Saw Fitbits advanced fitness tracker on 38% off so thought I'd share. It won't have some of the smart watch features if you are looking to compare to an Apple/Google Watch, but is a good fitness tracker/sleep tracker. You can also pay for things via the Charge 5 but you need to use Fitbit Pay.
CamelCamelCamel.
Cheaper at $169?
These are going to be $164 at Officeworks for BF (and probably a whole lot of other stores) - so I would just wait if you are not in a rush
Not sure if the Black Friday sale includes the 6months Fitbit premium though - so weigh that up
Not cheapest currently. As per Femelo's comment, the exact same FitBit is $169 at JBHIFI which can be price beat at Officeworks for an even lower price.
I checked JB and elsewhere before posting but they were quick on the draw! Looks like early black friday deals 😀
They did match on black for 169, but other than next day shipping, might as well just go down to JB.
My experience is that these breakdown within 12 months. Bought one for mum, crash and burned in a couple of months. JB gave a replacement, same thing happened. They just refunded her.
Yup I read the feedback as well and apparently Fitbit is just getting worse and worse.
People who are upgrading from their previous gen Fitbits (in this case Charge 3 and 4) are even writing these negative reviews saying build quality is worse than before and so is the software. Watch crashes often and eventually stops turning on and doesn't track activity accurately at all.
That's not reflected in the Amazon reviews though. The 2 top selling Fitbit 5's come in at 4.3 and 4.2 stars.
The two top selling Fitbit 4's come in at 4.3 and 4.1 stars.
So if anything the Fitbit 5 reviews has improved over Fitbit 4 by the finest of margins.
Don't get me wrong I go by average stars sometimes too.
But I actually read the reviews not only on Amazon but elsewhere and these serious issues were quite common.
It's not just the Charge by the way other models too.
My suspicion is Google cut some more corners to maximise profit. e.g. using the cheapest materials and sensors possible such as the touch screen, steps counter and heart rate sensor etc. The most experienced of the negative reviews specifically criticized it's terrible accuracy in tracking activities. So looks like it went from Fitbit to Fitcrap.
So sad.. they really seem to have gone downhill.
I'm on my second Charge 4… the first having been bricked by a dodgy firmware update. The second is looking more beat up and rubbish after 12 months than my charge 3 looked when it died of old age. Such a fragile, flakey piece of tech.
I have been contemplating an upgrade to the Charge 5… but given list of issues (despite so many glowing reviews from gadget/tech websites 🤷♂️) I think that I'll start looking for a band from another brand.
"I'm on my second Charge 4… the first having been bricked by a dodgy firmware update. The second is looking more beat up and rubbish after 12 months than my charge 3 looked when it died of old age. Such a fragile, flakey piece of tech."
Well if you want to know what the Charge 5 is like, it's even worse according to multiple reviews written by previous Charge owners.
Did a bunch of research on feedback from actual owners a month or two ago so here is what I remember. Charge 5's build quality is worse, after comparing previous Charge's side by side it was quite obvious the new one was a downgrade, one example I remember is the band breaking down and coming off where it meets the watch within a few months.
Then the tech side of things. It starts with the screen becoming less and less responsive, eventually the screen won't turn on by tapping it. Then further down the line it won't turn on at all. Also remember a few people saying yes firmware/software updates either completely killed the watch or caused it to freeze multiple times requiring a restart every time and suffer from severe battery drain.
You would think since Google tookover Fitbit that things would get better, not worse.
buy now or wait for black friday deals?
Same at jb hifi
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/fitbit-charge-5-black-gra…