The best-known fitness wearable maker Fitbit has added 2 more products to its lineup at IFA 2016. The two latest trackers are Charge 2 and Flex 2. Earlier this year, Fitbit came up with two of its exclusive fitness wearable- Blaze and Alta. Blaze and Alta added a variety to the existing lineup for sure.
Most of us know that Charge is the most successful product from the company till now. If you have ever used a Fitbit then there are 75% of chances that it is a Charge or Charge HR. Continuing the same consistency, Fitbit Charge 2 has come up with a new design, improved features and a bigger display. We have got the latest Fitbit in the house and here is our report after the initial encounter with the Charge 2.
Fitbit Charge 2 Pros
- Bigger display
- Changeable bands
- Phone notifications
- Good built
- Added features and interactive UI
- Android and iPhone support
Fitbit Charge 2 Cons
- Thick design
- Touch response is not up to the mark
- Not waterproof
Recommended: Fitbit Blaze Hands on Review, Nice Looking Upgrade With Some Compromise
Box Contents
Fitbit Charge 2 comes with a clip charger and a user manual.
Fitbit Charge 2 Specifications
[table id=636 /]
Fitbit Charge 2 Features
Fitbit Charge 2 comes with a number of new features and improvements over their last fitness wearable. Here are some of the highlighted features.
- Continuous heart rate tracking
- Auto sleep tracking, Sleep Quality and time and duration of sleep
- Silent vibrating alarm
- Multiple clock faces and interchangeable bands
- Get call and text notifications
- Reminders to move
- Exercise summary
- VO2 Max
- Breathing training
- Auto exercise recognition
- Time and date
- Calendar reminders
Design and Built Quality
The Charge 2 has a very identical design when kept aside the previous Fitbit trackers. Actually, the Charge 2 borrows some elements from its predecessor, as well as Fitbit Alta and a bit from Surge. It is sleeker than the others and the band also comes with a lesser width compared to Charge and Surge. Another major change is in the display size, as it boasts of a four times bigger (compared to Charge) black and white OLED display. What resembles of Alta is the sleek looking polished silver body that looks stylish with the black glass layer on top of it.
Like the Fitbit surge it has only one button on the left to navigate through the menu. It does not offer you touch input option but you can tap under the display to scroll through options on home screen and also wake up display with a double tap. It feels a lot like a touchscreen but in my case I had to tap with force to get my job done. The response was poor and I was easily annoyed.
The display size I feel is perfect for a fitness band, and it is smaller than the Surge but larger if compared to Alta. You can easily read the text on the display and it has enough space to put all the required info on it. Although sometimes I feel the dial or the tracker feels a little thicker due to the heart rate monitor.
The band quality feels good on the skin but looks like an ordinary rubber strap especially when using the black band. It does not grip your skin or hair, and the grip on the skin is still very good. The material of the strap feels lightweight and rugged at the same time. Like the Alta, the Charge 2 will also get Luxe leather accessory band options, in brown, blush pink and indigo.
Fitbit Charge 2 Photo Gallery
Battery Life
Fitbit this time claims that the Charge 2 will last up to 5 days depending upon the use. We have used previous generation Charge as well and it delivered up to 3 days of backup on a single charge, even when it has a smaller display. We’ll need some more time to come up with a verdict about the battery backup. This is my second day with the Charge and it still has around 80% of juice remaining.
Conclusion
Fitbit has already given us enough choices to pick the best fitness tracker from their line up. It covers the features that were missed out in Alta and also gives you the best of each wearable from the company. We are not comparing it with the other fitness bands in the market for now, but we’ll surely come up with a full review of Charge 2.
