Fitbit Charge 6 Fitness Tracker, Obsidian

I started Fitbit with the original Charge. After the battery died, I got a Charge 4. It was ALWAYS a pain to sync the original. And MORE of a pain to sync the Charge 4. The Charge 4 back light eventually dimmed out. Now, with the Charge 6, syncing is a breeze! The screen is nice and bright. And such a relief! I track my activity all day, syncing several times a day. I am able to track more and see the results immediately. It’s great!

Some of the things I don’t like about it, is that 1) One reason I have it is to track my heart rate. I have some tachycardia (racing heart rate). I can be sitting in a chair and have my heart beating at 110 bpm. This is NOT good! But Fitbit will tell me that I’m doing GREAT by keeping my heart racing! Good thing I know better!!!! 2) Also, when it is giving credit for “exercise”, it does not consider walking an exercise. At least not when it is automatically detected. You have to enter it manually for it to count as “exercise”. 3) I hate that there is no option for “Calisthenics” on the watch (only in the app – IF you search for it). 4) I’ve tried to use google maps and youtube music, but all it says is to “start the app on your phone”, which does absolutely nothing.

I thought that I wouldn’t like the loop feature of the band, and that it would be uncomfortable… but I really like it. I liked my original better than the 4, but I like the 6 better than both. 😀

I upgraded from the Charge 5

What I like about the Charge 6:

– Great price
– Sensors to track body activity are more accurate (I don’t have a way to test this but other people in YouTube have and these sensors are really good for a device at this price point with no chest strap)
– Same great battery life. I get 6-7 days (I use normal brightness, do not use GPS, have sleep mode programmed, and keep the screen off unless I need to see it).
– The home button to return to the time screen is great.
– Triple tapping to zoom in is nice
– When it works the Google Maps app is really nice. When you launch the phone app it kicks in automatically (need to set it up this way in your Fitbit app) otherwise you have to start the walk on the phone app and then manually connect to the app from your Charge 6. It tells you where to turn and it is nicer/safer than staring at your phone. The connectivity to the Phone app however is unreliable. Lots of retries and fiddling with the bluetooth settings to get it to work. Feels like a beta. I hope this is improved with a future upgrade. I have my Charge device set to 12 hr time format but this app shows 24 hr format at the top which to me is confusing and it may be a bug. I hope this is addressed in a future update.
– More exercise modes and more settings/mode
– The double tapping for water locking the device seems to work a little better to me than the Charge 5.
– The unit’s vibration when alarm goes off seems to be more noticeable than in the Charge 5. Less likely to miss it.
– Bluetooth integration with gym cardio workout machines is nice however I don’t have any equipment to test this. I read that there is an issue with the encryption that Google uses. Just be aware that unless you are at a gym that has bought very recent equipment, the machines aren’t likely to support bluetooth. Most hotels I workout in don’t have this either. I don’t really need this but some people may find it useful.

What I don’t like:

– If you are on iOS you still can’t reply to texts (I know there is an iOS security constraint that doesn’t allow this but come on Google…time to find a workaround)
– Like the Charge 5 the GPS is terrible. It drains the battery and it is very inaccurate. I use my iPhone’s GPS tracking synced to my Charge 6 instead and it works great. If you don’t have your phone with you then you are out of luck.
– The biggest disappointment is the YouTube Music app. Like the Google Maps it is a remote control for the phone app. I’m a YouTube Music subscriber so I was really looking forward to this but the connectivity to the phone app is very unreliable (like the Google Maps app). You can’t really see your music library, find an artist, and select Shuffle Play. All you can do is use the playback controls. (which I already have in Siri and on my Powerbeats pro earbuds), see a list of your recently played songs, and a couple of Google created playlists that I don’t care to use. I really hope that they improve it in future software upgrades.
– Some exercise modes have an Auto Detect and Auto Stop feature. Basically this feature auto starts an exercise mode if the device detects that you are exercising. It sound good but in reality I found it to be more of a nuisance. The device can’t tell if I’m just in a hurry or warming up for a workout. If I’m in the middle of a workout and I slow down to catch my breath, the Charge 6 will ask me if I want to stop which means I’m forced to interact with the device when I don’t really want to. Luckily you can turn this feature off per mode.
– When you reach a new target zone the Charge 6 displays the new target zone and the number like the Charge 5 however Google has changed the number/graphic and made it impossibly small to read without stopping and staring or triple tapping which are tedious while you are moving during your routine. I hope Google improves this in a future software update.
– When the device is on exercise mode the screens shows the time at the very top. The Charge 5 I believe showed the total calories burned which is far more useful, Not sure why Google messed with this. If I need t know the time I can scroll to it during my workout or I can ask Siri.
– I use the timer a lot…it is still limited to 1 hour.

The phone app was cool until Google did a complete redesign which a lot of users are unhappy about.
I use the app and the web portal to log my food consumption and my weight. IMHO any fitness tracker is worthless if you don’t track both. The app calories data is also broken. The calories left for the day count is incorrect compared to the web portal (there is a difference of hundreds of calories). This to me is unacceptable and It has been broken for months. Not sure what Google is waiting on to fix it. As a workaround if I need to see how many calories I can consume…I just look at the portal on a browser on my mac, iPad or iPhone..

In spite of my dislikes overall I do like the Charge 6 and it is a nice upgrade specially for $100. The more accurate sensors are worth the upgrade. That said if you plan to upgrade because of the GPS or the YouTube Music app you may want to hold off.

Es un gran avance con relación a las primeras generaciones de Charges. Lo único que inexplicablemente no tiene es altímetro. Pero todo lo demás es de primera y a un costo con relación a otras marcas, realmente extraordinario.

An iphone compatible band. It serves very well to record workouts. It has a very minimalist design. The plastic strap can cause a little irritation if you wear it all the time, but otherwise, excellent smart band.