Fitbit Charge 2 Is the Best Fitness Tracker, Period

Fitbit is quickly becoming the Xerox or Kleenex of fittingness trackers , but its popularity has n’t arrive without a few vault . With the Fitbit Charge 2 , we finally get a gadget that ’s refined enough to justify the ballyhoo .

When the Fitbit Charge andFitbit Charge HRhit the securities industry nearly two age ago , it seemed like the companionship had finally refined its estimate into a solid tracker that could serve basically anyone endure a little healthier . Unfortunately , mass food market appeal revealed some flaw . The frozen band was plagued with reports ofpeeling , and the devices were marred by occasional data synchronization issues .

TheFitbit Charge 2addresses some of the technical annoyance of its predecessors , and adds a sleeker purpose , as well as some new feature , like a Relax Mode ( for cool out ) , more granular fitness data ( for when you ’re endeavor to go HAM ) , and a better screen ( for checking texts from your mom ) . The effect is the best fitness tracker you could corrupt for the eminently affordable price of $ 150 .

All images: Alex Cranz/Gizmodo

All images: Alex Cranz/Gizmodo

A lot has changed in the earth of wearables over the last two year . ( I traded in my Fitbit for an Apple Watch 18 - calendar month ago . ) Fitness trackers and smartwatches havecontinued to blendinto one another , and as a outcome , it ’s impossible to brush up the Fitbit Charge 2 as just a convenience for health orchis . It ’s a bully fitness tracker , to be sure , but that ’s just not enough any more .

While it ’s still very much a tracker in design and functionality , it ’s also almost like a smartwatch , without in reality being a smartwatch . For example , the Charge 2 let you know when you get a call or a textual matter , but not a Slack or Facebook substance . In terms of electric battery life , however , the Charge 2 is fortunately not smartwatch - like . come from a smartwatch that sire about 24 hours , it ’s decent to get five days on a single charge .

The Charge 2 stay all the boxes of what you require in a solid seaworthiness tracker , like continuous heart - rate monitoring . It also include a fresh Relax way aimed at helping with manoeuver breathing . Relax is similar to the Breathe app on WatchOS 3 , and the idea is to take more deep breath to manipulate your external respiration and lower your heart pace .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

In term of actually insure your forward motion , you may see some stats on the Fitbit itself or consider them all in the Fitbit app for desktop or Mobile River . Pairing the Fitbit burster 2 with my Mac and iPhone was A-one simple . I like the Fitbit app , which offers substantial - metre judgment of your activity , step , sleep patterns and heart rate . Still , it ’s weird to expend so much meter inside an app to see this sort of clobber . On a smartwatch , you see it all on the gadget itself .

The design of the Charge 2 reminds me a spate of theFitbit Alta . This is a good thing . I have very small radiocarpal joint and I like that the Charge 2 does n’t look like a monstrosity on my trunk . I also like that there are now leather and different dark band options for the Charge 2 .

The silicon band that make out with the Fitbit Charge 2 is easy . I had no problem wear down it all day , or sleeping with it . Fitbit has had problem with itsbandsbefore , where they ’ve strip or cause rashes , but fortunately it looks like this was screen out out , and even if it is n’t , you’re able to always replace it .

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The 1.5 - in OLED screen on the commission 2 is four - times large than that of the Fitbit Charge HR . You use the equipment by touching the side button and then tap on the screen . But even though the screenland is tap antiphonal , it ’s not a touch projection screen . It reply to tap , but you take to weightlift and go for the side push button to enter the features .

Unlike theFitbit Flex 2 , the cathexis 2 is not waterproof . For me , that ’s fine , but it ’s disappointing that Fitbit could n’t bring some of that tech to this twist too . It would be another good value add , especially in light of what other fitness tracker and smartwatches tender these solar day . Even the Apple Watch can go for a swim .

However we did test out the complaint 2 in a warm dunk - a - thon and it survived just fine .

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The Charge 2 will now automatically track your activities without you having to tell it what form of exercise you ’re doing . In theory , that ’s awesome , but in pattern I found it take some time for the Charge 2 to pick up on what I was doing . If you ’re doing a quick 10 - minute jog , it might not record .

Still , I was impressed with how it was able-bodied to notice my 45 - minute run without me even having to tell the machine I was running . Plus , it ’s very gentle to start a manual bodily process interval on the tracker itself .

The rush 2 can also measure VO2 max level . This is n’t measured by the new sensors , instead it ’s done running the information from the spunk - pace tracker through a special algorithm . That ’s gravid and all , but I have no idea how accurate the tracking rates actually are . I also do n’t really care about VO2 trailing , but if you do , it ’s here .

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And verbalize of tracking , the Charge 2 uses the same nerve - charge per unit detector as the Fitbit thrill HR and the Fitbit Blaze . You know , the ones that werescrutinizedearlier this year for maybe not being so accurate . That said , in my trial , the substance - rate tracking matched what I saw on my Apple Watch . I also tend to desire our friends atThe Wirecutter , who receive the tracking truth to be just fine .

Like the Charge HR , the Charge 2 can proffer wrist notification for calls and texts . It now includes calendar reminder too , though on iOS that ’s specify to the establish - in calendar app . Overall the apprisal feel limited .

The Fitbit cathexis 2 is not a smartwatch — that ’s what the Fitbit Blaze is for — but after using an Apple Watch for the last 18 months , I sort of have a laborious time secern the difference between the Watch and the Charge 2 . Although , there were emphatically times when I used the direction 2 that I wish well I could get Slack notifications on my radiocarpal joint .

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And frankly , that ’s my only material complaint about the Charge 2 . It ’s a neat fitness tracker . I would say it ’s now the best fitness tracker for the money on the market , and if you just want a fittingness tracker , this is the one you should purchase .

But we ’re now in a weird place where fitness trackers and smartwatches are really startle to meet . With new , more fitness - focused , Android Wear twist coming out and the newApple Watch Series 2 in computer storage , it ’s worth see whether you want to pay $ 150 for the best fitness tracker , or a couple of hundred dollars more for something that will do all your fitness stuff and act as a capital smartwatch .