Fitbit - Charge 3 Activity Tracker + Heart Rate - Black/Graphite

I have been a fitbit enthusiast for more than four years. I've had the Zip, the One, and the Charge 2. The problem is sync. The last time my Charge 3 did so was 18 hours ago. The bottom line is that if sync works you should be OK but there's a lot of people stuck there and others are stuck elsewhere. This might be a good thing to wait until Black Friday. Simply put this was rushed to market. This cannot be denied. They released three different firmware in one week. Fitbit has good programmers but certainly we shouldn't have to wait for 6 releases in order to get a good product. The problem here appears to be with program management who was up against a ship date therefore they shipped with a forced firmware upgrade right out of the box and then another two days later. The biggest issue is with sync. It might work fine with your device but for my Samsung Galaxy S8 it's hit or miss. Sometimes it syncs in 30 minutes, sometimes in 18 hours. And one anomaly that fitbit refuses to answer is how is it possible for my tracker to be disconnected from my phone yet the phone is able to send notifications. This is the exact opposite of how the Charge 2 worked or rather didn't work with the S8. The worse part of the sync problem is why they frantically rushed new firmware out they seem to be taking the approach that al of the problems are due to the user's setup. ALL troubleshooting that is provided is exactly the same for every other model they sell. Some of this is quite draconian where they demand you remove other trackers from your account. I don't know what 90 minutes of firmware is doing if it isn't fixing sync! But mostly my impression is they are willing to help but it's the customer's problem not there's. I'm sure they will come out with a firmware that finanally fixes the problem and then shrug. Eliminating other trackers also goes against them flat saying that having multiple trackers is supported. Perhaps I should flash my phone and only run their software. I'm sure that will be suggested at some point. I did have to remove my Charge 2 to get the Charge 3 to activate at all. Now I want to go back to the 2 to see how well it syncs but good luck with that, fitbit had the brilliant idea of taking away the feature that allows you to turn off the 3. I'm not in the mood to smoother the 3 or wait for the batter to die before I can retest the 2. There have been complaints about the lack of a date on the clock faces that ship with the tracker. They have stated they are addressing this. I don't like the circle to show step progress. There are faces that use numbers but the screen gets really tight with all the info on it. Some older people have complained that it is hard to read all the data. Either for style or to reduce power consumption the default face dims the minutes. It's nice to be able to get the thing wet. The always on pulse is good and accurate to my testing other devices. But if I can't sync then it's worthless. If you're seeing this in mid November 2018 then take it with a grain of salt. Fitbit going into the holiday with a broken product is unthinkable but shipping something in this state was until they did it. Check in with their forum to see if your phone is working OK. There's a good chance that it is already but there's a good chance you'll be in a black hole with other customers.

I picked up the Charge 3 on release day today. This is my 4th Fitbit. My last device was the Alta HR which I have loved, but I was looking for something just as reliable but with more technology. So far so good! The device is not as long as the Alta which is good since I have a very, very petite wrist, but because of the width it does look quite large on me. The small band holds it snuggly on my arm though. Out of the box it was not charged, so I plugged it in as soon as I got home and a few minutes later synced it to my phone. Initially I tried to connect it using the bluetooth function but when that failed I opened my app (already installed because of my current device) and added the device with no problems. The software update took approximately 30 minutes which was annoying, but it finished up and the app walked me through the setup process. So far, I do not see the O2 sensor is activated, but I'm not too excited about that anyway. What I love are the fact that it syncs with phone apps! The display is not colorful and attractive like a smartwatch, but I was able to set up notifications from my preferred apps installed on my Samsung Galaxy and they work great! I use Gmail for my personal account but Outlook for work, and was able to set up both by using the apps menu for the Outlook notifications. It also recognizes Snapchat, Facebook Messanger among others. I do not see an option to reply at all to text messages, so not sure if that is a future update. I am not a runner but am trying to get started using a Couch to 5k approach. It looks like some of the built in workout functions might help me with interval and timed settings. Between all of the options I am pretty sure this device will help me with my goals. If you are looking for functional device for infomation and reminders, this is for you!

I did not own any other tracker prior to getting this Charge 3 on release day. Out of the box got a firmware update that took about 30 min to complete. Claims to have a battery life of 7 days and it does, charged today with 7% battery remaining. I don't now how it calculates the steps but they are NOT even estimate to accurate, it calculate them even on my commute of 1 hour to work adding up to 2,000 steps when i am only driving. However i have found very useful the way you can track what you eat and compared with burned calories. Sleep tracking have help me to realize the quality and time i have been sleeping allowing me to make adjustments as needed, sleep tracking time seems to be very accurate so far. The apps creates a great integration with your smart phone by getting notifications and even reading a quick email. On day number 4 it became unresponsive and giving erratic readings for everything, a device reset fixed the issue. On day 5 a new update was available and took about 30 min to complete. Overall i am happy with all you can learn of yourself with this tracker. Recommended if you have a busy life and try to keep track of your health as well. The product still new and hope new updates will come to fix the small issues with the steps.

The Fitbit Charge 3 is well made and has great battery life. It performs its functions well. I wear it around the clock to track my level of fitness and to get feedback on my daily workout on the rowing machine. The primary reason for buying the Fitbit if for monitoring heart rate. This function works fine and seems to be accurate. HOWEVER... You must tap the screen to see the display or quickly flip your wrist. The display only stays on just long enough to see it. For me this is a MAJOR disappointment. When exercising I want to simply glance and see my heart rate. If this means sacrificing battery life I would gladly do it. The whole reason for getting the Charge 3 was to easily monitor my heart rate, Fitbit has thousands of feedback on this flaw in design yet seems to think it is not important enough to implement such a basic function. My other area of improvement is in the app details. It shows minimally detailed graph of heart rate. You cannot zoom it either. It would be nice to get a graph showing more heart rate details and/or some raw data. I do like the sleep monitoring app as it provides useful data that is well presented and easy to understand. So I do like my Charge 3 but now realize that to get real time heart rate information while exercising I will have to get a Garmin or Polar watch that uses a chest strap. In my opinion Fitbit is focusing too much on being a smartwatch company when they have such a great opportunity to be a leader in the fitness monitoring market. The bottonline is that the Fitbit Charge 3 needs some core feature enhancements in order to be a serious too for workout tracking. If you are considering a Fitbit for realtime heart rate monitoring you must know that to see the heart rate requires specific action for it to display. If you ride a bike, ski, row run, or are engaged in active sports this may not meet your needs,

I got the Charge 3 as a Christmas present, and was excited to use it. I set it up on Dec 25, and set up was pretty easy. I downloaded the app onto my Samsung S8+ and the Charge 3 synced immediately. It was pretty neat knowing how many steps I took each day, how much sleep I was getting, etc. So as a tracking device, it really helped tell me what steps I could take to improve my health. I also liked that it was decent looking and not overly huge. The problem began on Jan 7, so less than 2 weeks after I first set it up. I noticed that the app on my phone told me that the last time it synced was on Jan 7 at 5:51 pm. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it to sync with my phone. I tried everything that was recommended on the fitbit support page...reinstalling the app, allowing all notifications on my phone, rebooting the Charge 3, turning off bluetooth and then turning it back on, etc. Nothing worked. At first I thought it was a problem with the app software for my Samsung phone, but then began to suspect it was a problem with the Charge 3's bluetooth. I even tried pairing it with several devices - my home computer, my wife's iPhone, my wife's Macbook - it wouldn't pair with anything and would often not even show up on the list of bluetooth devices as if it wasn't broadcasting a bluetooth signal. I don't know what happened, but it's like the bluetooth just died on me. It was extremely frustrating because I was pretty excited to use it as a tool to help me get healthier in 2019. But if it won't sync, then it loses the additional functionality and basically just becomes a glorified pedometer. Anyway, I finally just gave up and returned it. Oh well, if Fitbit can sort out the software and/or bluetooth issues, maybe I'll try again.

I love the size, weight, and style of the Charge 3 hardware. And it seems to track steps, heartbeat, and sleep patterns OK. But the software is really buggy, as you can see from comments in the fitbit community forums. - When you turn your wrist, the screen is supposed to turn on. Sometimes it does. If not (maybe 50% of the time!), then you need to turn your wrist again or tap the screen -- sometimes a couple of times. So you cannot casually look at it to check the time, as you would glance at a watch. - When the screen DOES turn on, it's on for only FOUR seconds. That time is supposed to be adjustable, according to the documentation, but it's not. - None of the available screen formats show the current date. After a big uproar about this in the forums, fitbit says new screen formats are coming "soon" but they did not include any in the software update yesterday. - It shows only the most recent notification from your phone. You may feel three vibrations indicating that three messages have arrived, but if you do not press the side button after EVERY message before the next one arrives, then that message is lost. I've been waiting for the Charge 3 for a while, and I really want it to work for me. But I'm not confident that these software bugs will be fixed soon. That's really unfortunate.

It has been my first purchase with fitbit and I was very excited. Something happened with this product that has not gone well. I bought it on the day of departure. But after a week, the alarm stopped working. I asked for help in the forum and it was solved, but after several days, I had the same problem again. I ask for a change in the store (maybe I'll get a bad one). With a new one, everything was fine, until 2 days ago the synchronization is fatal. The alarm works when you want. I visit the forum and I see many people with the same problem. The downside is that this is not guaranteed with Best Buy, so I do not trust. I will return it, because I will not have an expensive product with problems. I can not be restart the product every 3 days, a factory reset is not really an acceptable solution to a sync issue. It is very frustrating Fitbit has lost a new client.

I was immensely excited to upgrade from the Charge 2, which I loved, to the Charge 3. Initial impression was that the Charge 3 is a step up in comfort; it's lighter and sits flatter against the wrist. The screen is also larger and brighter. However, it's curious that Fitbit touts the larger screen on the Charge 3 then reduces the amount of info shown as compared to the Charge 2; as of this writing, you only get the time and two stats, and customization of the stats is limited. (On the Charge 2, I enjoyed being able to see steps and active minutes in addition to the date, but that's not an option on the Charge 3.) Fitbit also brags that the new screen is brighter, but all stats are in dimmer text than the time, making them nearly impossible to read in sunlight. Other gripes: while the touchscreen is nice in theory, it's quite finicky and doesn't always respond, and the touch-sensitive side "button" with haptic feedback is nearly underneath the watch, making it difficult to get used to. After a week, I returned the Charge 3 and am back to using the Charge 2, which, while on the surface isn't as high-tech as the 3, is a superior fitness tracker.