Fitbit Charge 3: price, specs, and release date

Fitbit

• Fitbit has unveiled the Charge 3, a new fitness tracker
  and an upgrade to the two-year-old Charge 2.
• The Fitbit Charge 3 has a touchscreen displace, is
  waterproof, and has more in-depth fitness and wellness
  tracking.
• The Charge 3 starts at $145.95 and is available to
  preorder starting on Monday.

Fitbit isn’t giving up on fitness trackers just yet. 

The wearables company on Monday debuted the Fitbit Charge 3, a
fitness tracker that’s intended to be an upgrade from Fitbit’s
Charge 2, which is two years old. 

Fitbit said that “true” fitness trackers continue to sell nearly
as well as its line of smartwatches — in fact, Fitbit says that
trackers still make up the majority of its wearable sales abroad
in markets like Japan and Great Britain. That being said,
smartwatches remain the clear winner: Fitbit says the category is
growing 22% year-over-year, while the tracker category is only
growing by about 1% each year. 

The slowdown hasn’t deterred Fitbit from improving its Charge
fitness tracker, though. 

Fitbit

The Fitbit Charge 3 is Fitbit’s first fitness tracker with a
touchscreen, swim tracking, and seven days of battery life. It
also has inductive buttons rather than physical “pressable”
buttons, and it’s 20% lighter than previous versions. 

In fact, the Charge 3 almost has more in common with Fitbit’s
Versa smartwatch, which was released last year. It has the same
built-in sensors as the Fitbit Versa (including a relative Sp02
sensor), and the same OLED display (although the Fitbit Charge
3’s is gray scale instead of full-color).

Like the Fitbit Versa, the Fitbit Charge 3 also has deeper
fitness tacking capabilities, like automatic exercise recognition
and auto stop, which will pause your run while you wait at a stop
light. The tracker will also allow you to set goals before your
workouts, like the amount of calories you want to burn, or the
amount of time you want to spend working out. 

On the wellness side, the Charge 3 has guided meditation built
in, sleep tracking, and female health tracking. 

Read more: 
The $200 Fitbit Versa is the best
smartwatch I’ve ever used — yes, even better than the Apple
Watch

Beyond fitness tracking, the Fitbit Charge 3 can receive
smartphone notifications like calls, texts, or calendar
notifications, and Android users will be able to send quick
replies to texts. Apps like weather, timers, and alarms will be
available for the Charge 3, and Fitbit says apps from
brands  — though it won’t say who — are coming later this
year. 

Fitbit

There are a few features that don’t come with the Fitbit
Charge 3. There’s no on-board music, and there’s no way to
control your music while it’s playing from your phone. There’s
also no on-device GPS — you’ll only be able to use GPS when the
Charge 3 is connected to your phone. Fitbit says it chose not to
include GPS on the Charge 3 to improve the battery life from five
days to seven days, and to keep the design as slim and
lightweight as possible. 

The Fitbit Charge 3 comes in black and rose gold (with a variety
of available sport, woven, and leather bands) and will start at
$145.95. A special-edition version — which comes with an extra
band and Fitbit Pay, Fitbit’s NFC payments system — will cost
$169.95. 

The Charge 3 is available to preorder starting Monday and will be
in stores by October.