Fitbit Charge Wireless Activity Wristband Review

If you're in the market for an activity wristband, you may have looked at Fitbit's range. I have been looking at bands for a while now and the Fitbit Charge took my interest. When I put the band on for the first time the rubber was comfortable to the skin, didn't cause me to sweat or feel uncomfortable. The form factor is slim and it really doesn't weigh very much. The band comes in 3 sizes, small (14-16.5cm) large (16.5-20cm) and x-large (20-23cm).

There's a small OLED display which displays white text, using the one button on the device you can cycle through the time, steps, distance travelled, floors, calories burned and your next alarm. Holding down the button will start and stop a stopwatch. The display is crisp and bright, perfect in the sun.

Smart alarms are fantastic, I started sleeping through my phone alarms when I got used to the sound they made. The Charge actually vibrates on your wrist which in an interesting way to wake up but works every time. I use them to wake up and to remind me to do things during the day.

One feature that I love about the band, that made me really excited was caller ID, I don't know if many other activity bands have this feature but when you get a phone call, providing you're in Bluetooth range the activity band will vibrate and show you who is calling you. I thought it was a feature that made this wristband better than the rest at this price point.

The accuracy of the steps taken seem to be one of the most accurate I've seen, my only complaint is when driving the bumps sometimes count as steps, this is to be expected though. I take it off when playing guitar because every time I change chords it seems to register as a step, typing now I've taken it off to reduce any false readings. It does track steps perfectly though.

Another very accurate function is the sleep tracking, I'm the worst sleeper and being able to see when I woke up during the night and I could figure out what was causing it, for example sunrise at 5am I would always wake up. It has genuinely helped me sleep better by stopping things what would wake me up.
The biggest downside is that the band isn't waterproof, it's sweat and rain proof but any water submersion isn't advised. Well, it will probably break it. I take it off when showering and washing my hands, just as a precaution. I usually take this time to clean the wristband with a disinfectant wipe, it does get dirty if you don't. I'm a bit of a clean freak so I naturally do it.

Fitbit's app is really feature rich, allowing you to see all your stats and go in to more detail with your sleep. There's many options that are self explanatory and helpful preset goals which are all changeable. There's different clock faces to choose from and weight goals. A feature I haven't looked in to is food diaries, I've used MyFitnessPal before for that and it appears to work the same way. All day sync drains the phone battery but is easily disabled, syncing every morning when I wake up is better for me. Goals, goals are awesome, you receive a nice little motivational notification when you're close to one and a friendly well done when completing. It does spur me on to complete them, get up and move.

Battery life is fantastic! I get 7-9 days on a single charge and it take 2 hours to charge it back up. Again with notifications you get a reminder to charge the wristband when the battery is low and even a little email at the same time. It means you'll never forget to charge it.

I'm seriously impressed with this accessory, I usually find watches uncomfortable but I've never actually noticed wearing it. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an activity band and sleep tracker. It's priced well in the current pool of similar activity bands. Check out MobileFun for fitness accessories.

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