Fitbit Charge 2 review: A great wearable with snazzy extras

When I took a look at the Fitbit Charge HR a few months ago, I was a touch underwhelmed. Fitbit’s more recent models (see the Alta and the Blaze) were stylish and customisable, and the Fitbit Charge HR felt like a dinosaur by comparison – albeit a dinosaur with all the features you might need in 2016.

I’d like to imagine that Fitbit read my review and took all my complaints on board, because the Fitbit Charge 2 fixes every one of my qualms, while adding in a few nice-to-have extras that avoid tipping it over into “jack of all trades” territory. Given that I only wrote that review back in May, however, I have to concede that this probably isn’t anything to do with me at all.

Read on to find out why the Fitbit Charge 2 is taking a spot high up in our best fitness trackers guide.

Buy the Fitbit Charge 2 at Amazon.

Fitbit Charge 2: Design

In the last generation of Fitbit devices, there was a Fitbit Charge and a Fitbit Charge HR. These devices were identical, except that the HR had a built-in heart rate monitor and £20 added to the RRP. This time around, Fitbit has simplified the range – there’s no Fitbit Charge 2 without a heart rate monitor, so the HR part of its moniker has been dropped.[gallery:2]

That was a sensible move, to be honest. For those who just wanted step tracking, the Fitbit Flex and Alta offered similar functionality for cheaper (Flex) or the same price (Alta), so it’s hard to see who the Fitbit Charge was aimed at. Now, the Charge 2 finds a more natural place in Fitbit’s new-look lineup – not least because it’s the cheapest model to offer 24/7 heart rate monitoring.

In terms of design, the Charge 2 is the love child of the original Charge and the Fitbit Alta. It retains the rubber textured strap of the Charge, but adds in the longer OLED display of the Alta, as well as inheriting its customisability. You can now remove the straps and replace them with ones of the colour of your choosing, simply by releasing a couple of metal clips on the underside.

These small changes make the world of difference, and pretty much wipe out every complaint I had with the Fitbit Charge HR: it’s more comfortable, less bulky, displays all its useful information at-a-glance; and if you’re easily bored of the design then you can mix things up with new straps.[gallery:3]

The display on the original Fitbit Charge range was tiny. While Fitbit still opts to display one stat at a time, the Charge 2’s larger display is a big improvement. Just tap on the screen to scroll through steps, heart rate, distance travelled, calorie burn, stairs climbed, active minutes and hourly activity. All the while, the time and date stays fixed to the top of the screen, meaning the Charge will always function as a watch.

That may sound like a small change, but it translates into a much nicer-looking device, and the bigger screen now also allows you to receive basic text and call alerts, blurring the lines between fitness wearable and smartwatch.

The single button remains, but it now acts as a trigger when you want to do something specific – such as setting a stopwatch, starting a run, or meditating with breathing exercises.

Fitbit Charge 2: Performance and battery life

Breathing exercises? That’s new. Yes, just like Apple’s watchOS 3, Fitbit is introducing meditation as part of its overall wellness package, and without really adding too much to the package, it’s quite well implemented. Just tap the screen to pick between two or five minutes, and then hold the button to begin. The Fitbit will tell you when to inhale and exhale based on real-time heart rate data, with the result being a calmer, more relaxed state.

Whether most Fitbit users will bother with it is immaterial. It isn’t as in-depth as the InteraXon Muse, for example, but then the Charge 2 does come in at half the price – and it does a lot more. The standard Fitbit tracking of steps and calories works well here, and there are occasional prompts to get you moving again when you’ve been still for too long. Day to day, the heart rate tracking feels about right – resting at the 60 mark, and hitting 140+ when running up the stairs at Goodge Street station.[gallery:2]

Since writing this review, I’ve taken the Fitbit Charge 2 on a couple of sporting outings, first running 5k and then wearing it during a five-a-side match. During the run, the Fitbit connects directly to your phone and changes its display to prominently show useful metrics from a light tap. It shows heart rate, distance, pace, average pace, calories burned and steps. At all times, it shows the time elapsed alongside these stats. At the end of a run, it gives you a summary of your data on the wrist, including elevation, average pace and your average heart rate.

For more detailed feedback, you head to Fitbit.com or look at the app. This is the kind of thing you’ll see:

This sidesteps the need for the likes of Runkeeper, and keeps all your exercise in one place, although it does look like something has gone wrong here. Not the fact that it’s only showing 4.12km (that was down to human error), but that it was a two lap circuit, and for some reason the GPS of my phone hasn’t filled in the gap. Regardless, the rest of the stats feel right, so it’s not the end of the world.

If you’re running without your phone, say in a five-a-side match where it’s just inpractical, this is the kind of thing you get:

In other words, the Fitbit does some guesswork to fill in the details based on your heartrate and steps. It’s certainly good enough, and should put your mind at ease if you do a lot of exercise without your phone in Bluetooth range.

Despite the Fitbit Charge 2’s larger screen, the battery life doesn’t appear to have taken a knock; it still manages around five days without the need for a recharge. This is definitely good enough, and furthermore, Fitbit will send you an email when it notices that the device is running low on juice.

It isn’t a perfect system, but it generally acts as an early warning for the forgetful. And it’s just as well, because Fitbit has once again treated us to a proprietary charge cable – and no, not even your Fitbit Charge HR lead will match up. It’s like folk at the company just love coming up with new designs – but for consumers, it means spending £17 for a replacement cable.

The Charge 2’s stamina is, of course, partly down to the absence of built-in GPS. As such, any attempt at measuring distance pretty much comes down to guesswork. The lack of GPS is a disappointing omission, but it’s the price you pay for a strong battery life and – more importantly – a mid-range price point. If you desperately want a Fitbit with a built-in GPS sensor then you’re looking at the Fitbit Surge – one of the older members of the Fitbit family, which suffers from dated looks, and a lack of customisation. Plus, it costs £70 more.

The app remains the same as before, so previous Fitbit users will be very familiar with it, and as they’ll know, it does the job very well. All the data is presented cleanly with graphs to demonstrate how you’re progressing, and the competitive are treated to comparisons with their Fitbit-using friends. There are challenges to be taken and badges to be won by being healthy, but it’s also unobtrusive enough that you can just forget about it, and let it passively record your data until you’re read to digest it.

Fitbit Charge 2: Verdict

A couple of minor bugbears aside, it’s hard to find fault with the Fitbit Charge 2. Okay, it’s slightly more expensive than the model it replaces, but the cosmetic and design changes more than make up for the £10 price hike. And yes, it doesn’t have GPS built in – but aside from that, it has pretty much everything the casual fitness fan could possibly want in a streamlined, attractive package.[gallery:4]

There were three issues with the (decent) Fitbit Charge HR: it wasn’t particularly comfortable for long-term wear; it valued function over form; and it wasn’t customisable. Fitbit has addressed every one of my complaints to produce a device that has simply been a delight to review. The Fitbit Charge 2 is another confident step in the right direction from a company that is certainly going places.

Buy the Fitbit Charge 2 at Amazon.