The Charge 5 makes some painful tradeoffs I’ve not seen in over a decade of testing wearable devices. And while I’ll probably spoil this review somewhat, I’d very strongly encourage you to read the sport accuracy sections. Within this review I cover all the newness first, followed by basic usage – then athletic usage in sports. So we’ll set those features aside for later testing – as they’re arguably the most important new feature on not just the Charge 5, but across Fitbit’s lineup, once released.

It’s not clear when they will be, other than “coming soon”. Though, some of the most widely anticipated features from Fitbit – the Daily Readiness Score & Workout/Recovery Suggestions – aren’t live yet. In using the Charge 5 for almost two weeks now, I’ve got a pretty strong grasp on where it works well, and where it (really) struggles. All while at the same time pulling in the majority of the Fitbit Versa 3 and Fitbit Sense advanced health metrics from those units released a year ago.Īnd in many ways, the company actually succeeds here. Fitbit’s new Charge 5 aims to take their most well-known wearable series and catapult it forward with a revamped AMOLED display that doesn’t feel like a TI-82 graphing calculator that previous Fitbit Charge units have had, while still trying to maintain the comparatively long battery life that Fitbit units are well known for.

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