After earlier reports that Fitbit may be working on two new activity trackers, a tipster has sent us what appears to be official marketing materials that give us our first clear look at both the Fitbit Charge and Charge HD. Not only do we have a full feature rundown for each of these trackers, but the cleanest look yet at the devices themselves.
The Fitbit Charge appears to look very much like the Fitbit Force, which the company was forced to recall last year after some users complained of rashes and skin burns. Which is good! (The recall, I mean.) The images above show the same fuller display and wider band that made the Force feel more high-end than the flimsier Fitbit Flex. Presumably, though, Fitbit has now figured out a way to make it without the nickel that was causing all of those skin irritations.
The listed feature set also appears to be similar to the Force, which indicates that this will be the same basic activity tracker, but now with some improved internals. The list shown above reads:
- Tracks steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, & active minutes
- Displays stats, time, & caller ID
- Monitors sleep quality
- Silent, vibrating alarm
- Water resistant
The more interesting device pictured is the Fitbit Charge HR, which as the name indicates appears to incorporate heart rate monitoring. That’s a feature previously unavailable in Fitbit devices, and comes in addition to the regular Charge feature set.
While previous speculation had indicated that PurePulse would be its own Fitbit device, based on this leak it appears instead to be Fitbit’s branding for its continuous heart rate monitoring feature, which gives you a 24-hour a day read on your ticker. As you can see above, the Charge HR can display your current heart rate in the same area where the time and other fitness stats are displayed in the Charge.
Patent applications had also pointed to Fitbit working on devices that incorporate navigation, weather-tracking, and more; while that is likely still the case, those features don’t seem to have made the cut for the Charge and the Charge HR.
Here’s the full list of what to expect as shown above:
- PurePulse continuous, wrist-based heart rate for better calorie tracking & cardio training
- Tracks steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, active minutes & 24/7 heart rate
- Use with MobileRun on the Fitbit App to see run stats
- Displays activity + run stats, time, & caller ID
- Monitors sleep quality
- Silent, vibrating alarm
- Water resistant
Which is to say, it’s basically a Fitbit Charge — which itself is basically a Fitbit Force — with the added benefit of tracking your heartbeat at all times, or at least when you’re not charging it.
As for the price, a Russian retailer has listed the Charge and Charge HR at $185 and $220, respectively, although that that seems a little high given that the Force was a much cheaper $US130 at launch.
The only details left at this point seem to be what specific guts are inside, or more importantly, the battery life. If the Force is anything to go by, it shouldn’t really be much of a concern, at least for the Fitbit Charge; it lasted 10 full days in our tests. The Charge HR would understandably fall a little short of that, but would likely still be in “rarely have to worry about it” territory.
The full promotional materials are below; you can click to expand for more detail. We’ve reached out to Fitbit for comment and will update if and when we hear back.
