Fitbit Unveils Charge 5 Advanced Fitness Tracker, Daily Readiness Score

Fitbit’s latest fitness tracker has arrived, with the Fitbit Charge 5 borrowing health features from the company’s smartwatches but packaging them in a smaller – and more affordable – wearable. Topped by a new touchscreen that’s twice as bright as the old Charge 4, the Charge 5 now includes GPS, ECG, and EDA sensors.

Fitbit on Wednesday announced the latest addition to its popular Charge line of fitness trackers. The Charge 5 offers a number of design improvements, as well as advanced health-monitoring features previously only available on the company's premium Sense smartwatch.

Priced at $179.99, the Charge 5 costs $30 more than its predecessor, but it's the company's first fitness tracker with an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor and an electrocardiogram (ECG), which are features Fitbit debuted on the $299.95 Sense last fall. The EDA sensor measures small electrical changes in your skin's sweat level to track your body's response to stress. The ECG checks for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFIb), an irregular heart rhythm that can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other serious complications.

Slimmer, Sleeker, and More Colorful

On the design front, the Charge 5 boasts a color touch screen, a major upgrade compared with its predecessor's dated grayscale display. It also features stainless steel panels on the sides that give it a classier look and double as sensors for the ECG and EDA functions.

Fitbit says the Charge 5 is 10% thinner than the previous model, which should make it more comfortable to wear to bed, and the display is twice as bright. It's also Fitbit's first tracker to offer an always-on display option, a feature that comes in handy when you want to glance down at your wrist to check the time. Just keep in mind that enabling the always-on display will undoubtedly affect battery life.

Speaking of which, the Charge 5 promises up to a week of battery life, the same as its predecessor, which is impressive given its color display, bump in screen brightness, and slimmer design. We'll let you know exactly how long it lasts in real-world applications when we get one in for review.

For health and fitness, the Charge 5 offers 24/7 heart rate tracking with high and low alerts, a built-in GPS, 20 exercise modes, SmartTrack to automatically track certain exercises, Fitbit's Active Zone Minutes metric, in-app workout intensity maps showing your pace and heart rate zones throughout your route, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements, daily stress management and sleep scores, and nightly skin temperature variation tracking.

On the lifestyle front, the Charge 5 has 20 clock face options, Fitbit Pay for mobile payments, smartphone notifications, quick replies (when paired with an Android phone), and Google Fast Pair for easy setup on Android devices.

In terms of price and features, the Charge 5 sits atop Fitbit's fitness tracker lineup, offering a more advanced alternative to the fashion-forward Luxe ($149.95) and the budget-friendly Inspire 2 ($99.95).

Since its debut in 2014, the Charge line has been a favorite among PCMag editors and Fitbit users. Last year's model, the Charge 4, earned PCMag's coveted Editors' Choice award. Fitbit says one out of every three of its customers own a Charge.

The Charge 5 is available for pre-order now in black/graphite, steel blue/platinum, and white/gold color options, and is slated to launch worldwide this fall. Fitbit also plans to sell a range of Charge 5 accessory bands, including leather and nylon options, ranging from $29.95 to $49.95. The tracker comes with a six-month Fitbit Premium membership (for both new and returning users) that includes more than 200 guided workouts, meditations with Deepak Chopra, and other wellness tools.

Fitbit also debuted a new metric for Premium members called Daily Readiness Score, which indicates whether your body is ready for a workout or needs a rest day. When determining your score, Fitbit takes into account your activity level, sleep stats over the past few days, and overnight heart rate variability (HRV, a measure of your nervous system activity and an indicator of your resilience to stress). 

A high score indicates you're ready for a challenge, while a low score means you should prioritize recovery. The Fitbit app will then offer workouts or meditations, depending on what your body needs. Polar offers similar insights on its fitness watches via its Nightly Recharge and FitSpark training guidance features. Garmin watches also offer a similar feature, called Body Battery.

Finally, Fitbit announced a new feature headed to its Sense and Versa 3 smartwatches: snore tracking. Like the new Samsung Galaxy Watch4 and Watch4 Classic, the Sense and Versa 3 will be able to track your snoring when paired with a compatible smartphone.

We'll be sure to put these new features to the test when they're available, so check back soon.

August 25, 2021