Description
Fitbit’s newest fitness tracker, the Charge 5, might be the biggest change to the Charge line yet. It has a color screen, the first for a Charge, and you can opt to keep the screen on all the time. It has a new rounded design that’s thinner than the Charge 4. New sensors measure how your body responds to stress. But all that change also comes at a higher $179.95 price, a $30 increase from the Charge 4.
That more expensive cost edges the Charge line closer to the prices of many smartwatches. So in reviewing the Charge 5, I wanted to figure out if it offers enough at that price to make it a compelling fitness device than the more costly smartwatch competitors. To do that, after I got the Charge 5, I picked up an Apple Watch SE to compare it with, set them both up, put one on each wrist, and promptly went on a four-hour marathon training run.
To my disappointment, the Charge 5 didn’t fare well.
