Fitbit Announces Fitbit Charge 4
- Paul Thurrott
- Mar 31, 2020
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The latest Fitbit Charge fitness wearable provides a new personalized heart rate metric that tracks activity beyond steps.
“Our mission has always been to help people around the world get healthier,” Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park says in a prepared statement. “In today’s extraordinary times, that mission is more important than ever, but we realize how hard it is to focus on your health and wellness. However, staying active, eating well and getting enough sleep can help reduce stress and boost immunity.”
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Based on the site description, the Fitbit Charge 4 looks like a minor, evolutionary update over the Charge 3 that I’ve been using for about a year and a half. It provides the same form factor and look and feel, with a grayscale touchscreen and a single side-mounted button.
But there are some improvements over the previous model. The Charge 4 includes a few sleep tracking features that were only available on Fitbit’s smartwatches previously, including a smart wake function, coming soon, that uses machine learning to wake you at the optimal time. It also includes a relative SpO2 sensor for measuring bloodstream oxygen levels, tap to pay functionality, and more.
And then there’s Active Zone Minutes, the new personalized heart rate metric.
“With Active Zone Minutes, we are giving users a new personalized 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,” Mr. Park says. It appears to vibrate the wearable when you reach your target heart rate zone during a workout, and it will “celebrate when you earn extra minutes outside of workouts.” Active Zone Minutes is coming to Fitbit’s smartwatches soon, too.
The Fitbit Charge 4 costs $150 and is available now for preorder. Fitbit says it will ship in about two weeks.
Conversation 12 comments
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faustxd9
Premium Member<blockquote><em><a href="#535420">In reply to Simard57:</a></em></blockquote><p>I was thinking the same thing! I am wondering if they could tune the existing sensors to detect variations that could predict illness. Of course that is a slippery slope, as is everything with data collection these days.</p>
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faustxd9
Premium Member<p>I could be wrong, but the addition of GPS into this version could be a big deal for a lot of people.</p>