What you need to know
- The Fitbit Charge 4 is the first Fitbit tracker with built-in GPS.
- It also comes with seven-day battery life, advanced sleep tracking, and Spotify support.
- You can pre-order the Charge 4 right now for $150.
- Fitbit is also launching a new Activite Zone Minutes metric, along with new content for Fitbit Premium.
Fitbit ended 2019 with quite a bang. On November 1, the company announced it had reached a deal with Google to be purchased by the search giant for a grand total of $2.1 billion. Fitbit has remained relatively quiet since then, but now it's ready to unveil its first hardware product since that acquisition was announced. Ladies and gents, let's talk about the Fitbit Charge 4.
The most exciting and noteworthy aspect of the Charge 4 is the fact that it's the first Fitbit tracker with built-in GPS, meaning you can leave your phone at home and still have the Charge 4 map an outdoor run, walk, or bike ride. Up until now, the only other Fitbit device with GPS was the $250 Fitbit Ionic smartwatch.
Another highlight for the Charge 4 is that it's the first Fitbit to ship with the new Active Zone Minutes tracking system. Active Zone Minutes are tracked using the Charge 4's heart rate sensor, and based on your personalized heart rate zones, you'll earn Activite Zone Minutes when you really get the blood pumping. Users will have daily and weekly goals to work towards, with the main idea being to give you a more in-depth and personalized number to achieve instead of a static number that only relies on how long a workout is being tracked for.
GPS is the biggest update to the Charge 4, with the rest of the excellent Charge 3 experience remaining intact.
When you're done working out and ready to hit the sack, the Charge 4 can also track your sleep. A future software update will add Fitbit's "smart wake," feature, which uses machine learning to find an "optimal" time to wake you up in the morning.
Speaking of new software features, you'll also find Spotify on the Charge 4 — another first for a Fitbit outside of the company's smartwatch lineup. Similar to the Spotify app that debuted on the Versa 2, you can use Spotify on the Charge 4 to control music playback (such as skipping songs, shuffling, playing/pausing, etc.).
The rest of the Charge 4 is pretty identical to what was already offered on the Charge 3. You still get up to seven days of battery life on a single charge, female health tracking, call/text/app notifications from your phone, and a sleek design that's waterproof up to 50M. Fitbit Pay is also returning, but unlike on the Charge 3 when it was limited to the Special Edition, it's now standard across all Charge 4 models.
Before we talk pricing and availability for the Charge 4, there's some Fitbit Premium news we need to mention. If you're a Fitbit Premium user, Fitbit's adding more content to its paid service to make it more valuable. There are new guided programs for strength training, cardio at the gym, and being more mindful about your eating habits. Moving from physical to mental health, Fitbit Premium is also gaining mindfulness sessions from the popular app Ten Percent Happier.
On that note, Fitbit is adding 40 pieces of its Premium content to the Fitbit app for all users to access for free as a gesture to make sure everyone has healthy activities to do during these stressful times. And, as we previously covered, Fitbit Premium now offers a 90-day free trial so you can test out and get familiar with the service before committing any money towards it.
If you want to get your hands on the Charge 4, pre-orders open today, March 31, at Fitbit's website, Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. The Charge 4 is available in black, rosewood, and storm blue/black for $150, or you can splurge for the Special Edition that comes with two bands (including an exclusive reflective/woven one) for $170. Official sales will begin two weeks later on April 13.
The Charge 3 wasn't the most exciting wearable Fitbit's ever released, but for everything it did, it did exceptionally well. Adding GPS without raising the year-over-year price is pretty impressive, especially with that feature being so limited in the rest of Fitbit's lineup. A full review will be coming in the near future, so stay tuned!
More powerful, same price
The Fitbit Charge 4 looks a lot like the Charge 3, but there's an exciting new feature you can't see — built-in GPS. This means you can now leave your phone at home and still map all of your outdoor activities, something previously limited to the much more expensive Fitbit Ionic smartwatch. The Charge 4 offers the usual array of activity/sleep tracking, tools for female health tracking, 50M waterproofing, and seven-day battery life.
