for the same result.

The bottom line is that it doesn't matter – after all, it's about improving from your own results. In this respect, the results of the Charge 2 are also absolutely useful: a lot of movement results in a high step value, little movement in a low one. The results can then be compared with those of friends via the app. And if you have no friends with Fitbit hardware, you can have the number of steps counted in various virtual trekking tours and then walk through Yellowstone National Park, for example. With certain step numbers unlocked 360-degree panoramas should motivate here.

In addition to the steps taken, Charge 2 also counts the number of floors climbed. Since I had my first Fitbit tracker with this function, I've only been taking stairs in the office. So it definitely worked for me. There is also an ass kick feature that reminds the user of regular exercise during the day. In the evening you can admire how many hours you have met or missed your milestones during the day. In between there are regular wrist reminders to shake out the bones a little.

Pulse sensor

As already mentioned at the beginning, the Fitbit Charge 2 has a pulse sensor installed on the back. This illuminates the skin of the wearer with two green LEDs and can thus conclude the heart rate. However, this only works properly if the blood flow on the wrist is not impaired, for example by kinked wrists or wild gestures. In my experience, optical pulse sensors, for example with push-ups, burpees, yoga, or MMA cardio workouts, have significant problems and usually show a pulse that is much too low.

On the other hand, sports such as jogging or cycling, where the wrists are usually not overly involved, give quite satisfactory results. In direct comparison with a heart rate belt system from Polar, however, I always had a little too low values ​​when jogging or cycling. However, the accuracy should be sufficient for many casual athletes.

If you can't do much with the pulse values, Fitbit also presents you with a somewhat more tangible value: the so-called cardiofitness score. This score is based on an estimate of the VO2max value, which in turn pours the body's oxygen absorption capacity into a number. With Fitbit I get a value of 55, with Polar I have a value of 61. Here too, the following applies: for a rough estimate, that's okay, and based on this measured value, you can then improve.

The Fitbit app also has tips on which adjustments you can still work on, that would be harder training for me, for example. Oddly enough, however, the app also suggests a weight loss of two kilograms, which would worsen my cardio fitness score.

By the way, the Charge 2 reads the pulse once per second during training – otherwise once every five seconds.

More sensors

In addition to the optical pulse sensor and the three-axis accelerometer, the Charge 2 also comes with an altimeter. This may help you to ascertain climbed floors, but unfortunately the altitude difference you have made during mountain runs or hikes cannot be read anywhere. There is a mini-diagram in the web interface, but no exact information. Too bad. With the Polar V800, for example, I can see that I ran 340 meters up here.

In contrast to the previous Surge model or competitors such as the Vivoactive HR, the FitBit Charge does not have an integrated GPS module. When cycling or running, however, the watch can use the GPS sensor of the smart health connected smartphone to record the route. The only catch: of course you have to have your smartphone with you.

Relax

A completely new function of the Fitbit Charge 2 is waiting behind the menu item Relax. Here are two different guided breathing exercises that last two and five minutes. The user is asked to breathe in rhythm with an alternating growing and shrinking circle. The breathing movements are also shown on the display.

According to Fitbit, the tracker should find an optimal respiratory rate for the user and his heart rate. I found the given breathing rate to be quite a bit too fast in both the two and five minute versions. After a few minutes, the exercise is over without comment – there is no result whether you have breathed very well in time or the pulse has somehow improved.

Sleep sensor

Finally, the Charge 2 also offers sleep monitoring. The tracker recognizes the times of falling asleep and waking up, so that the user does not have to do anything other than carry the gadget in bed. The results correlate quite well with the measured values ​​that I get from the Polar V800, for example – even if deviations of 10 to 20 percent are quite the rule.

Real sleep laboratories do not have to worry about their existence. But: If you manage to go to bed regularly earlier and work on your sleep hygiene, you will also be able to see your success in the Fitbit app. A longer and better sleep is shown as such in both devices.

Incidentally, the Charge 2 does not analyze different sleep phases – there is only a display of the restless phases and the wake phases at night. Incidentally, the Charge 2 does not have a sleep phase alarm clock such as that offered by various jawbone trackers.

Smartwatch functions

Finally, the Charge 2 offers a few rudimentary smartwatch functions. However, these are essentially limited to notifications from smartphones in the three categories of call, text and calendar notifications. Unfortunately, only one source can be selected from each of these categories – so for the messages you can choose either SMS or WhatsApp or Skype. Pretty bad.

App

The Fitbit app is an old friend – and I've always liked it. On the dashboard, it shows the current daily statistics. Clicking on one of the categories brings up more details on the display and also allows you to look into the past and identify long-term trends, for example when it comes to sleep. At the bottom there is also a way to track your diet and hydration. And if you use a Fitbit Aria, you will of course also see your current weight and body fat information here.

Furthermore, the app also offers various options for setting up Charge 2, such as fitness goals, watch faces and so on. A shop for third-party apps or watch faces such as Garmin is, however, to no avail. But that's also a bit of the creed that I've heard at Fitbit: The devices should not be too complicated and overwhelm the user. And what the devices can do, they should also do well.

Web interface

In addition to the app, there is also the web interface, in which the data recorded by Charge 2 can be examined. Basically, there are no other revolutionary functions here – due to the more generous presentation, it is of course even more fun to click through your previous achievements.

connections

Incidentally, there is no direct interface for exporting Fitbit data to Google Fit or Apple Healthkit. However, Fitbit supports IFTTT. This can be used to do all sorts of things, from exporting the data to various other formats and apps, automatically switching on the Philips Hue lamps as soon as the wearer wakes up and automatically switching off the TV when falling asleep, right up to receiving a common phone call the step goal has not been reached in the evening.

battery pack

Last but not least, I would like to talk about the topic of batteries. According to the manufacturer, the Charge 2 should manage with one charge for five days, which has also been confirmed in practice. The charging process takes quite an hour or two. However, this again requires a creepy proprietary cable that doesn't fit any other device on this planet. Whoever loses it or breaks it has to pay 20 euros for a new cable.

Conclusion

With the Charge 2, Fitbit has given its best-selling tracker a worthy successor that looks significantly more modern and fresh than its predecessor in terms of design and operation. The relax function is a welcome innovation, and the interval training has also given occasional athletes additional incentives. Finally, there is more fitness with the Fitbit Blaze, which brings with FitStar an entire training program, but which costs another 40 euros.

For the Blaze plus 40 euros, however, there is almost a Garmin Vivoactive HR, which offers extensive options for creating your own training plans and units. The watch is also suitable for swimming, connects to heart rate belts via ANT + and has its own GPS receiver on board. The design, however, is unspectacular to say the least.

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