Fitbit has unveiled its new wearable, the Fitbit Charge 4.
Unlike the Versa range which is more of a smartwatch, the Charge 4 is the next in the company’s fitness band range so it’s a sleek alternative for those wanting to keep track of their fitness without the bulkiness of a watch.
The slimmer Charge 4 is still packed full of new sensors and features. The band now features built-in GPS and Spotify, handy for your one outdoor exercise activity for the day during lockdown, as well as the company’s new Active Zone Minutes, that tracks the workouts that get your heart pumping towards a weekly goal of 150 minutes.
“Our mission has always been to help people around the world get healthier. In today’s extraordinary times, that mission is more important than ever, but we realise how hard it is to focus on your health and wellness,” said Fitbit CEO and co-founder James Park.
Exercise is different for everyone so the Active Zone Minutes feature uses your personalised heart rate zones to track your effort during exercises such as walking, HIIT workouts or yoga. You will earn credit for each minute of moderate activity and double for vigorous ones. This is then calculated and added to your daily and weekly goals.
“With Active Zone Minutes, we are giving users a new personalised standard for health and fitness so they can get the most out of any activity that works for them and help to keep them motivated,” added Park.
The company has added Fitbit Premium capability to the Charge 4 too. The subscription service was launched last year, with extended fitness and health tracking capabilities as well as workout programmes and nutrition guides. Fitbit Premium comes with a free 90-day trial period, (after that it’s £7.99 a month), so you can access workouts from brands including barre3 and Physique 57 to keep you moving indoors.
Premium helps to keep users motivated: according to Fitbit’s EVP of product and design Jonathan Oakes, users who took less than 5,000 steps a day before joining Premium took 16,000 more steps per week during their first two weeks of using the service.
To top it all off, the Charge 4 has a seven-day battery life so if sleep tracking is something that’s important to you, the tracker can help you understand and improve your sleep. Smart Wake, which is currently only available on the smartwatches, is coming to the Charge 4 soon and it uses machine learning to wake you up at the optimal time in your sleep cycle. And it’s still swimproof.
Will the new fitness tracker be enough to boost Fitbit’s ability to compete in the wearable space? According to Leo Gebbie, senior analyst, wearables and VR at CCS Insight, the company has to fend off high-end devices from the likes of Apple as well as defend its position from the cheaper Chinese manufacturers.
“Fitbit continues to occupy the difficult middle ground in a fiercely competitive wearables market. It has a formidable competitor in Apple at the top end of the market, especially since the Apple Watch Series 3 was cut to $199/£199. This has put Fitbit’s Versa 2 smartwatch under immense pressure. At the same time, budget devices from Chinese competitors including Xiaomi and Huami are undercutting Fitbit, especially when it comes to fitness trackers,” said Gebbie.
With the new Fitbit Premium features and the Active Zone Minutes, not to mention sleep tracking which is something Apple still hasn’t cracked, the Charge 4 should have enough to keep you occupied for now.
The new Charge 4 is available to pre-order now from Fitibt.com and Amazon.co.uk and will be on sale from April 15. It’s available in three colours: black, rosewood and storm blue/black, for £129.99. The Charge 4 special edition will be available with an exclusive granite reflective woven band plus a classic black band to swap for workouts, for £149.99.
