Although the smart/sports bracelet market is almost ruined, the fitbit, one of the three foreign bracelet giants, seems to be doing well - it almost updated the entire product series in the middle of 2014, and officially entered China. However, among the introduced products, the most high-end ones are only those we just evaluated last month Fitbit Charge 。
Appearance design
From the first impression, Fitbit Charge HR is the Fitbit Charge added to the heart rate sensor. Even the accessories are almost the same: a special USB charging cable (without magnetic adsorption), a USB Bluetooth receiver for computers and a simple multilingual instruction manual.
The appearance of Fitbit Charge HR is very similar to that of the lower level Fitbit Charge, which makes you know at a glance that it is a sports bracelet. The differences in appearance that can be counted are:
The single line twill on the outer side has become a grid pattern;
There is a convex heart rate sensor in the middle of the back;
The wrist strap has changed from a simple stainless steel clasp to a watch style stainless steel clasp+fixing ring.
Of course, the watchband is made of the same polymer material as before, with a light grain pattern on the front that feels good. It is soft, elastic, and moderate in hardness. Wearing it all day will not make you feel at odds. However, there is no interchangeable strap design like Fitbit Flex, and the official only provides black and magenta colors for the time being, and only blue and orange colors will be introduced later.
With the addition of an additional heart rate sensor, the water resistance of the machine has not improved as expected, which can prevent sweat and rain from invading. However, the official does not recommend you to wear it to take a bath. It is only waterproof against splashing and can not soak in water.
As for the charging mode, it is still the hard wound of the bracelet products. Although they generally have more than 5 days of life, almost all of them use specially customized USB charging cables. In addition to the data line, you should also take an extra line when you travel. It's impossible to find a substitute nearby if you forget or lose your hand.
monitor
The display is exactly the same as Charge. It is also an OLED display with horizontal display. What is more humane is that this display faces the user from a normal angle. You can view the real-time step count every time you light it up, although it only lights up for 5 seconds each time
The brightness of the display screen is very high, and there is no pressure to view in the sun, but the price is that when you wake up at midnight to see the time, you may be blinded.
Click the button on the side of the fuselage for many times, and the data of "time, steps, distance, calorie consumption, number of climbs and heart rate" can be displayed circularly. Or if you pay special attention to one of the data, you can also set which data will be displayed by default when it is lit by double clicking.
Although the display is weak compared with Samsung's Gear Fit and Huawei's TalkBand B1, a sports bracelet with a full blood screen, it can at least directly view simple sports data.
APP
In the previous charge evaluation, we have seen fitbit's incredibly detailed client, so I won't repeat it here. The charge HR client basically only adds the display of heart rate data, but this is definitely the biggest selling point of charge HR.
In the application interface, you can see your real-time heart rate. This simple function can make fitness maniacs buy. The original step detection, after adding the heart rate data as a comparison, can more accurately calculate the user's calorie consumption during rest and exercise.
In addition, it can also calculate the user's resting heart rate (BPM) every day, which directly reflects the user's health status (generally, the lower the better, and less heart beating under the same amount of exercise can meet the oxygen demand of muscles).
For people who want to lose weight and keep fit, its sports record will be more meaningful (more exciting). Press and hold the button on the side of the body to enter and exit the exercise recording mode, and the heart rate change curve of the exercise will be displayed after the exercise. The horizontal axis of the curve is carefully marked with the position line of "highest, aerobic exercise and fat burning". When the curve crosses the fat burning line for many times, a perfectly quantified pleasure of losing weight arises spontaneously
Connect and synchronize
The machine supports the three major platforms of Apple Android WP. The connection of Bluetooth 4.0 is stable and low-power. You can choose to automatically synchronize in the background (the official manual says that the synchronization is every 15 minutes).
The display and vibrator of the machine can also be used as a call reminder, but it does not support SMS, email or other communication software notification messages. However, this may be a good thing. At least it will keep you clean and not shake all day long.
Accuracy
The fitbit bracelet has an ancestral "automatic step counting" function since fitbit flex, and charge HR is no exception - the machine always counts more steps than you actually walk. Imitate running with waving hands, or many hand movements similar to running will be mistaken for walking and will be counted. What's more strange is that this obvious problem is so old that the fitbit has not been repaired yet
Therefore, it is almost certain that the accuracy of charge HR will not be too high among competitors of the same generation. However, the accuracy of this step is not what most users care about. What they care more is its heart rate data (which can calculate the actual calories burned). In addition, these step data are more used for comparison with the previous statistics. As long as they are unified and large rather than fluctuating up and down, they will not have much impact.
In terms of sleep monitoring, although peers have been able to automatically judge and record sleep for a long time, the fitbit does not have to manually enter and exit the sleep mode like Flex until the middle and high level Charge and Charge HR. Fortunately, it is very accurate in judging the time of falling asleep and waking up.
In terms of step statistics, Carge HR uses the built-in height sensor (essentially a barometer) to identify the height change according to the pressure change. Ironically, it is far more accurate than the machine's step counting. It can't be fooled by activities such as taking an elevator or escalator that only have changes in air pressure but no changes in steps.
Endurance
With the addition of a 24-hour heart rate sensor, the endurance of the machine is predictably reduced. Officially, Charge HR has a 5-day endurance, but it can only run for 4 days in actual use. Of course, this may be because the author has turned on the call notification and background synchronization functions. However, compared with Charge's 8-day life, the life of the machine is still half smaller.
summary
Like its name, it is an upgraded version of Charge, and the upgraded content is the heart rate sensor. The heart rate sensor provides more accurate exercise and calorie recording data, and the difference is only 20 dollars (about 125 yuan). In the face of the base price of 129.95 US dollars (998 yuan from the Bank of China), the cost performance ratio of Charge HR was very high.
However, this upgrade is not perfect. Fitness maniacs may buy heart rate sensors directly, but reducing the battery life to four days may be a problem that many users cannot overcome.
Charge HR may not be a special or handsome sports bracelet, but in the field of sports recording, the accuracy and presentation of sports data are far more important than a beautiful appearance. Of course, fitbit's family style itself is a compelling proof of fitness maniacs.
fabulous:
With the addition of heart rate sensor, the data accuracy has been improved qualitatively
Support automatic sleep monitoring, accurate judgment of sleep and wake time
With display, you can directly view the motion data
The client has fairly detailed data statistics
Step on:
There is still a problem that the step count is too large
Only incoming call notifications can be displayed
Water resistance is not strong
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