Following a high-profile leak that spilled most of the beans, Google-owned Fitbit today announced the Charge 5, an upcoming addition to the company’s lineup of fitness trackers. On the outside, the Charge 5 borrows heavily from the Fitbit Luxe, with a sleek, rounded, colorful display. Under the hood, though, is where you can find all the goodness.
The most noticeable change in the Charge 5 is the always-on display that lets you check your health stats instantly and curves to fit the wristband. The always-on feature can be turned off to help you eke more battery life from the device. If you want to wake the display, all you need to do is raise your wrist.
Similar to the Charge 4, the new Charge 5 will ship with built-in GPS to track your outdoor activities. Not only will you be able to view your activity on a map, but the Charge 5 will also display your workout intensity along the GPS track. You’ll be able to see at a glance where you were pushing yourself to your limit and where you were taking it easy.
The Charge 5 joins the Fitbit Sense as Fitbit’s first trackers to feature an EDA sensor, which measures your sweat to monitor your stress levels. The sensor is used to generate a Stress Management Score to help you manage your daily stress levels.
Daily Readiness is a new metric added to Fitbit’s Premium service. Like Garmin’s body battery, the Daily Readiness Score takes heart rate variability, sleep, and activity into account to calculate your overall energy level. This new metric determines whether you are ready for a crushing workout or an extra-long nap. Daily Readiness helps athletes manage their exercise and recovery schedule so they can get the most out of their activities.
The Fitbit Charge 5 ties into Fitbit’s premium membership, which provides access to features like Daily Readiness and exclusive content. With premium, Charge 5 owners can choose from more than 200 audio and video workouts led by professional trainers. The Charge 5 ships with a free six-month membership to this Premium content. After this free trial expires, Charge 5 owners can use the device without the premium features or choose to subscribe for $10 per month or $80 per year.
The Fitbit Charge 5 costs $179, which is $50 more than the existing Charge 4, and will be available this fall. The fitness tracker will come in three colors: Steel blue/platinum, black/graphite, and lunar white/gold. Those who want more than the stock sports band can purchase leather or hook-and-loop bands for a more classy look. Fitbit also is selling replacement sports bands in a wide range of colors.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.