Fitbit Charge 5 review: Thanks, Captain Obvious

Daily Readiness doesn't tell you anything you don't already know

Wearables have yet to define themselves as essential gadgets the way smartphones and laptops have, leaving them in a tricky spot. Smartwatches can handle a lot of basic tasks — quick replies, timers and alarms, navigation — but they get expensive quickly, and unless you're willing to pay for a separate data plan, you'll need to keep your phone around. On the other hand, fitness trackers are typically cheaper, undercutting prices on smartwatches while handling many of the same jobs.

Even as Wear OS development begins to rebound with a renewed focus from Google, fitness trackers remain a much more affordable option for handling a lot of the same tasks. But as products from companies like Fitbit — including its newest Charge 5 — begin to swap in premium hardware and additional sensors, price hikes make for a much more dubious bargain.

Design, hardware, what’s in the box

The Charge series is Fitbit's longest-running line of trackers, with the first-gen model released way back in 2014. It's been a slow evolution for the series; the Charge 5 is the first time the company's mid-range tracker has gotten a makeover in three years. Gone are the grayscale panel and pressure-sensitive surface for navigating through menus, both replaced with a full-color OLED touchscreen.

This display looks nice, even on an outdoor walk or run. I never encountered a moment where I had to struggle to see what was on the screen, though there were a few moments — sleeping, seeing a movie in a theater — where I wished it would automatically dim itself. There's also a new option for an always-on display, though you'll need to dig through the settings menu to find it. Without a single physical button, that proves to be a much more difficult task than one might expect. Unfortunately, it's hard to justify getting rid of physical buttons on a display this small. Fully-fledged smartwatches like Samsung's Galaxy Watch4 series have some controls outside of the touchscreen if only to make navigating through the interface a little easier. Swiping and sliding between cards on Fitbit's custom OS presents itself as a challenge.

The Charge 5 replaces its physical buttons along the side of the device with curved metallic bars, dedicated to a new electrodermal activity sensor. EDA scans are designed to measure stress, which could be helpful when trying to remain calm or level-headed throughout the day. Unfortunately, detailed stats for these readings are locked behind a Fitbit Premium subscription — something of a pattern for the company's latest trackers.

Overall, I quite like the refreshed design of the Charge 5. Those curved rails feel comfortable on my wrist, and it's lightweight enough to never feel bothersome, even at night. I'm using one of the three stock silicone bands you can choose between, and I didn't find it irritating — although you may find any of the various optional replacement bands more appealing.

Unfortunately, Fitbit has opted to continue using a slimmed-down version of its proprietary two-pin charger. It was frustrating in 2020, and as we barrel towards 2022, it's even more infuriating. Switching to a wireless charging standard like Qi would make powering up the Charge 5 a whole lot easier — especially when traveling. It would also allow you to find cables longer than the 20-inch cord included in the box, or to switch from USB-A to USB-C.

In the box, you'll find the Charge 5 itself, along with your selected band, a larger bottom band for bigger wrists, and the aforementioned too-short cable.

Software, performance, battery

Google has owned Fitbit for nearly a year now, but we have yet to see the company switch over to Wear OS for any of its products. We know that move is coming — at least for smartwatches, if not for some of its trackers — but for now, it's still running custom software. Its UI is relatively basic, with swipe-based navigation for accessing quick settings, daily statistics, and all of the various sensors built into the Charge 5.

Even if Wear OS eventually comes to wearables this small, it might not make for a better experience. Fitbit uses a simple six-page layout for the Charge 5. The home screen has a watch face of your choosing with shortcuts to your fitness stats, followed by Notifications, Exercise, Alarms, Timers, and EDA Scan. You can swipe back and forth between each page, and although it's not obvious at first, a double-tap on the screen brings you right home.

I found the watch face library pretty disappointing. There's plenty to pick from, but most of the designs leave something to be desired. They're also far less customizable than I was hoping for — even though the Charge 5 is the first in the series to feature a full-color display, you can't change the colors in any of these layouts. If you like a watch face but hate its default colors, you can either learn to live with it or find a different design.

Software quirks aside, when it comes time to hit the gym — or track, trails, pool, etc. — the Charge 5 holds up to the standard Fitbit has set for itself. Like last year's model, this device uses "Active Zone Minutes" to track fitness rather than relying on steps alone. Although I don't think the device itself does a great job of explaining what these are, Fitbit's website has a super helpful FAQ that dives into exactly what you're looking to achieve. Overall, I think it's a big improvement over the old steps method.

As far as fitness tracking is concerned, the Charge 5 is great. Although it does include auto-tracking, I always found myself manually starting a workout to ensure everything was recorded. Outdoor and indoor runs seemed accurate (with the latter matching up well with what was displayed on a treadmill), while weightlifting monitored how well I was burning fat based on my heart rate.

Battery life is either excellent or merely passable, depending on whether you enable always-on display. With it disabled, the Charge 5 just kept going and going — it took me nearly nine full days of use to drop its battery to 14%, after which I received a helpful email reminder to throw it on the charger. If you enable the always-on display, you'll have to settle for just three days of battery life — more than most smartwatches offer, but not nearly as impressive.

App and Features

Fitbit's app feels like it would really benefit from some sort of streamlining. I found it challenging to navigate, especially with how much information it throws at you. The selection of tabs along the bottom isn't nearly as handy as the settings hidden under the Account tile in the top-left, which makes adjusting watch faces or tweaking notifications a lot more complicated than it needs to be.

Fitbit's newest addition for the Charge 5 is a "Daily Readiness" score, designed to keep you focused on mixing workouts with rest days. It sounds pretty cool, combining your activities from the previous day with sleep data to predict the results of your next workout. It wasn't ready for primetime at launch, but you can check out all of my thoughts on it in the update at the bottom of this review.

Outside of the tracking, I found the Charge 5 notably lacking in features compared to smartwatches. Despite sharing a parent company, YouTube Music isn't supported for offline playback here, and neither is Spotify or Apple Music. If you're looking to listen to tracks without a phone while working out, you'll need to sign up for Deezer or Pandora Radio — neither of which are particularly tempting in 2021. Fitbit Pay seemed promising, but the lineup of supported banks is much smaller than Google Pay's, and neither of my accounts were supported. If I needed to stop and buy something on a run, I'd either need my wallet or my smartphone in hand.

Viewing and responding to notifications is possible, but the display is so tiny, you'll either be waiting for specific information to scroll across the screen or reaching for your phone as soon as you feel your wrist buzz.

Should you buy it?

Probably not.The Charge 5 might be a fitness tracker first and foremost, but at $180, it's hard not to compare it to devices like Samsung's Galaxy Watch4. Not only can that watch double as a pretty solid fitness device, but it's more capable in nearly every other way. Navigating through menus, listening to music, cashing out at the store — it's all easy on a device that has dropped as low as $200 just a couple of months post-launch.

This year's $30 price bump makes the Charge 5 hard to recommend, and not just because of the competition. More than ever, Fitbit has placed its newest and most advanced tracking features behind a paywall, requiring a monthly subscription to get the most out of your purchase. Fitness trackers are decent buys when they're priced affordably, but once you're pushing up against $200, it makes more sense to jump to a real smartwatch — especially considering Google is finally paying attention to Wear OS once more.

Buy it if...

• You want a basic fitness tracker without any of the added bloat of a smartwatch.
• You want a long-lasting wearable that only requires a charge once a week.

Don't buy it if...

• You want it to work with the mobile payment or music streaming apps you already use.
• You plan on using it for notifications or other services that require a large screen.
• You aren't willing to pay for a subscription to access its best features.

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