Fitbit Charge 4 Review 2021: Easy to Use Fitness Tracker With a Ton of Features on Amazon Prime Day Sale
To test the Charge 4’s tracking accuracy, I did a few things. First, I walked 75 steps (manually counting them myself), to see if the tracker accurately tracked them all (it did). Then, I tested it on a run, which is where I found some discrepancies. I went to the Saddle River Pathway in New Jersey for this part, which is one of my favorite places to run because the six-mile trail (12 miles roundtrip) has markers along the way for every .1 mile so you can keep track of your distance.
One note about my running test: I’ve been running for over 10 years now and have been at various fitness levels as well as speed levels. I used to be able to run five miles without taking a break but now, after taking some time off from running, I can only do one mile without stopping. Because of this, I now use the run/walk method after my first mile. This has been helping me re-build my endurance, but I’ve noticed that it also confuses some fitness trackers, including past Fitbits I’ve used, and I wanted to see how the Charge 4 would fare on a combination run/walk for four miles.
I ran for my first mile and used my Nike Run App as well as the mile markers to compare with the readings on my Charge 4. At the one-mile marker all three said one mile exactly.
However, I decided to run/walk for mile two. At the mile two marker my Nike Run App was spot on again, but my Fitbit was .06 off.
I did another run/walk for mile three and then ran the entire time for mile four, for a total time of 52 minutes. By the end of my four-mile session (as measured by the trail’s mile markers) my Nike Run App said 4.02 miles, while the Fitbit said 4.13. This isn’t a huge difference, but it is something to note if you normally do run/walk type workouts. I have tested the Charge 4 multiple times after this first run and if I run the entire time or walk the entire time it’s accurate but it always slightly off when I combine both activities.
Battery Life
Fitbit says that the Charge 4 has a seven-day battery life, which I put to the test, as well. After a day of minimal activity, where all I did was make sure I hit my 15,000 step goal (without any type of workout), the watch was still at 93% battery life at the end of the day, which is great for a full day of walking! However, this isn’t how I usually use my activity trackers, since I’m a pretty active person: I run at least one mile every day, as well as make sure I walk enough to always hit my 15,000 step goal. On top of that, some days I do a 45-minute workout class.
So, for another experiment, I tested the battery life by charging it fully and then tracking how long it took the battery to drain based on my normal level of activity. The Charge 4 lasted about 4 days without charging, which is still a long span of time, losing about 25% battery life per day. By the night of the fourth day I was at 5% so I plugged it in overnight to charge. (I’ve charged it during the day as well and found that it only takes an hour and a half for the watch to charge fully from 0%.) I consistently also wore the tracker to sleep every night, unless it was charging, which didn’t affect the battery life very much when I woke up in the morning.
Comfort
When wearing my smartwatch all day, I can usually always sense that it’s on my wrist, but the lightweight feel of the Charge 4 is a big plus. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m wearing it until I get a notification or alarm, which comes in handy when I want to track my sleep especially. Sleep is an important part of fitness recovery but I’m not the best sleeper, if I’m being honest, since I’m very sensitive to light and noise. Even though my smartwatch has a sleep tracking function, it always felt too heavy on my wrist and I couldn’t bear keeping it on all night. Since the Charge 4 is so lightweight I have been able to wear it to bed almost every night without even noticing it’s on (and yes, my sleep score according to the Charge 4 is in the poor to fair range, so it’s something I need to work on).