****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
First, I have to say, I absolutely love my Fitbit Charge HR. I bought it in June of 2015, and it has been a game changer. My Fitbit has completely changed my exercise life, making me so much more aware of how active I am during the day. If you are looking to motivate yourself to exercise/walk/run more, than I absolutely recommend this product to you!I was hesitant to buy this model, given the varied reviews on it, and in fact, I tried to cancel my order after reading all of the bad reviews about the heart rate monitor portion of it, but it was too late. So, I just decided to get it anyway, and I am SO GLAD I did! Here are my thoughts.Pros:Heart rate Monitor: For what it is (a $25 HR monitor) this HR monitor is great. Sure, if you compare it to your several hundred dollar fancy pants chest strap HR monitor, it may not quite match up. Am I the only one who has read those reviews and thought, "Well, DUH."?? That's like trying to compare it to a hospital-grade electrocardiograph. You should hope there's a slight variation, otherwise, hospitals would be measuring your heart rate with a Fitbit.IMO, the HR monitor on this model of Fitbit is more than adequate. I have nothing to compare it to (I keep my ECG in storage), but it goes up a logical amount when I run and exercise, increasing as my exercise intensity increases, and goes down when I am resting and sleeping. If you are new to the exercise world, and like me, unsure of why you should measure your HR, the basic reason is to know whether you are in the fat burn, cardio, or peak HR range. Knowing my HR at any time allows me to know when to increase or decrease the intensity of my workout so that I can stay in the desired range. If you are more curious about just knowing your HR for basic purposes during a workout or at any given time (esp. when you sneeze or people scare you), then you will be completely satisfied with it.Steps: I have tested the accuracy of the step-counter many times, especially after reading all of the reviews saying it was inaccurate. I have found no problems. Unlike many others have said, waving my arms around (I'm Italian, so this happens any time I speak), does NOT give me steps. Nor does driving in a car. It's DOES however count steps during certain activities such as: brushing teeth, rolling out dough (oddly enough), pounding my fist on the table - anything that jars my arm and mimics a step. Most of these problems can be avoided by either wearing the FB on your non-dominant wrist or taking it off for the duration of the activity.Motivation: My FB has completely motivated me like I never have been before. I love the social aspect of the app, not offered by any other device besides FB. The challenges speak to my competitive nature and encourage me to push myself. Before getting my FB, I averaged 5,000 steps a day (I used my phone to count). Now, I average 15,000. I get up and walk or run in the morning, and I also take a 30 minute walk over my lunch break at work. It's extremely satisfying to reach my daily step goal or win a challenge, and even 6 months later, these little victories are enough to keep me more motivated than ever.Fit: I got the "small" band because my wrists are narrow, and it fits perfectly. It's not bulky, and I think the plum color is nice enough to make my FB an acceptable accessory with most outfits. The only event I haven't worn it to was my wedding, and I actually debated that one...Cons:There are a few cons I have discovered. The biggest problem for me is -Mileage: The FB measures miles basically using your estimated stride length (based on your height and gender) in an algorithm with your steps to determine how many miles you've walked. For me, the mileage is completely inaccurate. Maybe my stride length is drastically different from what it should be? You can fix this by manually entering in your stride length, but I haven't had time to measure what that is yet. To give you an example though, I run/walk a legitimate 5k route most mornings (it measures around 3.2 miles). I know this 5k route is actually 5k because I have 1.) measured the distance by driving the course and 2.) actually run in an official 5k that follows this route. When I run/walk the route now, my FB measures it at just under 2 miles, which obviously is not correct.Display brightness: The FB monitors your sleep patterns, which is super awesome and great information to have. However, I have given up trying to wear it to bed, because it was actually waking me up throughout the night. The display is so bright that when I would roll over in my sleep, the bright light from it would wake both me AND my husband up. It's also sort of uncomfortable to sleep in, so I just gave up and take it off now when I go to bed.Chapter 2I kid. I know this was a novel of a review, but I wanted to clear the air a bit with some of those crazy bad reviews. Maybe they just got a lemon? Anyway, if you aren't an Olympic athlete or an ER doctor, I highly recommend this FB model for all of it's awesome features and the great motivation to be active that it provides.
