Gadgetory

we're in the thick of wearable fitness tax season and the Fitbit charge 3 has just arrived this could be fitbit's best overall general fitness tracker but how does that compare to the fitbit Versa a watch that I've already really liked and how does it compare to Apple watch series 4 well I'm here to tell you after wearing it for only a few days how it compares and what you should look out for how it stands out the Fitbit charge 3 is $150 which is significantly less than the Apple watch series 4 but it's also $50 less than the Versa so if you're looking for value that's it it also has better battery life than the fitbit Versa and for the first time the Fitbit charge 3 compared to the charge 2 has water resistance for swimming which is great so you can wear in the shower wear it while swimming it has a larger screen and its really touch enabled this time so it doesn't have any of that tap to touch stuff which feels a lot smoother to operate the charge 3 also gets notifications so you can tap in all the notifications from your phone feeling a lot more like a SmartWatch so in that sense isn't it kind of like a SmartWatch that's a thing it's probably enough of that if you just want basic functions and what it doesn't have no music support so and no ability to store music and there's no music remote and while there is Fitbit pay for a $20 bump up version which is not bad because you're also getting an extra band Fitbit doesn't support a lot of banks at this point compared to Apple pay and Google pay other than that it's a pretty basic fitness tracker experience no GPS but it does have the step-up heartrate that's been on recent Fitbit models called pure pulse this heartrate is supposed to give more accurate tracking and also help with more accurate sleep readings so far it's been a little bit up and down but we're gonna keep testing it and give an update as we do a full review even though the charge 3 has a larger screen than the charge 2 it's significantly smaller than the fitbit Versa or other smartwatches and it's not color however it is a pretty bright grayscale OLED screen so it looks crisp and moves smoothly and there are a few watch faces that you can pick within the Fitbit app but there is no watch based store unlike the Fitbit Versa and ionic and there's no app store while there are a couple of app like functions there are no others that you can shop for an ad the interactions with the charge three are done using your finger or with a really clever little hectic kind of button on the side there's an indentation and when you press in it has a vibration and it feels like a button it brings you back to the main menu turns the screen on and off or if you're in an exercise it'll pause and then stop the workout navigating is a little bit wonky in the sense that you do have to do a lot of swiping to pick features not a lot is immediately done with the side buttons so if you're looking for instant get up and go workouts the Versa has more shortcuts you see here you can start run there's basic fitness stats not a ton but enough you can bring up relaxed which is fitbit's breathing relaxation app where you take breaths and it will tell you if it comes you down these are always kind of weird because I prefer to not look at electronics to relax there's also timers which is timer or stopwatch nice to have alarms the vibration on this actually feels pretty strong weather is there although sometimes it doesn't sync it's a little bit funky certainly not nearly as effortless as using say an Apple watch with an iPhone and that's it it's a pretty bare-bones set of stuff but a step up over what you've gotten before on the charge - for $150 this basically has all the basic tracking tools you need and fitbit's app is really great it's got a great community there's a lot of tools in there I really like using it but you might not need to charge three if you already have a charge - or you might prefer to wait for a holiday sale and see if the Fitbit Versa which has a lot of other watchface options is available - versa does a lot of the same stuff and again it's the watch faces and apps the Apple watch series 4 doesn't have sleep tracking it doesn't have longer battery life like these fitbit's do but it does have a lot faster hook ins not to mention speakerphone much more robust music playback better contactless payments the ability to add cellular so that's kind of in its own territory a couple of annoying things about the Fitbit charge 3 it has yet another proprietary charger this keeps happening with fitbit's and this clip-on one is not the same as the clip-on ones from other models so hang on to your specific Fitbit charger and the bands are also new this time so if you have previous fitbit's they won't work the good news is that these new bands I tried out a silicone perforated sport one and a nice woven one they detach and attach a lot more easily than the fitbit Versa hope that helps we're gonna have a lot more on Fitbit in the future and I'm gonna keep wearing Fitbit charge through my wrist so far it's only been about two days and I'm down to about 64% battery life more soon