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Fitbit Now Shipping Charge HR and Surge Fitness Bands

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Apr 12, 2001
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Fitbit today announced it has started selling the Surge and Charge HR, the company's latest activity trackers. Unveiled in October, the two wearables join the Charge and Flex in Fitbit's popular fitness band lineup.

fitbit-surge.png
Fitbit Surge​
Advertised as a Fitness "Super Watch", the Surge includes a continuous heart rate monitor and an onboard GPS module for distance, route, and elevation tracking. Similar to other Fitbit wearables, the Surge also offers sleep monitoring, silent alarms, and all-day multi-sport activity tracking. Besides activity tracking, the Surge displays iOS notifications and provides music playback control via the touchscreen LCD display.

fitbit-chargehr.png
Fitbit Charge HR​
Alongside the Surge, Fitbit is also shipping the Charge HR, a version of the Charge fitness band that adds a continuous heart rate monitor. The Charge HR supports the standard all-day activity and sleep tracking available in Fitbit's line of fitness bands. It also supports Caller ID on its monochrome OLED display.

Both the Surge and the Charge HR are available to order today on Fitbit's online storefront for $249 and $149, respectively. Fitbit has so far opted not to support Apple's Health ecosystem introduced with iOS 8, but there are several intermediary solutions to allow users to move Fitbit data into the Health app.

Article Link: Fitbit Now Shipping Charge HR and Surge Fitness Bands
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/01/06/fitbit-charge-hr-surge-now-available/
All these devices look very intriguing to me until I scroll down to the price. As much of a fitness buff as I am, $250 just seems to high for what they do (and don't do).
 
Nunyabinez said:
All these devices look very intriguing to me until I scroll down to the price. As much of a fitness buff as I am, $250 just seems to high for what they do (and don't do).
Click to expand...

The Surge seems pretty competitive with, say the Garmin FR220, which is also $250 but w/o HR. You have to get the HR bundle on that watch for an extra $50 to get the true running data features.

The Surge's problem is that the $250 space is becoming crowded with lots of great choices. Fitbit isn't king of the higher end activity monitor space as it was with the low end.

I have the Charge HR. It's a good activity monitor for $150, basically a Force with HR and Caller ID. Much better than the Nike Fuel Band, which is still available for sale at $150, but basically abandonware.
 
Own the Charge HR, has been awesome (other than battery life being about 3 days instead of advertised 5).

No syncing to the Apple health app hasn't really bothered me like I thought it would. (yes, I'm aware of the sync solver app).
 
I own the MS band. It's awesome! If apple watch tracks fitness like this, I'll be super happy. However, something tells me I'm going to have more than one fitness tracker/smartwatch .... The surge looks interesting, but I'm going to wait for a review.
 
Smileyboy said:
I own the MS band. It's awesome! If apple watch tracks fitness like this, I'll be super happy. However, something tells me I'm going to have more than one fitness tracker/smartwatch .... The surge looks interesting, but I'm going to wait for a review.
Click to expand...

Same.

Also, last time i checked, this wouldn't support ios notifications until a later firmware update was rolled out. Have they changed this to now have it ship with this?
 
Nunyabinez said:
All these devices look very intriguing to me until I scroll down to the price. As much of a fitness buff as I am, $250 just seems to high for what they do (and don't do).
Click to expand...

Additionally, any fitness buff would have to ask themselves, why buy the Surge, if for 100 bucks more you could have the :apple:Watch with it's ecosystem and no doubt zillions of Apps that are sure to follow.
 
North America only according to reports. Come on UK!!!!
Then again, if the southern US isn't getting it yet I suppose thats some consolation.

Can they really not ship to a whole one half of the same country?
 
Nunyabinez said:
All these devices look very intriguing to me until I scroll down to the price. As much of a fitness buff as I am, $250 just seems to high for what they do (and don't do).
Click to expand...

Agreed that $250 is not a small amount. But a typical GPS watch can easily go as much as $250-300 (starting from about $150). So I'd say charing $150 and $250 is not outrageous.
 
I would have bought this a few months ago, but w/out direct integration in Health app, and Apple watch on the horizon (early 2015), I'll wait it out.
The wearable market is getting crowded.
 
Fenir said:
Same.



Also, last time i checked, this wouldn't support ios notifications until a later firmware update was rolled out. Have they changed this to now have it ship with this?
Click to expand...


No problem with notifications. I get everything.

I agree about the Apple Watch not being that much more money wise.... But if it doesn't track properly... I will be returning it. I've tried so many bands. This one tracks so well, I just wish it worked with HealthKit. Battery life is about 2 days. I usually charge it every other day for an hr in the morning after a Crossfit class.

All the Surge reviews aren't impressing me. But I may buy one just to try it out.
 
This article is misleading. The website lets you "pre order" with shipping listed 8-10 weeks.
 
I got my Surge on 1/1 from BestBuy.com (they sold out on Sunday). I like it, it's like a "Super" Pebble with HR, GPS, Touchscreen and a much faster processor. But on the other hand it's crippled in the software department as a "smartwatch"

Music player lacks a RW button, but it loads up really fast and the animation (circle wipe) is pretty cool.

Caller ID lacks Answer/Ignore buttons

Text is ok but it should be all notifications ie Email/Googlehangout/FB messages/etc

All the fitness stuff is great though! I love being able to log all my workouts at the time from my watch. I go for a walk I turn on the walk and it'll track the whole walk for me and give me a map of my route when I'm done. Same goes for weight lifting/elliptical/treadmill run which just tracks your HR and keeps the GPS off. Makes it a lot easier than going back into your phone app and putting in the data afterwards and trying to remember/guess how long you did what.

I hope they give the whole interface and features a spit shine cause aside from the little niggles I love this thing.

Super comfortable too. Feels much nicer than the Pebble.

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macs4nw said:
Additionally, any fitness buff would have to ask themselves, why buy the Surge, if for 100 bucks more you could have the :apple:Watch with it's ecosystem and no doubt zillions of Apps that are sure to follow.
Click to expand...

1 day realistic battery life on the :apple: Watch. No GPS tracking and $100 more.

Not saying I don't want one. But 1st gen Apple products (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad) have always been a bit crippled compared to Gen 2. While Gen 2 and Gen 3 of the same product is very close ie iPad 2 is still updated while iPad 1 was done 2 years ago. I'm going to hold out and see reviews before I decide on the :apple: Watch.

I'm totally digging my Surge besides a few hobbled features and I have been using Fitbit for the last year and I really enjoy their ecosystem. It's a shame that Fitbit and Apple aren't playing nice cause if the Apple Watch got a fitbit app with all the features of the Surge (minus GPS obviously) I'd consider getting one even more.
 
Having owned the original Fitbit Flex and then the Force, I was really excited to order the Surge. Love the idea of a large display, HR, GPS and a 7 day battery.

But then I contacted Fitbit and found out two shortcomings that I've now taken the Surge off my list, at least for me personally the two shortcomings are deal breakers. One, the display is regular glass not sapphire. I own numerous watches and the non-sapphire ones are so scratched up that I no longer use them but the two sapphire watches, which happen to be my oldest watches, are completely scratch-free.

Second, the silent alarm is not a smart-alarm. Smart-alarms likes those on other devices like the Jawbone UP24, the alarm ties into the sleep monitoring so it wakes you at the optimum time (shallowest moment of sleep) within 30 mins prior to set time. Having used that on other devices I know, at least for me, it's not a gimmick; I actually do wake up feeling a lot less groggy than usual.

I'm hoping the 2nd gen Surge would address these limitations.
 
ATC said:
Having owned the original Fitbit Flex and then the Force, I was really excited to order the Surge. Love the idea of a large display, HR, GPS and a 7 day battery.

But then I contacted Fitbit and found out two shortcomings that I've now taken the Surge off my list, at least for me personally the two shortcomings are deal breakers. One, the display is regular glass not sapphire. I own numerous watches and the non-sapphire ones are so scratched up that I no longer use them but the two sapphire watches, which happen to be my oldest watches, are completely scratch-free.

Second, the silent alarm is not a smart-alarm. Smart-alarms likes those on other devices like the Jawbone UP24, the alarm ties into the sleep monitoring so it wakes you at the optimum time (shallowest moment of sleep) within 30 mins prior to set time. Having used that on other devices I know, at least for me, it's not a gimmick; I actually do wake up feeling a lot less groggy than usual.

Maybe the 2nd gen Surge would address these limitations.
Click to expand...

It's Gorilla Glass 3 not "regular glass".
Never used a Smart alarm but I came from a Pebble and that worked out for me. But the Surge's vibrations are softer. I am assuming because it's in a thicker casing and softer band.
 
Fenir said:
Same.

Also, last time i checked, this wouldn't support ios notifications until a later firmware update was rolled out. Have they changed this to now have it ship with this?
Click to expand...

Still only text and caller ID and it's hobbled at best.

No keys to answer/decline calls on the watch and no way to delete previous text messages. They autodelete after 20 though. I hope you're right about notifications coming later, cause it sucks not to have the rest of my messages come through.
 
MrXiro said:
It's Gorilla Glass 3 not "regular glass".
Never used a Smart alarm but I came from a Pebble and that worked out for me. But the Surge's vibrations are softer. I am assuming because it's in a thicker casing and softer band.
Click to expand...

GG3 would be good. A Fitbit rep I spoke with said it was regular glass, maybe he's mistaken.
 
I picked up a Charge HR from Best Buy last week and have been pretty happy with it. I had a Force, got the rash, and switched to a Flex that I've never been happy with. Having a display, a button (no more activating sleep mode whenever I push a shopping cart through a parking lot!), automatic sleep mode activation (actually works really well) and heart rate monitoring has put it at the top of my list for fitness bands.
 
Thanks for the info on best buy having the surge. I am going to stop by tonight. Did they have a display model?
 
ATC said:
GG3 would be good. A Fitbit rep I spoke with said it was regular glass, maybe he's mistaken.
Click to expand...

Could be. Maybe he doesn't know the difference. Not all reps know everything. It stated in their press release that it's GG3.

----------
jallenclark said:
Thanks for the info on best buy having the surge. I am going to stop by tonight. Did they have a display model?
Click to expand...

Best Buy has had a Display model up since November. I thought it was a mock up but it turns out it's a fully working demo running on some sort of demo mode. I couldn't actually find it in my physical store to buy though. I ordered it online and shipped it to my local store so I could use the 10% movers coupon and some gift cards on it. :p
 
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